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From: "Carol Ann" To: karen@tabberone.com Date: Thu, July 29, 2004 9:33 am Subject: Re: Ebay, Vero, etc... Hello Karen! I would first like to preface my remarks by saying I truly wish I was a lawyer, or that I was related to a lawyer, or that I knew a good lawyer. I will try to be as brief as possible, but I would like to tell you my saga with Ebay... I am an enthusiast of Louis Vuitton merchandise. To my dismay I discovered back in January that about 70% of what is being sold on Ebay advertized as authentic LV is in fact fake, replica, knockoff garbage. As I am a writer by profession, I decided to put together a little buying guide about how to avoid fake LV merchandise on Ebay. I entitled it "Searching for Louis: How not to get ripped off on Ebay" and offered it for $2 as an ebook or delivered as hard copy through the USPS. I immediately sold about 100 copies. I also applied for a registered copyright at the time I wrote the book. Within weeks of listing, a competitor filed a Vero complaint against me, alleging I had plagiarized his LV authentication CD that he sells on Ebay. Interestingly enough, I had never purchased his CD and he had never read my book, so I don't really know how he could say it was plagiarism. I sent him a copy of my ebook and then threatened to sue him. He backed down and withdrew his Vero complaint. The next month I raised the price of my book to $3 a copy, and still sold 100 copies. At this point Ebay shut down my auctions due to "downloadable media policy" which says you can't offer ebooks or downloadable media unless you stipulate in your auction that your are the copyright owner. I added a caveat to my auction indicating my work was copyrighted, by me and that I was the sole owner. The next month I raised the price of the book to $4 a copy, and sold another 100 copies. Ebay once again ended my auctions for downloadable media policy, and I once again informed them that I had a copyright, that I owned the copyright, and once again pointed them to the copyright declaration in my auction. They eventually wrote back and said I was right (no kidding). In May I raised the price of my book to $5.25. I was on my way to selling 100 copies when Ebay moved all of my auctions from the Clothing: Accessories: purses category to the Books: other category and the All Other: Information services category. The change of category hurt my book sales terribly. My competitors continuted to sell in the Clothing accessories category, while I was languishing in the crappy Information services category. The next month I tried listing back in Clothing Accessories and was eventually shut down again. Book sales were disappearing. Finally in July, my book made a comeback! Sales were picking up and it looked like the new category was going to work out afterall. Then my auctions were once again shut down by Ebay. This time for "search manipulation." Ebay has decided I may NOT use the term "Louis Vuitton" in the title of my auctions, despite the fact I am selling an authentication guide to LV merchandise and the copyrighted title to my book is "Searching for Louis". (I received a certificate for my registered copyright from the US copyright office last month for my book). I emailed Ebay and asked them if I was selling a book entitled "The unauthorized biography of Louis Vuitton" would I have to list it as "The unauthorized biography of a designer purse manufacturer" under their search manipulation policy. They were not helpful. I explained I am selling a BOOK, not a wholesale list, and the name Louis is in the title. No dice. They are threatening to suspend my account if I so much as utter the word Louis in the title. I am to list my items as "34-Page Designer Handbag buying guide" and that is it! Meanwhile, there are 150 books and wholesale lists available on Ebay with Louis Vuitton in the title. I am being targetted, and my thriving small business and has been trampled into the ground by Ebay. Without being able to accurately describe the contents of my book in the title of my auction, no one can find it to purchase it. Meanwhile, there are about 2,500 auctions for fake bags going on on Ebay right now. I suspect Ebay would prefer people NOT know what is fake and what is real. Oh, and did I mention I was one of the sellers whose account was double billed in March for February charges by Ebay? It took Ebay over a week to acknowledge the problem, and months to credit the fees back. I was a vocal critic of Ebay during that time on Ebay's message boards, and as such I am also a party to a class action lawsuit regarding Ebay's overcharging of fees. I suspect what they are doing to my book and account may be retaliation based on my participation in that law suit. Thanks for listening... I apologize for the length of this email. Do you think there is anything I can do to Ebay regarding its draconian search manipulation policy and its constant disruption of my auctions? My Ebay ID is caannie if you would like to see my book auctions. Thanks again, Carol