eBay

momcqueen · ‎10-23-2016

The following is a query directed towards those sellers who have employed Buyer Blocks on their listings.

I have the usual ones set up. (Exhibit A)

There is, however, a whole slew. (Exhibit B) Do they actually function? In my four years of selling here, I have seen one (1) blocked buyer due to country location, one (1) due to too many items purchased, and countless due to Unpaid Item Strikes.

Considering buyers with Unpaid Item Strikes are completely irrelevant to sellers whose items are set to Immediate Payment Required, what purpose does it serve? I would even be willing to go so far as to revise a listing to make a listing IPR if it meant a buyer with too many strikes really wanted to purchase it. (Exhibit C) But we aren't allowed to see who that buyer is so it's not like I can tell them that.

The buyers I want to see blocked in the log are the ones that I've personally blocked making repeat attempts to buy from me, as well as the ones who are blocked for Reports of policy violations. I'm skeptical the latter is a legitimate block, to be honest. Has anyone ever seen it put into action in their own log?

Exhibit A:

Exhibit B:

Exhibit C:

Do you as sellers use these blocks? What results do you see from them?

pjcdn2005 · ‎10-24-2016

I don't think that it works the way. On .com eBay puts ipr on some listings but buyers can still use the cart and then request a total. I know that the request total is sometimes greyed out but as far as I know that isn't related to ipr.

i.am.vivian · ‎10-24-2016

@pjcdn2005 wrote:
I don't think that it works the way. On .com eBay puts ipr on some listings but buyers can still use the cart and then request a total. I know that the request total is sometimes greyed out but as far as I know that isn't related to ipr.

I understand you don't want to take my word for it and I can't just MAKE you believe me so try an experiment with your own listings. Put about 4 on IPR. (Do this when it is LEAST likely a real buyer will be around). Make sure they are set up finally that way and test it by logging out. Then on another different ID or your husband's ID, put the 4 IPR items in the cart and try "Request Total".

pjcdn2005 · ‎10-25-2016

You're right, I didn't realize that it worked like that. I guess if a person wants to use ipr and have combined shipping it would be best to set up combined shipping rules so that the cart automatically gives the buyer a combined rate. That's easier said than done though unless all items are about the same size/weight.

momcqueen · ‎10-25-2016

I'm pretty sure I've got mine set up to run at peak capacity. When the cart was working for me, it correctly calculated the postage for every weird combo that I threw at it. But I do still like that Request Total button. It tells me the buyer is finished shopping. Otherwise, I might send them an invoice while they're still searching and that's a real turnoff. I haven't played with the cart lately. Not since it was handing out free postage where none existed.

rose-dee · ‎10-25-2016

@pjcdn2005 wrote:
One note of caution though: If I recall correctly, IPR obviates the use of the cart. In other words, it discourages browser-shopping. I dumped it from my listings for that reason, but as I said, my buyers are generally good.

I don't use ipr But I don't see how it obviates the use of the cart. If anything, it encourages people who don't want to pay right away to use the cart and to keep browsing.

A seller that requires PP will also prevent purchases from buyers who don't have their eBay and PP accounts
inked. I haven't ever required it and haven't had any problems because of that. I've never understand why people do use that block.

That will depend on where the item is listed and where your buyer is purchasing from. If you recall, back in about 2013 eBay made IPR automatic on eBay.com on all items under $1,000 (if I remember the figure correctly).

So those of us who list on .com are stuck with IPR (or at least some automated version of it) whether we like it or not. But I don't remember seeing that ever being applied on .ca, which is where I believe 'mjwl' lists exclusively. What some of my (U.S.) buyers have reported on .com is that after putting items in the cart they are unable to use 'Request Total' (as 'iamvivian' mentioned above), even though I don't use IPR as a selected option on any of my listings.

This is why I say that IPR can obviate the cart, i.e. potentially leading to cart abandonment if a buyer can't get a total quickly and easily. I expect that if a seller listing exclusively on .ca were to use IPR on all listings, the same result might occur.

To be blunt, in comparison to other sites I use, I find the programming behind the whole checkout system on eBay to be a convoluted, over-complicated mess that is at times confusing and frustrating for buyers. Actually I think I'd like to ask Raphael tomorrow for an update on the entire cart/checkout interaction.

ricarmic · ‎10-25-2016

Hmmm this IPR thing confuses me a bit.

I only list on .COM

I do have buyers who seem to be stuck with IPR (usually it seems to be Canadian buyers, but that might just be because they're the ones most likely to ask me to adjust the invoice).

I for certain have regular buyers from Australia and China for example that accumulate stuff over a period of time (as in days/weeks) and pay when they've assembled a shipping economically sized batch of items. So for sure some people are not stuck with IPR, or they've found some way around it.

rose-dee · ‎10-25-2016

@pjcdn2005 wrote:
You're right, I didn't realize that it worked like that. I guess if a person wants to use ipr and have combined shipping it would be best to set up combined shipping rules so that the cart automatically gives the buyer a combined rate. That's easier said than done though unless all items are about the same size/weight.

And that, in a nutshell, is precisely the problem my buyers (and I, as a buyer) have been having, and which I've been bringing to Raphael's attention for the last few weeks. So far he's had no further word on it, but I'll check again tomorrow.

Something -- I'm not sure exactly what -- happened in the past few months that caused "Request Total" to be unavailable even when items were chosen individually using "Commit to Buy". An error message appears rather than the expected request screen. That was never the case previously.

Whether this is a new development associated with automated IPR on .com, or just a weird glitch, I have no idea. Which is why I want to bring it up again with Raphael. And why, if I were listing exclusively on .ca, I'd probably think twice about requiring IPR on all my listings, at least until there is a good explanation from eBay about how IPR and the checkout now interact.

rose-dee · ‎10-25-2016

@ricarmic wrote:
Hmmm this IPR thing confuses me a bit.

LOL -- I think it confuses a lot of us, and can you imagine how confused our buyers must get if we can't completely figure out how it's working!

Actually, I probably shouldn't have said "obviates" up there, but rather "nullifies" the usefulness of the cart. What's the point of having a cart system, presumably for buyers' convenience in being able to browse and collect their purchases, if they find they can't easily get a total for the lot?

I think most eBay buyers understand that combined shipping will often be less expensive. They should -- in all cases -- be able to get an adjusted total without having to go away from the checkout screen to send a message to the seller through the email system. I have to wonder how many of my customers have just given up without contacting me.

I do have some automated discount rules set up (I list almost exclusively on .com), but it's virtually impossible to account automatically for every possible combination of weights, sizes and destinations. In those cases I was relying upon "Request Total". Apparently that is no longer so reliable.

Now my BP is rising about the cart (again), my longtime eBay bugbear. I will definitely bring this whole issue up tomorrow. Stay tuned.

pjcdn2005 · ‎10-25-2016

The ipr that eBay puts automatically on some listings does not work in the same way as when a seller pecifies ior. When I was playing with it yesterday a seller added ipr did gray out the request total on both .com and .ca carts. When I took it off , the request total shows up on both sites even though there was no commit to buy option on .com on those listings

momcqueen · ‎10-25-2016

Very interesting.

rose-dee · ‎10-26-2016

@pjcdn2005 wrote:
The ipr that eBay puts automatically on some listings does not work in the same way as when a seller pecifies ior. When I was playing with it yesterday a seller added ipr did gray out the request total on both .com and .ca carts. When I took it off , the request total shows up on both sites even though there was no commit to buy option on .com on those listings

That's really odd, because last month I purchased a few items from a seller who lists exclusively on .com and from whom I've purchased a number of times, and was completely unable to access "Request Total". In fact, the screen I got when I clicked on the "Request Total" button said "This seller does not provide shipping discounts", which I also knew to be untrue.

I know that this seller doesn't stipulate IPR, because she's always been happy to wait a couple of days for payment if necessary. So was it the background, automated IPR that was causing "Request Total" to be inaccessible in my case? I really don't know.

This is what I've been reporting to Raphael for the past few weeks, and apparently the "bug" he says eBay is working on. Judging by what he said at today's session, he seems to think that IPR on .com and the cart are unconnected, which -- like you -- I don't think is the case. Either there is a "bug" in the one instance, and a deliberate change in the other, or they're both "bugs", but they are both happening, that much I'm certain of.

Let's hope we get better answers soon from R. because this (as he himself said) is a serious discouragement to buyers and potentially another reason for cart abandonment.

momcqueen · ‎11-13-2016

Clearly, other ebay sellers do not care about Unpaid Item Strikes as a block. Since mine stopped this buyer from purchasing my item less than a month ago, he or she continued to shop on ebay without problem, going from a feedback count of 60 to 66. I'm seeing greater use for IPR while dumping this block. Who made me the morality police when other sellers continue to profit from doing business with this person? My blocks don't stop buyers from creating unpaid item cases for me at all. I have another one about to head there right now.

i.am.vivian · ‎11-13-2016

A lot of newer sellers not only don't know they can block all bidders with too many UI strikes, they don't even know how to file one themselves in the first place. There is always so much to know and learn on eBay. We don't get to see who the blocked users are but just because they keep buying it could mean they are only getting things from China where hardly anybody blocks. Those people will NEVER turn away a possible sale. They know enough not to take a UI personally. Its just business. Sometimes a blocked user will send you a message and say "the system doesn't let me buy", like 2 minutes after you see the block, and then you can look and see that all they've been left with are the Chinese scammers so at least they deserve each other.

momcqueen · ‎11-19-2016

This buyer now sits at 71 which is eleven more transactions for which feedback was left for them in a month. It seems clear to me that Unpaid item block does next to nothing to halt their purchasing power. Why does ebay have it? Why am I bothering to use it if other sellers don't care? That's just a lost sale. I'm more interested in screening for buyers who've been Reported than for ones who spend more than they can afford. Yet I've never seen a Reported buyer logged here.