Blocked by an Ebay seller?

[DrRumack80]

Last night, I tried to purchase springs and mounting bolts to rebuild a set of Mafac cantilevers from PB Bikes, aka Vintage NOS Bicycle Parts from Portland, OR. The message stated "this seller is not accepting bids or offers from you." I've been on Ebay since 1998 with over 1,100 positive feedback. I've left 2 or 3 negative feedback in 25 years, which were for sellers who lied about the condition of the items.

While I'm very familiar with this seller's auctions, I could not find any evidence in my feedback that I had ever purchased anything from this seller in the past. I sent a message to the seller stating that I would like to purchase the items and asking about why he blocked me. Has this every happened to anyone else?

 

[Archie Sturmer]

Today I received a couple of offers for some small items, but received a different error message, that the item(s) could not be added to my cart. I might try tomorrow, but the offer may expire by then.

Last year I received another offer, but then received an error message that that domestic seller does not ship to my CONUS state.

Perhaps if you have previously sent the seller a message with information correcting a listing, could have been enough to set the seller off?

 

[ozzie]

Hi Doc. Yes a seller did it to me after I asked him to upload a few photos of flaws in the finish he noted were present in some brand name bmx forks he had for sale. He refused to upload the photos and when I went to buy a different item at a later date I got the message you did. A couple of minutes of work may have netted him a sale plus a few more down the road. I just took my business elsewhere.

 

[GTs58]

Can a seller block buyers from particular states? Just thinking out loud. It’s been a few years since I sold on eBay. If you’ve never dealt with the seller or had any communications with him, I see no way how he could block you using your eBay ID.

 

[GTs58]

Looks like you can!

To increase your chances of making a sale, you'll usually want as many potential buyers as possible. However, we understand that there may be certain types of buyer you don't want to do business with, or certain regions or countries where you don't want to send items.

Excluding shipping locations​

If you don't want to ship to specific locations, you can prevent buyers from using a shipping address in those locations.

You can set exclusion lists for both domestic regions and international countries/regions. You can also decide whether to create a single default exclusion list and apply it to all your active listings, or set exclusion lists for individual listings.

• Exclude shipping locations so that buyers can't check out with a shipping address you don't want to ship to
• Set buyer requirements to block buyers from bidding on or agreeing to buy your items, based on certain criteria
• Allow buyer exemptions for individual buyers who are being blocked by your requirements

You can also choose to block individual buyers from purchasing your items.

Set buyer requirements​

You can choose to block buyers based on certain criteria. For example, buyers living in a country you don't ship to, or buyers with excessive canceled orders because they didn't pay for items.

You can also choose to exclude specific postage locations (regions, countries, PO boxes) from your listings.

For more information, see our page on setting buyer requirements.

 

[DrRumack80]

Thanks for all the replies and insight, guys.

Interesting about the "buyer requirements". I have retracted bids maybe 3 or 4 times in the past, but never did I not pay for an item. About 20 years ago, a seller left negative feedback because I paid on the 4th day and he wanted payment within 3 days. OK, I was late, but it did not warrant a negative. So I left him a negative and it started a war in the feedback forum and in emails. Wish I had saved those!

I totally understand sellers trying to protect their reputations from flaky and vindictive buyers. This particular seller has a stellar reputation and has quality items. Supposedly, Ebay does not allow sellers to leave negative feedback for their buyers? If so, that is completely wrong.

As a follow-up, I never did receive a reply from seller to my inquiry. I still badly needed those items, so I purchased them using the "Guest" checkout feature. Order has been shipped according to Ebay. Fingers crossed that he does not cancel the orders. I spent $95 for 4 springs and 4 hex bolts. Mafac parts are getting hard to find.

 

[DrRumack80]

Hi Doc. Yes a seller did it to me after I asked him to upload a few photos of flaws in the finish he noted were present in some brand name bmx forks he had for sale. He refused to upload the photos and when I went to buy a different item at a later date I got the message you did. A couple of minutes of work may have netted him a sale plus a few more down the road. I just took my business elsewhere.

That could be it. I do recall asking this seller questions in the past. However, he is the only one that currently has the parts I need, so I had to do an end run and check out as a "Guest"

I decided to do restore this '82 Stumpjumper back to its original configuration. The previous owner had swapped out the Mafac cantis and Suntour Mighty thumbies for Shimano Deer Head XT, and replaced the original Suntour ARX derailleurs with a Huret Duopar rear and Huret front mech. Amazingly, he left the original motorcycle brake cables and Mafac hangers intact.

I have all the parts, but somehow lost two of the springs and two of the mounting bolts for the Mafacs.

 

[SirMike1983]

I don't believe Ebay's technology has kept pace with the size of the site or with overall technology. Their search function is flaky, as are the auction timers. Last week, I won an auction that had "negative time left" on the auction timer with a last minute bid. They also have not shown any inclination to separate decent auctions on US-based items from shady drop-ship sales out of China.

Is there a way to exclude or block certain results as a buyer? There are certain sellers I'd like to exclude from my searches based on shady ads or routinely outrageous prices on items. I've yet to figure it out if such a function exists.

What keeps Ebay going is that it is the "default" place in the US to sell stuff worth any real money online still, though that may be eroding. Facebook market has gained steam, as have a few other sites.

 

[billyjones]

Happened to me once. I forgot why. Then remembered, I asked the seller to check on the shipping which was really really high. I was then blocked. Thats my block story. Also great feedback, 100% too, no issues.

 

[WillWork4Parts]

I don't believe Ebay's technology has kept pace with the size of the site or with overall technology. Their search function is flaky, as are the auction timers. Last week, I won an auction that had "negative time left" on the auction timer with a last minute bid. They also have not shown any inclination to separate decent auctions on US-based items from shady drop-ship sales out of China.

Is there a way to exclude or block certain results as a buyer? There are certain sellers I'd like to exclude from my searches based on shady ads or routinely outrageous prices on items. I've yet to figure it out if such a function exists.

What keeps Ebay going is that it is the "default" place in the US to sell stuff worth any real money online still, though that may be eroding. Facebook market has gained steam, as have a few other sites.

I have recently learned that flakey search engines are now a "business practice." In the case of Google Search, they have been caught veering their searches from the specific results that they poured so much computer power into developing algorithms for, finding unbiased results rapidly... because users were spending less time on the Google search engine when they found what they wanted immediately. So, in order to boost their numbers for average time a user spends on the site, they throttled back how specific that algorithm would get, more and more, and added sponsored links until you see the biased Bull$hit that they call "search results" nowadays! I'm paraphrasing, but read here if you like: https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-men...CqMqKcyGTGeYdxz_NsXEygylI_2upgQTujkirJjO0LUsC
I've noticed the eBay algorithm steering results away from what I want to find more often here lately... especially when I end up in an automotive category that I did not select, probably because it has more results that net me wasting more time on the site until I figure out what cattle chute I've been routed down.

The only good advice I have for avoiding the myriad of Chinese products is to select country of origin as North America Only under Filter options. This doesn't get rid of the English as a second language drop shippers, but it usually cuts out 90% of the spam items. What is really crap is that it seems like when you turn on the filter for Used items only now, or something that might actually return the limited results you want, you're met with "no exact matches found." Same if you try to filter out more than 2 keywords. So frustrating!!

Sorry, end of rant...