Ebay Blatant Copying

[pisquee]

So, I sell a few product lines/supplies on Ebay.
Some I do well with and for a long time have been top of their best match lists.
A couple of bigger suppliers saw I was doing well, and came in with the same product a while back, but that hadn't really shaken my sales at all. So, all was good.

Now, yesterday, another seller comes along to sell exactly the same product, at a couple of quid cheaper per unit, which is OK I suppose, although shortsighted business wise to start a race to the bottom when the margins are already quite low, and there is a limited market for this product.

What is really annoying though (and lazy on their part) is they have just copy and pasted my advert text (and advert title) - an exact word for word copy (except a few sections they removed as they weren't relevant to them)

Oh, and on top of that, they copied my product shots (which weren't the best, but did the job) and did bad jobs of making them white cut out shots.

I reported this to Ebay as soon as I'd seen it - and the advert was removed, but they have relisted again today with nothing changed - so I've re-reported it.

I also sent them a strongly worded message through Ebay.

Their only response to that was to say they'd "remove the products" and that I shouldn't worry and that I won't have my monopoly for long!

WTF?!

I don't want to post the links here to show my advert and the copy, as I don't want this to be seen as me trying to advertise through this thread. So, I won't unless a mod says it's OK. in the mean-time, PM me if you want details.

[pisquee]

Oh, he's finally changed his advert. And knocked a bit more money off the unit cost.

[Andrew]

Is their username c....andt..... ? Am I on the same page or in a different library?

Copying like that is as lazy as it gets.

[pisquee]

Yup, that's the one.
I've had another message from him now apologising - which is a start I suppose - in response to me offering to charge him a license of £250 per photo of mine he was using.

"Hi, sorry for what happened. We never meant to upset you.We have changed pictures and description. We are looking at selling more products and as you suggested I am not sure we will be successful on that one because most people will probably prefer the technical support you can offer. It is just a trial.
Please note I am always open to dialog. We are only few people selling these products so hopefully we will not need to fight to much each others."

For those of you that don't know, this is for a sublimation supply/product - one which means I get a LOT of phone calls and emails asking for help and support. By the sounds of his reply above, he just wants to be a reseller, without actually knowing what he is selling, how it is used, or why. Gonna be fun when he starts getting support calls from his cusotmers.

[Paul]

I got this same about color profiles or pressing blanks people are getting blanks from suppliers and after watching my videos on youtube they asking me questions. I dont mind thou

[pisquee]

I don't mind the competition so much, it was more the total copy and paste of my words and photos that annoyed me.

[Renniwano]

I would be the same.. like you say, the competition is inevitable.. but blatantly copying someone elses text and images is just lazy and rude..

I had the same thing when I used to have an ebay shop many moons ago.. I used to distribute ImageBox/Imagepac polymer stamp making machines direct from the supplier and worked very closely with them.. when along came a little ole lady who thought she could take all my text and images and sell the odd one or two that she purchased in.

When I explained that using my photos was a breach of my copyright, her reply was well it was on google images so that's ok !!

She then went on to say she would use other images instead as I obviously had a chip on my shoulder.. and just proceeded to make a hash up of removing the background of mine !! needless to say she had a strongly worded email from myself about charges for the images as you have done..

Some people just don't care.

[bigj2552]

feel real sorry for you bud - we had that 2 mths ago, same thing, word for word, font for font ect....
make it more difficult for them, i said before, install a simple html script in your listings that will stop right click copy paste kids.
YES, they can screen grab, but thats not the same as just right click and copy what they want.
it usually puts folk off copying others text ect when they know they will have to WORK to get/alter what they want - and in there eyes, they obviously dont want to work to hard !!

[GoonerGary]

Invoice the lot of them, then do it through your solicitor and add your legal costs onto the bill. It's the only way to deal with little old ladies.