At one time or another eBay sellers stumble across or tangle with the eBay Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) department. While eBay steadfastly yells from the tops of their lungs that they are ‘only a platform for buyers and sellers to exchange goods, not the police’ this department enforces copyright infringements and other nefarious wrong doings by sellers.

The VeRO program protects copyright, trademark and patent owners from others using their images, words or selling knock off products on eBay. They also police the site for people who my use words to mislead buyers into believing that they are clicking into, or purchasing an item that’s not the same as the one for sale. This practice is often referred to as ‘keyword spamming.’ Examples are a seller using a title like: “Leather handbag just like a Gucci” or “Printed Jersey simliar to the Dallas Cowboys team” (if the Dallas Cowboys logo was not on the Jersey).

The VeRO program also protects sellers from other sellers who copy and paste their text and use it in their descriptions. It’s also used if someone copies anothers pictures and use them.

Here’s the deal, to me that sounds a lot like this department is very actively ‘hands on’ and not ‘we’re not responsible for what goes on.’ Making the VeRO program hard to swallow for sellers, is this department seems to be run by employees that have had no training in law, the VeRO program or – for that matter, ever sold an item on eBay. And, many sellers have received notice that their listings have been shut down, or their identity removed from the site – without warning. With the VeRO program actively removing items without notice doing business on eBay is like trying to live in a very dysfunctional family, where you never know what may accidently set your crazy father off on a rampage. The VeRO department is making it impossible to run a business. And the VeRO violations could be another reason why eBay is seeing more sellers moving away and try other venues.

I’ve had a few VeRO violations and have mentioned them in my newsletter and on my blog. The response is always an impassioned group of eBayers telling experience with VeRO. Last week when I wrote about my current listing violation – I immediately received communications from three other eBay Certified Business Consultants about their violations, and how unhappy they were.

An eBay Certified Business Consultant is the cream of the eBay Education Specialist crop. We’ve spent time, invested in learning the eBay education program and have taught the ‘ins and outs’ of selling on eBay to thousands of potential eBay users. We are the eBay talkers and cheerleaders. And, currently there are only a little over thirty of us worldwide. You’d think we know what we are doing! It’s surprising to me that such a high percentage of us have experienced a VeRO violation. Oh sure, we all make mistakes, but when even the highly educated Certified Business Consultants are receiving violations – I can’t image what it must be like selling on eBay as a newbie these days…..

It’s easy to think that we’re just a bunch of poor sports, whining and licking our wounds when you see yet another eBay bashing post written on the Internet. But, honest to gawd, I think that the VeRO department is run by the Keystone Cops. And, when even eBays “talkers” (eBay Education Specialists) start saying things to each other like “Right now, should anyone ask, I would have to say that eBay SUCKS” there’s something that needs to fixed.

Below are a few examples to illustrate the Keystone Cops-like antics coming from the VeRO department.

How Many Times Did This Cop Fall On His Head?
Let’s start off with a phone call I received from a very polite, but rather dumb VeRO employee. I had just listed a hard shell, waterproof camera case, which had a handle on top instead of a shoulder strap. Most people think of this style of case as a brief case.  I wanted to fancy up the description a little and referred to them as ‘attaché style’ in the title. Well, the listing came down because it was violating a copyright. The copyright I violated; Attaché.  The VeRO department employee had done (in his words) a “Google Search” and had determined that it was a copyrighted name. After several emails to the department – someone there had to agree there’s a big difference between a French word used to describe a style and a copyrighted product. The lesson I learned here is to Never, EVER, use the word ‘style’ in your title or listing. (Ok, in the end, I have to admit I was stupid for wasting valuable keywords with the word style). Let’s move on….

Let’s Thow A Pie In Everyone’s Face
Several sellers contacted me with a common theme. It seems that while checking out their competition they came across someone else who was pirating their descriptions or photos. Having faith in the system they reported the violation to VeRO. And, much to their chagrin, found not only that VeRO had closed the pirates down, but had turned around and removed their listings as well….. Say, what?? Yes, you read that correctly – they reported a pirate and VeRO removed both the good guys and the bad guys….. and now the seller faced that ugly red ‘failing’ detailed seller rating.

Your Guilty Because You Came Across Our Path – Let’s Beat You With Our Clubs Till You’re Senseless

You receive a canned email from Vero when your listing is closed down and you ask why is:
“When we get an official request from a participant of our Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) program, we’re required by federal law to end the listing.

We don’t have any specific information about how your item infringedthe right’s owner’s intellectual property or how you can avoid having your listing ended again.

The rights owner isn’t required to explain how the item infringes on their intellectual property, and a listing that looks fine to us may actually violate someone’s intellectual property.”

(my bolds and underlines not theirs)

So when you get shut down – you’re left to wonder what you did wrong – because no one will tell you. In fact, you are told to contact the VeRO party that shut you down to ask. How many of us receive responses? Petty close to zero is my bet. I would love to see a count. I didn’t receive a reply when they closed my listings.

So, the VeRO owner doesn’t have to prove anything, he/she/it simply has to imply that something violated his rights. Which, has many sellers thinking that the competition is simply using VeRo as a tool to eliminate others.

Who’s Got The Prettiest Wife – The Mayor Or The Police Cheif?

One seller (a Certified Business Consultant) wrote me to say: “Recently, eBay killed two of my ads saying I had stolen the photos and text.

“I got the photos and the text from  **** (I removed the name), a wholesaler/distributor of a great variety of products with their express permission. In fact, they sent me most of the photos. I resized, cropped and framed the photos.

 I suspect some other seller accused me of stealing their photos to get me knocked off eBay. In fact, because I have been selling these for so long, they probably stole mine.”

How Long Can Will The Car Chase Last?
Another seller had a listing closed down several months ago. I’m going to protect his identity by changing the product type– but this is another Keystone Cop-like move…. His listing for a clock was shut down by a t-shirt company. Made no sense why the T-shirt company would close a clock listing down and when he wrote the VeRO owner they never responded. His biggest frustration – was that no one would tell him how long the VeRO violation would stand against his account. Finally, he did what many sellers ‘in the know’ do – they call Jim ‘Griff’ Griffith on his radio show to ask. Griff told him to send an email and he would “walk it down the hall” for action.

Here’s the email he received later:

“Thank you for your recent email to Jim Griffith in regard to ***(I’ve removed the name) account. He has asked that I review your email and respond on his
behalf.”

……… etc, etc …….

“*****, upon review of your account I found that I was the person that originally responded to your concerns and apologized for the misinformation you received. Your items were removed on behalf of ****  for violating their intellectual property rights, and NOT the T-shirt Company.

…I am sorry that the *** has not responded to your emails. As they are not required to give us any further information, I have none to share with you.”

And in response to how long his ‘bad mark’ or seller dashboard would show the violation:

“I understand it is upsetting to see your policy compliance rating at “poor”. However, we can only remove the violation if we are contacted by ***** (company name removed) stating that they made an error. Until that happens the violation will remain valid. Please know that in time it will roll off your account. Some violations will roll off accounts in as few as 90 days, while others last six months or more.”

(again, my underlines not eBay)
Which brings me to start wrapping up this article. The two themes I heard over and over again in these last few days are “Sales are so slow on eBay that I’ve decided to sell somewhere else, anyway.” And “When will that mark be removed from my dashboard. Seeing that ugly red mark everyday really bothers me.”

I can’t tell you how this slapstick comedy will end. Perhaps we’re all going to be rolling on the floor in tears of laughter. It looks like the Keystone, errr, I mean eBay cops continue to cause havoc with sellers livelihood and it wouldn’t surprise me to see more sellers leaving eBay in frustration.

 
But, I can tell you a little secret about removing that ugly red mark you see every day! Check out my video.

I’d love to hear your stories about VeRO – please feel free to post them in the comments section.

The good:

 I was interviewed for a local Seattle paper this week. That’s pretty exciting – hopefully I’ll see my name in the www.northseattleherald-outlook.com paper someday soon.

The timing is perfect, because it looks like The eBay Marketing Bible is rolling along on schedule to be released in June.  I need to start getting the word out about the book. This week I received the spring catalog and the book was included – it was fun to see the cover and read the description. It made the whole project a little more real. Of course, I had to head over to Amazon.com to see if it was listed yet – and there it was!

The eBay Marketing Bible: Everything You Need to Know to Reach More Customers and Maximize Your Profits

The bad:

I opened up my email the other morning to find a VeRO violation notice from eBay. They pulled one of my products. The claim was that I used “Unauthorized Listing Content” OK, I know what that means, Mr. X, claims that I used a photo or copy that they have rights to. However, I used photos either taken by me, or supplied with permission to use from the distributor and text was mine, except specifications. How can product specifications be copyrighted?

So, I was (annoyed to say the least) but befuddled as to what exactly I had done in the listing the violated copyright. So, I wrote to Mr X to find out what it was that violated copyright and received no reply. I wrote to eBay and asked, and they sent an email that stated:

“When we get an official request from a participant of our Verified Rights Owner (VeRO) program, we’re required by federal law to end the listing.

 We don’t have any specific information about how your item infringed the right’s owner’s intellectual property or how you can avoid having your listing ended again.

 The rights owner isn’t required to explain how the item infringes on their intellectual property, and a listing that looks fine to us may actually violate someone’s intellectual property.”

 Ok, so what I’m reading here is that once you have a VeRO account set-up with eBay you can cause havoc with other sellers livelihood, just report them without having to prove anything….. ummmm

Well, it caused me to ponder – several things actually. One, is that anyway to do business? Can sellers on eBay really continue to sell when they don’t know when and where the ax will fall?

And, more constructively, it caused me to start looking into my rights. If this happens to you here are a few really good resources to check out:

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/881803/how_to_fight_ebay_over_false_vero_rights.html

 How to Deal with a Vero Claim

It turns out the VeRO owner who filed against me has five working days to respond to my request for information before I can take action against him. I’ll let you know what happens… guess it’s a good thing I wrote The eBay Marketing Bible with a lawyer, I’ll know where to turn for help.

 It also made me ponder my next purchase of goods. I import a very small number of goods from China and what happens if an unfriendly or rival seller decides that they can knock me off by filing an unjust VeRO claim. Well, of course the answer is sell products in multiple places online. But, eBay is one of my sales channels and I need to protect my interests there as well.

However, I won’t let them push me around, and hopefully you won’t either.  Part of owning your own business is to step around the bullies, find a new path to avoid them, or get a really big body guard – LOL

My solution is to create a Vero ‘about me’ page for my products and register them with eBay. I think anyone who manufactures, creates a product or imports a unique item from another country should set up an VeRO account with eBay.

It’s easy to get disappointed, as a small business owner we’ll always run into bullies. Heck, it even happened when we opened our ‘bricks and mortar’ garden store. A supplier didn’t like us trying to join the good ol boys network and caused all sorts of havoc when we started.

Have you been targeted with an unfair VeRO claim? I’d love to hear about it, please leave a comment.

That’s it for this week! Here’s to your business success.