Shopping Discussion

Ebay not letting you buy/sell an Android Box...

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  • Apr 12th, 2020 1:10 am
Deal Fanatic
Jun 11, 2005
8633 posts
2399 upvotes
Mississauga
bylo wrote: Consuming some pirated material: Yes.
Consuming only pirated material: No.
Slowly coming around. Jump right in. Percentage of pirated material and percentage of non pirated material?
Jr. Member
Jul 6, 2017
150 posts
95 upvotes
Here's a possibly related old RFD thread: you-cant-sell-xiaomi-phones-canada-what-2297437/

Looks like a Xiaomi ban rather than an Android box ban. Aimed at phones but the mi box got caught in the word filter crossfire.

I guess all this discussion about the ethics of Android boxes is off-topic now.
Deal Addict
Jul 13, 2007
1263 posts
803 upvotes
Toronto
DareTo wrote: Here's a possibly related old RFD thread: you-cant-sell-xiaomi-phones-canada-what-2297437/

Looks like a Xiaomi ban rather than an Android box ban. Aimed at phones but the mi box got caught in the word filter crossfire.

I guess all this discussion about the ethics of Android boxes is off-topic now.
From the above link:
We removed your listing(s) at the request of a Government body. Xiaomi products are not certified for sale in Canada per information we have received from the Canadian government.
Verrrrrrry interesting.

And looks like Newegg pretty much did a product recall and refund on them here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Xiaomi/comment ... ance_with/

I wonder why Xiaomi got singled out, or was anyone else too? Is there a good reason we shouldn't be using their products anymore? Does it spy on us anymore than US-designed devices?
Deal Expert
Jan 7, 2002
29710 posts
29130 upvotes
Waterloo, ON
DareTo wrote: Looks like a Xiaomi ban rather than an Android box ban. Aimed at phones but the mi box got caught in the word filter crossfire.
HammerRFDer wrote: I wonder why Xiaomi got singled out
I wonder if your listing would be allowed if you removed all references to "Xiaomi" and just used "Mi Box" to describe the media player. Or even misspell Xiaomi. That seems to be how other Xiaomi products are listed on eBay. I would imagine that anyone who was looking for a Mi Box specifically would recognize from your photos and other description that this was made by Xiaomi.

Is there a good reason we shouldn't be using their products anymore? Does it spy on us anymore than US-designed devices?
Both the FCC in the US and Industry Canada here require all devices that emit RF to be certified for use in their country. (See Compliance information - Certification and Engineering Bureau.) This is nothing new. All sorts of devices, including the no-name Android media players, enter the country and get sold even without such certification. So it's puzzling indeed why Xiaomi has been singled out. I'd have thought that if any Chinese company got such attention from Ottawa it would be Huawei.

It's also interesting to note that all along the Mi Box has been sold by WalMart in the US but not in Canada. I'd always assumed that since Xiaomi sells this box in the US but not in Canada this might be some sort of product support issue.
veni, vidi, Visa
Deal Addict
Jul 13, 2007
1263 posts
803 upvotes
Toronto
bylo wrote: I wonder if your listing would be allowed if you removed all references to "Xiaomi" and just used "Mi Box" to describe the media player.
Yep, that's what I had to do. Took me a while because I thought terms like "Android TV" were the problem. Didn't imagine it being the brand name.
bylo wrote: So it's puzzling indeed why Xiaomi has been singled out. I'd have thought that if any Chinese company got such attention from Ottawa it would be Huawei.
The conspiracy theorist in me thinks Huawei has more pull as the Big3 are still selling their end-user equipment and run/ran a lot of Huawei backhaul systems. Government couldn't possibly fault providers from going with Chinese gear to save a buck (even at our prices), but government bent over backwards to blame people for doing the same with Xiaomi. Is it spying on us or not?

If Xiaomi devices problematically interfered with big3 networks, they wouldn't accept the roaming revenue that comes from tourists/locals using them. If they do, then it must be fine. Easy for them to know which device is trying to connect via IMEIs.
bylo wrote: It's also interesting to note that all along the Mi Box has been sold by WalMart in the US but not in Canada.
If it's safe enough for an American, it should be safe enough for us.

Anywho, my investigation is only beginning.
Sr. Member
Aug 7, 2017
518 posts
795 upvotes
Bump on this old post just to say this is still a thing - I have a Mi Box that I don't use anymore, bought from Canada Computers a year or so ago. Used on my dumb TV, never used for anything dodgy - I didn't even know that was a thing. I was pretty surprised to find when I went to offload it on eBay that I'm in possession of some kind of illegal device they won't let me sell - bizarre. Thanks for raising this @HammerRFDer.

Wonder if I can go back to Canada Computers and get my money back if they sold me something illegal?
Deal Addict
Jul 13, 2007
1263 posts
803 upvotes
Toronto
bya1998 wrote: Bump on this old post just to say this is still a thing - I have a Mi Box that I don't use anymore, bought from Canada Computers a year or so ago. Used on my dumb TV, never used for anything dodgy - I didn't even know that was a thing. I was pretty surprised to find when I went to offload it on eBay that I'm in possession of some kind of illegal device they won't let me sell - bizarre. Thanks for raising this @HammerRFDer.

Wonder if I can go back to Canada Computers and get my money back if they sold me something illegal?
Just take "Xiaomi" out of your title/listing and you should be able to list it. It might sell fast now since more people are stuck at home, and international packages are taking a while to arrive.

I suspect Ebay was just told not to sell some LTE devices and went overboard on banning everything. But I'm still waiting to hear back from the government.

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