Blocked Bidder List a Farce

[oldspike1927]

I blocked a bidder last Spring after a nightmare transaction in which they filed an item not received well before the time that it can take for a parcel to reach the U.S. from Canada. I had no choice but to refund the money within the allotted 4 days specified when the case was opened. I'm sure that they probably received the item (sent airmail-no tracking number), I did send them a scan of my postal receipt that the item was received at the post office. I added them to the Blocked Bidder List and last night they bid on another of my items with a new user id-same name/address on the invoice as the previous transaction last Spring. I reported to Ebay and after speaking at length with several people in different departments that there was nothing they could do about it.   

[edubb101]

Is the auction still in progress? And are they the only bidder? If so you could cancel the auction block the bidder and relist.

If they purchased through buy it now you could also cancel the transition and use "problem with address" as the reason.  Block and relist.

Or it could be possible that the original item did arrive all be it late and the user is coming back to you to give you more business in lieu of the inr claim?

These are just my suggestions but it would be interesting to see what ebays formal answer is to this kind of scenario.  Perhaps a question can be posed on the weekly chat.

[oldspike1927]

Thank you for taking the time to reply. The auction for the item ended last night and it was only when I saw the name and address on the invoice that I knew it was the same buyer that I had blocked because of past issues with a previous transaction. I could not cancel their bid while the auction was running because they used a different user name (same name/address as the previous transaction). I was told by Ebay that I would have to complete the transaction, I felt that they should cancel as it appeared to me that the member was in violation since I had blocked them.

[momcqueen · Accepted solution]

My advice to you:

If ebay is insisting that you complete this transaction with them regardless of the fact they were, in fact, blocked.... Send an invoice with only Tracked Packet and Xpresspost USA cited as the postage choices. This will prevent another Item Not Received case from being opened. 

There's not much you can do to circumvent a Not as Described case except to stick to the 'return for a refund' script if one should arise.

And definitely bring up this issue at the Weekly Chat with Tyler.

As sellers, we've always been told what this buyer is doing is against the rules. If the Customer Service reps are unaware of the actual rules, they need to be re-educated, pronto. 

If the buyer has already paid, I'd suggest you give serious consideration to the Problem with Address reason for Cancellation. That's not even a stretch, in my opinion, as the problem with the address is that it matches exactly the address of a previously blocked bidder and is therefore a violation of our seller protection here. 

Retailers do that. I had it happen to me with a major American online retailer because the parcel forwarding service I use was also used in the past by someone who I can only assume tried to scam them or did something else that caused the location to be red-flagged. The retailer saw my address and cancelled my order, no quarter given. I could not place an order if that address was the one for me, period. I had to receive it at my home regardless of the cost of international postage etc. 

If the buyer in your case had to create a new account in order to bid on your item, they cannot be surprised by this development. If you do decide to proceed, and get negative feedback you might be able to appeal it. If you cancel and get negative, you might be stuck with it for the same reason as you got what I can only consider to be incorrect advice from the Customer Service reps. 

[momcqueen]

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@mjwl2006momcqueen wrote:

... As sellers, we've always been told what this buyer is doing is against the rules. If the Customer Service reps are unaware of the actual rules, they need to be re-educated, pronto...

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And if the rules have, in fact, changed then it's us sellers who need to be re-educated so that we don't think we have recourse when it happens. It'll save us form wasting time and angst. Regardless, we need a clear answer.

Also: Is it possible this address is also a freight-forwarding service? In my opinion, shipping without tracking to freight-forwarder is a MAJOR no-no for ebay sellers ONLY because buyers wait to find out the item has been received via delivery scan before going to pick it up. Or maybe the warehouse workers pocked things without tracking. I don't know. What I do know is that I've been burned twice (or more) with untracked mail at parcel forwarding-consolidation services. 

[cumos55]

eBay's rule about Blocking bidders and buyers

Link to 

https://pages.ebay.ca/help/sell/manage_bidders_ov.html

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From that page .....

Blocking bidders and buyers

If you don't want to sell to certain members, you can put their usernames on your blocked list. Members on the list can’t bid on any of your listings until you remove them from the list. You can block up to 5,000 usernames. By default, these members also won't be able to contact you about your listings, but you can change this setting by following the instructions in the  Setting up buying requirements section below.

Note: You can choose not to allow blocked buyers to contact you. Blocked buyers will still be able to contact you about existing transactions, unless you add them to your blocked list.

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If a blocked bidder uses a different  ID to bid  they are in trouble.

These are eBay rules

[momcqueen]

Yes, that is what the Rules on ebay.ca say but there have been countless accounts of 'rules' on ebay.ca and and ebay.com Help Pages not matching because ebay.ca has not been updated to the current standard behind ebay.com AND also multiple anecdotes on the Boards on ebay.com where sellers have been told essentially what the OP heard last night. The gnashing of teeth on this issue is a semi-annual event. And it needs to be clarified for once and for all: Can a buyer create a new account to circumvent an existing bidder block to buy a seller's item, yes or no? If 'no', why does Customer Service keep telling sellers the opposite and if 'yes', why are sellers being allowed to think it is a form of protection offered to them when it is not?

tyler@ebay

That being said,  can the seller guarantee the buyer is the same when, in fact, the only address may be the issue? See my example above with parcel-forwarding and parcel-consolidation services. Many buyers share the same address and it doesn't necessarily mean the address is the factor at fault. 

[cumos55]

The address option is a consideration....

Then it is the address that has developed a bad reputation for  everyone that uses that address.

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It is like the seller on eBay that used WiFi......that was not adequately Password protected.

A neighbour also sold on eBay, used the neighbour's WiFi,  without the neighbour knowing  ....

This second seller was a painful experience for buyer's on eBay, and was suspended from selling..

Guilt by association....  One bad ... both affected.

That first seller was also suspended  because they both used the same internet connection  to access eBay

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The same appears to apply to a buyer's address.... Guilt by association.

[reallynicestamps]

The reason the bidder was able to win the Dispute, was that you did not use tracking.

If you use tracking on this shipment, that problem is solved.

And yes, tracked services are more expensive than LetterPost/LightPacket. Still cheaper than losing payment and item.

It may be the same person with a different ID, of course. I have seven eBay IDs  for reasons.

The other ID may not have been caught by the Block, especially if it was pre-existing the blocked ID.

And the forwarding service is a good point. Use Google Maps to see what kind of address it is. House? Strip mall? Industrial park? Shop?

[cumos55]

Sometimes I will use Google maps.... just for a look-see

and... I have sometimes been amazed at what was seen

One has to learn how to track someone on the internet....  This can also be an interesting activity.

Ask the internet.... Who am I?     and then find out

and that is where I keep ......

My private life...       separate from ....

My professional life ....      and separate from ...

My business life

[momcqueen]

You've sold nothing on this user ID that I can see to answer the question myself so I must ask: how valuable is this item? If the buyer has already paid and you feel as if you are being forced to honour that transaction and ship it, can you justify upgrading the item to Tracked Packet from Light Packet or Small Packet, funding the difference out-of-pocket? 

[momcqueen]

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@cumos55 wrote:

The address option is a consideration....

Then it is the address that has developed a bad reputation for  everyone that uses that address.

----------------------------

It is like the seller on eBay that used WiFi......that was not adequately Password protected.

A neighbour also sold on eBay, used the neighbour's WiFi,  without the neighbour knowing  ....

This second seller was a painful experience for buyer's on eBay, and was suspended from selling..

Guilt by association....  One bad ... both affected.

That first seller was also suspended  because they both used the same internet connection  to access eBay

---------------------------------

The same appears to apply to a buyer's address.... Guilt by association.

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I cannot wholeheartedly agree with you here. 

One Item Not Received case to a mail-forwarding business does not automatically make the business a den of thieves. A dozen, maybe. Fifty, yes. 

By all means, the OP should google the address and see what there is to see. Is it a warehouse in Shadytown, USA called Skinny Pete and Knuckle's Parcel Stickup? If so, one could assume it likely to be problematic. If it's your everyday-run-of-the-mail MailBox Joint, then maybe it's safer. 

[oldspike1927]

The address was a house, as far as using a tracked package-this particular item was is very expensive and I cannot bring myself to add an additional 10.00 to the existing shipping cost.

[pjcdn2005]

Similar problems have been brought up on the US boards and from what I remember, the ebay reps there said that it was 'ok' for a buyer to buy with a new ID if they are blocked on another ID as long as they aren't doing it for malicious reasons such as buying so that they give you a negative etc. 

You said  the item is expensive but you yet you didn't price it with tracking when you listed? Or did you mean to say inexpensive?  Either way you can pay extra  for tracking, take your chances without tracking or cancel the sale and possibly get an out of stock defect.

[ricarmic]

Even it if is inexpensive, one can pull the $$ to upgrade the shipping out of the "insurance cookie jar fund" if one has one, just for peace of mind and/or certainty of arrival.

I have had to do this a couple times over the years, to make certain the buyer got the item. I've spent more on the shipping than the item was worth, but pulled the $$ from the cookie jar. (One was the same situation as this, buyer returned under a different ID).

[pjcdn2005]

I've done that as well.

This is sort of off topic..A few weeks ago a US buyer with private feedback made a purchase for an item that wasn't expensive. I've always been wary of buyers with private feedback.  I don't think that I've ever actually had a problem with one but they make me uncomfortable.   I chose not to use tracking and thought that if she filed an inr, so be it.

Last week she opened a return request as the item was not as described.  My first reaction was grrrrr....... I knew something was going to happen with this buyer!  But when I looked at her complaint I realized that she wasn't being unreasonable or trying to get a partial refund etc....

I was actually the one at fault and had goofed when I did the listing. So I guess that even if our initial impressions are that a transaction is going to go bad...that doesn't mean that when it does, that it is the buyers fault.

[ricarmic]

I totally agree, one of the unfortunate symptoms of frequenting these boards is that it coaches our brains to begin to believe buyers are generally criminals, which for certain isn't the case.

Actually if I think hard on how my spider senses worked before I became a board regular vs how they work now, I think my senses go off a lot more frequently now than they did before, and I am 99.9% certain, I do not have any more problem buyers than I did before.....

[oldspike1927]

oops, I meant to say inexpensive.

[cumos55]

For everything  weighing more than 500 grams... it is Expedited shipping within Canada.... 

fully insured up to  $100 and with tracking.

One also has to be careful with items that cost up to $200 and more ...  where  delivery personnel  may leave the parcel at a door, or in a community mailbox.  It is now sometimes critical to add the signature option  where the buyer must pick up the parcel and sign for it.

My first experience with community mailboxes was the loss of a parcel valued at $200.

Adding the signature option would have prevented this.  This became an insurance claim

Many times it is worthwhile to  do it than be faced with a loss 

Many sellers will add options   and pay out of their own wallet if there is a remote possibility of a loss.

Today  the remote possibilities occur more often than wanted 

It is better to be safe than sorry.

[reallynicestamps]

The Signature Option costs a whole buck fifty. Coffee and a muffin at Timmie's.

Well worth it, even if the item does not 'require' it for eBay or PP disputes.

It's a preventative, not a solution.

I notice that when I make this suggestion on the dotCOM Boards that posters will get very upset about 'forcing' the buyer to fetch their parcel.

And oddly, these are quite often the same posters who are grizzling about porch theft of parcels that don't have signature confirmation.

Americans are foreigners.