mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
@*madison wrote:Boost post count?
Are you saying there are actually some people who just want to boost their post count?
It's only an ebay board, why would anyone be so bothered?
I know it sounds odd, but unfortunately it is true. For some it seems to be an important part of their life. But I have no answer for your question as to why. Only the people engaging in this behavior can answer that. Well if they realize what they are doing. But it happens.
Sometimes they will start threads because they MAY feel as if that gives them permission to respond to just about every posting on that thread. Sometimes they open threads that are repetitive of other recent threads and sometimes they start threads on subject that don't even affect them at all just to draw others in to posters.
But as to Why they do this, only they have that answer, we can only guess.
@castlemagicmemories wrote:
To summarize at this point, leaving out those posts that took the thread off topic:
Not one person thinks it is a good idea to contact the seller who blocked you, whether they are the buyer or the seller.
You speak for everyone now? Just asking?
This question was already being discussed in another thread and I don't understand why a new topic was created. I haven't read past the first post, but I'm throwing my two cents in anyway.
@castlemagicmemories wrote:Suppose there was a buyer who felt that they had a great relationship with their seller, having bought from them before. They could not come up with a reason as to why they would be blocked but they were. Of course this does not mean there wasn't one. Sellers want sales, and don't block lightly.
Some sellers do block for any reason and no reason at all. I don't, but some do. The buyer you're talking about said they had a great purchase history with the seller. We never found out why they were blocked - it could have been based on location or something unintentional like a typing error. Why make assumptions without knowing the whole story?
@castlemagicmemories wrote:
Granted, there is a small chance this buyer may have been blocked by mistake, but given that blocking is serious, care would be taken to be sure the right person was blocked. It isn't labor intensive and there aren't a lot of characters to enter. One would want to be sure the right user id was blocked.
I take offense with this comment. I shared my story of one way a mistake could be made. Your reply to me on the other thread and your comment above both imply that a common typing error (O instead of 0 or l instead of 1) means a seller is stupid or a bad seller. If that's not what you intended please re-read what you wrote.
I assume you're a seller since you have such a high post count on a selling board, but maybe I shouldn't make that assumption. I find it hard to believe that anybody who is an active seller would make these comments. Blocking is a manual process - there is room for error even when somebody is being careful.
@castlemagicmemories wrote:
Do you think the blocked buyer should try to contact the seller even if messages don't go through? By having a friend contact them or by pulling the seller's PP info to contact them?
If I couldn't readily get the same item from another seller, and if I had a previously great purchasing relationship with the seller in question, then I would send a single short and polite message asking if they intended to block me. One message won't hurt anything - what's the seller going to do, double-block or delete the message? If it was an error it will give the seller a chance to realize the mistake.
@castlemagicmemories wrote:
IMO, contact, even if just once, may be viewed by the seller as harassment and not accepting the block that they have placed, and that buyer could be reported for such.
Sending one politely-worded message is harassment and you think that buyer should be reported? Really? OK, I respect that's your opinion even if I can't fathom how you came to such a conclusion.
If the block is intentional, one polite message shouldn't be anything more than a nuissance the delete button can take care of. It's certainly not harassment, and anybody working in a customer service-based industry like online sales really needs a thicker skin than that.
Happy Holidays to you and yours. 
@Anonymous wrote:This question was already being discussed in another thread and I don't understand why a new topic was created. I haven't read past the first post, but I'm throwing my two cents in anyway.
Another thread was opened because I didn't want to hijack someone else's thread and there was excessive hammering on that thread, so I wanted other opinions.
@castlemagicmemories wrote:Suppose there was a buyer who felt that they had a great relationship with their seller, having bought from them before. They could not come up with a reason as to why they would be blocked but they were. Of course this does not mean there wasn't one. Sellers want sales, and don't block lightly.
Some sellers do block for any reason and no reason at all. I don't, but some do. The buyer you're talking about said they had a great purchase history with the seller. We never found out why they were blocked - it could have been based on location or something unintentional like a typing error. Why make assumptions without knowing the whole story?
No assumptions being made here, just trusting the fact that many sellers do block with valid reasons that are frequently unknown to the buyer.
If you want to go with that sellers may just block because they are feeling grumpy that day, since they can block for any reason, that's fine. It's your opinion. I give them credit for valid reasoning.
I was in a similar situation. Had a history of buying with a seller for several years, no problems on either side. I was a good customer as this buyer said she was. I received an item that came broken, through no fault of mine, and the next time I went to buy, I found I was blocked. I moved on and understood it was a business decision and his right. He chose to do so on the basis of a broken item. Entirely his right to do so.
@castlemagicmemories wrote:
Granted, there is a small chance this buyer may have been blocked by mistake, but given that blocking is serious, care would be taken to be sure the right person was blocked. It isn't labor intensive and there aren't a lot of characters to enter. One would want to be sure the right user id was blocked.I take offense with this comment. I shared my story of one way a mistake could be made. Your reply to me on the other thread and your comment above both imply that a common typing error (O instead of 0 or l instead of 1) means a seller is stupid or a bad seller. If that's not what you intended please re-read what you wrote.
NO, I never implied you were a stupid or a bad seller. You are reading things in there. I'm just giving sellers credit for being able to enter a few characters correctly. IMO the odds of making that kind of mistake are extremely low, which is giving credit for accuracy. I am not saying they can't make a mistake.
I assume you're a seller since you have such a high post count on a selling board, but maybe I shouldn't make that assumption. I find it hard to believe that anybody who is an active seller would make these comments. Blocking is a manual process - there is room for error even when somebody is being careful.
Yes, I understand there is room for error. I just think there is a higher degree of accuracy there than you may think.
@castlemagicmemories wrote:
Do you think the blocked buyer should try to contact the seller even if messages don't go through? By having a friend contact them or by pulling the seller's PP info to contact them?If I couldn't readily get the same item from another seller, and if I had a previously great purchasing relationship with the seller in question, then I would send a single short and polite message asking if they intended to block me. One message won't hurt anything - what's the seller going to do, double-block or delete the message? If it was an error it will give the seller a chance to realize the mistake.
@castlemagicmemories wrote:
IMO, contact, even if just once, may be viewed by the seller as harassment and not accepting the block that they have placed, and that buyer could be reported for such.Sending one politely-worded message is harassment and you think that buyer should be reported? Really? OK, I respect that's your opinion even if I can't fathom how you came to such a conclusion.
NO, I didn't say I thought the buyer should be reported. I said the SELLER might think the buyer was harassing them AND THEY might report the buyer. You see that on these Boards all the time, report for this, report for that. Therefore not a stretch at all. Just saying that a seller who has blocked a buyer MAY consider that message, no matter how politely worded, to be harassment. Harassment is subjective, in the eyes of the beholder. We often read of those insulted and offended by low ball offers, by this, by that, it is not a stretch of the imagination to think that an extremely negative reaction on the part of the seller could occur.
If the block is intentional, one polite message shouldn't be anything more than a nuissance the delete button can take care of. It's certainly not harassment, and anybody working in a customer service-based industry like online sales really needs a thicker skin than that.
Happy Holidays to you and yours.
Happy Holidays to you as well.
@castlemagicmemories wrote:
There is no requirement that only sellers are able to post on this Board, nor is there any posting limits. There are many who don't sell anymore and just buy, and keep up with policy, that still post here. There are many who post here who have never sold; they are only buyers. There are many who don't sell or buy here anymore.
I don't think Biggerfish said or implied that. They just found it interesting that a poster that is primarily a buyer would spend so much time there starting threads and posting when they don't sell or haven't sold for a long time. They didn't say or imply that you were breaking any rule, just that they found it very curious.
It is great that you stay on top of the rules for sellers as most active sellers have a difficult time in doing that because rules change so frequently around here. But a point that should be noted is that a Non Seller can not possibly understand how some of these rules affect sellers in application. There are some rules that until you actually walk in the shoes of those most affected by it, well they can be hard to understand.
So while you may advise a seller on a certain rule, you can only go by Ebay's written rules. As any seasoned seller knows, that often does not tell the entire story, but you can't know that unless you experience this stuff.
