Last night ebay removed a buyer from my blocked list and allowed them to purchase.

[soccerteeth]

Yes, this actually happened.  The buyer confirmed it.

Last night, I received  a call from ebay. I have a few cs numbers saved as contacts in my phone. My phone only rang once before I could get it. I rarely answer anyway and do not want to talk to ebay at night.  2-3 minutes later, someone purchased an item and I recognized the user ID.  I looked it up in my email and yes, they purchased something a while back, no questions and returned it.  The item stated what it fit.

Returns have exploded since June. People who ask no questions that could dictate whether something would fit and then just open a return that the item doesnt fit go on my bloked buyer list.  It costs us money and time . We block a lot of people to save ourseleves the headache of dealing with buyers like this.  I thought it was our right to get out of the way of bad transactions.

I looked at my blocked list, which I back up to a file on my computer and there was a string of characters and deleted at the end.  Ive seen this before when an account is closed I thought.  I looked at my backup which is copied directly from the blocked buyer/bidder and they were on it, they were blocked.  I messaged the buyer and asked politely if they had ebay call me. They replied "Yes, i wanted to buy this item and we were blocked".  So the ebay rep unblocked this buyer.

So now CS is removing ID's from our blocked lists? That is completely insane.  That can clearly cause us all kinds of harm if a buyer can just call and have themselves removed. I feel like it goes way too far.  I had a buyer this year get extremely abusive going so far as to call and leave violent homophobic messages on my phone.  I kept the messages and the persons account sold uninterupted even after he responded about the phone calls via ebay messages.

I have been contacted before by message that a buyer would like to purchase but, do not recall someone being unblocked.  I have saved the correspondance and I have an idea people will say it isnt so but it is absolutely the case with the buyer confirming it.   It made me sick to my stomach.  This is my store and I pay a lot to do business here.  I follow ebays rules even when they are getting really bad. Apparently I dont habe the right to protect myself from harm in one of the last ways that exists.

The only reason we block anyone is the feedback and return systems are such a mess for sellers with zero fault being placed on the buyer regardless of when its obvious.  Sellers are rife for abuse as every buyer is not going to be fair as we all know.  Sellers who have sold for a couple of decades and in some cases tens of thousands of items can start to see what questions and actions will cause problems as conversations involving this comes up frequently here.

Being able to block buyers who have cost us money in the past which could have been avoided by asking a simple question, is more important now than ever.  With free returns being pushed down our throats (which it is or supposedly we may not show up well in search results) people may think its fine to just buy and try on and not even attempt to ask if said item may fit. They may do it once and see how easy it is to just guess, they may do it 5 times if we cant stop them. That would be ebay sanctioned abuse.

So now is ebay forcing us to do business with buyers who weve blocked?  I think that is going too far and putting us in harms way after we are stepping out of it.

[pjcdn2005]

I haven't read every single word of this thread but I get the impression that you think that the op has a no return policy and I don't believe that's true.  It sounds as if they have a free return policy and when a buyer returned an item due to buyer's remorse the seller put the buyer on their block list because the free return (and the original shipping) cost them money.  If that wasn't the situation I apologize to the op for misunderstanding.     

I don't advocate that ebay take anyone off of a seller's block list in any circumstance so I am not suggesting that they should have done that in this situation.

But as a separate issue, I also don't think that a seller should offer free returns and then 'punish' a buyer by blocking them when they take advantage of a policy that the seller chose to offer. That's sort of like having a return policy but then only wanting to accept returns if the item was not described properly.

jmho

[mam98031]

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@tellmemama wrote:

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@tunicaslot wrote:

nana - I completely agree as I had the same thing happen 2 weeks ago - buyer opened an SNAD because she bought a boy's shirt and thought it was a man's size. Didn't look at the category it was listed in - didn't read the listing or measurements and felt I was to blame. What you can do is call CS and show them that it was indeed a remorse return and they will credit the cost of the return shipping label.

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Of course you may get the credit for the label but did the rep actually change the reason for the return to buyer's remorse?  Nowadays I'm betting a big fat nope.  So while you may have gotten refunded for return postage and maybe were even allowed to withhold the initial shipping cost, you may still end up with a SNAD return in your metric.  Even when it clearly isn't one which is not fair at all.  Let a few of these pile up and voila'.  If your "peers" in the given category have fewer returns, you get to pay 40% more in FVFs.

So fight the good fight but be prepared to lose one way or the other.

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It is my understand that ebay won't change the type of Request under any circumstance anymore.  And of course that would be due to the new metrics in which we have to adhere to.

[mam98031]

I haven't read every single word of this thread but I get the impression that you think that the op has a no return policy and I don't believe that's true. 

I have no idea what type of return policy the OP has as they are not posting with their selling ID.  I have however responded to a couple other posters that DO HAVE a no return policy and I was responding to something they said.

It sounds as if they have a free return policy and when a buyer returned an item due to buyer's remorse the seller put the buyer on their block list because the free return (and the original shipping) cost them money.  If that wasn't the situation I apologize to the op for misunderstanding.     

No problem.  I just think you took something I was saying to another poster as being to the OP when it wasn't.

I don't advocate that ebay take anyone off of a seller's block list in any circumstance so I am not suggesting that they should have done that in this situation.

I think you will find that all of us feel the same way.  But I'm still not sure what exactly transpired here.  Hopefully the OP will come back and update us after they get the help from the blue that popped in to help.

But as a separate issue, I also don't think that a seller should offer free returns and then 'punish' a buyer by blocking them when they take advantage of a policy that the seller chose to offer. That's sort of like having a return policy but then only wanting to accept returns if the item was not described properly.

jmho

I think that is a valid point and I'm with you on that.

[pjcdn2005]

Oops...you're right. I totally lost track of who the op was. My apologies.

[ifyouloveit]

And like any B&M store, we have the right to refuse service to anyone. It is our store, our items, our money. If eBay wants to allow blocked buyers to come back to a seller, then they should be accountable for any nonsense that blocked buyer does. Like that would ever happen, but there has to be some safe guards on eBay somewhere for sellers.

[mam98031]

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@pjcdn2005 wrote:

Oops...you're right. I totally lost track of who the op was. My apologies.

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Been there and dont that !!!  LOL

[ted_200]

For 20 yrs I have heard that Ebay is failing...

eCommerce is growing at 20% + YOY.  eBay isn't growing at even 1/3 that rate.  Because of that, they're losing market share every single year.  Reasonable people could conclude shrinking market share is failing.  But you are right in one regard... it's only been failing for about 10 years now...

Other sites I'm on do not have BBL lists...

The other sites I'm on don't need  any.  If I have a problem buyer, I tell them "I won't sell to you anymore, don't buy my stuff again".  If they do, I simply cancel and refund - there is no "defect", no eating listing fees, no getting stuck with negative feedback, no nonsense.  In fact, I can do that with sketchy buyers who are "new to me" problems, and were never "blocked" or told to go away. 

All that notwithstanding, it just isn't much of an issue on other sites... policies and functionality on those sites don't breed swarms of problem buyers and transactions, eBay is unique in the frequency of scams and problem transactions that occur.

So at least we've had this protection for awhile where other sites have none.

We have protected you from us!  Swell.

[ted_200]

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@nanakat75 wrote:

Check your Blocked Buyer list.  It might just be shorter than it used to be!

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Everyone should back it up, on your own computer.  That's how OP discovered this had happened, they've got a copy of that list with the subject user ID on it. 

After reports of other lists disappearing entirely, I backed mine up, and do so every few months.  Twice mine has disappeared, I was able to restore it.  I have reinstated individual IDs too, but they weren't removed by CS (I don't think).  One, eBay NARU'd the buyer after they neg.d dozens of sellers without paying them.  That removed the ID from my BBL.  But eBay un-NARU'd the ID 30 days later, and they were at it again - and not on my BBL. 

[ted_200]

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@nanakat75 wrote:

As stated in my post, this was  Refund Request, not a SNAD.

Previously, I have had the option on Refund Requests, to have the person ship back at THEIR expense.

I'm not talking about the ridiculous SNAD policies.

When a buyer fails to look at the pictures, check the category in which the item is listed, read the Item Specics, AND read the auction ad with measurements, why should I have to pay both initial and return shipping?

This isn't even Buyer's Remorse.  It's Buyer's Stupidity/Laziness.

I take responsibility when I make a rare mistake in some respect.  Why can't buyers do the same?  

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Is it possible that listing was "No Returns", or listed with Returns - Seller pays Return Shipping?  I can understand why those might not have a "Return" option that isn't Seller pays for the label.  That may be a stupid question, but it's worth asking before we conclude eBay is responsible for stupid site functionality...

[ted_200]

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@nanakat75 wrote:

Thought about that,  but I have a few days before the deadline to see if buyer will respond to the request.

Why do people request a return, then do not respond?

*SIGH*

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They're hoping for "Here's your refund, just keep the item."?

[ted_200]

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@ifyouloveit wrote:
And like any B&M store, we have the right to refuse service to anyone. It is our store, our items, our money. If eBay wants to allow blocked buyers to come back to a seller, then they should be accountable for any nonsense that blocked buyer does. Like that would ever happen, but there has to be some safe guards on eBay somewhere for sellers.

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You should, but you don't.  Here you have the right to an OOS Defect, a neg., and 65¢ in lost listing/PayPal fees if you refuse service. 

[threshold.sales.group]

So, if the BBL can now be officially circumvented, can someone explain what purpose it serves?  

[mam98031]

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@threshold.sales.group wrote:

So, if the BBL can now be officially circumvented, can someone explain what purpose it serves?  

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What the OP describes is NOT something that is typically done by a CSR at the call center.  This is the first time we have heard of such a complaint by anyone on the threads.  It remains a mystery at this point what actually transpired.  A blue did post on the thread and asked the OP to contact him so they could work together to see what happened and how to fix or respond to the issue.  Hopefully the OP has done that and hopefully the OP will update the thread once they do.

You may be referring to the ability to use another account to purchase from a seller that has one or more of your accounts blocked.  And sadly yes, Ebay allows this.  Most buyers don't have multiple accounts they purchase with so it isn't something that happens on a regular basis.  But it can and Ebay will not do anything to step in and reprimand the buyer for doing so unless they hurt the seller in some way.

[creekcoyote]

"It was a logical assumption in view of that and in view of the statement, several times, that buyers don't ask questions about fit.  I'm at a loss to know what questions a buyer can ask to determine fit that wouldn't be in the listing, such as item runs large or small, etc.  And measurements would eliminate the need to state that.  So as a clothing seller, enlighten me and I apologize for my ignorance, what can a buyer ask to determine size?  You? "

I had an issue a few days ago with a potential buyer asking me if the vintage shoes I was selling were true to size.  I already had posted the measurements plus the actual size used by the manufacturer.  Just what did this buyer want to know that I would be able to tell them?  Since everyone's feet are different and many shoes don't fit the same even if they are the same size, there really was no answer to this question that I hadn't already put in the listing.  I think that it is questions like this.  Questions in which the answer is readily available in the listing that make many sellers question if they want to do business with someone who apparently cannot read.  That is why the BBL is such a good tool for sellers to use. 

[coolections]

I suppose we can see if the OP returns with FACTS or if this topic is just another rumour and the buyer block was not removed by CS.