EBay Cracks Down on Policy Violators
EBay’s enforcers cracked down last month on Julie Ann Brown, a marketing professor who sells prayer cards and Victorian paper in her spare time.She had violated a policy against bidding on one of her own items, or “shill bidding,” an incident she acknowledges took place but said was an accident that should be outweighed by years of good behavior.In the past, her punishment would probably have been a warning, or she could have been kicked off the San Jose e-commerce giant. Instead, eBay used one of its newer strategies: It took the middle ground and charged Brown with the equivalent of a misdemeanor and suspended her auctions for a week and made her pass a test to prove that she was familiar with eBay’s rules.”I felt like I had the scarlet letter on me,” Brown said.
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