How can I report an eBay sale for PC products?

[chefann]

As much as we all like to vent about finding PC products on eBay, that's not a very valuable business activity. So rather than posting it here and starting a heated discussion, please just report the auction to the appropriate people at HO.Send information about product sales to [email protected].
Send PWS links to [email protected].The more information you can include in your message, the better, as that means less legwork for HO staff. Include links to the applicable pages, auction numbers and seller names (for eBay), and, if possible, screen captures.An easy way to get a screen capture is as a PDF. Install a free PDF creation utility (I like Primo PDF), and print the web page, using the utility as the printer. It will create a PDF document that you can attach to your email. (Mac OSX users can skip the utility, and select "PDF" on their print options screen.)We all get frustrated when we see people selling items online and breaking the rules. Especially when the seller is clearly a consultant, as becomes obvious during season changeover when some people sell their earned samples. It's not worth the aggravation and hassle to post offenders here - just report them. It takes the same amount of energy on your part. And crackdowns by HO will eventually pay off, making the playing field even for all of us.Thank you.Edited 03/07/2008 to remove email address.

 

[DebbieJ]

Thanks, Ann! That is helpful info.

 

[Cassie1037]

Well put Ann!

 

[missydivine]

Thanks Ann, good information.

 

[dannyzmom]

Great info Ann - well put!

 

[chefann]

Bumping this... since it's that time of year when sample package items end up on eBay before the catalog's out. :grumpy:

 

[wadesgirl]

That lady who had the grapefruit knife the other day also has the plate caddy! Why is it that some people would think they won't get caught or are trying to make a profit off items they got for free?

 

[frozenchef]

Is it okay to look for discontinued items that aren't even in the outlet anymore?

 

[chefann]

IMO, that's OK - after you've asked here to see if anyone has one (might as well get one from a friend, right?). But that's my opinion, and may not be the same as what HO thinks.

 

[Mwalker]

Ok, lets play a game.......

If I was an avid customer, bought a ton of stuff over the years, then decided I was cleaning my house and dont need all of it, put up 20 some odd items all at once, that would illegal according to PC? Why? (In this case) Im NOT a consultant. I have no connections to the company. Its no different than if I put them in my driveway and sold them on some Sat morning.

Yet....... theres a good chance someone would report it as "against PC policy" and be determined that I no be able to sell my household stuff. Just becuase they have a lot of stuff doesnt mean they are connected to the company and know the rules.


What if I am a consultant and quit? Obviously Im no longer connected to the company.... yet I have all this stuff that I dont need or want. Would you be that eager to "cease my ebay activity" becuase I want to get rid of it?
What about those people (consultants and non) that DONT KNOW this site to offer it up here first? Which believe it or not there's alot that do not.

Not trying to cause a problem here. But I just dont want people to start shooting first and asking questions later.

 

[wadesgirl]

Ok, lets play a game.......

If I was an avid customer, bought a ton of stuff over the years, then decided I was cleaning my house and dont need all of it, put up 20 some odd items all at once, that would illegal according to PC? Why? (In this case) Im NOT a consultant. I have no connections to the company. Its no different than if I put them in my driveway and sold them on some Sat morning.

Yet....... theres a good chance someone would report it as "against PC policy" and be determined that I no be able to sell my household stuff. Just becuase they have a lot of stuff doesnt mean they are connected to the company and know the rules.


What if I am a consultant and quit? Obviously Im no longer connected to the company.... yet I have all this stuff that I dont need or want. Would you be that eager to "cease my ebay activity" becuase I want to get rid of it?
What about those people (consultants and non) that DONT KNOW this site to offer it up here first? Which believe it or not there's alot that do not.

Not trying to cause a problem here. But I just dont want people to start shooting first and asking questions later.

The point is there are signs that someone is an active consultant. The lady with the brand new grapefruit knife can only be a consultant or got it from a consultant as those items were earned by consultants and directors. Or the people selling their CO kits, they had to have been active consultants within the last couple months.

 

[ChefBeckyD]

Ok, lets play a game.......

If I was an avid customer, bought a ton of stuff over the years, then decided I was cleaning my house and dont need all of it, put up 20 some odd items all at once, that would illegal according to PC? Why? (In this case) Im NOT a consultant. I have no connections to the company. Its no different than if I put them in my driveway and sold them on some Sat morning.

Yet....... theres a good chance someone would report it as "against PC policy" and be determined that I no be able to sell my household stuff. Just becuase they have a lot of stuff doesnt mean they are connected to the company and know the rules.


What if I am a consultant and quit? Obviously Im no longer connected to the company.... yet I have all this stuff that I dont need or want. Would you be that eager to "cease my ebay activity" becuase I want to get rid of it?
What about those people (consultants and non) that DONT KNOW this site to offer it up here first? Which believe it or not there's alot that do not.

Not trying to cause a problem here. But I just dont want people to start shooting first and asking questions later.

I think the people who are being reported are obviously current consultants - when they are selling products not available to the public yet, or consultant only products and awards...or multiples of products. Or they have an ongoing sales with hundreds of PC items sold.

I also think that if there is a question, they are being contacted first.

 

[wadesgirl]

Or someone who is in direct violation, like offering the warranty for the item which means they are either a consultant or know a consultant who will put the order through PC instead of selling the item off their "counter top"

 

[chefann]

Free market means that once an item has been sold, the buyer is free to do with it what they will. So customers and former consultants can sell things on eBay. There may be a problem if they use pics from the PC website, because that's PC's intellectual property, and the sale can be shut down for that. So, mwalker, in your scenarios those people would absolutely be allowed to sell their items.But as active consultants, we have an agreement with HO to follow their rules, which includes the "no selling online" clause. That's where we can get in trouble. And as wadesgirl points out, the person who was (last week) selling the grapefruit knife that is not out for the public yet MUST be an active consultant (she earned it in Sell-a-thon or Director package, which means that she was active as of November/December and has not yet fallen off the list of consultants, since that takes a year).

 

[wadesgirl]

Free market means that once an item has been sold, the buyer is free to do with it what they will. So customers and former consultants can sell things on eBay. There may be a problem if they use pics from the PC website, because that's PC's intellectual property, and the sale can be shut down for that. So, mwalker, in your scenarios those people would absolutely be allowed to sell their items.

But as active consultants, we have an agreement with HO to follow their rules, which includes the "no selling online" clause. That's where we can get in trouble. And as wadesgirl points out, the person who was (last week) selling the grapefruit knife that is not out for the public yet MUST be an active consultant (she earned it in Sell-a-thon or Director package, which means that she was active as of November/December and has not yet fallen off the list of consultants, since that takes a year).[/QUOTE]

I was going to point this out also. Just because you "quit" PC, you technically are still a consultant until a year after you go inactive. Which means you still have to hold your contract with PC. At any time you can become an active consultant within that year.

 

[BethCooks4U]

I was going to point this out also. Just because you "quit" PC, you technically are still a consultant until a year after you go inactive. Which means you still have to hold your contract with PC. At any time you can become an active consultant within that year.

You can resign and then you would not be a consultant as soon as they accept that. BUT even then if you wanted to re-sign within 12 months it would have to be with the same person you were under when you left.

As has been said, if you are not a consultant you are free to sell whatever you want on the internet but you must take your own pictures.

It is unethical for a consultant to sell/give them to sell for her/him and the consultant could be fired for that. (not saying you are doing that - just putting the info out there)

edited to clarify resign vs re-sign

 

[janetupnorth]

You can resign and then you would not be a consultant as soon as they accept that. BUT even then if you wanted to resign within 12 months it would have to be with the same person you were under when you left.

As has been said, if you are not a consultant you are free to sell whatever you want on the internet but you must take your own pictures.

It is unethical for a consultant to sell/give them to sell for her/him and the consultant could be fired for that. (not saying you are doing that - just putting the info out there)

I was just going to type this, but you saved me the work Beth.

I also think it would be sneaky if someone resigned, sold their stuff then a year later signed up again to get a new kit at a discount. I personally hope HO has a check system for anyone who would sign up do little or nothing, go inactive then resign and do nothing again.

 

[wadesgirl]

I didn't know you could actually resign. I figured you would just go inactive and then after a year no longer a consultant.

 

[ChefBeckyD]

You can resign and then you would not be a consultant as soon as they accept that. BUT even then if you wanted to resign within 12 months it would have to be with the same person you were under when you left.

As has been said, if you are not a consultant you are free to sell whatever you want on the internet but you must take your own pictures.

It is unethical for a consultant to sell/give them to sell for her/him and the consultant could be fired for that. (not saying you are doing that - just putting the info out there)

This sentence had me confused for a second.....oh the joys of the English language, where resign, and re-sign are spelled the same way, but have opposite meanings!

 

[BethCooks4U]

This sentence had me confused for a second.....oh the joys of the English language, where resign, and re-sign are spelled the same way, but have opposite meanings!

Duh! I just caught that! Sorry, I'll have to be aware of that in the future. I am going back to change my original post...

 

[Mwalker]

I understand all of that. I just want to make sure this board is not encouraging people to automatically report people just becuase they have PC stuff being offered, that may not have been doing anything wrong in the first place. Thats also wasting alot of HOs time to sort things out.

Its just a "be aware" of your actions kind of thing

 

[vtodd71]

Its just a "be aware" of your actions kind of thing

I agree. Besides, I don't have that much time trolling around on ebay trying to catch other consultants from selling stuff. If people would spend that much time on their business instead of trying to get others in trouble then their sales would go through theh roof. It is honestly none of my business (or anyone elses) and HO should handle this.

 

[MaddyandOwensMom]

I understand all of that. I just want to make sure this board is not encouraging people to automatically report people just becuase they have PC stuff being offered, that may not have been doing anything wrong in the first place. Thats also wasting alot of HOs time to sort things out.

Its just a "be aware" of your actions kind of thing

I totally agree with you! You never know who recieved something as a gift before it come out to the public and decided that they preferred to sell it via E-bay. I do know of someone who was reported who was in fact not a consultant and had obtained a new product in another way. "Be aware" is exactly right!
Jessica

 

[BethCooks4U]

The whole point of this thread is that we are better served using our time working on our business than trolling for offenders.

I do not go on ebay at all but if we happen to see ebay sales that appear to be in violation of the agreement that all PC consultants make when they sign up we should report them and let HO investigate it. It is not our place to decide.

Those who are not consultants are not guilty - they can do what ever they want with their products. Those that are consultants should know better. They are told to take it off and nothing happens if they comply - HO is generous to give them a chance.

If those of you who are suggesting that we ignore the ebay sellers will read back on other threads you will see that there are plenty of consultants who do sell there and get very defensive and offensive when they have been warned by fellow consultants who thought maybe they didn't know the rule. That is not worth our time either. Let HO figure it out.

 

[lockhartkitchen]

As much as we all like to vent about finding PC products on eBay, that's not a very valuable business activity. So rather than posting it here and starting a heated discussion, please just report the auction to the appropriate people at HO.

Send information about product sales to [email protected] or [email protected].
Send PWS links to [email protected].

The more information you can include in your message, the better, as that means less legwork for HO staff. Include links to the applicable pages, auction numbers and seller names (for eBay), and, if possible, screen captures.

An easy way to get a screen capture is as a PDF. Install a free PDF creation utility (I like Primo PDF), and print the web page, using the utility as the printer. It will create a PDF document that you can attach to your email. (Mac OSX users can skip the utility, and select "PDF" on their print options screen.)

We all get frustrated when we see people selling items online and breaking the rules. Especially when the seller is clearly a consultant, as becomes obvious during season changeover when some people sell their earned samples. It's not worth the aggravation and hassle to post offenders here - just report them. It takes the same amount of energy on your part. And crackdowns by HO will eventually pay off, making the playing field even for all of us.

Thank you.

My goal this year is to use chef success as a resource for flyers and things that will promote my own business, spend more time implementing 3-2-1 ,and Customer Care. It's too easy to use this forum as a personal blog.

 

[chefann]

PamperedPosey received a note from Richard that he is no longer working on the internet violations. Please send violations you find to [email protected] or [email protected].

 

[pamperedposey]

Thanks Ann! I couldn't find this thread, so when I found the other one I thought it would have to do.

 

[chefann]

Bumping this because it's "Sample season," when blatant policy violators sell their samples on eBay/Craigslist.

If you see something for sale online that's a clear violation of policies, use the energy you would use to complain about it here to send it to HO, using the email address [email protected]. Include a link to the page, and a screen shot if possible (if it's an auction that's likely to end before HO gets around to checking out the link).

Send PWS link violations to [email protected].

The easy way to send a screen shot is to send a PDF of the web page. Mac users can print the page, selecting "Save as PDF" from the pop up window. Windows users will need PDF creation software - I like Primo PDF, which is free, and easy to use.

 

[c00p]

I've never searched on my name w/ TPC before, so I thought I'd do it and here's the first thing that popped up "Investigators say they found meth making ingredients in Andrea Cooper's home " Oh my word!!!! It's not me - I swear!!!!!!!!

 

[babywings76]

Ann, how do you take a screen shot? I've always wondered this.

 

[chefann]

Well, it's been a while since I used Windows, but you hold down one of the modifier keys (alt, ctrl) while pressing Print Screen. If you search Windows Help for screen grab or screen shot, you'll find something.If you're on a Mac, there's a program called Grab that takes screen shots.But better than that, especially if you've found a web page that doesn't all fit on your screen at one time, is to create a PDF of the page. On a Mac, just print the page from the browser and select the "PDF" option. In Windows, you'll need a PDF creator. One that I've used is Primo PDF. It's a free download. When you install it, it creates a virtual printer on your computer, only instead of printing a hard copy, if creates a PDF. After installing it, all you need to do is print the web page from your browser and select Primo PDF as the printer.

 

[c00p]

Yes, on Windows it's ALT + Print Screen, then go into Word and do CTRL + V to paste it into a document, then you should be able to save it and send it.