eBay gunning for the wrong sellers

19/05/2009 at 14:01

Let’s play a game. Can you tell the difference between these two items?

sweatergun

How about these two?

pendantgun1

Just one more. This one’s a little tricky:

bonsaigun1

If you spotted that only one of each pair was a gun, well done: you did better than eBay UK. Numerous sellers over the last few days have reported receiving warnings that they may be in breach of eBay UK’s firearms policy when listing a range of entirely innocent items: lilac blouses, biscuit cutters, inflatable canoes, keyrings and bras are a few more of the restricted listings. The items can take several hours to show up in search, and sellers are being left wondering if their policy compliance – and hence seller discounts – will be affected.

Whatever filter has been added to eBay UK recently seems to have a powerfully broad vocabulary: videos which have been “shot”, “barrel” and “tube” shaped beads and “magazines” have all fallen foul of it, and may cause listings to be hidden in search. eBay support had said that they were aware of the problem and that it would be remedied by yesterday, but it seems that sellers are still getting warnings when listing items which have nothing to do with firearms.

Though Support have advised some sellers to wait a few days before listing items, the range of restricted items is so random and varied that it seems like just about any item any of us care to list might get picked up, so “don’t list that one” isn’t much of a solution. So while we wait for the fix, leave us a comment with your most ridiculous restricted item ;-)

With thanks to the following for pictures: beige sweater, bonsai tree, pendant, gun, gun, gun.