Can we block sellers?

[sean_foltz]

One of the unfortunate aspects of eBay is the large number of fake sellers out there - they're easy to spot in the stuff I normally purchase but they're still a pain in the bottom as I waste a ton of time clicking on items only to take one look at the seller's history and realize it's a fake seller.

It would be very helpful if buyers had the ability to simply click on a seller and block that seller so that anything from that seller is no longer sent in email feeds, nor does it come up on searches.

This would save buyers a ton of time since if I'm wasting my time looking at listings from individuals I feel are fake sellers (or whom I have experienced shill bidding from) I'm not buying from legit sellers and earning eBay money.

To further help eBay and its buyers I would also recommend allowing buyers to exclude sellers from their search results if a seller has less than a certain rating.

For example, many fake sellers will use shill accounts to boost themselves up to 10 positive ratings to appear more legit, so being able to set my autoblock to not show me sellers with less than 15 positive ratings would be helpful.

I also wouldn't mind being able to set it to block percentile ratings so that I don't see anyone with, say, less than a 90% positive rating when I'm shopping.

By instituting these measures eBay will significantly reduce time and money wasted in having to deal with fake seller complaints as well as increasing sale volume as buyers are less likely to get frustrated and give up a search due to being overwhelmed by obviously fake sellers when shopping for a particular item.

[sean_foltz]

While it isn't a total solution it is still helpful.

I'll be doing searches for several items so I can keep notepad open and put together a list of junk sellers I don't want to show up as usually the same guy will have several of the different items I'm looking for.

I do confess though to still not understanding eBay's reasoning in not wishing to allow people to be able to block sellers - if I'm wasting my time having to constantly look at listing by people I don't want to do business with that lowers the odds of my buying something and earning money for eBay.

Hey, here's a thought - when one of these scam sellers from a particular country make a sale, does eBay hold the money until it gets confirmation that the item was delivered?

If that's the case then that would mean that eBay has an incentive to allow them to do their thing since its earning interest on all those held payments and doesn't lose anything when it refunds you.

Or does eBay simply make enough off of people not bothering to/forgetting to demand a refund when they get scammed to make up for all the refunds they have to provide?

[chrysylys]

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@sean_foltzwrote:

Hey, here's a thought - when one of these scam sellers from a particular country make a sale, does eBay hold the money until it gets confirmation that the item was delivered?

If that's the case then that would mean that eBay has an incentive to allow them to do their thing since its earning interest on all those held payments and doesn't lose anything when it refunds you.

Or does eBay simply make enough off of people not bothering to/forgetting to demand a refund when they get scammed to make up for all the refunds they have to provide?

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All new sellers may be subject to a 21 day hold of funds pending delivery regardless of where they're located.

PP holds those funds and it has been said they hold them in non-interest bearing accounts.

Neither company usually refunds out of their own pocket.  They almost always get it from the seller.  There are exceptions where a 'courtesy refund' is issued.

[7606dennis]

I use a simple bio-mechanical system to record the user names of seller from which I do not wish to purchase.  It does not keep their offerings from showing up in a search, but eBay's search engine blocks enough on its own I really don't think that it would be wise to give it a reason to block more.

[pingpong517]

block seller?... well you don't buy from them.

but if you mean on searches...i don't believe you can "block them"....

[jrinam]

i use a much broader aproach! while i do still shop ebay, i purchase much less here and more from other online sources. bad sellers are mixed in on almost all searches but some much worse. when i find a search that is flooded, obvious scams, chinese posing as u.s. or multi variation listings, i simply leave ebay and pay retail to another online site! as the good buyers leave, plenty of bad ones fill our place so all is good!

[thatsallfolks]

“I do confess though to still not understanding eBay's reasoning in not wishing to allow people to be able to block sellers - if I'm wasting my time having to constantly look at listing by people I don't want to do business with that lowers the odds of my buying something and earning money for eBay.”

From an IT perspective, applying a blocked seller list while doing a search adds a significant load to the system.

[zelios]

It's a same load like with any other filtering settings you apply to your searches. And I believe that the Ebay has enough processing powers to give such functionality to buyers. Or are you hinting that the Ebay is unable to handle/update/manage their software and resources?

I have been now reading these forums for couple hours (what a mistake that has been) and it seems that we need to use thirdparty addons to improve the ebay experience.  

[thatsallfolks]

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@zelioswrote:

It's a same load like with any other filtering settings you apply to your searches.

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Definitely not. The search criteria for other filters would be stored in the main table that holds the listing info (e.g. keywords, location, price range, BIN). A buyer's "block" list would be stored in a separate table, and would have to be joined to the main listing info table for each search. That's a significant increase in the search engine's workload.

[castlemagicmemories]

The systems does not allow for this function.

But ebay might consider this to be an interesting revenue stream.

You never know.  Buyers who want this would pay to have this feature.

[castlemagicmemories]

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@jrinam wrote:

i use a much broader aproach! while i do still shop ebay, i purchase much less here and more from other online sources. bad sellers are mixed in on almost all searches but some much worse. when i find a search that is flooded, obvious scams, chinese posing as u.s. or multi variation listings, i simply leave ebay and pay retail to another online site! as the good buyers leave, plenty of bad ones fill our place so all is good!

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With all due respect, since you know what to avoid, why not just avoid it and buy from the many good sellers on eBay?

I know what to avoid and buy from the others.  

[jrinam]

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@castlemagicmemories wrote:

With all due respect, since you know what to avoid, why not just avoid it and buy from the many good sellers on eBay?

I know what to avoid and buy from the others.  

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some days, i just dont feel like playing the game.

[mrict1]

With my experience this morning, I say BIG TIME "NO".

Seems ebays revenue is declining and they are currently doing all to make money. As a buyer, you are not paying them. Its seller's portion that contribute. So ebay is currently and obviously shifting towards that direction of "Siding with Buyer"! In another word and IMHO, ebay is "Going down the drain". Sorry.

[the*dog*ate*my*tablecloth]

I think you mean moving towards siding with the seller. eBay has far more protection for buyers than sellers, it is in no way moving towards sellers. The seller who cancelled your purchase earned a defect which is one of the ways eBay evaluates sellers. Sellers who are below standard pay higher fees.

[castlemagicmemories]

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@jrinam wrote:

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@castlemagicmemories wrote:

With all due respect, since you know what to avoid, why not just avoid it and buy from the many good sellers on eBay?

I know what to avoid and buy from the others.  

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some days, i just dont feel like playing the game.

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I understand, but just look at it as doing the usual buyer's due diligence.

[castlemagicmemories]

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@zelios wrote:

It's a same load like with any other filtering settings you apply to your searches. And I believe that the Ebay has enough processing powers to give such functionality to buyers. Or are you hinting that the Ebay is unable to handle/update/manage their software and resources? 😉

I have been now reading these forums for couple hours (what a mistake that has been) and it seems that we need to use thirdparty addons to improve the ebay experience.  Also, holy shít people are anti-progress here. Instead of making a better platform for selling and buying stuff, people want to keep things hard for themselves.

With all due respect, I don't see that people are anti progress.  Of course we can agree to disagree.

The process would put, as another poster said, an unneeded strain on the system.  And many have been on ebay for several decades and really don't feel blocking sellers is a pressing issue.  

I'm a buyer, and one with almost two decades on Ebay.  

We can agree to disagree.

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