How difficult would it be for Ebay to bar private feedback buyers in seller"s 'buyer requirements'?

[paintbluedylan]

I have no way to prevent a last minute private feedback buyer from bidding and winning an item. The ability to block them would be a welcome option. 

[dreamturtle.ty]

Let me get this straight ... you want to block buyers from bidding???

[momcqueen]

I agree. As soon as I see another member whose feedback has been deliberately obscured, it sets alarm bells ringing. The same alarm bells as would ring when a guy walks into a bank wearing a balaclava in July. Sure, he can say he has noting to hide but then.....

With all the important parts of feedback being now redacted or kept secret* (who, what and when) there is no need for 'private feedback' for a member. Maybe for listings of a very, ahem, personal nature but not the whole member profile. It's redundant.

It should be block-able feature for sellers. And, yes, some sales are not worth having if they become only troublesome. In my experience, auctions attract that. 

*Notwithstanding yesterday's kerfuffle which, as it turns out, was nothing more than a glitch: http://www.ecommercebytes.com/cab/abn/y16/m03/i03/s01

[zee-chan-jpn-books]

Yes it would be nice if we could block them. If I get a best offer from a private feedback buyer I decline and block them. But if the buyer used buy-it-now then I just ship as usual while keeping my fingers crossed.

[femmefan1946]

I suppose some Private FB buyers might be up for shenanigans, but it is just as likely that they are too dumb unaware that they could also :

• open an account just for buying, so the supplier does not know they are a reseller
• not tell the spouse/ family that they have an eBay account
• keep their password secret
• open a PO box to received their embarrassing packages.

[femmefan1946]

Just noticed this on eCommerce Bytes:

eBay quietly rolled back on Tuesday an unpopular change it had made to its feedback system a year and a half ago. eBay had removed the dates indicating when feedback comments were left in August of 2014. At the time, sellers - and some buyers - were unhappy with the move, complaining it was yet another move by management to limit transparency on the site. See update below.

eBay had previously removed the item title, description and price of the items in feedback in 2013, though it displays that information once again.

Another unpopular change introduced in 2013 remains, however: eBay continues to mask the User IDs of buyers on sellers' feedback pages.

Both moves were made to increase bidder anonymity.

And then:

Update: As we noted in the story, eBay did not respond to our inquiry about the return of dates to feedback. The dates have since disappeared, and eBay's Jim "Griff" Griffith stated during the company's scheduled weekly chat on Wednesday afternoon that this was a glitch.

He did not elaborate, and we are left wondering, does this mean eBay is working to return the dates and wasn't ready to roll them out yet? The alternative is rather scary - that eBay could inadvertently display information it had chosen to hide for privacy reasons.

If eBay responds to any of our inquiries or posts an announcement about the incident, we'll let you know.