Threatening another eBay member is a violation of eBay policy, and can be considered a criminal offens depending on the type of threat. If you ever receive a threatening email from another member, do not hesitate to report it, especially if it is a threat of bodily or physical harm.

Report threats to eBay Trust and Safety, and to your local law enforcement. Your local police or sheriff’s office will send an officer to your home to take the report, so save the emails as law enforcement will need these as evidence. If the offender is stupid enough to send the threat through the eBay message system, eBay will be able to track the person through his user id – which really works in your favor. (If the offender was a customer, you will have his full name and address and a record of the transaction to provide to law enforcement.)

Once the report has been filed, your local law enforcement will contact the law enforcement in the city or town where the offender lives. If it sounds like I have done this a few times, you are right.

[Image Source: Flickr]

Post from: EveryJoe

Threatening eMails from Other eBay Members

In an earlier post, I mentioned selling on eBay UK and asking eBay Trust and Safety before listing an item. You need to make sure that the item is allowed. I recently inquired about selling a product (that about 20 other sellers currently offer).

My question:

Hello, I would like to offer [PRODUCT NAME] on eBay UK. Is this item allowed? I see other sellers offering it, however, I wanted to verify that the product is allowed before listing it. Thank you!

eBay UK’s Response:

We appreciate you taking the time to ask whether or [PRODUCT NAME] you want to sell is allowed on eBay. While we’d like to be able to give you a definitive “yes” or “no” answer, please understand that we’re not in a position to do so. There are two reasons for this:

(1) We haven’t seen the item.

(2) eBay isn’t an expert in the legality or authenticity of specific items. Unlike a traditional auction house, we’re not involved in the transaction and we don’t see items before they’re listed. We simply act as a venue for buyers and sellers to meet. If reported to us, listings may be removed for breaching the law, a rights owner’s intellectual property rights or because they blatantly breach eBay listing policies. I recommend you review our listing policies in detail to help you decidewhether or not to list your item.

Copy these links into new browser windows for more information:

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/sell/policies.html

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/sell/questions/prohibited-items.html

I hope this explains why we can’t give you a specific approval, and helps you decide whether to list your item. I sincerely hope your eBay sales run smoothly.

Interesting. We are supposed to ask first, but when we ask we don’t really get an answer. Hmmmm.

Post from: EveryJoe

Help from eBay UK