A 10-year-old British girl has been barred from trying to sell her granny on eBay, who she complained was “cuddly” but “annoying,” the auction Web site said last week.
Zoe Pemberton wrote a light-hearted listing to sell her 61-year-old grandmother Marion Goodall, of Clacton, southeastern England, but eBay said the advert breached human trafficking regulations.
“Obviously we have rules about the selling of people,” said an eBay spokeswoman. “We had to take it down but it was quite amusing.
“The little girl had described her grandmother as ‘annoying’ but had gone on to say she liked crosswords and was ‘cuddly’ and there were quite a few offers.”
The spokeswoman added: “The advert was obviously light-hearted and had been done with the full knowledge of grandma — we do get these kind of things from time to time.”
This is not the first time eBay has pulled items it deemed unsuitable for sale.
In 2007 it withdrew a listing from a mentally ill Illinois woman who put her four- and eight-year-old daughters up for rent, apparently so she could get a couple of days’ peace and quiet.
And in December last year, a struggling British musician seeking funds to kick start his recording career put his soul up for sale with a buy-it-now price of £700,000. In return for his soul, the budding musician offered potential buyers a share of future earnings and a 10 percent cut of his will.
eBay promptly poured cold water on the scheme and withdrew the ad, which violated its terms prohibiting the sale of intangible items. (AFP WITH STAFF WRITER)
eBay拍賣網上週表示,一名十歲的英國女孩想在eBay拍賣自己的阿嬤,結果遭到阻止。她抱怨說她阿嬤雖然「讓人很想抱抱她」,但也「很煩人」。
柔伊.潘伯頓寫了一段輕鬆俏皮的介紹,推銷她住在英格蘭東南部克拉克頓的六十一歲祖母瑪瑞安.古德歐,但eBay表示,這則廣告已違反人口販賣規定。
eBay的女發言人說:「我們有禁止販賣人口的規定。因此我們得把這個商品下架,不過這還蠻令人發噱的。」
「這名小女孩形容她祖母很『煩人』,還說她喜歡玩填字遊戲,『可愛到讓人想抱抱她』,結果還真的有不少人出價競標。」
這位女發言人說:「這則廣告寫得很俏皮,還詳細介紹了她奶奶──我們不時就會碰到這類狀況。」
這已不是eBay第一次將他們認為不合適的商品下架了。
二OO七年,eBay就撤下伊利諾州一名精神女病患所登的廣告,她上網出租她四歲和八歲的女兒,想安靜個幾天。
去年十二月,一位貧苦的英國音樂家為了籌募錄音經費,上網以直購價七十萬英鎊販賣他的靈魂。為了換回自己的靈魂,這名正要嶄露頭角的音樂家承諾,準買家可得到他未來收入的分紅,以及他一成的遺產。
結果eBay迅速地阻止了他的計畫,並撤下這則違反該網站禁止刊售無形物品規定的廣告。(法新社╱翻譯:袁星塵)
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