Another Ebay Nightmare Now Authenticity Guarantee Problems

The Lounge General Discussion
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Hi

I dont why i keep putting myself through ebay hell they just cost me £300

Just need to vent and warn others about the absolute circus that is eBay’s Authenticity Guarantee. I’ve just had a sale completely sabotaged by them and wanted to warn anyone selling through the Authenticity Guarantee

I listed my Authentic Vintage AW 2008 Stone Island Black David-TC Lined Parka (XXL, Art: 49157149). Knowing it’s a 18 year-old jacket, I honestly listed the condition as “Good” (not excellent, not new) and priced it fairly at £300 to reflect that it’s a used, vintage piece with general wear.

I’m a seller with 1,100+ flawless positive feedback, so I know how to describe gear properly. The buyer was happy, paid up, and it went off to the authenticators.

I listed it as “Fantastic condition for its age but has some general wear but no holes or major flaws!”

Authenticator’s notes

I verified that your item is authentic.

I also observed that the item has minor issues that were not specified in the listing:

The item has more marking/stains/blemishes that were not listed or disclosed in the listing.

The transaction was completely hijacked. Some entry-level inspector who clearly has zero clue what David-TC fabric actually is put the jacket under high-intensity, enhanced laboratory ring lights. Their macro-flash photos completely washed out the deep black color of the coat, turning it into a faded grey rag on screen, scaring the buyer off over basic camera glare

Then they sent these blown-out, enhanced photos to the buyer, asked if they wanted to force me into giving a discount, and obviously scared the buyer into cancelling.

It’s an absolute joke. they are completely ignoring the condition tier and price the seller chose.

The jacket is on its way back to me in now.

Its just another example of ebays nonsense

Once ive sorted this im going to close my account ive had enough for good

Thanks

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My ebay account has been lying dormant for a pretty long time, didn’t even know they had an
Authenticity Guarantee program…but what you’re describing seems to defeat the purpose of having such a feature in the first place. :slight_smile:

Would it have been possible to appeal the decision of the authenticator or is their decision final?

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Exactly, mate—it completely defeats the object! You pick “Good Condition” to openly tell the buyer it has wear, but the checkers act like it’s supposed to be brand new out of the box.

To answer your question: No, there is absolutely zero way to appeal it. Their decision is 100% final.

Once the computer at the hub flags it as an “unspecified defect,” the system instantly kills the transaction, triggers an automated refund to the buyer, and prints a return label back to the seller. You can’t phone them, you can’t submit your own photos, and you can’t speak to a human manager to explain basic textile character.

It’s an absolute one-way dictatorship designed to protect their own corporate liability, while the seller gets stuffed. I’ve locked the listing down to local cash on collection now so they can’t touch it again!

The only way around it is to have the buyer collect as anything over £200 goes to them

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Whoa. That’s harsh, sorry to hear. Is this just for clothing and brand label stuff, or does it apply to everything (eg audio gear)?

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For anyone wondering what else gets automatically hijacked by this system, here are the official UK categories and price triggers where eBay intercepts the sale and routes it to their third-party warehouse:

  • Designer Apparel (Clothing): Any premium brand jacket, coat, or streetwear piece sold for £200 or more (exactly how my Stone Island parka got caught).
  • Sneakers / Trainers: Brands like Nike, Jordan, and Yeezy sold for £100 or more.
  • Luxury Watches: Any high-end wristwatch sold for £1,500 or more.
  • Designer Handbags: Premium luxury bags sold for £500 or more.
  • Fine Jewellery: High-end rings, necklaces, and bracelets sold for £500 or more.
  • Trading Cards: Single collectible cards (Pokémon, sports cards, etc.) that hit their specific price thresholds

They did it to stop fakes but they have taken it to another level

Im thinking its a scam ie refuse some thing for minor flaws to sell again to be sent there again for a double dip

It should be called

eBay Corporate Quality Control, Condition Nitpicking, and Partial-Refund Trap. Or even better, the Logistics Company Double-Dip Special.

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Ok, that is wild. I thought that you’re probably just fed up with them, because the buyer pulled out and you now had to go through an exhausting appeal process, but that you cannot even appeal a decision is pretty fkn wild…

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No Im just fed up with ebay in general i mainly move my music hardware on there but id rather sell stuff here it might take longer to sell but i dont have to deal with ebay politics or scammers etc it gets a bit draining

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Sorry this happened to you bud.

Fuck eBay.

They’ve been dead to me for a while. Went on there just now and there’s all these goon faced fucking morons trying to sell stuff in these weird live selling things.

Because that’s their fucking business model now, is it?

Get yourself on vinted for clothes selling.

Much less fuss, although it’s like a fucking car boot sale, nobody expects to have to pay more than 50p for any fucking thing.

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Omg yeah I noticed this the other week. Wtaf?! eBay with Reels. What a terrible idea.

Yup eBay is well and truly enshitfied. Don’t even get me started on Instagram.

I use Reverb for gear and Vinted for clothing, who are branching out into other categories.

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Wait, so Ebay just opens a parcel that isn’t addressed to them, rather than waiting for the buyer to complain? Is that even legal?

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Vinted is a nightmare for high end gear, no seller protection at all.

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Ah, good to know. I’ve only used it for clothing :+1:

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I had a buyer with no history leave me a 1 star review on eBay after buying a $25 item listed as Non-Working with a title that included READ DESCRIPTION and a clear description of everything broken in it. I fully refunded him anyways and he stopped responding. eBay rejected my appeal of the angry review which accused me of being a scammer and a liar. I gave up on them after that experience.

Reverb is doing me right as a seller and buyer. The only problem is the other sellers… who keep trying to pawn off broken gear. EMX, MPC One, RMX… Reverb has stepped in every time to fix it.

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