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Judi Oct 28, 2005

Hi everyone.  I just recieved an email from ebay telling me they had to canecl my listing for the charity auction becuase I was in violation of thier charity policies!!!

Here is what they sent me!

Dear tbearpicnic,

We appreciate that you chose eBay to list the following auction-style
listing(s):

5628977342 - Teddies 4 Charity Artist Bear Mohair by Luxembears

However, your listing was in violation of eBay's Charity policy and has been
removed from eBay.  We have credited all associated fees to your account and
notified eBay users associated with the transaction that it has been cancelled.

  We would like to take this opportunity to let you know what part of your
listing is not permitted.

Your listing(s) contains the following information:

All of the proceeds from our auctions are being donated to the Children's Cancer
Research Foundation through Ebay's Giving Works program..

eBay encourages community members to be active in supporting charitable
endeavors.  Because charitable fundraising is a highly regulated area subject to
numerous state and federal laws, eBay has partnered with MissionFish to make
charitable listing easy and has created very specific guidelines for when
charitable solicitations will be allowed on eBay.

Non-MissionFish listings

1. Sellers may only list items on behalf of a charity if the charity has
provided advance written consent for  the solicitation.  To prove that you have
obtained that consent, you must include a scanned copy of the  consent in the
listing.
2. Sellers may only solicit on behalf of recognized 501c3 or 501c4 charitable
organizations.

MissionFish listings

1. Sellers may only list items via MissionFish on eBay that meet the MissionFish
listing guidelines, including  the guidelines designed to obtain advance consent
from the charities.
2. Sellers may only solicit on behalf of recognized 501c3 or 501c4 charitable
organizations.For more information on Charity visit the following Help page:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/fundraising.htmlFor more information on
Charity visit the following Help page:
http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/fundraising.html

Please note: violation of this or other eBay policies may result in forfeit of
eBay fees on cancelled listings, limits on account privileges and account
suspension.

Please review eBay's Listing Policies and User Agreement at the following
locations:

  http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/policies.html
  http://pages.ebay.com/help/policies/user-agreement.html

For more information on why eBay removes auction-style listings, or to write to
us with questions, please review the following Web page:

  http://pages.ebay.com/help/confidence/l … ended.html

We thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Regards,

eBay Trust & Safety

kbonsall Oct 28, 2005

OH MY GOODNESS JUDI!     did you let Nancy T. know?

Tammy Oct 28, 2005

Why is it when we try to do something good it goes haywire !  Ebay drives me crazy !    Judi, surely this will be fixed immediately.  I'm sure Nancy will be upset too.

kbonsall Oct 28, 2005

Didnt you list it through mission fish?  I am a little confused

Judi Oct 28, 2005

I agree Tammy.  It makes me not want to do anything liek this.  I think from now on if I want to donate to charity I will do it through my church...at least they won't throw it back in my face!

Yes Kimmy, I let nancy know.

Did this happen to anyone else?????

My husband just walked in the house...he is very upset.   We have a 1,000 pound heifer in our field with a broken leg.  She must have stepped into a gopher hole.  We try to so hard to take really good care of our animals.  She is a registered Holstein named Artifact.   I rarely see my hubsband upset like this.  Completely broken...compound fracture.  Poor thing!  The vet cannot fix it so she has to be shot.   He cannot do it so he has to call someone in to do it.  I am so upset right now.

Daphne Oct 28, 2005

OK, So two things...
1.I'm unclear at what the problem is. I understand what they are siting but the auction doesn't seem to violate giving works/mission fish rules.

2.How is it that they haven't pulled any of the other listings? Wouldn't you think that if they were really reading the auction description and saw that there were multiple listings for Teddies 4 Charity that they'd go and pull those too? Perhaps once you've had one auction pulled your future listings are flagged for inspection as well?

Please let us know how this is resolved as I am listing T4C bears for other artists as well as myself. Next one goes up Sunday.

I'm sure you were already in touch with Nancy and perhaps I'll hear from her directly.

Oui! :wacko:
Daphne

Judi Oct 28, 2005

I will defintily let you all know what happens.

Tammy Oct 28, 2005

Judi, hugs to you !  Sorry to hear about Artifact.  God is good, the day will get better I'm sure.  Keep your chin up !  :hug:

Shari Oct 28, 2005

Oh Judi,that's terrible.Ebay is going way too far and they are going to destroy themselves.

I'm so sorry to hear about Artifact.My husband worked for a dairy farmer and his wife for many years and they are the nicest people as I'm sure you and your husband are.I believe it takes special people to work with animals and you care for them like they are family.Hugs to you and your husband.I am so very sorry     

Helena Oct 28, 2005

Judi ~ sorry to hear about Artifact. How upsetting for you :(.

As for eBay....what can I say??? How on earth can they determine how the money from an auction is used? People have the right to donate to any charity they choose! OK, I realise a minority of unscrupulous people may use the 'charity' tag to encourage more bidding, but you would think that that sort of person would be a repeat offender and therefore identifiable. With eBay it feels like we are all guilty until proven innocent!  :mad:

(I ran a charity auction myself last year, and at the time I don't think there was any policy in place. It makes me wonder if eBay benefits financially from their association with MissionFish...hmm....).

Helena Oct 28, 2005

Just found this on the MissionFish site (http://www.missionfish.org.uk):

To cover the costs of processing donations and fulfilling our guarantee, we keep a small deduction (4% or £2) from each gross donation.

So, eBay is forcing sellers who run charity auctions to use an agency that benefits financially from the auction....is this ethical, I wonder?!

All Bear Oct 28, 2005

Hi Judi,

I know this must be very upsetting for you but I think if you ask Ebay for their criteria for listing a charity auction, you will find it's pretty straightforward.  Perhaps you could relist once you've gone through their procedure?

My sister and I have run a couple of charity auctions (listing well over thirty bears each time for our 'Dare to Care' auction) and we found that once we'd notified Ebay.co.uk of our intention to hold the auction, they were really helpful.  We needed to provide contact details for our charity and the charity's registration number - oh and we had to provide confirmation from the charity that they supported our fund raising on their behalf.  It just took a handful of emails and everything went really smoothly. 

I hope that helps put your mind at rest.  I don't know how Ebay.com works, but I would imagine things aren't too dissimilar.

shantell Oct 28, 2005

Judi....I'm so sorry to hear about your husband heifer...that is so sad.  I just learned that the bull, Rover, in the pasture behind my house passed away.  I had wondered where he was at lately.  I got all teary-eyed and he wasn't even my pet.   :hug:  :hug:

As far as the auction...oh brother...I bet Nancy can get this figured out.  I can't imagine she didn't have all her ducks in a row with Ebay BEFORE the whole charity thing started.

Good Luck  :hug:  :hug:

Deb Oct 28, 2005

Judi ~

Have heart.  In the end, you will figure out what the problem is, it will get fixed, the bear will go back on, sell for gazinga bucks and the $ get to where it belongs.  This is just a snaffoo.  We've seen it before.  (Who was that anyway?)  But someone here at TT, and not long ago.  I'll edit if I can remember or find.

:hug:

Judi Oct 28, 2005

I think I have found the problem.  It STILL bothers me that this all has to be such a hassel.

I was not registered with Mission Fish.  I guess ebay has to have a peice of the action from charity auctions.  It makes me sick.   Ebay has given Mission Fish it's own website to make it look more charitable.  More deceptible is you ask me.  I am DONE with charity auctions on ebay after this one.  I am willing to donate bears to other charities in the future...just NOT ebay.

Helena Oct 28, 2005

The more I'm reading about MissionFish, the more suspicious I'm becoming. I think I would rather donate money directly to the charity itself.

Apparently, MissionFish holds the money for up to 75 days before paying it over. So not only do they take a fee, but they presumably accrue interest too...! I also read that MissionFish aims to be 30% profitable by January 2006. Not bad for a non-profit organisation  :P.

Daphne Oct 28, 2005

Judi,
Registering with Mission Fish is part of the process in Nancy's tutorial for these charity auctions.
Too bad you missed it and had to go through all of this. Now I understand why the others weren't pulled.
What a relief as I've set up the auctions as Nancy explained to avoid any problems.
Fingers are crossed.
Daphne

Dilu Oct 28, 2005

Oh Judi, Honey, I am so terribly sorry about Artifact.  I also know how impossible it is to cover all contingencies and eliminate all gopher holes.  From what we know of you, you have the best cared for cows in the states.  Happy cows from California?  Maybe, but only because they never got to live in Luxembourg Wisconsin.  I know this hurts on a personal level, in that you love all living beings, and especially those you are responsbile for.  But, there is a huge financial cost here too. 

Hurry up an break a nail- bad things come in threes, and that way you will be done for awhile?  :)

RE: e-bay.....we used to say something like 'you can't win for losing'.  As a kid I never totalt understood what that meant.  But the frustration of tryng to do something good...with no financial benefit to yourself and then meet up against such a beaurocracy....I am sorry.

It would be interesting to know how much of a cut they take.  Isn't this the same thing that got the Red Cross into so much trouble after last years hurricanes?  hmmmm

I hope the e-bay thing gets straigthend out....I am sorry for the loss to your family of Artifact.

:hug:

Dilu

Roxanne Oct 28, 2005

Dear Judi,
What a day huh  :/
So sorry to hear about Artifact... By the picture I have seen of you in a magazine laying on a cow, I could tell right away that they mean a great deal to you.
The biz with ebay just adds fuel to the fire. Were you able to relist the auction after registering with Mission Fish?
I hope that tomorrow brings you a brighter day 

Love Bud Bears Oct 28, 2005

Judi,
So sorry about Artifact - my heart breaks for you. I'm sure she is very special.
Here's a long distance hug for you.
:hug:

gotobedbears Oct 28, 2005

Sorry to hear about Artifact Judi - i feel for your husband, i hate to see men upset don't you? Life is a bummer sometimes - big hugs from me to both of you

:love:

eBay is dumber than a bag of hammers sometimes and i don't think much of their ethics either - why the heck should charity auctions have to give a percentage of profits to stoopid Mission Fish (what a stoopid name too)? 

I think it's better to donate cash to charity nowadays rather than bears - i shall be donating the same amount it would take to make a bear plus listing fee and postage to my favourite charity in future - there is no justice in this world sometimes - it's a mad mad mad mad world

     

Penny

Judi Oct 28, 2005

Thanks for all your huggies.  Artifact has been properly burried.  Even though people do eat cows, they are still sweet creatures with thier own personalities.  Ours are milked and do not go to beef very often.  I become very attached to many of them. :love:

My stupid mistake.  I missed the Mission Fish jazz in the tutorial.  I don't know about the rest of you but I often get overwhelmed easily.  I have a very active little boy who exhausts me on a daily basis along with two other children.  It's not an excuse, just part of every day that...heck, every day life overwhelms me much of the time. :cry:

Thanks for listening.  Make sure those of you who list in the auction don't make my mistake.

bearsbybeesley Oct 28, 2005

You know Judi this just makes me hugely angry!!!!!!! I tell you what ebay is getting out of hand with their high prices and other Bull.........! They can kiss one more rosey behind goodbye!! MINE!

Many Hugs and yes I am MAD!
Louise

bearsbybeesley Oct 28, 2005

P.S. And Judi I am so sorry about Artifact. I am just slightly PO'd right now with EBAY!

Many Hugs Louise

Judi Oct 28, 2005

Anger can be a great motivator.  I think someone should give ebay some competition.  That is the problem...no good competition!!! They basically hold the monopoly for on-line auctions.