New feature needed: block seller (to hide their items)
Summary: A participant asks whether there have been any developments on a feature to block sellers so their items are hidden. They note that it’s too cumbersome to remember all the names and check again with every search.
Hello everyone,
I have a suggestion for improving the website.
I need the ability to block certain sellers in order to hide their products. Because some shops really ruin the feed with low-quality or uninteresting products.
Right now you can only follow the seller (save seller), but you can’t hide their products.
55 comments
amdbuster
·2 months agoDoes anyone know if anything has happened with that by now? I’d also like to have the Amazon sellers blocked.
No, I’m not doing that every time with a new search, it’s way too much hassle to remember all the names!!!
petersmodellbahnstuebchen
·2 months agoHey @amdbuster
You can exclude the sellers you don't want to buy from at any time in the advanced search:
And you can save this search too.
Best wishes from the Baltic Sea
Peter
amdbuster
·2 months agoIf you can read... I already said that I’m not doing it like that and that it’s totally cumbersome too. You’d have to go to the trouble of writing down the sellers somewhere and then entering them every time you search. ABSOLUTELY NOT! Since it works for buyers, it shouldn’t be a problem for sellers either.
It would be enough if it were then shown at checkout that I’m currently with an unwanted seller.
altezeit
·10 months agoReally now? The limping one has now also fallen!
An ad in a little ad paper? (Can you click on that?) (stuff like that goes straight from the mailbox into the paper recycling bin if I even find one in there despite the sticker "no advertising"). You compare something like that to a well-stocked shelf of goods in front of which I stand as a customer, but whose goods simply can't be put into the shopping cart so that one can buy them? That is already psychological terror!
Why should I, as a seller, be interested in wanting to run and pay for "certain ad campaigns", for " impressions and clicks" that are shown to potential customers, but which I have simultaneously forbidden them to buy? So cause 100% costs, but generate no revenue?
That is a contradiction in itself, and a nice loss-making deal.
And yes, as a decision-maker at eBay, the shopping experience of buyers would also be important to me, because if they stay away, sales drop too.
I had written; "
It’s really that simple: if the seller blocks you (he doesn’t want to sell you anything!), then their listings should automatically no longer be shown to you in the item lists either (provided you are logged in).
To that you reply: "If you were a decision-maker at eBay, would you support the requested hiding of the seller, whose implementation costs money and reduces revenue? I wouldn’t."
The implementation is only a few lines of code in the script, and a DB entry. A programmer does that in 5 minutes, it’s exactly as easy as blocking a buyer. So implementing it only costs an instruction to a full-time programmer to do it.
And it also doesn’t "reduce revenue", because you already can’t buy anything from that seller anyway.
petersmodellbahnstuebchen
·10 months agoHey @altezeit
if the seller notices that his impressions and clicks are dropping, he will certainly scale back his advertising activities here on Ebay and thus generate less revenue for Ebay.
Even if you can't buy from him, you see these offers and generate impressions and can click on the items. That is a not insignificant source of income for Ebay.
mbfump
·9 months agoIn reverse, that means buyers on Ebay are not important. If I can't generally block dubious sellers (this issue has been going on here for years) and instead have to enter them again for exclusion with every search (what nonsense), then I'll just have to buy elsewhere instead of on Ebay.
petersmodellbahnstuebchen
·9 months agoHey @mbfump
You don’t have to exclude the sellers you "don’t want" again in every search, as long as you save the search.
johhub5eiculu
·8 months agoAs a buyer, I’m interested in what I want to buy and not the crap that a disreputable seller posts.
I also don’t feel obliged to impress some bad person with “Impressions,” who is obviously “too much self-impressed” because he thinks he can get away with his lousy methods.
I see it exactly like Jörg does; as a good customer, one should NOT have to deal with such unnecessary annoyances, the customer should have RIGHTS too!
Oh yes, and as for your Sunday rag, that can be easily stopped by putting “NO ADVERTISING” on your mailbox!
And what do you mean by “not having to enter it again for every search”?
Isn’t that nonsense, or do you only ever search for the same 5 items over the years, so that no changes are needed on your end?
Something new is coming out all the time, so you regularly start completely new searches.
Are you a seller or a buyer?
Your replies come across as - honestly - very customer-hostile ...
petersmodellbahnstuebchen
·8 months agoHey @johhub5eiculu
to answer your last question directly, I am both a commercial buyer and a reseller on Ebay.
You are welcome to look at my seller ratings. By no means do they suggest the customer hostility you are alleging; quite the opposite.
Unfortunately, you cannot see most of my buyer ratings, because I do not publish this account here.
And in the market segment I operate in, I am not interested in specific new releases, but in the standard range of certain manufacturers in certain scales. There I have saved various searches for items from different manufacturers, where I have simply excluded the sellers from whom, for a wide variety of reasons, I do not want to buy.
And I also do not want to do without my "Saturday paper". By the same logic, I could argue that if you do not like the search results, you can just uninstall Ebay.
And yes, the customer should also have rights. In my opinion, they already have more than enough of them here on Ebay, see buyer protection. But I honestly think the seller should also have rights. And here there is a massive imbalance to the seller's disadvantage.
altezeit
·1 year agoIt should be that if a seller blocks you, their items are automatically no longer shown to you as well. They themselves no longer want to sell you anything, so why should they continue to show you their items?
It would also be fair if, as a buyer, I could likewise exclude sellers from purchasing their products if I have had bad experiences with them.
forenhasi
·1 year agoFull agreement. 👍
petersmodellbahnstuebchen
·1 year agoHi @altezeit , hi @forenhasi
as already written earlier in this post, simply exclude the sellers in the saved searches that you don’t want to buy from. Then they will no longer be displayed.
I have saved about 10 searches, in which several sellers are excluded:
Low time investment with a big effect.
johhub5eiculu
·11 months agoIf you only have 10 different searches, that may be practical; however, if you keep looking for something different or newer and then have to go through the whole process again and again, that’s not really an effective solution.
I think buyers should have rights too, not just sellers.
There are black sheep among buyers too.
For example, I always pay promptly as soon as I get home after an auction ends, if I’m not exactly at home at the time.
Some auctions end while you’re at work and can’t react right away, but I’ve always paid within less than 24 hours.
But if you don’t receive the item or it is defective/broken and the seller responds rudely instead of being helpful, then you should be allowed to block them in order to avoid such problems in the future.
I don’t want to buy there anymore, and I’m sure that person doesn’t want me as a buyer either.
But even so, it’s one-sidedly unfair that such a seller can block someone who has rightfully complained about something out of pure malice, while the injured party is still harassed by their offers in return (that’s like rubbing salt in a wound).
That’s why I’m in favor of equal rights for everyone on this point.
optimuss-prime
·1 year agoI think that's a great idea.
I also had a seller who sent me goods that were packaged inadequately.
After I politely complained and still kept the item, I was somehow blocked by him.
By chance, half a year later the search offered me an item from this very seller, but I couldn't add any of his items to the shopping cart.
When I then simply clicked on "Buy now," it showed me "The seller does not accept purchase offers or price suggestions from you."
The annoying thing is that in 80% of my searches he keeps showing up, and that's really annoying!
I don't want to be reminded with every search what a bad experience I had with the guy!
mueder_michi
·2 years ago123_sbc
·2 years agoI’d also like this function "Permanently exclude sellers" !
petersmodellbahnstuebchen
·2 years agoHi @123_sbc and everyone else who wants category search without specific sellers:
Simply select the category you’re looking for, specify the seller or sellers you don’t want, and you can browse without the “unwanted” sellers. And you can also save this search as a link if Ebay doesn’t offer it already, e.g.:
New listings in model airplanes and spacecraft 1:500
Here I’m searching for new listings, excluding the ones I’ve posted myself. Of course, I can also exclude other sellers here, with whom I may have had bad experiences before.
This can be applied to all categories, even without a search term.
Best regards from the Baltic Sea
Peter
johhub5eiculu
·2 years agoI would also be in favor of being able to block sellers.
If you buy on eBay often, you don't remember over the years the name of a member with whom you once had a bad experience (item not received/defective items).
That way, you could be unlucky enough to order again from a seller you were not satisfied with.
Keeping a list for that would only mean extra manual work, because you’d have to enter it again every time you search - it gets pretty cumbersome in the long run.
Shopping on eBay is supposed to be fun and not tied to various administrative tasks. 😉
forenhasi
·1 year agoAs an alternative, I used my "bidder block list" for a while. The eBay names of sellers from whom I no longer wanted to buy anything were saved there, and then before placing a bid I checked whether it was one of those sellers. But at some point it got too annoying time-wise as well, so that wasn’t a long-term solution either. Even an Excel spreadsheet or something like that would simply annoy me.
My simple solution is that nowadays I buy something on this platform only very rarely, and then only from sellers I already know and where I’ve had good experiences. It’s effective and saves me time.
drehrumbum02
·2 years agosonja@ebay
·2 years ago@armal656 , @deichchef , @forenhasi , @all , I’m taking your comments as suggestions for improvement and passing them on to the relevant department. Best regards, Sonja
elsnerc
·2 years agoHello Sonja! It's now June 2024. Unfortunately, nothing has changed for the better yet. Has there actually been any feedback from eBay on the suggestions that were passed along?
Asking because the filter does exist (see hasjana's reply), but in many searches it's greyed out (so not applicable)
o.r.p.l.i.d
·2 years agoI can only support this feature!
petersmodellbahnstuebchen
·2 years agoHi @o.r.p.l.i.d
that doesn't require a new feature. Everyone can set it up for themselves, see my post from 05/06.
Best regards from the Baltic Sea
Peter
o.r.p.l.i.d
·2 years agopetersmodellbahnstuebchen
·2 years agoThen you just remove the example filter from the search you described and switch the category. What's the problem?
But if that's Internet on foot for you, then you just have to hope that Ebay will eventually program something like that for you / you guys. I think that's rather unlikely given the currently open issues.
But not every eBayer searches for everything, only in certain categories. They can then use the advanced search.
miss-chili612
·2 years agoI think there are already enough changes, along with countless hours of tinkering, at eBay.
And I don't think this change is necessary. This way, maybe a few buyers will take a closer look at who they're buying from.
hasjana
·2 years ago◇◇◆◇◇◆◇◇◆◇◇◆◇◇◆◇◇
you can definitely hide sellers in the categories / search results
all filters > sellers > limit items > specific sellers > exclude
there you enter the username of one seller or several, these listings will then not be shown ... unfortunately you can't save that, but have to do it again every time
forenhasi
·2 years agoThat's exactly what's annoying.
The fact that ebay keeps messing up the system with all kinds of so-called "improvements" is unfortunately their problem, which keeps having a negative impact on us users. Still, a seller exclusion list would be an advantage for me and apparently for a few other users too. There are often functions that some people want, while others just shake their heads and think they're pointless.
For my collecting area and for my ebay search experience 😉a seller exclusion list for listings from certain sellers would be an advantage.
deichchef
·2 years agoIt would be fantastic if you could set the item location to Germany permanently in the search.
forenhasi
·2 years agoI see it that way too, but it's off-topic. 🙂
oskar_der_wikinger
·2 years agoDon't throw in the towel just yet; just as you can set Germany as the item location in search, which even the Chinese have already figured out, you can also hide VK.
viersektoren-verbannt
·2 years agoBut every single time all over again.
Or you make yourself a list (Word, for example) of sellers to exclude,
but then you have to add those seller exclusions every time you do a genuinely new search.
Because eBay simply doesn't set such parameters permanently.
Anyone who searches a lot is likely to be annoyed by that.
viersektoren-verbannt
·2 years agoQuite true!
Especially since, strictly speaking, it wouldn't have been a change to be able to save the "excluded sellers" again in searches.
Because that function did exist once (until around 2017?),
until eBay abolished saving searches of its own accord.
Presumably because they seriously believed they could thereby force buyers to more results and positive experiences.
What a dream world!
Anonymous User
·2 years agoProbably because they sincerely believed that this would force buyers to achieve more results and positive experiences.
You can't force anyone to be happy, because just like all the advertising on every item now, all of that can actually have the exact opposite effect.
People just give up in frustration.
At some point the responsible strategists will realize that too.
forenhasi
·2 years agoYes, sometimes I also wish there were an option to create a list of sellers whose offers I don't even want to see.
There is a blocklist for unwanted bidders, but unfortunately none for seller accounts to automatically hide their offers.
It would already be an advantage - at least for me too - if this function existed. In my collector area, there are commercial sellers who post offers in a concentrated burst 2-3 times a month, and above all at moon prices. It's really annoying, because individual nice and rare offers get lost as a result.
perfect-sally
·2 years agoWhy? You can sort by highest and lowest price. And then you can scroll down to your limit of what you’d be willing to spend and won’t even get to the crazy prices.
Everything would be better for us if eBay would just stop constantly adding or deleting things and if this endless tinkering with the program would finally stop. New bugs appear almost every day; there really is no need for unnecessary additional features.
forenhasi
·2 years agoQuite simply: I like searching with the general term in my collecting area because then I can browse across the board and see which titles are newly being offered. A sorting of the search, as you describe it, only helps me when I’m searching for specific titles - which I only rarely do. Such a restriction doesn’t help me because I don’t have the time or inclination to search through 100 titles or more. I’ve already saved individual searches for many titles, but there are many others that could interest me (if I knew them).
In other words: I can’t narrow down all searches enough to be able to use a sorting by price. Of course, I’ve been doing this for special titles for years.
forenhasi
·2 years agoHello @perfect-sally
Sorry, I only just saw your reply/follow-up question now. In my collecting area, you never know what rare items are going online and at what prices. If I were to sort by price there, interesting items would probably get filtered out right away. Why? Because sellers with crazy prices for material that exists in the thousands charge as much as other sellers do for rare one-off pieces. Sorting by price just doesn't help there.
One of the sellers lists so much every month that between 10 and 20 pages are almost entirely full of their offers, with individual items from other sellers “in between” that then simply get lost in the shuffle.
Since I collect across the board in one area - comparable to, say, movie posters - and do not(!) search by titles, it's therefore very time-consuming to filter out interesting listings.
EDIT:
Oh, I just noticed that I had already replied to you similarly ^^"
Anonymous User
·2 years agoeBay won’t go for that. If you want to avoid sellers, you have to make sure yourself not to buy anything from them.
eBay does want purchases to be made through the platform.
armal656
OP2 years agoBut it's the bad sellers who stop me from buying, since I have to scroll through 20 pages of junk offers.
This setting should be personal to the user and not affect other customers' experience.
altezeit
·2 years agoIn my case, I was blocked because I dared to complain about something that was justified. As a result, the seller blocked me. Now I always see his items with the note: "You have already bought from this seller before". When I then want to add something to the cart or buy it now, this appears with a red bar over it: " You cannot buy this item.
That is incredibly annoying!
I would like it if, when someone has been blocked by a seller, that seller's listings were automatically hidden from the blocked buyer as well. That would be really great.
voli-maus
·2 years agoWhy would you want to buy again from someone you weren't happy with, @altezeit ?
The sellers have the right to refuse entry.
altezeit
·2 years agoWhy, because it only has the goods that nobody else offers anywhere on the internet! Yes, it really exists!
voli-maus
·2 years agoAnd after receiving it, you'll complain again, @altezeit ?
altezeit
·2 years agoWhat's with the question? I'm not making a complaint for fun and games! But I won't let myself be messed around and ripped off either. If the delivered item doesn't match the description, I make a complaint, even if the item is rare.
aiko080103
·2 years ago@voli-maus The sellers definitely didn’t do that at all, that would be just great.
voli-maus
·2 years agoDo you mean the house right, @aiko080103 ?
They definitely do.
Every seller can block you.
petersmodellbahnstuebchen
·2 years agoHi @altezeit
the reasons why potential buyers get blocked are different. Most of the time it’s not about legitimate complaints, but about non-payment cases.
I’m also blocked with my buying account by some sellers because of some criticism, but I know which ones and don’t buy / bid there anymore.
Why should eBay now also reward such buyers who don’t even respond to a payment reminder from the seller? Such non-payers cause financial losses for both the sellers and eBay.
Now they should even free up development capacity to reward such "buyers" as well? Let the non-payers see what they can no longer buy.
Kind regards from the Baltic Sea
Peter
petersmodellbahnstuebchen
·2 years agoHi @altezeit
as an addition to my post from earlier.
Of course, you can also use Ebay’s advanced search and exclude the sellers whose listings you no longer want to see.
You can then save this search:
And later access it as follows:
Here you can then open the search you want.
Kind regards from the Baltic Sea
Peter
altezeit
·2 years agoBut I don't want to have to use the advanced search every time just because a seller thinks they have to block me because I dared to complain about defective goods from them. I prefer browsing in the categories without using search, because that way you find things you wouldn't even see with search. If the seller doesn't want me to buy from them, then I don't want to see their items anymore either. And that's just one line of code in the script and done in 5-10 min.
dukedriver527
·11 months agoI no longer trust a seller, so it is important for every eBay member to be able to block a seller's listings.
petersmodellbahnstuebchen
·11 months agoHi @dukedriver527
as I already wrote, the advanced search gives you the option to hide sellers from whom I don’t want to buy anything.
Aside from that, it’s no different in real-life retail on site. You can be banned from 10 local retailers, but their stores are still visible to you and open. There’s also no way there to exclude certain retailers for a planned purchase.
altezeit
·10 months agoSo this comparison is really off, so much so that even a wheelchair wouldn’t help anymore. If I’m banned from a local dealer’s shop, then I simply don’t go there anymore! So I can easily avoid those things.
On an internet platform, where I browse in a certain category (e.g. model railways), how am I supposed to avoid a dealer’s offers?
Sorry, but I don’t understand why you are so strictly against buyers being able to block unserious sellers too, meaning their offers are no longer shown in the categories? The seller doesn’t want to sell anything anyway, so why are people then forced to keep seeing his offers in the item lists? That doesn’t make any sense!
It’s really that simple: if the seller blocks you (he doesn’t want to sell you anything!), then his offers should automatically no longer be shown to you in the item lists either (provided you are logged in).
Besides, for example, I don’t use search at all; I prefer browsing the categories where you can find things that interest me, and things that the search doesn’t find at all anyway, since I never specifically searched for them.
Regards, Jörg
petersmodellbahnstuebchen
·10 months ago@altezeit
Hi Jörg,
I don’t think the comparison is flawed. If I’m banned from a retailer, I can’t then demand that the Saturday ad paper deliver me an issue without their ads either.
It’s the same with eBay. The seller pays their fees to eBay and possibly fees for certain ad campaigns. If they were suddenly no longer listed in the search results, there would be no more impressions or clicks. So after a while, that seller would stop their advertising activities on eBay, and a considerable source of income for eBay would dry up. That would be anything but in eBay’s interests.
If you were a decision-maker at eBay, would you support the requested hiding of the seller, which costs money to implement and reduces revenue? I wouldn’t.
Aside from that, in the market segments where I buy in models, I also have a few specialists from whom I never want to buy again. For that I have a blacklist in Excel where these sellers are listed. In more than 20 years now, only 30 sellers have ended up on it. If I’m not sure about a seller, a quick look at the list is enough to see whether their offers still interest me or not.