Customer informed us that eBay is blocking them from purchasing from us... and recommending others?!

[zamo-zuan]

We received this message from a customer in the morning today: 

"attempted to by your eBay several times and it was blocked buy eBay and PayPal, my card company says they never received the transaction it was blocked by eBay or PayPal. I was offered and alternative product by eBay instead"

I'm very disturbed by this information, and would like to know more about what, exactly, is going on here?

Has anyone else experienced this lately or had customers informing them of this?

[monstertoybox]

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@zamo-zuan wrote:

We received this message from a customer in the morning today: 

"attempted to by your eBay several times and it was blocked buy eBay and PayPal, my card company says they never received the transaction it was blocked by eBay or PayPal. I was offered and alternative product by eBay instead"

I'm very disturbed by this information, and would like to know more about what, exactly, is going on here?

Has anyone else experienced this lately or had customers informing them of this?

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I would also be disturbed! As if sales weren't bad enough. Sorry that happened to you.

[kaykakfs]

Was the buyer from a country you don't ship to? Could it be someone on your blocked bidder list?

[wesk_36]

Could it be they changed their mind and don't want it? Did they ask to cancel? It doesn't make sense that ebay would block them and then offer something else. It could be a glitch too, more likely.

[moo*cow*corner]

@zamo-zuan 

I've had a message from a buyer that they were having problems buying within the last month (Sept 24th).

Brand new to ebay. They bought 3 lots of stoneware from me, and they said that they had a very difficult time completing the transactions and that their Visa card kept getting rejected. They said they called both ebay and Paypal and each blamed the other. She wanted to buy more from me, but got so frustrated that she apologized and said she was giving up.

I don't see any other FB for her, so I'm assuming that she gave up buying on ebay all together.

Way to go ebay!

[dentalsales4u]

I don't know if this is your buyers situation, but I've had this happen to me.
Come to find out, it was the type of card they were using.
When they changed to a different card, it went through fine.
I think it had something to do with a business card being blocked for these eBay type purchases. Not sure exactly what that means, but is what I was told.

[moo*cow*corner]

I've had both my Paypal business debit card and my credit union Visa rejected for purchases within the last 6 months. I persisted and paid by checking account, and all purchases went thru Paypal just fine that way. It seems random, and to have more than one card rejected more than once was a bit disconcerting, to say the least.

Most buyers (especially newbies) are not going to go thru all that hassle to make what should be an easy garden-variety purchase. They will go elsewhere.

[zamo-zuan]

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@kaykakfs wrote:
Was the buyer from a country you don't ship to? Could it be someone on your blocked bidder list?

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Nope. They're in West Virginia. Member since 2005, not on our block list.

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@wesk_36 wrote:

Could it be they changed their mind and don't want it? Did they ask to cancel? It doesn't make sense that ebay would block them and then offer something else. It could be a glitch too, more likely.

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Nope. They still do want it, and were never able to order from us. EBay wouldn't let them pay us, and recommended someone else...

[patd3283]

Zamo, I'd be on the phone with your customer service person and PayPal, asap to find out why.

You deserve better service than that!

Maybe they are blocking buyers from certain area on a rolling back out, like they do to sellers!

[luckythewinner]

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"I was offered and alternative product by eBay instead"

eBay offers alternative products to every buyers at every step along the way to buying every item. eBay has been doing this for years, and there is nothing new or unusual about that. 

was blocked buy eBay and PayPal

It would be helpful to know where your buyer wanted the item shipped, whether he had a US or international PayPal account, what shipping method he chose, and whether he was trying to pay with a currency you do not accept. Any of those might cause a buyer to be blocked for perfectly benign reasons. 

attempted to by your eBay several times 

If the buyer was blocked correctly the first time and tried the same thing repeatedly, I would certainly hope the block was applied consistently.

my card company says they never received the transaction it was blocked by eBay or PayPal

If the card company never received the transaction, how would the card company be able to tell it had been blocked or who had blocked it? Or does your buyer really mean "I didn't see a charge when I logged in and checked my credit card account online"?

I'm very disturbed by this information, and would like to know more about what, exactly, is going on here?

Your buyer has not given you anywhere near enough detail for you to attribute this to eBay and PayPal. If you want to know "what is going", IMHO you need to start with the buyer. 

[a_c_green]

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@zamo-zuan wrote:
Nope. They still do want it, and were never able to order from us. EBay wouldn't let them pay us, and recommended someone else...

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Who is the "someone else" that they recommended? Another seller? Another site? It would be helpful to find out exactly who the customer was being redirected to.

There is one possibility that just occurred to me: if their search was bringing them to a Sold item of yours, eBay would redirect them to a listing that's still running, though not necessarily one of your listings.

[soccerteeth]

A couple days ago I was trying to buy a lowes coupon.The lowest seller was .99.  I clicked and tried with 2 different computers and I kept getting the error page.  Over and over again. When I clicked the higher priced one for $1.39, it worked.  Over and over again it would not let me purchase the one I was trying to purchase.  The seller had sold more than 1000 and had good feedback.


Also to note, my weekend was terrible again but a flood of sales this morning, still not anywhere close to normal but, a bunch.  Also my weekend sales say zero dollars sold on my seller hub when I did sell some stuff. There is clearly and error there.

I bet you someone will be/is shorting the **bleep** out of ebay stock. it seems like an effort to drive the value out of this company so it can be bought cheaply.  Or of course its just corrupt. 

[soccerteeth]

Hey Lucky,  Are you paid to be on this board by anyone?

[dtexley3]

@zamo-zuan   See if the customer will send you a screen shot of what the browser shows when then try to pay.  That would clear up any questions about whether the "other sellers" are being specifically recommended (very naughty on eBay's part) or just the usual stupidity of showing the buyer other listings for the same item AFTER they have paid (or in your case, attempted to pay).

Then call customer service and raise the issue.

[zamo-zuan]

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@luckythewinner wrote:

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"I was offered and alternative product by eBay instead"

eBay offers alternative products to every buyers at every step along the way to buying every item. eBay has been doing this for years, and there is nothing new or unusual about that. 

was blocked buy eBay and PayPal

It would be helpful to know where your buyer wanted the item shipped, whether he had a US or international PayPal account, what shipping method he chose, and whether he was trying to pay with a currency you do not accept. Any of those might cause a buyer to be blocked for perfectly benign reasons. 

attempted to by your eBay several times 

If the buyer was blocked correctly the first time and tried the same thing repeatedly, I would certainly hope the block was applied consistently.

my card company says they never received the transaction it was blocked by eBay or PayPal

If the card company never received the transaction, how would the card company be able to tell it had been blocked or who had blocked it? Or does your buyer really mean "I didn't see a charge when I logged in and checked my credit card account online"?

I'm very disturbed by this information, and would like to know more about what, exactly, is going on here?

Your buyer has not given you anywhere near enough detail for you to attribute this to eBay and PayPal. If you want to know "what is going", IMHO you need to start with the buyer. 

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If it's not letting the customer buy it from someone IN ADDITION to recommending others, that's certainly new. Just because recommending others isn't new doesn't mean it has the same ramifications in a different situation. 

Would you be okay with it if a customer told you that eBay wouldn't let them buy from you, but then they were able to buy from someone else without a problem...?

He wanted it shipped to West Virginia, and it's a US account that been around since 2005 with > 400 positive feedback. An experienced and prominent buyer with 8+ feedback for purchases within the last month.

The last two messages of yours don't make sense. If it's being rejected by eBay and/or PayPal, before the transaction reaches the bank, with a US address and a US account, how could you say "how could the credit card company tell who blocked it"...? Obviously if it didn't reach the bank, it was being blocked by eBay and/or PayPal...