ebay weirdness

klangtone · Post by **klangtone** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 8:37 pm

I bought (or so I hope) this reissue LA-3A off a guy on ebay last night.
Everything seemed fine. The guy had a 92 rating. 1 negative feedback eons ago. It was the only thing he was selling at the time. Needless to say, I pay with Paypal right away. I get all the usual confirmations from ebay and Paypal.

Come this morning, I see a message from ebay saying the listing has been removed because "the intellectual property rights owner notified eBay that the listing potentially infringes its copyright, trademark or other rights."

Does this make any sense? It's like saying you can't sell your used gear because in order to describe it you have to use the brand names of companies that have their marks copyrighted... how is this possible?!

I'm a little worried that something else fishy might be going on. Like, the guy is getting the units wholesale and selling them at a discount through ebay. Or he works at GC or something and uses his employee discount to buy gear on the cheap so he can resell it on ebay for profit? I don't know. I just don't see how else the listing could be removed.

So, I emailed the guy and have not heard back. Meanwhile, my payment went through and I'm getting more and more nervous.

Anyone have any idea?!

Albert · Post by **Albert** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 8:54 pm

Did he use extensive quotes and pictures from the UA web site? Or did he write his own text and take his own pictures of the unit?

It would make me a little uncomfortable that the auction was pulled after it was over. Does that mean it was like it didn't happen? What about all the eBay rules and regulations that are supposed to be followed, does that mean they no longer apply?

If you wondered where the LA3A came from, you should have asked him that before you bid on his auction.

But at this point the most important thing is that he reply to your email. You may wish to email eBay as well and ask them any questions you have regarding the way the auction got pulled after it was over.

klangtone · Post by **klangtone** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 9:08 pm

Albert wrote:Did he use extensive quotes and pictures from the UA web site? Or did he write his own text and take his own pictures of the unit?

I think the picture may very well be taken from UA's website. The description wasn't though. It was very matter of fact. Unfortunately, ebay removed the entire listing so I can't go back and read it. But basically the guy was saying he was moving and had to get rid of some stuff.

Albert wrote: It would make me a little uncomfortable that the auction was pulled after it was over. Does that mean it was like it didn't happen? What about all the eBay rules and regulations that are supposed to be followed, does that mean they no longer apply?

This is a great question. They tell me not to complete the transaction, but... a little f-in late! and with Paypal being instant transfer, there's no cancelling the payment. If I want my money back I'll have to file a claim, but I'm hoping the guy will still send the unit.

Professor · Post by **Professor** » Wed Dec 28, 2005 10:31 pm

I'd contact eBay and start filing a claim through them really fast. I've never heard of anyone getting a sale cancelled because of copyright infringement, though I have heard of people getting ripped off. That doesn't mean it might not be legitimate, but it does mean you need to jump on this fast. Get in touch with eBay and recover all of the information from the original posting before it is deleted from their archives. If your payment came off a credit card, you could put the charge into dispute there, and then start the process with PayPal as well. If you end up waiting a week for the thing to not show up it's only going to make the whole process harder. But if you hear from the guy tomorrow and get a tracking number then you know things are moving.
Hate to sound distrusting about this, but it sounds pretty fishy. Hell, it sounds fishy that the guy is 'moving and getting rid of some stuff' when that LA-3A reissue was only just released in the last few months.

Sorry man.

-Jeremy

nlmd311 · Post by **nlmd311** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 6:22 am

Have you tried getting his contact information that is on file through eBay. Since you "won" the auction, you should be able to request this... They will send you an automatically generated e-mail with the name, phone number and location of the seller. This way you can call them up and don't have to wait for an e-mail response. I'd recommend trying it out in this situation.
I've had an auction removed for some reason similar to this over the summer. I included a link to a website that had some detailed D.I.Y. information on something I was selling. Someone filed a complaint and the auction was pulled. I got an e-mail reading basically the same as yours seemed to read except for the fact that I was the seller and since there were no bids, I was just able to remove the link in question and re-list the auction. All went well after that.
Sometime those complaints take a while to go through. Someone completely copied one of my auctions once, so, like an ass I submitted a complaint (fearing that someone was going to be ripped off...) and it took about two days to go through. I don't think you need to worry too much, just definitely try to get in touch with the seller and see what you can do through eBay and Paypal. Read up on the Paypal dispute settlement guidelines, sadly a lot of people don't qualify either due to lack of feedback, or time as a member or other things.
Sorry, just one other thing I thought of. You could open a dispute against this member through eBay using the "dispute console". When you log in, go to "My eBay" and look along the left sidebar. You can do this for a number of reasons and it isn't always just for what you might think... it basically just opens up a conversation between you and the other party (seller in this case). This way your conversation is on file with eBay rather than being through your e-mail where if you were to file another dispute later, you would have to go about proving these e-mails came from the seller and that they were/are authentic.
eBay sucks, but it is just so great at the same time. Complete love/hate relationship.
I'm sure it will all work out.

-Darrill

Coco · Post by **Coco** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 7:18 am

I think this guy was selling it on the Gearslutz classifieds for a while. He wanted about $1100 for it and I almost went for it but was low on cash at the time. UA are crazy protective about their stuff being on ebay so if he used one of the pics off their site, UA probably bitched to ebay. I hope you get it, and if you do, let us know how it sounds. I am very curious about the new LA3A and have heard virtually nothing about the reissues yet.

Albert · Post by **Albert** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 11:09 am

eBay really screwed you over by pulling the auction page *after* the auction ended. That just doesn't seem fair to me, and could cause you more difficulties if there is a problem with the transaction.

As others are saying, you need to follow up on this from all angles as quickly as possible. The first thing is to try to reach the seller by email. If he doesn't respond within 2-3 days max, then you need to try to get your money returned to you from PayPal and you need to go through the appropriate eBay channels as well.

As I said, it's really unfair for them to pull the auction after it closes. But they are protecting themselves when they do that, not you the customer at all.

It might very well all work out fine, but you need to be very active in following up on everything.

klangtone · Post by **klangtone** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 11:40 am

the guy e-mailed me.
He didn't say anything about why the auction got pulled, but he said he'd be sending the unit out Monday and would forward the tracking info.
So looks like I'm ok...

Thanks for all the replies.

It must have been the picture he used from the UA website.
If so, those guys at UA are really ontop of it! jeez!

nlmd311 · Post by **nlmd311** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 11:43 am

Awesome!

-Darrill

digitaldrummer · Post by **digitaldrummer** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 11:53 am

eBay has suddenly gone millitant on postings with multiple brand names. I had one pulled the other week becasue I used "xxxxx Like yyyyy" in the title, and even though EVERYONE does this apparently its not allowed so they totally DELETE it (won't even let you edit it and repost it). But at least they do refund the fees...

joeysimms · Post by **joeysimms** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 12:19 pm

digitaldrummer wrote:eBay has suddenly gone millitant on postings with multiple brand names. I had one pulled the other week becasue I used "xxxxx Like yyyyy" in the title, and even though EVERYONE does this apparently its not allowed so they totally DELETE it (won't even let you edit it and repost it). But at least they do refund the fees...

Sounds like the MAN, i.e., manufacturers, are the ones getting militant.

Albert · Post by **Albert** » Thu Dec 29, 2005 3:23 pm

digitaldrummer wrote:eBay has suddenly gone millitant on postings with multiple brand names. I had one pulled the other week becasue I used "xxxxx Like yyyyy" in the title, and even though EVERYONE does this apparently its not allowed so they totally DELETE it (won't even let you edit it and repost it). But at least they do refund the fees...

This gets totally abused though, and if it gets out of control it basically renders the search engine useless.

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