Ebay Webinterpret Opt-Out Failure

On 9th November 2021, the boy-wonders at eBay Politburo Central decided that no-one was paying to use the useless "Webinterpret" automatic translation system created by another company that ebay had bought-out some time earlier. Oh Dear: What a surprise! To avoid any embarrassment of the executives involved in spending all that money, ebay tried to make this a free service and allowed people to opt-out. Opt-out, I most certainly did. Below you can read about what happened next, and how without immediate and continuous manual intervention it would have ruined my selling account within two days. There is also a very interesting post-script to this issue, dug-out from August 2019.

04-DEC-2021 Webinterpret Activates On My eBay Account Without Permission After Explicitly Opting-Out

On 9th November 2021 I receive the following email from contact@forbusiness.ebay.com:

_______________________________
eBay for Business <contact@forbusiness.ebay.com>
Tue 09/11/2021 14:05
We’re increasing the visibility of your listings abroad
Hello Henry Walmsley,

To help increase your sales and improve your exports, we’d like to start translating your listings and creating local versions on other eBay domains.

This will show local buyers your listings in their own language, including title, item specifics and item description, and currency. Listing directly on our international sites can help increase the visibility of your listings.

We are only doing this to listings that currently have international shipping enabled and to the markets you enabled international shipping to. You don’t need to worry about us enabling it to markets you don’t ship to. As a result of this process, you might see additional listings in foreign languages in Seller Hub.

We will translate 50% of your eligible listings, based on your store subscription. This is free of charge for you and you will only pay final value fees when you sell.

This programme is carried out by eBay and enabled by WebInterpret, a third party company supporting the localisation of listings.

Please click here if you would like to receive a follow-up call to explain the benefits of the programme (enabled by Webinterpret).

Please click here if you would prefer to be excluded from the programme.

We hope you find this information useful and are available if you have any questions.
_________________________________

I immediately followed the link and opted-out. This opt-out was done by following a web-link:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/srv/
survey/a/gcx.automatedtranslation

On Saturday 4th December 2021 I noticed that ebay had signed me up to this service. My account was flooded with useless, badly translated, overseas listings that would take me over my (incorrectly applied, but that's another story) selling limits.

The opt-out clearly had not worked, or eBay had ignored it. So, as I was unable to contact eBay seller support on the telephone that evening I opted for one of their 'text chats.' The following conversation ensued:
_________________________

Why is ebay duplicating all my listings with bad alternate language translations?
2021 - 12 - 04
06:56:46 UTC Nitesh
    Welcome to eBay Live Help. My name is Nitesh I'd happy to help you today. Please stay connected while I review your query.

06:57:36 UTC Nitesh
    Hello Henry, Good Evening!!

06:57:41 UTC vila_restor
    Hello.

06:57:59 UTC Nitesh
    Henry , ebay launched new free service to increase your sells.

06:58:09 UTC Nitesh
    Webinterpret used to charge for the same service.

06:58:21 UTC Nitesh
    However, you can opt out any tim

06:58:46 UTC Nitesh
    time*

06:59:10 UTC vila_restor
    Question 1. Will these extra listings contribute to my shop allowance?

07:00:22 UTC Nitesh
    No.

07:00:26 UTC Nitesh
    duplicate listing will count under selling limits.

07:00:51 UTC Nitesh
    You don't have to pay anything for this listing

07:01:12 UTC vila_restor
    Question 2: Is it not obvious that my selling limits will be massively exceeded by this process, thus resulting in "proper" listings no being renewed?

07:03:34 UTC Nitesh
    Henry , listing will renew every month However, if your limits need increase we will do it for you.

07:03:48 UTC Nitesh
    If you wish to no longer benefit from this service, we can deactivate it at any time for you. Follow the link and we will stop the process. Please be aware that this might take a couple of days. You need to be logged in into your eBay-account in order to use this link: UK - gcx.automatedtranslation DE - gcx.automatedtranslation FR - gcx.automatedtranslation IT - gcx.automatedtranslation ES - gcx.automatedtranslation

07:04:32 UTC vila_restor
    Question 3: Did I not already deliberately and explicitly opt-out of this so-called service several weeks ago?

07:05:55 UTC Nitesh
    Did you buy this service in past from web interpret?

07:06:00 UTC Nitesh
    And cancel it?

07:06:09 UTC vila_restor
    No, No, and NO.

07:06:40 UTC vila_restor
    Non, Niet, Nada, Nein, ebay for so-called business.

07:06:43 UTC Nitesh
    I am sorry I didn;t get it

07:07:02 UTC Nitesh
    Do you wish to opt out from this service?

07:07:10 UTC vila_restor
    Stop it now, please, Yes.

07:08:03 UTC Nitesh
    Sure

07:08:39 UTC Nitesh
    You can deactivate it at any time for you. Follow the link and we will stop the process. Please be aware that this might take a couple of days. You need to be logged in into your eBay-account in order to use this link: UK - gcx.automatedtranslation DE - gcx.automatedtranslation FR - gcx.automatedtranslation IT - gcx.automatedtranslation ES - gcx.automatedtranslation

07:09:11 UTC Nitesh
    Once you place a request it takes 48-72 hours and it will be stopped

07:09:20 UTC vila_restor
    Those links don't work.

07:11:57 UTC Nitesh
    PLease stay connected

07:12:10 UTC vila_restor
    Please type the full URL or direct me to the location within my ebay account.

07:12:45 UTC Nitesh
    Sure I am sorry as it was working in past

07:14:37 UTC Nitesh
    https://www.ebay.co.uk/srv/
survey/a/gcx.automatedtranslation

07:15:59 UTC vila_restor
    I will point out that this is EXACTLY what I filled in last time I opted out of this unwanted and Useless so-called service, so I also wish to complain

07:16:26 UTC Nitesh
    Sure

07:16:42 UTC Nitesh
    May I know you wish to complain over chat?

07:17:06 UTC Nitesh
    Please find complaint address here

07:17:07 UTC Nitesh
    eBay Complaints Dept. Attn: eBay Buyer protection PO Box 9473 Dublin 15 Ireland

07:17:36 UTC vila_restor
    You mean the Dustbin address? You are now having a poor joke.

07:17:52 UTC vila_restor
    Please read this page, for your evening pleasure:

07:18:03 UTC Nitesh
    May I know whom you wish to complaint

07:18:32 UTC vila_restor
    https://www.interestingelectronics.com/old/
henrys_interesting_electronics/customer_service/ebay/ebay_main_page.html

07:19:00 UTC Nitesh
    Yes please.

07:19:17 UTC vila_restor
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dvA7fyJ0pU

07:19:55 UTC vila_restor
    So, that's the opt-out page filled in Again. How do I now get rid of all the garbage listings that you have created, ebay for so-called business?

07:20:19 UTC Nitesh
    You can end those listing

07:20:26 UTC Nitesh
    You need help to end them in bulk?

07:21:03 UTC vila_restor
    Oh, I have to end them? No, I can do that, tracking them all down and doing the work myself. How do I select the translations for bulk erasure?

07:23:06 UTC Nitesh
    May I know on which site you wish to end

07:23:15 UTC vila_restor
    uk

07:24:47 UTC Nitesh
    https://www.ebay.co.uk/sh/lst/active

07:25:05 UTC Nitesh
    Please select all the listing click on action and end

07:25:52 UTC vila_restor
    OK, so select everything except the UK, got it, and continue doing that for the next however many days.

07:26:15 UTC Nitesh
    You wish to end listing on US too?

07:26:35 UTC Nitesh
    I am sorry I meant on germany and other sites

07:26:52 UTC Nitesh
    if you wish I can ask them to get back to you to help you to end all listing in on

07:26:56 UTC Nitesh
    One go*

07:27:58 UTC vila_restor
    No, don't worry, I've ended all the garbage listings now. What a waste of my time, ebay for so-called business. May I make a prediction?

07:28:24 UTC vila_restor
    This will happen again and again, and I will have to do the same thing over and over.

07:28:29 UTC Nitesh
    Thank you once again for highlighting this to us and most importantly we appreciate your patience and understanding in the meantime.

07:28:50 UTC Nitesh
    You don't have to do itagain and again.

07:29:14 UTC Nitesh
    If you wish I can escalate it to higher authority for you.

07:29:33 UTC vila_restor
    Well, let's see what happens, shall we? And see if my prediction comes true.

07:30:31 UTC Nitesh
    I know how it feels and I am so sorry again

07:30:50 UTC Nitesh
    If anything was in my hand I would have not let your listing to get duplicated at first place.

07:31:00 UTC vila_restor
    Having spoken personally to the VP of ebay UK and been ignored this year, I hardly think that "escalating it to a higher authority" is likely to make a blind bit of difference.

07:31:31 UTC vila_restor
    Goodbye for now, another deeply dissatisfied ebay customer.

07:32:32 UTC Nitesh
    if you wish I can connect you right away with our manager

07:37:05 UTC
    Chat ended by vila_restor
__________________________________

I opted-out via a web link again that evening. Nothing happened, meanwhile over the next two days I busily deleted all of these listings as they appeared, to avoid my limits being met and proper listings then going un-renewed.

06-DEC-2022: Webinterpret is Still Working to Ruin my eBay Account, Stopping Real Listings From Being Renewed Within Selling Limits

On Monday 6th December 2021 this was still going on, so it's onto the ebay telephone line of lies to try to make it stop. You can click on the links below to hear this call in full:

06-DEC-2021 eBay Seller Support Telephone Call Concerning Webinterpret Translation Service Ruining my eBay Account

YouTube Video of eBay Seller Support Telephone Line of Lies: Webinterpret Translations Ruining My Acount No Permission 06-DEC-2021

Local Video Copy webinterpret_06122021.mp4

Call Summary:

1) eBay says "Webinterpret is nothing to do with us. You signed up to it." Lie.
2) eBay says "We can not stop it. You have to contact Webinterpret." Really? Another Lie.
3) eBay now deny any knowledge of the opt-out link. Lie.
4) I make my dis-satisfaction clear, and suggest that Murray Lambell might like to know about the issue.

In the end, maybe it was an email to "Webinterpret" seen below that stopped my account being flooded with useless listings, maybe not.

________________________

Henry Walmsley, Dec 6, 2021, 22:22 GMT+1:

Stop all webinterpret activity on ebay account vila_restor.

I explicitly refused this so-called service when it was proposed. I have done so again. Your system continues to Ruin my account. Stop it immediately. 0238178XXX

________________________
________________________

Access the ticket by clicking on the url below:

support.webinterpret.com/hc/requests/666477

You can add a comment by replying to this email.

Sales Team UK, Dec 7, 2021, 11:20 GMT+1:

Hello,

Thank you for submitting your request.

The department have been informed to do the following and your webinterpret services will be deactivated soon

Regards.

________________________

The activity did stop soon thereafter.

I should not have to contact a company that I have never had any dealings with to stop the sabotage of my ebay account. It is wholly unsatisfactory. This is the astonishing intransigence of a corporation (eBay) bent on self-destruction, unless they have something against me personally. If you think that's likely, I would redirect enthusiastic readers to the following page:

Ebay, and Invisible Sales Throttling, Caps, or Limits Related to UK VAT Thresholds

Post-Script

While we're on the subject, I am reminded that I went through a very similar procedure way back on 6th August 2019, when Webinterpret came along and messed up all my postage rate tables twice without any permission. I opted-out again way back then, and was assured that there would be no further webinterpret activity after emailing support@webinterpret.com. At this time I removed all third party permissions, with webinterpret being a specific one. Do I have the evidence to prove this? Yes. Here's the telephone call to the ebay seller support telephone line of lies:

06-AUG-2019: Webinterpret Mess Up My Postage Rate Tables Twice With No Permission To Have Any Access To My Account.

Call Summary:

In 2019 Carl assures me that I will never again have any interference from Webinterpret. That was a lie.

Also, I still have that email thread, though it's not clear who is the biggest liar between eBay Carl and Webinterpret Dan Yang:

__________________________________
Henry Walmsley, Aug 6, 13:28 CEST:

Dear Support at Webinterpret,

Twice in the last week I have had content internal to my ebay listings damaged, specifically, international postage rates. I have been informed that this may be due to webinterpret activities and that I can stop this by asking to be removed from webinterpret activities. I have further been informed that this will stop the terrible unwanted machine translation of my ebay listing titles on international sites, something which I requested some weeks ago. Here is the official request:

Please cease all webinterpret activities on all ebay listings belonging to me, those being under the ebay usernames as follows:

vila_restor,
jenna_stannis,
tel_varon
james_from_space

Sincerely,

Henry Walmsley.
__________________________________
__________________________________
Dan Yang, Aug 6, 21:49 CEST:
Hi Henry,

Thanks for reaching out, I hope you are doing well. My name is Dan, I am a support agent at Webinterpret, will be assisting you with the request.

Unfortunately I am unable to locate an account with us using any of the following identities:

vila_restor,
jenna_stannis,
tel_varon
james_from_space
Henry Walmsley
vila_nestor@hotmail.com

Is there an eBay store name that I can use so I could find you, or simply a listing url that we created for you?

Thanks for help, and look forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards,
Dan Yang
WebInterpret Support Team
________________________________
________________________________

Henry Walmsley, Aug 7, 00:30 CEST:

Hello Dan,

You wrote:
>Unfortunately I am unable to locate an account with us using any of the following identities:

vila_restor,
jenna_stannis,
tel_varon
james_from_space
Henry Walmsley
vila_nestor@hotmail.com>

Yes. I think that I may have been mislead by an inexperienced ebay seller "support" telephone person this morning. I certainly never signed-up for webinterpret, was surprised to hear it mentioned during the call, and did not believe what Carl on the telephone was telling me, or, at least, not *completely*. Here is one on my affected listings:

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111121574501

item number 111121574501

https://www.ebay.co.uk/usr/vila_restor?_trksid=p2047675.l2559

http://www.ebaystores.co.uk/Useful-Components/The-Trouble-With-iBay.html
------------------------------

Either Carl on ebay seller support is very wrong and blaming webinterpret for screwing-up my postage rate tables when it is yet another ebay site problem, or something strange related to webinterpret is happening which I don't want. If you have time, you can listen to the entire phone call at this link and share it at will:

Webinterpret Carl 06082019

Either ebay seller "support" need some severe educating, or webinterpret need to stop screwing with internal details of my listings. I'm *really* not sure which is the case. Perhaps you could advise?

Sincerely,

Henry Walmsley.
________________
________________

Dan Yang, Aug 7, 23:52 CEST:
Hi Henry,

Thanks for sharing the information.

We aren't able to do anything on your listings unless we have created account for you, with your permission, in our system. Right now there isn't any account here associated with your store. In fact, even with sellers who are using our services, we only copy their domestic ones and sync them across all international sites. We do not touch the listings the sellers created on other sites, like the listings you created on UK site.

Listings created by us under Postage tab it should be like this, specifying it's services from outside UK:

Hope this helps.

Kind regards,
Dan Yang
WebInterpret Support Team
______________________
______________________

Henry Walmsley, Aug 8, 10:15 CEST:

Thankyou, That's a clear answer.
_____________________

Confused? I wonder if I will experience any more Webinterpret shenanigans in the future? If a bet was available, I'd put money on it.

General email address checked daily including the spam folders: vila_nestor@hotmail.com

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Edit 28-MAY-2022: Google mobile friendliness analysis does not like long typed-out links, attempted to correct.