Gumtree.co.uk help?

[alex.k]

Ok so when gumtree.co.uk started it was advertised as a free classified website, I was able to post all me vehicles for sale for free. Now its gained some momentum and all of a sudden it has decided that vehicle sales are a profitable source.

Its now made it so your only allowed to post 2 vehicles per year!! there are ways around it like putting your contact details in the pictures provided but they have gotten smart and manged to filter that out, an all my adds are being removed...

Does anyone know a way around this? As it is a good source of selling and what was supposed to be a free website has now changed? Any help?

 

[Deleted member 226268]

Ok so when gumtree.co.uk started it was advertised as a free classified website, I was able to post all me vehicles for sale for free. Now its gained some momentum and all of a sudden it has decided that vehicle sales are a profitable source.

Its now made it so your only allowed to post 2 vehicles per year!! there are ways around it like putting your contact details in the pictures provided but they have gotten smart and manged to filter that out, an all my adds are being removed...

Does anyone know a way around this? As it is a good source of selling and what was supposed to be a free website has now changed? Any help?

Because Gumtree is now owned by those thieving Bar stewards
called Ebay !
Expect to get screwed sometimes with increasing advertising costs
and petty little rules and regulations.

 

[VirtualVIP]

Its 2 posts per email address as far as I am aware. If you own your domain, you could create different variations- [email protected], [email protected] etc...

May seem tedious, but if it is really bringing you a lot of business- then this may be worth the effort?

 

[DazRave]

Gumtree was bought back in 2005 by eBay though? so they did allow free usage for a very long time before bringing in these costs.

Plus, 2 free listings a year is absolutely fine for a private seller. You're running a business and earning a profit from their free service, you can't complain if they are trying to get at least a few people to pay up for excessive use really.

It annoys me when people presume because it's an online service that can be mostly automated, then they have the right to use that service for free, all the time.

 

[Eunan]

Hi, We run an online furniture business in Belfast and have been listing some items on Gumtree and also paying to bump them and also feature them sometimes. But gumtree keeps removing the posts and telling us to place the adverts in the services section or something like this.
However there are other advertisers in my area selling the same type of products on gumtree and getting to list many many items. Gumtree even allows you to click a "other items from this advertiser" link and see where people have multiple adverts.
gumtree com /sellerads/ 1061648630

On Sunday I posted an advert for a mattress and in 1 post listed all the size and price combs and i use a diff PC and done it from home with diff tel number thinking this is totally clean and not linked to my previous adds and a nice test to see how it works. The add was taken down instantly and i had paid for "featured post" too!!
Any insights would be greatly appreciated.
Eunan @ Love Furniture co uk

 

[Eunan]

Sent a message to gumtree support and this was there response on email:
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I have looked into this for you and can see your Ad was removed as we felt it was posted in the wrong category.
We want you to have the best chance of having success on our site and in addition we want our 'searchers' to have a really good experience when looking in certain categories. Scrolling past irrelevant Ads creates a slow and frustrating experience for searchers who are trying to find what they have made effort to specifically search for.
We would suggest that you would get a better response if your Ad was posted in the services category.
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And on twitter they responded too!
@eunaneunan Hi do you have an ad reference number so we can check this out for you?
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I am going to reply now and see what comes out of this.

 

[Eunan]

Here is my response:
Hi Deonne
Thanks for the reply. If you take a look at the question you will see I am aware that gumtree would prefer that i post in services section, but i am confused was this competitor of mine is ok to advertise the way i would like to
link to the gumtree competitor here
So really my question is why this is acceptable and my adds are not acceptable, given we are both advertising mostly new furniture in our local area? Do you know what i mean?
We have been paying for bumps and featured ads but they are still removed and i am confused. Regards Eunan

 

[DazRave]

@Eunan They have replied with a pretty reasonable explanation of what had happened and I'm inclined to agree with them. If I'm looking to buy a kettle and the top of the search results is littered with featured ads trying to sell me a matress (for example), and I had to scroll down before I even found the first kettle to look at, it would certainly deter me from using the service at all.

No Buyers, then you can't sell anything can you!

 

[DazRave]

p.s. are your competitors using bumps and featured ads? I imagine they are simply 'slipping under the radar' and the fact you are paying for features actually get's your ads vetted more and therefore any incorrect listings get removed.

 

[Eunan]

Hi there, thanks for looking!
If you look at say mattresses in belfast, you will see there is 51 posts, they are all posts about mattresses and that is great and I think you are right, that gives a good user experience, however I would like to be listed there just like my competitor.
He has about 20 listing all over gumtree, i would say 5 or 6 in mattress section and few others scattered over bed section and living room etc. But when i replicate, my posts are removed and his get to stay. I would really like to know why

 

[Eunan]

Humm, Yea. I was paying for bumps and featured adds. But so was he so i am guessing thats ok.

 

[DazRave]

Humm, Yea. I was paying for bumps and featured adds. But so was he so i am guessing thats ok.

Who's to say your competitor isn't having the same thing happening to them? They might just be brute forcing there way onto gumtree by re-adding all the time, to keep them there.

I think the point i'm getting at here is, Gumtree isn't out to get you, there must simply be something your competitor is doing that you clearly are not. You are focusing on the wrong thing as being the issue.


also.
You never said what category you actually added your product/service too, that triggered Gumtree to remove it and suggest another category?