Cassie LaBelle: "eBay completely destroyed my life"
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I hate how the government has basically been deputizing internet companies to enforce laws and regulations for them. If the DEA had done this themselves you could appeal it, ask your congressperson for help, or take them to court, but as long as their actions get laundered through a private company, the rights of the affected citizens disappear.
Yes. See [1].
Owning a pill press is not currently illegal under Federal law, although some states restrict ownership. Selling one, though, requires registration with the DEA and reporting to whom it was sold. It's kind of like being a gun dealer.
[1] https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/ebay-pay-59-million-settle-co...
These crazy human hostile implementations of various regulations are a net loss for big businesses.
eBay is doing what nowadays all big fucking corps do, shit on UX and gut punch actual users in the name of compliance.
You got a few hundred dollars from your friend on your Venmo/Revolut/Wise/whatever app and our AML/KYC/CYA/compliance department flagged it? Okay, instantly block your account, tell the users nothing, and demand that they submit paperwork proving who they are, where's the money from, what's the purpose of the transfer, etc... in the most fucked up adversarial byzantine way possible.
The problem is that there's no sane way for these companies to do the good cop / bad cop transition. This is a pure chilling effect on this kind of economic activity.
Banks and these money middlemen ought to be our agents (broker! mediator!) instead they are turned into paranoid bureaucrats resembling the idiots at the NRC (NRC is the nuclear regulatory commission, where the prevailing doctrine is to get risks as low as possible - ALARA, which led to nuclear energy priced out of the fucking market).
Also, Cassie should be aware that, historically, eBay _does not take well_ to high profile, public criticism: https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-behind-the-bastards-29236...
https://infinite.tcgplayer.com/author/Cassie-LaBelle?p=1
eBay acquired TCGPlayer in October 2022 and have been paying her to create content for them since.
https://x.com/CassieCeleste/status/1843702917314031759
"Hell, eBay OWNS @TCGplayer, the website I've given the past several years of my life to. They know me. They know I'm honest. They're still sending me paychecks for the last of my articles there. But I'm too dangerous to ever sell on their platform again. Because I sold THAT."
If she can't get through to someone who can review the situation through a rational, human lens and provide some real help, what hope does anyone else caught up in their automated bot dragnet have?
https://tsak.dev/posts/the-decision-is-final-and-we-cannot-r...
Hopefully someone here will be able to get someone in corp to actually contact them. It's ridiculous for an account that has established history to just be wiped out like that.
EBay had opportunity to delist a "pill press" before she sold it, or even warn her before she listed it, but chose not to. They seem then to have chosen the worst, most unempathetic response, and then to double down repeatedly.
I've called them a couple of times and I get the inevitable "thanks for being a loyal customer for more than 10 years speech" and then "we're sorry but there's nothing we can do". I have put over £150k through them in the last decade while emptying out two dead parents' houses which they dutifully took a 9-30% cut on.
It is the ultimate automated and unregulated bureaucracy.
I'm at the end of my tether on this so I closed my mule bank account which ebay uses and will deal with their appointed DCA instead who probably has better customer service.
We bailed out of ebay 17 years ago: they changed to "buyer need not pay" and one person took us for $1,000+ of stuff.
Never saw a sign they were getting better; it has looked like they're preying on sellers to me, ever since.
Just to be clear, I'm not saying this justifies the response. I'm just clarifying what may have prompted this serious over-reaction by ebay.
>Also, if you're going to give someone a lifetime ban for some keywords that AI picks up in a listing title, GIVE YOUR USERS A RED TEXT WARNING BEFORE THEY LIST IT TO ENSURE COMPLIANCE! >They do that for BB guns and other items with WAY fewer consequences if you mess up!!
This is valid reason for enforcement of the rule.
What’s at issue, in all of these cases, is the lack of reasonable judgement of the case (appeal).
eBay’s place in the market (different from, say, Amazon or Walmart) is private sellers selling used items, vintage, collectible, rare, antique. This is exactly what this item is.
No average person would ever conceive of the item as itself being dangerous or harmful (like a gun or brass knuckles).
Whats more, no one would object to selling this antique on eBay to, say, a pharmacy to sit as decoration on a shelf.
On the face of it, it seem unlikely an impartial judge would rule the seller was not a good member of the EBay community, and deserves a restoration of their privileges.
I wish her luck in getting it sorted, ...
That doesn't seem to be a then and now part of this. I looked on Amazon and you can find a pill machine for ~$400 pressing single pills with identical design.
>They do that for BB guns and other items with WAY fewer consequences if you mess up!!
She has a point though. If it's illegal, why even let it get listed in the first place? Why not just give the seller a warning during the listing process?
It's not the press of choice for drug baron king pins.
A sword which has been beaten into a plowshare is no longer a sword, and an inoperative 140 year old pill press is no longer a pill press.
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/ebay-pay-59-million-settle-co...
Their treatment of this seller sucks, but they are also forced to cover their asses by the government on this. So they are in a somewhat difficult position.
I'm not defending eBay, mind you. As the seller notes on their Twitter thread... eBay should and could easily detect this kind of illegal item AHEAD OF TIME when the seller enters the item description. Just block the seller from listing the item, rather than letting them list it... and then banning them later.
It is possible (don't know how likely) that maybe eBay is being total overkill on this stuff as a sign of good faith to the government to avoid future fines. A lot of those fines can be based on the perceived level of willful noncompliance. Not excusing them. Just thinking thru what might be happening.
If the device in question is non-functional, I would dispute the "may be used for" requirement of the definition.
After all, you could sell a perfectly functional pill press with a single crucial $.02 screw missing and accurately call it "non functional"
I can’t understand this from a data processing point of view. Surely the flag database tracks that an item was already flagged and removed, in order to avoid duplicates.
Also the seller is perhaps at fault for not naming it wisely?
Cache invalidation and naming stuff..
And “I guess, eventually” is generally not good enough for a court, which is really where this person should be able to send a dispute like this.
I'm sure you are saying something mostly relevant here but please; for people's perception of your intelligence sake and the accessibility of people trying to understand you, format better.
The member of WTO "tribunal" must be consider outlaws in any civil country as well, and people must know again the difference between what they own and what they have with limiting "rents", licenses and so on, and the difference between something PUBLIC and something private publicly open.
All this issues would be resolved.
You can replace "x.com" in URLs like this with "xcancel.com" or "nitter.poast.org" to get around this.
It’s used items and antiques that make eBay different from Amazon.
This is bad look for eBay’s brand. The item is obviously an antique (and literally one over 100 years old).
Also reminds how back then, when i was relatively new to the US, veterinary giving me a syringe instructed me to put it into a pocket to make sure it isn't visible. I was perplexed to say the least - hide plastic syringe from view in a country where i had heard you can walk openly on the street with semi-automatic version of Kalashnikov :)
All of these can be used for other purposes. A pill press is far more targeted than a car, a pair of trousers, or a gallon of water.