How to Block a Buyer on eBay (3 Simple Steps)

Most of the time, eBay merchants are incredibly grateful for their customers. The overwhelming majority of the time, interactions are pleasant and everyone winds up happy.

Nevertheless, if you have actually been selling on eBay long enough, you’re bound to come across some uncomfortable buyers who lose your time and others who try to steal from you. That’s why eBay gives you the power to prevent specific people from acquiring your items.

For scenarios like this; here’s how to block a purchaser on eBay.

Reasons you might need to block a buyer on eBay

When you obstruct a buyer on eBay, they can’t purchase any of your products. Blocked users will still have the ability to see your listings, however they can’t bid, make an offer or choose to ‘Buy it now’.

However, it’s not like obstructing somebody on WhatsApp or Facebook. They’ll still have the ability to call you (although there is a method to block messages from these users too!).

Blocking buyers on eBay should not be a daily occurrence. However sometimes there’s good reason to avoid somebody from bidding on or buying your products– particularly if you’ve had an unfavorable experience with this buyer in the past.

Some legitimate factors to block a purchaser include:.

Non-payment of purchases.
Support out of quotes.
Negative or violent interactions.
Deceptive activity.
They’re a rival and you don’t desire them to be able to purchase your items.
As soon as you obstruct an eBay buyer, the restriction will apply to each and every single one of your listings. For this reason, eBay warns sellers to use this function carefully.

How to block a buyer on eBay

As soon as you choose to block a buyer, you’ll need their user ID or e-mail address. Then, you can follow these simple steps.

Step 1: Go to the block bidders page

After logging into your account, go to the ‘Block bidders or buyers from your listings‘ page.

If you do not have the link to hand, you can click ‘Help & Contact’ at the top of any eBay page and search ‘Block buyer’. The very first link which appears will also bring you to this page.

Step 2: Enter the purchaser’s username

In the text box, you can include the user ID or e-mail of any purchaser you wish to block from your listings. If you’re including more than one, make sure to separate each of them with a comma.

eBay enables you to add up to 5,000 users to this black list. Though, hopefully, things will never get rather that bad!

It’s also worth noting that the ‘Bring back list’ button above the text box permits you to see or restore previous variations of your obstructed buyers list.

Step 3: Send your blocked purchasers

When you have actually completed copying in usernames, make sure to click ‘submit’ so the list is saved.

If all the usernames you went into stand, you’ll see a message like this:.

If any of the usernames or e-mails are void, eBay will let you know with a message like this:.

Once you have actually blocked some buyers, their names will automatically appear in the text box on the block bidders page– even if you revitalize it or return later on. To unclog a purchaser, you simply remove them from this list and click ‘Submit’ as soon as again to save the modifications.

An optional step: obstructing messages

Obstructed users are still enabled to message you about a listing. If you choose to alter this, you can do so on the buyer requirements page of your eBay account. You’ll discover this page under the ‘Website Preferences‘ tab in your account.

Inspect the box which mentions ‘Don’t allow obstructed purchasers to contact me’. And you’re set.

Obstructed buyers will no longer see the ‘Contact seller’ button on your listings. Though they’ll still have the ability to connect regarding any past transactions they have actually had with you.

Preemptively blocking buyers

If you discover you’re blocking purchasers regularly, it may be a good concept to set up some criteria which will prevent certain groups from buying your products.

For instance, you could block users with a history of non-payment. This might conserve you a great deal of headaches and lower the number of overdue item cases you have to deal with!

Or you could even get really strategic and block buyers from specific countries or areas where it is pricey to ship too. This could be an excellent method of protecting your company if you’re working with low margin items while also offering free shipping.

Block eBay purchasers by setting up requirements

By adding buyer requirements for your shop, you can set out minimum standards which eBay users should meet before they purchase from you. This can reduce your chances of having negative experiences with purchasers.

Nevertheless, you should be very mindful when implementing these requirements, because they have the potential to impact your eBay sales.

On the Buyer Requirements page, you can obstruct buyers who:.

Have a history of non-payment taped on their account.
Have breached other eBay policies in the past.
Have a low feedback rating.
Are presently winning or have purchased 1-100 of your products in the past 10 days (you define the number).
Don’t have a PayPal account.
Have a primary delivery address in an area you do not deliver to.

To carry out some of these requirements for your eBay shop, you can once again head to the Buyer Requirements page. (As we already discussed above, you can also get to this page through the Site Preferences tab in your account.)

Block buyers by location

It is also possible for sellers to obstruct eBay purchasers who are located in a specific state or nation.

This will just make sense if you’re attempting to reduce eBay shipping costs. For example, you may want to prevent international shipping. Or if you’re based in the United States, you may want to prevent orders heading to certain regions, like Alaska and Hawaii.

To block buyers from a particular region, you can head to your account’s shipping preferences. This link is available under your account’s website choices too.

From here, you’ll see an area which enables you to omit shipping places. Click ‘modify’ under this heading.

Now you’ll have the ability to produce a list of excluded shipping locations by just checking the relevant boxes.

Finally, you can head back to the purchaser requirements page and check the box, which states: ‘Block purchasers from locations you do not ship to’.

Final thoughts

Blocking buyers can conserve you some headaches. But ensure do not get too carried away!

If you block too many buyers, you could start to maim your sales. Use these tools moderately and frequently examine your obstructed buyer activity log to make certain the limitations you have actually set up aren’t injuring your shop.

You’ll have the ability to see just how much interest in your listings is coming from blocked users. If there’s a great deal of activity and you seem like you’re losing out, you can constantly examine your lists in order to increase your eBay sales once again.