Blocked from Bidding & Buying

[cristabelle25]

I was shocked, upset and hurt to find out a certain seller has blocked me from any further bidding or contact with him or her.  Now I’m not even allowed to track the international package that’s coming with the 12 items I purchased recently.  This apparently is happening because I asked the seller to please cancel several pending bids and one sold item—the sold item I asked to be canceled was less than 24 hours after I won the auction with one 99¢ bid—nobody else bid so I inconvenienced no other possible buyer and ruined no other possible sale.  I requested this because we had a medical emergency in my family, and I needed the funds to attend to that issue.  I repeatedly expressed to the seller my gratitude and appreciation for understanding my plight, and informed the seller that I looked forward to making more purchases when things got better.  Remember, I just bought and paid for 12 items, which are on their way to me now.  I thought this might have made me a good customer in the seller’s eyes.  But now I find that I’m blocked.  I don’t understand!!  Why would the seller do this to me??  This seems like an extreme over-reaction to a reasonable request.  Things (like my emergent situation) happen to us all at one time or another, and I would hope a seller would be more understanding.  As a seller, I would be understanding and kind to anybody having a medical emergency, let alone a loyal customer who has expressed the wish to give me repeat business.  Not too much to ask.  The seller’s response is very hurtful.

BTW, I have 100% positive FB, and have been a responsible buyer—and seller.  No strikes, no policy violations, no unpaid items.  My ducks are generally in a row.

How can I resolve this matter?  Please let me know.  I will appreciate any help you can give.

[kitschy*loot]

You can't resolve it unless they seller decides to unblock you. The seller probably doesn't want to take a chance on you requesting to cancel again, or doing so has made them think you may cause trouble later on, even if that is not true.

Sellers are blocking buyers for all sorts of reasons these days. If you ask a seller for extra measurements on an item you will be blocked by some, they will block you for asking for extra photos or for asking what they feel is too many questions.

Sellers and buyers both hear all kinds of excuses for not wanting to complete a transaction and don't have much sympathy. 

[pburn]

You can't resolve this specific matter . . . if your seller won't cancel For future transactions, however, you can refrain from buying items that are beyond your budget--and establish a cushion for emergencies, medical and otherwise. I'm curious how much those purchases you wanted to cancel added up to that would impact your ability to address a medical emergency.

A seller has the right to block any buyer they want for any reason they want. Just as buyers have a right not to buy from particular sellers, sellers have a right not to sell to particular buyers. Cancelling bids and transactions might tend to make sellers question whether you were actually a good or loyal customer.

All buyers, by the way, have 100% positive feedback. Buyers cannot receive negative feedback.

Good luck with these transactions and your future purchases on eBay.

[7606dennis]

Actually, you inconvenienced the seller.  If you can't afford paying for a 99¢ win, you probably should be placing so high a bid.  Frankly, I'm not surprised that you were blocked.

[fashunu4eeuh]

I'm very sorry this happened to you. No one here wants to see a buyer have a poor experience on eBay. 

Personally, it takes something really bad for me to place another member on my blocked list. But there are other sellers who block at the drop of a hat, for no good reason. If you purchased 12 items from me, I as the seller would have canceled and moved on. However, some take such requests very personally. It can cost a seller time and money to cancel a sale, and it sounds like this seller resented having to do so. For some, this is their livelihood, and if they have very thin margins, it can hurt. It is impossible to know what might be going on in someone's life to understand why they do what they do. You had an emergency, perhaps they were having one too.

If I were you, I would find another seller to buy from. If you think it over, do you want to support someone who has resented you and caused you angst? 

[mudshark61369]

@cristabelle25,

  "I was shocked, upset and hurt to find out a certain seller has blocked me from any further bidding or contact with him or her. Now I’m not even allowed to track the international package that’s coming with the 12 items I purchased recently".

I'm not going to deal with why you were blocked, since others have already done so.

  You say you cannot track an international package that is coming with 12 items in it.  Being blocked would not affect your ability to track a package.  If the seller is registered in China, go online and search for China Post tracking.  Then add the tracking number to that site's search. What you will want to look for is if the tracking shows the package was received by China Post.   China Post tracking will not update once it leaves Chinese control.  All you can do is wait until the last estimated delivery date and if the package does not arrive by then, file an Item Not Received dispute.

[buyselljack2016]

I block any buyer that cancels(requests to cancel), but if you had made 12 purchases from me, I might hesitate on doing so.

Sellers get all kinds of reasons in the requests, or no reason at all. Some have reached the breaking point, and just increase the BBL.  Some reasons are real, some are not.

I do cancel when requested by a buyer.

[mam98031]

If I understand what you wrote correctly, you ask the seller to cancel your bid SEVERAL things that were still an active auction and cancel one item you had already purchased.  As a seller that would cause me concern.  

If on the auctions that were still active, if there was 12 hours or more left on the auctions, you could have retracted your own bids.

https://www.ebay.com/help/buying/bidding/retracting-bid?id=4013

I am sorry to hear that you had a personal medical emergency.  I sincerely hope that this has all worked out and everyone is fine.  

As a seller, it is important to understand that we have no idea if what you express to us in an email is a truth or something being said to get what you are after.  In this case bid cancellations and a purchase cancellation.  We all must go by what you say and our gut feelings.  Not knowing what or how you said to your seller that you needed to do this, it is hard to say why they reacted by blocking you.

Please understand this is business NOT personal.  Your seller is trying to run their business.  They aren't making a judgement on you personally.  They have decided that for their business this was not something they wanted to deal with again and therefore blocked you.

Just find another seller of the items you desire to purchase.  

As to your FB.  ALL buyers without exception have 100% positive FB.  They can't get anything else.  Sellers haven't been allowed to leave negative or neutral FB for a buyer since mid 2008.

[ms.rodriguez*]

I hope things are better now. All buyers have 100% feedback as someone already wrote. It doesn’t tell if buyer paid or crammed the seller .   You are still protected so if items are late , you can open an item not arrived case.  I suspect that this is a Chinese seller?  They often ship without tracking or you don’t get the tracking number. So give it some time to see if they arrive.   If the items are garbage, fakes, wrong color, or wrong item or whatever, you can open an item not as described case.   So whether you can communicate or not, you are protected.

goodluck.

[femmefan1946]

Many overseas sellers do not track shipments because the price is so high.

USPS has amazingly low domestic tracking costs. Most other postal systems don't.

And international tracking is always expensive.

This would be very likely in the case of 99cent items, especially with Free Shipping, where the cost of shipping is included in the selling price.

EBay gives the buyer an approximate delivery date, if the items have not turned up by then, the buyer has 30 days to start an Item Not Received dispute and get their money back.

If a buyer is unsure of his ability to pay immediately (99cents? seriously?) they should back their PP account with a credit card which allows them to pay off the balance at their leisure.

[creoleorchid]

The only way you would know if you were blocked from buying is if you tried to buy something else. If you had a financial emergency and needed to cancel your bids, why were you still bidding? 

Plus the fact that a seller cannot block communication from buyers they have had a transaction with. 

You should still be able to see the tracking if the seller used it so I’m confused what this is all about.  

[robot-hands]

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@cristabelle25 wrote:

Why would the seller do this to me?? 

How can I resolve this matter?  Please let me know.  I will appreciate any help you can give.

Because you became more problems than you are worth.

You can resolve it by paying your debts and apologizing for being a pain.

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