Stupid Ebay

I have been a loyal customer to ebay since I was 16 years old. I am now older than I care to mention (28 I think lol) but I am finally to the point where I am contimplating closing my account.

This month I have paid over $150 to sell on ebay. Once I pay s&h fees I am only really walking away with maybe 20-25% of what my items sell for. And I have been going to the post office 5 times per week at least, and other ebayers, plain and simple, can be absolute jerks.

Today I received an email from ebay telling me my listing was ended because it was in violation of a LAW. Not an ebay regulation, but an actual federal law. Youvegottobekiddingme!

I called today and discussed what this was about, although ebay told me NOT to call them. They said that the "Gerber" company wrote them and asked for my auction to be taken down. Seriously? A HUGE company like Gerber/Carter's cares about my ebay auction-- which was listed for a whopping .99 cents?! No way...

This is the letter ebay sent me:
MC019 eBay Listing Removed: Trademark Violation - Unauthorized Listing Content (461239257)
From: eBay
Sent: Mar-24-11 09:54 AM

eBay eBay sent this message to stephanie moody (schiperno925j).
Your registered name is included to show this message originated from eBay. Learn more.

MC019 eBay Listing Removed: Trademark Violation - Unauthorized Listing Content (461239257)

Dear schiperno925j(schiperno@yahoo.com),

You recently listed the following listing:

260757833158 - Carter's 0 3 M One Piece Bodysuit Onesie Strawberry Ruf

The listing was removed because it violated eBay policy.

The rights owner or an agent authorized to act on behalf of the rights owner, Gerber Childrenswear LLC, notified eBay that this listing violates intellectual property rights. When eBay receives a report of this type of violation, we remove the listing to comply with the law.

Your item was removed because of a request we received from Gerber Childrenswear LLC, a member of our Verified Rights Owner Program (VeRO), asking us to remove the item for:

- Listing(s) contains unlawful comparison to trademark owner's brand name.

For more information on why your item was removed, you should:
- Contact Gerber Childrenswear LLC directly at onesiesbrand@gerberchildrenswear.com with your questions or concerns.
- Wait 7 days for Gerber Childrenswear LLC to reply to you. Although most VeRO participants are willing to respond to polite email, please know that they aren't obligated to reply.
- If after 7 days you haven't received a response from Gerber Childrenswear LLC, please contact us by simply replying to this email.

Your listing was reported for using a brand name without the right's owner's permission.

It's against the law to use someone else's trademark -- the unique sign, name, word, phrase, logo, or symbol used to identify a product or service -- without their okay. It can also confuse buyers about the source of your item or your relationship with the trademark owner.

You can use a company's brand name or logo in your listing description only if the item you're selling was made or authorized by that company.

Here are our guidelines for creating legally compliant listings:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/compliant-listings.html

Learn more about trademarks here:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/trademark.html

If you have additional questions in regard to contacting the VeRO Member or if you need additional information on how to contact the VeRO Member, you can chat with one of our policy experts.

You can reach them from 5:00 am to 8:00 pm Pacific Time. Get started by clicking the link below.
http://contact.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ContactUsNextGen&Format=1&pid=827

Important: The next time you sell, you may be asked to take a tutorial. Once you've completed the tutorial successfully, please review your account status for any other possible concerns. If there are no other issues, you should be able to sell again.

To take the intellectual property tutorial, please visit:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/tutorial/verotutorial/intro.html

Please be aware that any additional violations of this policy may result in the suspension of your account. eBay understands that you may be concerned about this situation.We encourage you to contact Gerber Childrenswear LLC directly if you have any questions.

You can send an email to: onesiesbrand@gerberchildrenswear.com

For more information on how eBay protects Intellectual Property, or for additional information if you believe that your listing has been removed as a result of an error or misidentification, please visit the following Help page:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/programs-vero-ov.html

The rights owner has created an About Me page that contains information to help you understand why removal of your listing was requested. For
more information about the rights owner, please go to:

http://cgi3.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewUserPage&userid=gerberchildrenswear

Thank you for your understanding.

Sincerely,

eBay Trust & Safety team

----------------------------------------------------------------------

and here is my promise to Gerber....

Dear whom it may concern;

I received an email yesterday from Ebay stating that you insisted that my auction be removed for a violation. The letter from ebay will be at the end of my letter to you cut and pasted.

The photographs I had posted in my auction were photographs I took with my own camera of my own child. I feel that I have bought and paid for your item and I own it, and when I decided to buy your products at no time was I informed that I was prohibited from re-selling them or posting photographs of my child in your "brand name."

I want an apology and an explanation for my wasted time, energy, time from my family and auction fees. I also want to add that I am a blogger wiht a big mouth and that I just purchased a $150 Carter's order; I don't have the slightest problem bringing that package back to Carter's for a full refund and to stop buying your products if I do not get a resolution and apology. Ebay is filled with thousands of items that are posted for sale using your stock images-- my auction was posted with my OWN images, and in no way were they distasteful or lewd or anything that should be offensive to your company. There must certainly be better ways for your employees to spend your time and money.

Customer, Stephanie Moody

schiperno@yahoo.com