Will blocking a buyer prevent them from receiving notifications as a follower?

[retro-r-us-cali]

So my situation is that someone I know personally is potentially monitoring my listings as a follower, and I definitely want to avoid any kind of attention from this person on this site (for overly-dramatic personal reasons). I'm obviously not 100% certain they are following me, since sellers are no longer privy to that information, so it seems my only option is to block them as a buyer.

However, I'm running into conflicting information on whether that would also block any notifications they would normally get when I post. I'm not concerned about them actively searching for my listings or even stumbling upon them, I'm just trying to stay under their radar as a seller. I've talked to two eBay reps, and one seemed certain I'd be in the clear with a block, but the other indicated the opposite. Anyone have any experience with this, hopefully something rock solid? If this buyer caught on to my sales, it would be a cascading **it-show in my personal life. Thanks for any help!

[eleanor*rigby]

What little I could find about "followers" on eBay indicated you couldn't do much about them. I find it to be a creepy feature, but almost the same thing could be accomplished if your little cyber-stalker friend chose to use the "saved seller" feature. You wouldn't be aware of that activity, either.

That's sort of the give-and-take with having an online presence and an offline creep interested in your activity. *shiver*

The only thing I can think of is to open a new account for selling. It's not ideal but, in theory, the person wouldn't necessarily be able to find you. Even then, members can search for items by zip code and probably figure out your new account, if they want to go to the trouble.

Maybe someone else will come along and provide better ideas than I came up with. 

Good luck. I feel for ya.

[eburtonlab]

Your followers are just users that have used the Saved Seller feature to keep track of your items for sale. There are other ways to accomplish the same thing, though.

Anyone that knows your username can bookmark your listings or your feedback page. It is not necessary to follow you as a seller or sign in to eBay or even have an eBay account to do this, so there is no way to stop anyone that knows your username from doing just that.

If that concerns you, then registering a new account, and not sharing your new username with anyone that might pass that info along, and not listing any of the same items on the second account so there is no visible connection between your two accounts -- that is one possible option worth considering if you want to make a break from your current account but continue to sell on eBay.

[chapeau-noir]

My suggestion is to keep your account, block this person and just carry on.  The biggest reason is that it's a real pain to start all over again with a new seller account.  You can evaluate the situation as time goes on and use the new account idea as a fall-back.  I have a couple hundred followers and as far as I know, none of them have ever contacted me, though I do have repeat business.

[retro-r-us-cali]

Thanks so much for your insights. I forgot to mention: I already tried to create an account and just sell my items from there, but eBay shut it down almost immediately and banned the account from selling. Something about the type of item, but they would not give me any details "so people would not learn how to circumvent it". They did tell me my main account would not have this issue, though, which is what led here.

That being said, I'm not sure I was clear on my post: I'm not concerned about the user actively seeking me out, so bookmarking or not being logged in is of no consequence. They're not actively searching for my posts or the items I'm selling. My only concern is popping up on their radar due to this feature, blocked or not. 

I should also state that in the event this buyer does find these listings, it could potentially exact a pretty heavy price on my family and I, hence the reason for "rock-solid" information. Any first-hand experience or the like would be greatly appreciated.

[eleanor*rigby]

If your concern is that serious, I'd reconsider the importance of continuing to sell on eBay.

[mr_lincoln]

@retro-r-us-cali   What I DO know is that eBay in their never ending fight to control everything a Seller does is they stopped letting Sellers see who is following them.  I think this was a ridiculous move on their part, the Followers are following the Sellers and not because of anything eBay did.  The Followers BELONG TO THE SELLERS AND NOT EBAY.

[wpt05]

@eleanor*rigby 

Saving the seller is the same as following.  Click "💙 Save" then refresh the screen, followers go up by 1.  Click "💙 Saved", then refresh again, followers go down by 1.  

[iamalwaysright]

Did you steal that persons stuff and are auctioning it all off on eBay or something?

[na_833338 · Accepted solution]

You could try creating a second account, then following your first account so you could block the second account and see what effect it has, if any.   Maybe?  At least you could use it to 'beta-test' whatever someone else might suggest to see what works.

[wpt05]

@retro-r-us-cali 

After they are added to your blocked list you can update the screen below too.  

Buyer Management | eBay

"Don't allow blocked buyers to contact me" 

[retro-r-us-cali]

I don't know why I didn't think of that before! This seems like my best bet, much appreciated.

[itsjustasprain]

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@retro-r-us-cali wrote:

So my situation is that someone I know personally is potentially monitoring my listings as a follower, and I definitely want to avoid any kind of attention from this person on this site (for overly-dramatic personal reasons).

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All I see in your listings are $3 bracelets and you even accepted a lower offer on the one you sold - so Im thinking that maybe you could just take a break from Ebay for a while and maybe your follower will give up. If you really need to unload those bracelets without your follower knowing and setting up your own secondary account didnt work then maybe a friend would be willing to sell them for you. Or just flip them elsewhere. 

[pjcdn2005]

A blocked buyer can't contact you through an item or purchase your item but if they are searching for what you are selling, they will still see your listings.