eBay

momcqueen · ‎09-15-2017

A question posed of idle curiosity to other sellers: what is your tolerance to buyers or bidders that look potentially troublesome and specifically what triggers you to add them to the ole Best Buddy List? (Meaning, of course, the Blocked Buyer List.)

Does it have to be a policy violation? Repeated questions? Obscene messages? Negative feedback?

I wonder. My own list is plenty long and I'm mulling making it longer after a user put in two Best Offers and then Cancelled both after they were accepted asking if I would now sell to him what he had already bought for half of what he offered which is under my Auto-Decline amount and now he seems to be confused.

On the one hand, I'm thinking this person is best avoided, on the other I wonder if my skin is too thin.

So my question is: what user actions lead you to add another user to the BBL?

around_again_records · ‎09-15-2017

I'd block him/her in a heartbeat.

momcqueen · ‎09-15-2017

Yes, I did finally. After they began to harass me by citing imaginary competitors who were selling it for cheaper. Also a zero feedback buyer. Not that there's anything wrong with new buyers, I love new buyers. But this particular user is acting more like an user who created a new account for reasons unknown as opposed to a person who's actually new to eBay.

femmefan1946 · ‎09-15-2017

I Block non-payers.

And people who claim non-delivery, on the basis that while it may well be true, they do not have a secure delivery address.

And I look at auction bidders' FB Left for Others, though I haven't needed to Block anyone for that yet.

And rude questions get answered, and posted to the listing, and the vulgarian Blocked.

esclyons · ‎09-15-2017

i don't block anyone for **bleep**py offers, it is the nature of the business, i do block people who send me an offer , and i accept it, then they don't pay.. blocked always..

i also block people who ding me for late shipment, it is only a business thing.. i ship on time, it they receive it late or don't remember to leave a correct check in the box, i will block them,, this one is very seldom, but i enforce it..when an item is received is beyond my control, so i don't want a repeat buyer sending me 2 strikes on purpose.. not worth the few dollars to tarnish my little discount..

katlover1952 · ‎09-15-2017

I block buyers who claim "item not received" also as impossible to tell if it is legitimate or not. All I know is I mailed it!

if i had a situation like you are describing I would block also.

Non paying bidders should always be blocked IMO.

maggiebvintage2010 · ‎09-16-2017

I block everyone who pays late without prior arrangement with me; everyone for whom I have opened a case regardless of whether I am the buyer or seller; everyone who claims non-receipt, messes around with offers, leaves feedback that is less than positive, or sends me weird emails; and everyone whose posts on these boards display discriminatory "isms", a thirst for revenge, or an escalating madness (not to worry, there have only been a very few ). As well as anyone that for any reason sets off my "spidey-senses".

momcqueen · ‎09-16-2017

Ah, yes, posts on Community that display escalating madness. I have blocked a few posters over the years for that as well. Not the regular folks, but the ones who come with an axe to grind and a case of molotov cocktails in the backseat. Yikes.

Also, I freely admit that I used to pre-emptively block users who left a plague of red dots for other sellers back when Feedback Left For Others was visible by precisely what member left it. Cars sellers (my first and only product line for a long time) are a small community with a small but passionate following of Cars collectors and it was plain to see that the buyers who were a problem for one seller were invariably a problem for others to come. I would look to see who was trashing my competition's feedback and then block those people too. Not all of them, you can read between the lines to see what negative feedback might be deserved and what might be just plain looney, so I'd block only the buyers that left looney feedback. It saved me more than once.

Of course, this was back in the day when people used auctions and negative feedback actually counted against a seller's performance.

snoopwiz · ‎09-16-2017

Only those who do not floss regularly.

rose-dee · ‎09-19-2017

I think I've only blocked 3 or 4 people in over 10 years, and that was for pretty egregious misdeeds. However, I must admit I have a generally very "nice" bunch of (mostly) adult buyers who are thoughtful about their purchases.

I personally lean toward giving people the benefit of the doubt, especially new buyers. I think eBay (and the general online world) is largely to blame for many of their expectations. When sites regularly advertise 50%, 60%, 70% off, people come to believe those prices should be the norm. In other words, everything is overpriced initially so it can be put on sale at the actual retail price. What may seem an annoying newbie buyer may just be someone who is confused that a 70% discount off the advertised price isn't acceptable, when it seems to be so everywhere else.

To some extent they're right. But sites that advertise: "I got this 55" TV for $19.99!!" or "Deals every day at 90% off!!", or "Shipping is always free!!" just help to fuel the perception that prices are already inflated, and all a buyer needs to do is push a little to get the real price. And eBay does little to disabuse them of it. Furthermore, as we all know -- and buyers know -- competition online is pretty fierce these days.

I'm going to make a suggestion, which you can consider or not. If you have the time to interact personally with buyers, take the automated accept/decline off your Best Offer items. I feel those features create yet another wall between seller and buyer, making the buyer treat the transaction as a faceless roulette machine, rather than a personal offer to an independent seller who has to make a living. He plays the machine over and over again, and then when it doesn't go as low as he expects, he feels thwarted and -- as you say -- confused.

If he were forced to make his offer the first time and wait for a response from you, it's possible he might have thought about what he was offering, rather than spinning the wheel to see how low it would go. Maybe. I don't know anymore. It might be worth trying. At least then you could have simply told him in your decline message that you can't go below a certain price, and that would be the end of it.

With eBay's new -- what is it, 10? -- offer feature, this whole Best Offer system may now be worthless.

pocomocomputing · ‎09-19-2017

@rose-dee wrote:

With eBay's new -- what is it, 10? -- offer feature, this whole Best Offer system may now be worthless.

It was reduced to 5 from some posts i read here by mj I believe.

thestuffofchris · ‎09-19-2017

@rose-dee wrote:

I think I've only blocked 3 or 4 people in over 10 years, and that was for pretty egregious misdeeds. However, I must admit I have a generally very "nice" bunch of (mostly) adult buyers who are thoughtful about their purchases.

I personally lean toward giving people the benefit of the doubt, especially new buyers.

I'm the same way. Over the past decade(ish) on the few different accounts I've used I've blocked a total of two people, and they were both users that gave me particular problems during their respective transactions. Like you, I also prefer to give the buyer the benefit of the doubt.

I just feel (personally) that putting a buyer into the BBL just because of a SNAD or INR isn't right, and I feel could result in lost potential sales. (I understand there are bad people out there that take advantage of eBay's MBG, but I also base my outlook on my experiences, which seemingly have been contrary to many here.) For example, I recently experienced my first genuinely lost item as a buyer. The seller was very professional in how they treated it and I would have no problems buying from them again. Of course, if they had blocked me (which they haven't) it would be disappointing as a buyer since I would happily consider them again if they had what I wanted/needed.

I understand not everyone feels this way and I respect that to many "business is business", but I think because I'm not here to supplement an income and (!shocker!) still have fun doing this, I look at the people I deal with using different glasses. (Perhaps...rose-tinted? Bad pun, I'm sorry.)

ricarmic · ‎09-19-2017

I think I'm going to have to say that I rely pretty heavily on my spider senses.

Things I will normally block for:

-non payment

-non receipt

-ding me for late receipt

-INAD when buyer makes unreasonable demands (which I meet and then block)

-leaves neutral or negative feedback

-returns item(s)

-confrontational communication (sometimes they are so very helpful by being confrontational BEFORE they buy the item!)

I say normally because sometimes my spider senses tell me things are ok for this buyer/situation and I don't block them.

(You've seen my reference in the past to a buyer that I very nearly blocked for being a pain during an INAD who subsequently purchased $1,000s of dollars worth after that, my spider senses served me well that day!!!)

If I had to guess, I would say that my block rate is around 1/2 to 1% of buyers.

(You'll recall from my annual self insurance report, that my lost package rate is around 1/2 of 1% and normally they are blocked so I think this guesstimate is reasonably accurate).