'It's not you, it's me. No, wait, it IS you'. How to jettison a 'follower'?

Is there a polite manner in which to remove a 'follower'?

 

In the olden days, if you added a member to your 'best buddies' list, it would also eject them from your emails if they had chosen to sign-up for newsletters.

 

And while I am on the subject of newsletter emails, do you as sellers still send them? 

 

If there are any buyers in the room, do you read the emails from sellers? Or do you rely on the 'feed' to entertain your curiosity about a seller's new listings etc.

 

I think I sent my last newsletter when Collections was launched. I didn't have many subscribers and very few bothered to open the emails if ebay's metrics on that could be relied upon.

 

But getting back to my original question, what does one do when the followed would rather not be....? Or is it wiser for the seller to look the other way and keep walking? Maybe pick up the pace a bit.

 

 

 

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'It's not you, it's me. No, wait, it IS you'. How to jettison a 'follower'?

go into the email marketing, there is a manage subscriber list and a link to add someone to your blocked buyer list. Not sure if adding them directly to blocked bidder list will do the same, but it makes sense that it might, so maybe it won't!
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'It's not you, it's me. No, wait, it IS you'. How to jettison a 'follower'?

The member in question has me confused with someone else for whom he/she seems to hold some sort of serious grudge. Given the intensity of bad feelings he seems to harbour for whomever it is that he thinks I am, I don't know what reason he has to 'follow' me.

 

I'll try what you suggest. Thank you.

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'It's not you, it's me. No, wait, it IS you'. How to jettison a 'follower'?

For the purposes of posterity, I found what I hoped not to see at http://pages.ebay.com/sellerinformation/build-your-business-online/grow-your-sales/followingonebay/I...

 

It's about halfway down the page under Frequently Asked Questions.

 

 

Can I block people from following me?

You are not able to block people from following you.

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'It's not you, it's me. No, wait, it IS you'. How to jettison a 'follower'?

Can I block people from following me?

You are not able to block people from following you.

 

 

 

Does it really matter?  Following you doesn't give them access to any personal information does it?

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'It's not you, it's me. No, wait, it IS you'. How to jettison a 'follower'?

No, none at all. In fact, I am under the impression the more followers that a seller has, the more ebay probably considers that seller to be interesting to buyers and therefore it would, I am assuming, assist that followed seller and their listings achieve a better ranking in search results. But that is pure speculation on my part only.

 

There is additional information that puts into context the reason I'd like to eject this particular member that I don't think it would be appropriate to share in public but the act of 'following' me on ebay isn't intended to be a complimentary action on this member's part. Of that, I can assure you. Consider the word 'follow' in all its subtlety.... 

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'It's not you, it's me. No, wait, it IS you'. How to jettison a 'follower'?

I just added 5 followers to the Blocked Bidder List and all 5 were removed from my Subscriber List. I waited an hour and removed them from the Blocked List and they were not added back to the Subscriber List..... I'm just saying....
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'It's not you, it's me. No, wait, it IS you'. How to jettison a 'follower'?

Hi 'mj'    I think there may be some confusion here in the responses, because if I understand your problem correctly, you aren't referring to the email subscriber list (which has been around for many years), but to the somewhat newfangled "Followers" list.  Is that correct? 

 

If it's the email subscriber list, then there is a "BLOCK" button down at the bottom left of your list.  Check the person's ID you want to block and then click on that button.  Also, using the Blocked Bidder List to block an ID should block that person on the email subscriber list, as was noted by another poster.  

 

However, if it's the Follower list (the one that comes up on the new "Profile" page and is connected with Collections, etc.), which it seems you're referring to, then I don't think there's anything you can do about it directly.  Those IDs are populated through a completely different mechanism.  

 

This is pure conjecture, but I'm gleaning from what you've said that this is somebody who has been pestering you through other channels, was blocked or removed, and has now found a new place from which to stalk you.  

If that's the case, and I were in this situation, I think I'd call eBay and insist that that user be removed from my Followers list and not be allowed to "Follow" you again, on the basis that this person's previous behaviour toward you has been inappropriate and threatening (or even illegal, if that's the case).  If this is a serious enough concern for you, tell them your next step is to contact the RCMP for suspected cyber crime (i.e. online bullying).  That might get their attention.  Nobody wants this sort of thing on eBay, including eBay itself.  

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'It's not you, it's me. No, wait, it IS you'. How to jettison a 'follower'?


@rose-dee wrote:

 

.... this is somebody who has been pestering you through other channels, was blocked or removed, and has now found a new place from which to stalk you.  

If that's the case, and I were in this situation, I think I'd call eBay and insist that that user be removed from my Followers list and not be allowed to "Follow" you again, on the basis that this person's previous behaviour toward you has been inappropriate and threatening (or even illegal, if that's the case).  If this is a serious enough concern for you, tell them your next step is to contact the RCMP for suspected cyber crime (i.e. online bullying).  That might get their attention.  Nobody wants this sort of thing on eBay, including eBay itself.  



Yes, the follower list is where the problem exists (that should be vague enough to not inadvertently identify the member) but it's not a case where someone is literally peeking into my windows. That isn't happening. 

 

The problem is that this person seems to believe I am someone else (mistaken identity) and I truly have no association with whatever issue he/she has with the person who he/she might think I am. I told him/her that from the onset but it hasn't seemed to dissuade him from making contact to which I stopped replying long ago. It would be unethical for me to say more about it other than that you must trust there is good reason for me to be concerned by the messages I'm getting from this person. 

 

This has been an ongoing problem for the past calendar year, and reported to ebay on multiple occasions. It is also the same person who is the source of my 'blocked member but still able to contact me' problem so I called ebay about it yesterday. The call went to a lovely gentleman in the Philippines who assured me that 'it would be thoroughly investigated' et cetera. I have found the Customer Service Reps in the Philippines to be very, very polite and extremely earnest in their intentions to help but generally unable to do so. I'm not sure as to the reason for that. Maybe they have a different reporting structure, I don't know. Just a wild guess there.

 

We shall see what if anything arises from the 30 minutes I spent on the phone in an attempt to get answers and/or a structured plan as to how to move forward from here but, I can assure you, if the problem with this member persists, I won't be talking to ebay about it but taking the matter to the local authorities.

 

 

 

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'It's not you, it's me. No, wait, it IS you'. How to jettison a 'follower'?

Please don't conclude that the member with which I am having difficulty is the most recent 'follower' on my profile. I really don't want anyone who might stumble upon this post at some point in the future to make assumptions about anyone in particular on that list. (Especially given that it appears to be a case of mistaken identity that has unleashed this 'problem person' on me.) 

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