Popular internet auction site eBay has been forced to reinforce its guidelines for advertising cars following a recent string of complaints about inappropriate and incorrect listings.
As a reflection of this new crackdown, earlier this week a handful of eBay car sellers received sternly worded warnings from the auction site’s administrators. One such seller was Jackson Lisbo of Squirrelscock. “I was shocked when I got the warning about the ad for my MX5,” Mr Lisbo said. “They told me the text in my ad was too well written, that it contained no massive chunks of pointless block capitals, and that none of the writing was inexplicably in red. They told me to re-read the guidelines, take some new photos of the car making sure that this time they were out of focus, and then re-list the car. I was shocked”.
eBay sources say the company has been forced to launch this crackdown in response to a small band of sellers who still believe the best way to sell a car is to give some actual information about it. “We’re getting tired of these idiots who want to tell you things like mileage, service history, equipment levels and so on,” said one eBay insider. “Until these people learn that the correct way to sell a car on our site is to write ‘BRILENT CAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FASTER THNA A FEISTA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!’ in red Comic Sans and accompany it with one blurry picture of the front three quarter taken at night on a mobile phone, then we have no option but to get tough with them”.
