I have a listing for a 6 way Retevis battery charger on Ebay in the UK - The Canadian Government have demanded ebay remove it because they do not allow surveillance equipment to be sold. Ebay complied and removed the charger listing. They will not resist it! They tell me that If I relist it and exclude North America as a sales destination (it was set to UK only, of course) then it will be acceptable. Is Canada paranoid about security and surveillance that they actually monitor ebay for products that scare them? That is quite worrying. So no illegal radios of any kind allowed in Canada? Strange world!
1 Like
How is a battery charger used as a surveillance device?
Ebay agree, but a takedown request by the Canadian Government must be acted upon.
This is the wording.
Hello earsmedia,
We had to remove your listing because it didnât follow our Electronic equipment policy. Most electronic equipment used to transmit or receive signals or for surveillance are not allowed.
What activity didnât follow the policy
We removed your listing(s) at the request of a Government body. eBay members must follow local and international laws and regulations, as well as eBay policies. You may relist if you exclude shipping to Canada.
What you need to do next
You canât relist items weâve ended. Please ensure your current and future listings follow this policy.
What is the policy
The following types of electronic equipment are not allowed:
- Electronic items prohibited by government agencies, including cell phone, GPS radar, and other signal jamming devices. See the FCCâs jammer enforcement for more
- Traffic light control devices
- CB amplifiers and radio equipment that operates in both CB and HAM frequencies
- Odometer modification devices
- Equipment such as low power transmitting devices, high frequency transceivers, cordless telephones and radar detectors not authorised by the FCC
- Appliances for sale in California that do not meet applicable efficiency standards
- Surveillance items that are intended to photograph, or record the conversations or activities of others without their knowledge
Cameras, recorders, or other similar devices can be listed as long as the description doesnât encourage their use for illegal purposes.
Sounds more like a blanket ban without taking the time to investigate the listing at all. Considering the FCC (U.S. agency) is listed and the state of California is mentioned, I doubt it has anything to do with Canada. eBay is just being lazy and not checking into the listing at all.
Repost it, someone on the government ebay watch team must have been having a bad day or clicked the wrong button.
Every leader in every country is an absolute joke right now. If I had to choose one person from all of the Presidents/Leaders of the world to babysit my kids for a night, I would be terrified of any choice. Biden would probably sniff their hair and get hard, Justin would wrap them in bubble wrap to âkeep them safeâ, Kim would burn their bibles, Xi would have them sewing clothes/donating kidneys and Putin would be training them to be spies and showing them where âthe realâ borders of Russia are on a map.
If a government is paying someone to squash walkie talkie charger ads, the taxpayers making it all possible need to reel them in a bit.
It does seem strange that Iâve had to prevent Canada citizens having access to products, when they could clearly import them direct, breaking no laws? Just plain weird!
Weird cause as a canadian, I buy all that kind of equipment from amazon⌠no issues!
Paulears, Did your EBay ad clearly state sales to UK ONLY? I would post the ad again stating that, and in all CAPSâď¸
I have bought and sold a lot on EBay. Their service CAN be a problem to deal with.
PayPal is even worse! I just recently paid off a PayPal Credit balance of a few hundred dollars, (always interest free). The following day they charged me $2 in interest on a zero balance. Needless to say, my phone call cleared that up.
Sorry for the rambling. It sounds like EBay was just having a bad day. Re-post, and keep us updated 
Itâs resisted, and now excludes countries outside of the UK - which is a bit daft, but postage on a heavy 6 way charger means itâs too expensive overseas anyway? Ebay are quite OK - but insist itâs not them, but the Canadian Government - so I guess maybe an autobot of some kind that has no brains but lots of power and no humans involved.
Just very strange. Paul
1 Like
paulears, a battery charger is hardly a security camera, a security radio, whatever that isđ
The Canadian dude that made that determination, maybe had a little too much to drink.
Hoping you can see it and make some moneyđ
Good luck!
1 Like
One time I put a PIR sensor and tone generator in a baofeng base that was tied into the battery contacts in the charger cradle, then I had a short mic wire running out of that so it could be plugged into the radio. When the PIR would trigger, the radio (set to vox) would transmit a tone to another radio that had the option for DTMF decoding and relay controls. I never ended up using the signal to control anything, but it was cool.
Maybe they figured you stuffed something in the charger base?