Product

• Trading API

In my AddItem or ReviseItem request, I don't have improper words in my description and there is no problem with my seller account, but I am still getting the following error:

<Errors>
  <ShortMessage>The item cannot be listed or modified.</ShortMessage>
  <LongMessage>The item cannot be listed or modified. The title and/or description may contain improper words, or the listing or seller may be in violation of eBay policy.</LongMessage>
  <ErrorCode>240</ErrorCode>
  <SeverityCode>Error</SeverityCode>
  <ErrorClassification>RequestError</ErrorClassification>
</Errors>

Why am I getting this error?
 

Summary

There are several reasons why you may not be able to list an Item for aseller and most of the times the API surfaces Error Code 240 - "The itemcannot be listed or modified" .  Most of the times, the response also returns the Message tag, which can contain very detailed information about the actual problem and how it can be resolved.  

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Detailed Description

There are several resons why AddItem may return an error even though everything is apparently correct with the call and account.  Here are a few examples:

• The account may have been compromised and eBay may have reset the password
• There may be an invalid phone number on file for a PowerSeller
• eBay may have prohibited the seller from listing items and they may need to contact eBay's SafeHarbor Department

These are returned in the Message tag and you can render it as HTML sothat your users can take appropriate action.

Here is an example of an AddItem response with the Message tag:
<?xml version="1.0"encoding="utf-8"?>
<AddItemResponse xmlns="urn:ebay:apis:eBLBaseComponents">
 <Timestamp>2006-09-20T17:43:26.248Z</Timestamp>
 <Ack>Failure</Ack>
  <Errors>
    <ShortMessage>Theitem cannot be listed or modified.</ShortMessage>
    <LongMessage>Theitem cannot be listed or modified. The title and/or description may containimproper words, or the listing or seller may be in violation of eBay policy.</LongMessage>
    <ErrorCode>240</ErrorCode>
    <SeverityCode>Error</SeverityCode> 
    <ErrorClassification>RequestError</ErrorClassification>
  </Errors>
 <Message><div> eBay has detected that a third party may have accessed your account. In an effort to protect your account, we have put a temporary block on bidding, selling, and the ability to send email messages to other eBay members until you create a new password through the Forgot My Password process. <a href="http://cgi4.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ForgotYourPasswordShow"target="_blank">Click here</a> to change your password.</div><font color="#BEBEBE"size="1">{e11613-156283x}</font>
  </Message>
 <Version>475</Version>
 <Build>e475_intl_Bundled_3535172_R1</Build>
</AddItemResponse>

 When you render the contents of the Message tag as HTML this is how it appears:

eBay has detected that a third party may have accessed your account. In an effort to protect your account, we have put a temporary block on bidding, selling, and the ability to send email messages to other eBay members until you create a new password through the Forgot My Password process. Click here to change your password. {e11613-156283x}

As a best practice, capture all the Messages, and render only the distinct messages to your user for further action. Otherwise in the above example, if the seller tries to list multiple items, you will render the same message multiple times.

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Additional Resources

• KnowledgeBase Article:  Error Code 240 when listing Items on the German site
• Knowledge Base Article: What does Improper Words error mean?