Florida HAM’s auction of legal radio equipment pulled

N9XK writes "

Let me start by saying that I have tried to resolve this with Ebay™ to no avail, I have a trail of emails that spans over 20 pages, still no resolution to this issue. This will serve to warn others that if they run into problems with a radio sale, they will spend a LOT of time explaining why their equipment is NOT illegal, in my opinion you will basically be guilty until proven innocent, and subjected to selective enforcement, miscommunication, and retaliatory acts by Ebay™ employees.



This all started when I put up a Yaesu FT-726r for auction in March (item # 1218505012). I was the victim of a dead beat bidder (yes, sorry to say it was another HAM), my auction ended with one bid and the winning bidder never responded after numerous attempts to contact him, this ultimately led to his account being cancelled by Ebay™.



After some wrangling, Ebay™ refunded my “final auction value fee” but not the listing fee, however, because the item had a “bid,” deadbeat or not. I was forced to pay yet another insertion fee to relist it just last week! No Free relist for me!



I decided to question Ebay™ about this, after all, it can’t hurt to ask right? Well their reply was one of their usual “canned” responses dated 05-09-01 8:18PM from a Morgan in their customer service department, basically telling me, this is the way it is, too bad, read the rules. I decided to question this further, by sending another more forceful email on 05-09-01 11:18PM detailing that I was the victim of a fraudulent act by someone else, and questioning why they were supporting fraudulent acts against sellers by deadbeat bidders.



In the meantime, while all these emails have been sent to and fro about the fees on my old auction, I HAD an auction running for a Yaesu FT-840 with FM board, you’ll notice I used the word HAD.



The Sabastian Incident……



Exactly 5 minutes after I sent the email with a more forceful line of questioning to Morgan, my auction for the FT-840 was cancelled by Sabastian from ended@Ebay.com on 05-09-01 at 11:23PM. For the record, that’s the only thing they’ve ever done for me in 5 minutes, usually everything else takes hours! I digress…. Sabastian sent me a wonderful piece of “canned” email that follows:



Ebay™ appreciates the fact that you chose to list your auction:

1236652143 YAESU FT-840 HF Radio All Mode w/FM board NR

with us. Generally, scanning receivers and radios may be listed on Ebay™. However, you may not list any scanning receiver or radio that receives cellular transmissions or has "full 800mz" coverage. Therefore, we have ended this auction and all fees have been
credited to your account. Equipment that is intended to operate in various radio services in the high frequency radio spectrum, including "10-Meter" Amateur Radio Service(ARS) equipment, is lawful and may be sold. However, some items of this nature that are capable of transmitting, and are being operated, in nearby frequency bands allocated to other radio services such as the Private Land Mobile Radio Services, Maritime Services, Auxiliary Broadcast Services, International Broadcasting Services, the Citizens Band Radio Service, and the U.S. Government. Operation of this equipment causes interference to the authorized users of these frequencies. Users may not list a high frequency transceiver that is designed to operate on frequencies outside of the ARS bands, if it has not been issued a grant of equipment authorization for the radio service(s) in which the transmitter is capable of operating.<p>




IMPORTANT NOTICE: Please be aware future incidents of this nature can lead to the suspension of your account. We value you as a member of our community and wish to continue this relationship, so we must ask you to refrain from any violations of the Listing Policies or User Agreement in the future. We thank you in advance for your cooperation. Please feel free to contact us with any questions or concerns you may have on our existing listing policies.



Regards,



Sabastian Ebay™ (ended@Ebay.com)

Ebay™, Inc.



Apparently Sabastian fancies himself to be an FCC enforcement official! I was furious at this point! My auction was pulled in retaliation to a complaint email I had sent about fees on a completely unrelated auction. I fired back by questioning whether the other FT-840’s on Ebay™ were being pulled also. I ended up receiving a reply from Su M. in customer service on 05-10-01 6:09PM stating that due to a bid being placed on my old auction, I was no longer eligible to relist that item for free, O.K. fine, whatever, I’m still not happy about that but I have this other issue pending, and that is, why was my legitimate auction pulled?



In a response to Su M. on 05-10-01 9:26PM I pointed out that I felt I was being harassed, and singled out because I complained about unfair fees, so to get even with me Sabastian pulled my auction within 5 minutes of receiving my email! My ad did not state that my 840 could “transmit” out of band, (it can’t, it’s never been modified!) or that it could be used on 11 meters for that matter. I also CLEARLY stated in my ad that a HAM radio license was required to purchase this radio.



Other FT-840’s on Ebay™ are still there and selling…….



I received an email early this morning (05-11-01 2:56 AM) from Oscar with the Ebay™ Community watch team, his reply stated: “Your listing 1236652143 was ended by Ebay™ because we do not permit the listing of any transceiver which can transmit on the 11 meter (CB) frequencies, and not because no FT-840 is allowed.” Again more links to policies same as before.



I replied to Oscar on 05-11-01 4:02AM, and educated him (or so I thought) about the modifications that can be performed to just about ANY Amateur radio transceiver, usually called a “M.A.R.S.” modification. I pointed him to www.fcc.gov/wtb and title 47 CFR part 97 subpart D, section 97.301 Authorized Frequency Bands. I stated that I would have been happy to answer any questions about the auction or its text, BEFORE it was pulled, I stressed that my radio was NOT modified to transmit out of band. To prove a point to Oscar I gave him a link to a completed auction for an FT-840 that blatantly stated that it could transmit “out of band”.



The last email I received was today (05-11-01 at 6:42 AM) from Petre of the Ebay™ Community Watch Team. He stated: “The FCC has given Ebay™ information that items of this nature that are capable of transmitting, and are being operated, in nearby frequency bands allocated to other radio services such as the Private Land Mobile Radio Services, Maritime Services, Auxiliary Broadcast Services, International Broadcasting Services, the Citizens Band Radio Service, and the U.S. Government. Operation of this equipment causes interference to the authorized users of these frequencies. Therefore, as a matter of policy users may not list a high frequency transceiver that is designed to operate on frequencies outside of the ARS bands. Your listing indicated that it was for 10 - 160 meters and so was ended for being outside the 10 meter frequencies.” What a complete Dunderhead! ,but wait there’s more!



Here is the response Petre gave me for the “Out of band” modded FT-840 Item # 1233077356 that I pointed out to Oscar earlier: “I have reviewed the item which you have reported and there is insufficient information to determine that the item is in violation of Ebay™ policy. Therefore no action will be taken on this listing. If you have any questions regarding this please feel free to contact Ray LaForge, or Gary Hendrickson at the FCC Laboratory, 7435 Oakland Mills Road, Columbia, MD 21046, (301) 362-3041 and 3043 respectively or E-mail: rlaforge@fcc.gov and ghendric@fcc.gov “ Apparently he missed the whole part about “modified for MARS operations to transmit out of band” in that auction.



My thoughts on this…..



I think it’s plainly obvious that Ebay™ has no clue what they are doing there when it comes to discriminating between bootleg / import equipment and legitimate FCC type accepted equipment ( 5 representatives and not one could get it right). They are blindly following a directive that they have no earthly idea how to enforce! I strongly urge all Amateurs to choose the wording on their potential future auctions very carefully, or use other advertising venues, like Yahoo, Amateur Radio Traders online classifieds, QRZ’s Online Swapmeet, etc. Ebay™ isn’t the only sales venue on the internet, and they have definitely proven to me that they don’t know how to enforce simple FCC directives, or situations involving real FCC type accepted Amateur Radio Equipment! This auction experience has definitely NOT been worth the trouble. Just my opinion.



73’ Mark N9XK"