Blocked Buyer was still able to contact me. On my BBL & Don't allow to contact is Checked!

[drusalina]

A blocked buyer was still able to contact me even though I had them on my BBL and the "Don't Allow Blocked Buyers to contact me."  They have never purchased from me.  I had ended the listing too, just in case!

The Person Seemed shady asked a stupid question and I blocked before they could buy.   I'm not desperate!  Which is what a lot of buyers think we are on eBay. 

So Why were they still able to contact me?  

[bargainnation]

I don't know the time frame that you're talking about (how long after you block buyer did they contact you) but in some systems some changes don't take effect immediately; the system might have to update overnight.

It's possible that between the time you made the change and the period before the update was made in the system that the buyer was able to contact you. If that is not the case then perhaps something is not working in eBay's system as it should. Contact an eBay CS rep to see if they can give you a definite answer.

[drusalina]

I blocked them 7 days ago.  They emailed me yesterday late at night.   I've now deleted the listing, and it STILL comes up!  

[furrakooki_0]

For reference purposes I probably would not block a buyer who asked me if my "BLUE WIDGET" I am selling is blue, however I most likely would delete that message without replying and here is why:

A buyer who asks me an obvious question is trying to see who isn't a bot or a big bad seller they would rather not deal with, these buyers are looking for the "easy" sellers who are not full of canned answers IF a problem should arise... Unfortunately buyers who are phishing for mom & pop's in my opinion are more prone to having problems and IF a problem should arise I can plan on a fight that the buyer will win.

But block them, no.

If I block them they KNOW there is a human on this end.

That may even present some with a challenge they intend to circumvent.

So to me it's best to ignore, then they don't know or they might suspect you are one of those sellers full of canned answers (whom they would rather not deal with).

On that note if you do block a buyer and they still message you, there exists a delete key for that.

Learning to ignore certain buyers took me some time to learn, it was a skill that did not come automatic to me.

[pburn]

@drusalina 

When you add a member id to your "Blocked Buyers List" (BBL), they are no longer able to contact you through an item listing. 

• The buyer can still contact you through your profile page.
• The buyer can still contact you through your feedback page.
• The buyer can still contact you if there has been a recent transaction between the two of you.

This is the way the BBL feature has intentionally been designed by eBay. They want buyers to have a way to contact sellers. Period.

[myangelandmyprincess]

I'm wondering if you replied to the initial stupid question and if you did 

if they were still able to respond through your answer. 

[pburn]

Good point. eBay staff have also stated, "if two parties have messaged each other already, blocks would not prevent replies from being sent."

[drusalina]

I did respond the first time to the question. They messaged me through the same item which I had deleted. 

When a person is blocked it should be blocked ALL THE WAY, no matter what.  I don't want to deal with this person ever!

[maxine*j]

---

I don't want to deal with this person ever!

---

Then don't deal with him/her.  Ignore all messages. 

Don't delete them, however, on the outside chance that persistence morphs into harassment, in which case you'll want all the messages as evidence.

[drusalina]

So what is the point of checking  "Don't Allow Blocked Buyers to contact me"  on my preferences page?  What does it actually mean, if they can slip through!?

[pburn]

I already told you what it means in message #5. It really doesn't do any good to belabor the point. Bemoaning the reality of it isn't going to change it. All the hand-wringing in the world won't make the feature do what you want it to do.

[buyselljack2016]

---

@drusalina wrote:

So what is the point of checking  "Don't Allow Blocked Buyers to contact me"  on my preferences page?  What does it actually mean, if they can slip through!?

---

Well, it is probably about 90% effective.

Some do not know the " work arounds" to contact the seller.

[bargainnation]

---

@pburn wrote:

@drusalina 

When you add a member id to your "Blocked Buyers List" (BBL), they are no longer able to contact you through an item listing. 

• The buyer can still contact you through your profile page.
• The buyer can still contact you through your feedback page.
• The buyer can still contact you if there has been a recent transaction between the two of you.

This is the way the BBL feature has intentionally been designed by eBay. They want buyers to have a way to contact sellers. Period.

---

This is the reason I like coming to the eBay Community message board.... I have learned so much new and helpful information in the short time I have been coming here.

Thank you.

[doeeyeddee]

We have the same issue.  Blocked a user who was threatening us and freaking out because we couldn't get back to his original message within 18 hours due to a medical emergency (very long story but I was incapacitated.  I took a nap on Friday and woke up in the hospital days later).  Apparently he messaged last night and my husband who doesn't do eBay didn't know what to do and really wasn't worried about eBay at the time.  He has still been able to get through via the message seller on our eBay Seller Page.  I reported him and asked eBay to look into the messages.  Unfortunately eBay probably won't do much about it, but it is the only recourse we have and can only hope others he has reacted this way to have also reported him.  I rarely block anyone but the 1st message he sent was at 3:15 pm yesterday and then again today at 7:25am to threaten and yell at me... that is an unhinged eBay member.  I too wish eBay allowed us to keep users from messaging us in these types of situations but that isn't the case.  Unless they are threatening you I'd say just ignore them, they will get bored and move on because you aren't engaging with them, unfortunately they will just move on to probably to doing the same thing to another user but eBay doesn't give us much recourse.  C'est La Vie.

[aramintaca]

If they do know the work arounds it means that this isn't their first blocked by seller rodeo.  It was probably a good idea to listen to your inner seller and block them. JMHO