What to do when you can't block a bidder?
Hello
I have been a casual seller/buyer for quite a few years. I collect too much shi....stuff so every once in awhile I try to sell what I don't donate or post in a buy/sell nothing group. It seems like my last couple of rounds of selling attempts have been a victim of some sad and lonely individual living in their mom's basement.
I know the auction format is problematic but I felt it was the best format for collectibles that aren't seen often and have a decent demand. I have caved and am going to switch to all BIN, IPR with no offers accepted.
OK...here is the issue. Some bidder that goes by the ID of ***** bids my auction up the first day it is listed. I see this and and say to myself, "yeah this jerk isn't going to pay." I also notice the name seems kinda familiar. So I wait the whole 7 days for the auction to end. 2 days after no payment, i send an invoice. 4 days go buy and still no payment. I was not surprised, just effing annoyed. I cancelled the order and relisted as a BIN. I tried to block the bidder and got a message the bidder was not a verified user so they couldn't be blocked. This is the second time this has happened and I think it was the same user ID. **** has an account that was supposedly established in 2022. They have a feedback of 6 (isn't that convenient). All 6 of the feedback was given 6 months ago and of course it was all positive. The bidders address is an old strip plaza with a liquor store at one end and a shady looking coffee shop at the other. I also have the name of the individual but since I'm not convinced it is their real name I won't share.
So if I can't block a bidder because they don't have a verified account or if "no user by that name can be found" how are they able to bid?
I'm not a professional seller/flipper by any means so I am hoping a more experienced member can help me understand this situation.
TIA
willowsbow
OP2 years agoThanks to all who have helped. I have blocked and reported the user. I had added a space where I shouldn't have when entering the the user name in my BBL list. I also appreciate the info regarding sending invoices, I didn't realize it reset the clock. Hope you all enjoy the weekend!
pjcdn2005
·2 years agoI have gotten that same message but when I went back into my BBL, their ID was in my blocked list. Go back and check yours to see if the ID is in there. It won't be at the end, it will be in alphabetical order.
a_c_green
·2 years agoAh. I think I can shed a little light on that.
When you add a new entry to your Blocked Buyer List, it also reevaluates every other entry on your list (basically, it submits your entire current list all over again, in case you are trying to remove someone from your BBL instead of add them), but if any of those older entries are for members who have now been nuked completely (i.e. they are Not a Registered User now), you'll see an error message in red, saying that a username could not be processed (or verified, or something like that).
If you click the link within the red error message for more details, it will show you one or more dead accounts in the form of "[ID_number_here]@deleted," where that string of numbers is how eBay actually keeps track of users on their website. You are "known" to the system by your internal ID number which never changes, not the visible username that you can pick or change anytime.
So when you go to add or remove an ID from your BBL, you might get an error message (about one or more other members), but your latest change (assuming that you typed it or pasted it in correctly) will be processed anyway. Refresh the page and you should see it in its alphabetical location.
eBay used to let the dead account entries ("[ID_number_here]@deleted") pile up at the top of the BBL, but finally automated the cleanup process to weed them out whenever someone updated their BBL. That popup error message is a last vestige of the cleanup, one of those things that confuses rather than enlightens. 🙄
iamalwaysright
·2 years agoGood catch. I didn’t know the buyer was referring to this error when they stated they can’t block a user ID.
@willowsbow , AC is correct here and that’s likely what happened to you. You blocked your buyer successfully and just didn’t know it because of that confusing error. Admit it caught me too before I realized what that error actually meant. Back then I would just immediately duplicate the steps to adding that buyer to my blocked list and the second time around the error wouldn’t pop up (because all the usernames on my blocked list were already verified on the initial attempt to add that buyer.)
redmodelt
·2 years agoYou can still add while the transaction is open, but last thing I have seen, there is a 30 day window the buyer can send messages in regard to that transaction. Once they are added to your blocked list, they will not be able to make any further purchases.
eBay already sends enough reminders to pay, so unless combining shipment, no need to send more. As said, every time you send one, it resets the clock for you to close for nonpayment.
pjcdn2005
·2 years agoThat's changed as well. When a seller puts a buyer on their blocked list it immediately blocks all messages. They can send messages but the seller will not see them. That's true even if you haven't checked off 'don't allow blocked buyers to contact me'. There is long thread about this with confirmation from kyle but I don't have it bookmarked.
soh.maryl
·2 years agoOnce you are in a transaction with a bidder/buyer, I don't believe you can add them to your BBL for some length of time because they need to be able to contact the seller in case of a problem.
Why are you sending invoices in 2 days? That person has 96 hours to pay. Also sending another invoice extends the payment deadline. Start cancelling 96 hours and one moment after the end of the listing/auction or else set it so it's done automatically. You use "buyer did not pay" as your reason.
ALL buyers will have only positive FB because that's the only kind they can be given.
Sellers do not have a lot of options on eBay, so we all need to know exactly what we can do and to do those things consistently.
willowsbow
OP2 years agoYeah the invoice thing was confusing to me. I thought I had to send one as a "reminder". I now know differently. The system still allowed me to report the user for non payment.
I have rarely had an actual non paying bidder. Once or twice and they each messaged me asking if I could cancel their bid. I have more jerks like the user I mentioned. The ones who self gratify by bidding things up with no intention of buying. I usually see it coming when I look at their info but I try to give people the benefit of the doubt. We all started out with low FB numbers and not knowing how to bid.
soh.maryl
·2 years agoJust curious: What information about a buyer allows you to see it coming?
willowsbow
OP2 years agoA combination of things: low feedback scores. Bidding very early in the auction. I don't mean just placing an initial bid but bidding the item up to a high dollar amount right away. In all fairness it could just be that the user doesn't understand the best bidding practices, but that has not been my experience. In my experience auctions don't get a lot of bids until the final day if not hours. The feedback they do have will always be past 90 days. They have usually not left feedback for others. Idk....just when I look at the users pattern or lack there of, something tells me they aren't going to pay and I haven't been wrong yet.
mam98031
·2 years agoWe NEED Ebay to draw in more buyers. It is what will enable all of us to survive in the future. Without new buyers we will get stagnate and can't grow. To ASSUME a low FB buyer is a bad buyer is bad business. We all start somewhere. The vast majority of buyers are great people.
Some people like to bid early in an auction. Sometimes it is just because it show on their list that they are bidding on it, sometimes it is because they get email reminders when they are outbid, and any multitude of things that help a buyer keep the auction active in their minds and not just forget about it.
A single buyer can't bid up a listing to high prices, there has to be someone they are bidding against as they can't bid against themselves.
Not all buyers purchase stuff on Ebay weekly or even monthly. It depends on the needs of that particular buyers. Assuming they are problematic because they only buy a few items every few months seems a bit odd to me.
The vast majority of buyer do not leave feedback for sellers at all. Speaking for myself, less than 25% of my buyers leave feedback. The fact a buyer doesn't leave feedback is NOT an indicator of a problematic buyer at all. In fact it is likely the opposite.
Should a buyer use these same points to evaluate if they want to risk buying from any given seller? Could you pass all those points? If you can't, does that mean you are a bad seller?
willowsbow
OP2 years agoI do not assume low feedback buyers are bad. It is coupled with other things. I realize that because someone posts publicly they are open to the judgements and opinions of others. I don't feel like playing today. I do not cancel someone's bid if they are new, or for any reason. I wait the time I need to for them to pay. I simply stated that the non paying bidders I have had, had these traits in common.
mam98031
·2 years ago@willowsbow
I am not passing "judgements" on you or anyone else. I am not "playing" anything. It seems you may have taken what I said in a way not intended. On any forum that is written such as this one, the only thing other posters have to go by is what you actually post. If you intended something different than you actually posted, we have no way of knowing that.
inhawaii
·2 years agoSure fire signs that this will be a problem bidder.
buyselljack2016
·2 years agoStop, or get a sarcasm emoji🙄
Some people will read that thinking it is fact.
mam98031
·2 years agoYes if the buyer doesn't pay you can file for a Cancellation using the reason, buyer did not pay. We can do that 96 hours after the purchase if the payment doesn't arrive.
However if you send a buyer an invoice, the clock restarts and you will have to wait another 96 hours from the time you sent the invoice before you can file for the cancellation.
Keep in mind that Ebay sends the buyer reminders to pay, so there really is no need for you to do it and you are only prolonging the transaction unnecessarily. I would advise you not to send invoices at all and just cancel the transaction after 96 hours.
Also make sure you have your Buyer Requirements set to the strictest rule possible for non paying buyers. And that is 2 unpaid cancellation in the past 12 months. All sellers should have this set. Then repeat offenders get a notice on their screen when trying to bid or purchase from these sellers that they can't buy from that seller.
iamalwaysright
·2 years agoFalse. Sellers block after buyers ask to cancel their order all the time. Whether or not you should block them is up to you because of eBay’s current glitch about allowing blocked buyers to contact you.
soh.maryl
·2 years agoThank you for the clarification.
rosszonebricks
·2 years agoI had no problems blocking that user. Make sure you are adding a comma between other names already on your blocked list, and make sure there is no space or extra characters after the name before saving the updated BBL.
Tip for the future: Do NOT 'send invoice'. The buyer *already* gets the invoice and reminders. All you are doing is delaying your option to get access to the option Cancel > Buyer Didn't Pay.
willowsbow
OP2 years agoThanks! I will try blocking again. I wasn't sure what to do regarding the invoice. I was afraid if I didn't send one eBay would require me to before I cancelled. I was allowed to report the bidder though, which surprised me.
soh.maryl
·2 years agoThere is no need to send any more invoices than the one the buyer received initially.