Should eBay Allow Buyers to Block Certain Sellers?

by: GetAGrip

Wow only a really foolish buyer would buy something again from a seller who put the knife to them. To funny. We don't need any more of fleecebay interference in our lives. Learn to live with it like the rest of us.

by: 1st Armored Div. 1971-1973

I got no problems with this.

by: AddyUp

The number of "blocked bad sellers" would be tiny compared to the number of "blocked bad buyers" so surely just jotting all their names on the back of a postage stamp would do it.

by: lessthanthreerecords

I wouldn't be against the idea, but with fairly limited/specific searches returning 10,000+ results (the vast majority of which do NOT match what was entered), I think eBay has bigger fish to fry at the moment.

by: toolguy

20,000 buys!

And here people say search doesn't work, it worked for you over and over again. . .

by: Lightning

It's not hard to accidentally buy from a seller you had a bad experience with in the past.  After a year or two, the name may not sound familiar, especially if you buy 10-20 things a week.  A lot of ebay names are very similar. After 10 years, odds are poor you will notice until it is too late, fell victim again.  And you WILL bump into them again, if they sell in the same category you frequently purchase in.

I have been asking for this function for over 15 years, but to no avail.  I keep a list on a spreadsheet, but it is time consuming to keep referring to it (also time consuming if you don't, and get caught a second time).  

It should be as easy as blocking an annoying phone number, but somehow beyond the ability of the ''world's greatest technology company''.

And what can defeat is if the seller changes names, because that is what it would key on.  

by: SoniaD

Oh yes, please yes, pretty please.  I purchase (less and less these days) in an area which is probably 95% fakes.  There are totally egregious vendors of such that swamp the search results.  Would kill to be able to exclude them.  

by: I_Fix_Dolls

It would probably help me more on Etsy where I tend to buy digital items more than once for the same thing, but then again that would probably need "Item Blocking" since it wouldn't be the seller's fault that I don't do a thorough check every time I find something I might want to buy. Not the seller's fault I am sometimes an air head. There are a few sellers I might want to block if they are people who steal pictures etc from other sellers, or are just bad to buy from. I don't buy much from ebay but when I do, I I do have expectations.

by: Snapped

“ It should be as easy as blocking an annoying phone number, but somehow beyond the ability of the ''world's greatest technology company''.”

It’s not a new or even an entirely a bad idea, certainly for regular buyers who otherwise have to wade through each search return pile ‘manually’.  That’s probably not a large population in the buyer pool however, and it’s dwindling.

But it’s certainly feasible to accomplish by software, though it isn’t as easy as it is to do for the buyer list. Which is likely why eBay hasn’t even trotted out one of their ‘you asked we listened surveys’ on it for all these years.

Although the ‘filter’ (your list) is an independent object as it would be for a seller filter, the ‘queries’ TO it are much different.  For the buyer list, only that one buyer (as they make a purchase ‘attempt’) needs to be filtered.  Like that one phone call (email, text, etc.) can be ‘blocked’. And the code for all that is pretty basic.  Even for eBay.

But blocking sellers (more than just one each time) means MULTIPLY (and infinitely variably) filtering ALL the search return itemS (your query) with each associated seller through your list, and doing so either before or after (hard to say which would be more ‘logical’) all the other filters you’ve selected - PLUS those eBay surreptitiously applies - have taken their bytes.  

More complicated coding than for the buyer list.  More data storage - for each buyer account.  More ‘maintenance’.  And last but by no means least, more cost.  PLUS, there’s eBay’s demonstrated ineptitudes in the realm of software development and operations to consider, just for an extra bit of ‘assurance’ you’ll be accurately presented with what you asked for.  

Like, you know, how you are now.

by: Nonesuch

I have no problem with this.

One can already block any seller using the search / saved search function on eBay.  One just has to enter the seller's eBay ID in the search bar, and put an minus sign in front of it.  I use this functionality quite frequently to eliminate from search results sellers I have no interest in, for whatever reason (absurdly high priced inventory, stale inventory, wrong inventory that eBay's search engine fails to exclude, etc.).  

by: Dragonfyree

They should.  A buyer shouldn't have to list all the sellers they don't want to purchase from in search to not see them.  

There are a lot of reasons you might not want to buy from a particular seller, from simply, you didn't like how they packaged the item, or it didn't quite match the description but not worth sending back, etc.  To major issues with the seller.  

by: Chicago48

I got no problems with this.
^^
Under what situation would a seller be a repeat offender?  For example, would it be that the seller doesn't ship the product but collects the money?

by: Fruitylovesyou

If its excluding from a previous transaction that went sour, chances are they are putting the screws to others so your suggestion doesn't make sense if their program is actually working effectively, they would be weeded off. Nah I think the intentions are something else. Bad sellers just come back under another id, as a power buyer you should know this. Hows this, for every neg you give you would automatically be blocked from seeing their inventory. Same intent for you, no? Or is it.

by: beagleboy

I'd love the ability to block sellers.  I buy large lots of antique/vintage items for individual resale and have 100+ sellers that I would rather not buy from again in the future.  It's not that their bad sellers, it's that their lots are very picked over and offer little resale value.  They tend not to state that in the description.  And setting up search doesn't cover me as their listings are constantly pushed to me via promoted listings.

by: pace306

"I am a power buyer with 20,000 plus buys including one ex-wife on eBay"

He bought his ex wife on eBay? LMAO

by: Gary

I asked for this feature in 2010. The reply I got was an explanation of how the ''Search Feature'' worked.

As an aside, I used to sell stuff on ebay. But in 2013 their constant (buggy) updates broke the listing process on my browser so I stopped selling. The response from ebay was ''buy a different computer''.

I haven't regretted not being able to sell on ebay and now am quite happy that ebay did me the inadvertent favor.

by: GreenMen

Absolutely. I've encountered a few sellers over the years that are so terrible that I never want to buy from them again. All I have at the moment is my brain to remember them. Not as reliable as a list that's stored.

by: comments

I don't buy much on ebay these days but I think this would be a welcome change and it is good for buyers and sellers.

If I know a seller has a bad attitude, is violating ebay policy, or doesn't accurately describe items it would be very nice to put a safe guard in place to prevent me from repeating a bad experience in the same way a seller might block a buyer to prevent another bad selling experience.

It might also serve everyone if blocked buyers couldn't see blocked seller listings and blocked sellers items don't display to the buyer who blocked the seller. For example it would be nice to block the plague sellers who list every used item as "new - open box".

by: GetAGrip

If OP is so unhappy with some sellers then maybe he should try contacting them and having them put him on their blocked bidder list. Problem solved.

by: Alfacar

Wishful thinking. Advertising algorithm would stop working like Ebay want if buyers were blocking sellers. For example, they feature one seller over and over and 10 of this sellers items- it is hard to see any other sellers items. If buyers were blocking that seller due to not great experience then who would Ebay be taking money for clicks?
By the way impressions and advertising and traffic is very off those days.