Have you heard of this list?

[onecooljazzdog]

Had a seller respond to me when I asked if they would be relisting an item that did not sell at auction and if they did would they do it as a buy it now...their reply was.....

"No, as you are on the list of eBay "nuisance buyers" who waste sellers time without buying anything."

Does anybody know of such a list?

I admit I ask a lot of questions...always have and always will...as sometimes descriptions may not be that detailed and sadly I am one of these people who needs to know somethings about an item...and sometimes it just happens to be not to my liking and I then don't bid or buy.

It appears some sellers don't believe in good old fashioned customer service and I have found myself blocked from some sellers just for this reason.

Right? or wrong?

[digital*ghost]

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@onecooljazzdog wrote:

Right? or wrong?

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Personally, I don't really think it's a right or wrong kind of issue.

Before I get into that, though, I do want to point out that any such list - or lists, to be more specific - that exist, would be private ones, in that there is no official, universal, or eBay sanctioned, list of members to block (there's a few websites floating around that sellers can view and/or contribute to, but they are independently operated tend to be for the worst repeat offenders, scammers and the like).

Every seller has access to the function to block bidders, and some sellers will bring member IDs to the attention of others, particularly in some categories where the sellers are relatively friendly with each other - just as a completely random example, say I liked to buy collectible pens (I don't, though they can be kinda nice... 😄 ) but frequently claimed my items never arrived - pen sellers who knew each other might say "that digital*ghost seems to be pretty unlucky with pens...", and then those sellers may elect to block me from buying from them.

Would I like it? Probably not very much at all, whether I was being honest about non-arrival or not, but at the end of the day, it s a seller's right to choose who they don't want to deal with, for whatever reason they deem fit, so I would just have to accept it and move on.

Asking a lot of questions wouldn't be high on my list of offences, it'd be pretty low actually, unless there was some other kind of issue present (if I felt I was being disrespected in any way during the course of conversation, I might start to consider it if my attempts to 'brighten' the attitude don't work, or if the member kept asking questions where the answer was either in the description or already provided in a message - which has happened in the past). 

I have blocked buyers from purchasing from me for reasons that other sellers would not, and vice versa, and just speaking for myself, I rarely pay attention to 'this buyer is trouble' kind of alerts unless the issue is something of high concern to me (lots of questions, no problem, non-payer...not usually, but scamming, feedback extortion, serial neg-leavers for spurious reasons... I'd almost certainly check them out with a view to adding to my BBL - blocked bidder list). By which I mean to say, it's kind of a matter of 'each to their own' more than it is 'right or wrong', to me anyway. 

[onecooljazzdog]

Thanks for that, helps a bit.
But it just feels rough that because people who have had an issue with my questions in the past can then affect how other sellers reply/approach me when I do ask a question.
It does hurt when you are an obsessive collector just wanting to add to a collection.

[digital*ghost · Accepted solution]

I can understand that - it reminds me a little of something I read elsewhere recently, where a buyer asked a seller a question about an item and the response demanded to know if they were actually going to buy it, because to be able to answer the question, the seller needed to go and get the item and check it out (which was a problem for them). 

It could be said that sellers like that are doing the buyer a favour. 😉

If it's something that seems to be becoming a consistent issue, perhaps you may want to consider prefacing the first message you send with a "warning". (<<<I don't mean that as bad as it sounds  it was just the only way I could think of to put it  ). 

eg something like - I'm interested in this item, but would like to ask a few detailed questions before I can make a decision, your time would be greatly appreciated if you were willing to provide assistance. 

[onecooljazzdog]

Thanks again so much for your help and advice..
I love the sound of that approach, hope you don't mind but I have copied it to a word doc to use as a guide.
I usually try to sign off my messages with regards and thanks anyway.

[lyndal1838]

You have been very lucky in the response you received from digital ghost.   She is one of the most respected and moderate posters on the boards.

Many sellers are a lot less tolerant than Digi.

If you read the boards you will see members talking about Blocked Bidders List (BBL) Party Lists, Special Lists and so on.

It is just their way of suggesting that the member being talked about is likely to cause trouble and should be blocked from bidding or buying.

Buyers can be blocked for a lot less than asking questions.  Many of the regular boardies are blocked by some sellers who just don't like the opinions they post on the boards. This question is probably enough for you to find your way onto a lot of Lists not only of posters on the boards but also of the "lurkers" who read but don't post here.

Just a question though.....are you perhaps asking questions that are already answered in the listings?   There is nothing more timewasting or annoying than for a seller to be asked questions that they have already answered by posting a very comprehensive listing with plenty of photos.

[joethenuts]

Hi i can understand some sellers blocking buyers i genaraly dont  but sometimes i have to pull my hair out

 i sell house paint   and some of the questions  are amazinng.

one day somebody messages me with whats the smallest amount can i buy  i say 500ml  then they message me back do you have any bigger ,i say 1 litre  they message me back do you have any larger  i say 2 litre   then they message me back how much and so 

after 12 messages all they had to say was do you stock 2 litres of paint and how much is it.....

we take pictures of paint with odd colors so the buyers can see the colors i have got messages from buyers asking does this can of paint come with a lid  mmmmmmmmmm

or how much paint do i need to paint my fence  mmmmmmmm no measurements given 

or what color should i paint my front fence   mmmmmmmmm

[horizon1907]

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@onecooljazzdog wrote:
Thanks for that, helps a bit.
But it just feels rough that because people who have had an issue with my questions in the past can then affect how other sellers reply/approach me when I do ask a question.
It does hurt when you are an obsessive collector just wanting to add to a collection.

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onejazz, I'm always more than happy for people / buyers to ask questions. Describing an item that is not new, can sometimes be quite daunting. What I may think is normal, others may not & vice versa.  As an Avid Collector ( Pottery & Glass )  myself, I often ask if the object has crazing. Example, some folk think, that if an it is old, it will have crazing naturally. ( wrong )  Also, some photos dont show up as well as they should. I would prefer folk to ask questions prior to bidding, so they are informed.  There are many reasons why folks ask questions.  Unfortunately, these days it's not as common as it used to be. 

[i-love-my-sheep]

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@joethenuts wrote:

Hi i can understand some sellers blocking buyers i genaraly dont  but sometimes i have to pull my hair out

 i sell house paint   and some of the questions  are amazinng.

one day somebody messages me with whats the smallest amount can i buy  i say 500ml  then they message me back do you have any bigger ,i say 1 litre  they message me back do you have any larger  i say 2 litre   then they message me back how much and so 

after 12 messages all they had to say was do you stock 2 litres of paint and how much is it.....

we take pictures of paint with odd colors so the buyers can see the colors i have got messages from buyers asking does this can of paint come with a lid  mmmmmmmmmm

or how much paint do i need to paint my fence  mmmmmmmm no measurements given 

or what color should i paint my front fence   mmmmmmmmm

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Oh Joe, I feel your frustration! I had a buyer a few months ago send a message asking what colour the green Malachite was!!!

I also welcome questions, regardless of how stupid they might sound. I'd never stick someone on the BBL because they asked "too many" questions. I'd rather buyers be informed about the item of interest, than them buy it, and it's not what they want, so they make some excuse to return it. 

By buyers asking questions, I have found a few faults with some items that I didn't realise were there at the time of listing and also some added benefits. One example was, I had some lab created (man made) Alexandrite stones that I was listing. A buyer sent a message asking if it changed colour. I knew the real stones changed colour in different light (from blue to pink), but didn't think the fake ones would. Got the trusty torch out, shone it on the stone and it changed from blue to pink, just like that! Out came the camera, new photos taken and uploaded, buyer liked what they saw and bought it! So sometimes it can be a good thing for buyers to ask questions!

The ones that end up on my BBL are serial neg leavers or serial non payers. My blocks usually stop the serial non payers, but I put them on there anyway, just in case.

[digital*ghost]

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@lyndal1838 wrote:

You have been very lucky in the response you received from digital ghost.   She is one of the most respected and moderate posters on the boards.

Many sellers are a lot less tolerant than Digi.

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Unless the question is about why sellers don't leave feedback on payment...   (By which I mean to say, thank you 🙂 ).

I actually like getting questions from buyers, or questions that do need me to answer at any rate - the other day I had someone ask me if my products were suitable for a certain use and I had never even heard of the process they referred to, so I spent half an hour researching the answer. I still couldn't answer them properly, but questions like that give me great insight into how people might want to use my products and the kind of information they need when they're looking at them. It can also let me know about similar items that they'd come to my store looking for, and if I can update or adapt existing listings with more info, and/or find new product ranges, all the better. 

I do get that for some sellers, an influx of questions is a bit of a red flag, in that after a while, a seller may feel that the buyer is not going to be able to be pleased no matter what. Usually I can kind of gauge if I'm going to be able to meet a buyer's expectations after a few messages, and if I don't think I can, I provide some alternative avenues and just say it's unlikely I'll be able to meet their needs at this time (i.e. "it's not you, it's me" 🙂 ), but that I hope they're able to find what they're looking for (I don't block, though, unless they've been very rude or demanding, which is rare).