The Complete Guide to Blocking eBay Buyers

As an experienced eBay seller, you’ve likely encountered your fair share of problematic buyers.

The endless stream of time wasters and scammers can leave you feeling like an insignificant speck in eBay’s vast ocean of users.

While outright blocking buyers reduces your potential customer pool, don’t hesitate to prune any rotten apples spoiling the bunch.

In this 2,300+ word guide, you’ll get a start-to-finish walkthrough of eBay’s blocking capabilities for sellers. I’ll share expert techniques perfected over my own 10 years of eBay selling.

You’ll discover:

• The top problematic buyer types every seller encounters
• A step-by-step checklist for blocking buyers in seconds
• Proactive ways to filter out high-risk bidders
• Preventing blocked buyers from evading your restrictions
• Quantifying the true impacts of ignoring bad buyers

Let’s start by exploring key reasons sellers block bidders in the first place.

Why You Might Need to Block eBay Buyers

eBay touts access to over 159 million active buyers globally. At that scale, most users behave respectfully, but a tiny fraction try exploiting sellers.

In my experience, around 1-2% of bidders demonstrate consistently problematic behavior. And repeat offenders will continue escalating tactics if not stopped.

But what constitutes reasonable grounds for blocking a buyer? Here are five common examples:

1. Buyers Who Never Pay

A 2020 survey by ecommerce provider ChannelAdvisor found that 63% of sellers deal with non-payments on eBay.

These buyers bidenthusiastically, get invoiced, then ghost without ever rendering payment. This causes you to waste time relisting items and miss potential sales from others.

While an occasional non-payment can be an honest mistake, blocking buyers who flake multiple times ensures you move product to real customers.

2. Overly Demanding Discount Seekers

We all love saving money. But a subset of eBay buyers bombard seller inboxes requesting bulk discounts, free expedited shipping, or returns for no valid reason.

Nearly 58% of sellers surveyed by ChannelAdvisor reported issues with buyers requesting discounts after winning auctions.

And ScienceBlogs analyzed 3+ million eBay messages in 2020, finding bargaining behavior highest amongst buyers from Italy, Spain and France compared to other regions.

Repeatedly accommodating demand after a sale encourages this behavior to continue. Be wary if a buyer tries negotiating discounts through messages after winning an auction at full-price.

3. International Buyers From Areas You Don‘t Ship

eBay makes cross-border trade easy. But new sellers often miss a critical step —filteringu ineligible international bidders.

If a buyer outside your shipping zones wins an auction, apologizes flow as you explain where you can’t ship.

Save everyone time by blocking international buyers from non-serviced countries. eBay’s Global Shipping Program simplifies international delivery, so enabling this solves most issues.

4. Possible Fraud or Scammers

While less than 1% of eBay users attempt outright fraud, sellers must remain vigilant of scams.

A 2020 FBI report revealed various buyer scams targetting eBay sellers:

• Overpayment scams via fake escrow services and cashier’s checks
• Return shipping fraud with buyers swapping out products sent back
• Account takeovers using phished credentials to steal account funds

Protect yourself by reviewing allexternal payment information and reporting suspicious behavior immediately.

Pro Tip: If something seems off, check a buyer’s feedback history and account creation date.

5. Verbally Abusive Buyers

Fortunately, less than 7% of buyers harass sellers via eBay messages according to TrustPool’s 2022 Online Seller Survey.

However, blocking verbally abusive members sends a zero-tolerance message maintaining a professional marketplace. Sites like eBay seller mentor provide further tips handling harassment issues.

Now that you know why blocking happens, let‘s get to it!

How to Block eBay Buyers in 5 Simple Steps

Without further delay, here is my proven 5-step checklist for blocking any eBay buyer in under one minute:

[DOWNLOAD FULL CHECKLIST HERE]

Let’s elaborate on what each step looks like in practice:

Step 1) Sign Into Your eBay Seller Account

Open any web browser and navigate to the eBay homepage. Click the Sign In link towards the top-right and enter your standard account credentials when prompted.

This will log you into your seller backend with access to manage settings, listings, orders, and more.

Pro Tip: If you don‘t have an eBay seller account yet, you can register for one in minutes for free. Just visit eBay’s selling information page to get started.

Step 2) Access Your Blocked Buyers List

Once signed in, hover over your username near the top-right and select Selling from the drop-down menu.

This will load your Seller Dashboard. Next, on the left sidebar under Shortcuts, click Blocked Bidder List.

This page lists all buyers currently prohibited from bidding on or messaging you.

Step 3) Click “Manage Blocked Buyer List”

With your blocked buyers list visible, click the blue Manage blocked buyer list button.

This opens edit mode enabling you to add or remove buyers as needed.

Step 4) Manually Enter Buyer Usernames

With the management page open, locate the text field near the top labeled “Add more buyers to your list”.

Type the full eBay username of any buyer you wish to block. For multiple buyers, separate each username with commas.

Once entered correctly, click the Submit button to officially block those buyers. They will now appear on your list with the blocking restrictions applied immediately.

Pro Tip: You can locate a buyer‘s username from any message or listing they have interacted with. Their username appears directly below their public name when chatting.

Step 5) Disable Messaging (Optional)

By default, blocked buyers can still message you after being banned from bidding. This allows you to discuss issues and resolve disputes.

However, abusive buyers often use alternate accounts to continue harassment after blocks.

To disable messaging altogether, check the box labeled Prevent all buyers on your Block List from contacting you and click Submit to save.

And that’s it! You’ve now blocked troublesome buyers from purchases and all communication in just a few clicks. Nice work!

But preventing headaches requires being proactive too… Let‘s talk about setting up buyer requirements next.

Setting Up Buyer Requirements on eBay

Manual blocks stop existing troublemakers quickly. However savvy sellers set up Buyer Requirements to filter out high-risk bidders before issues arise.

Think of Buyer Requirements as automatic barriers-to-entry giving you control over who views and bids on listings.

eBay allows managing requirements based on:

• Account Age – Block brand new users
• Feedback Score – Require positive ratings
• Location – Limit buyers from risky countries
• Maximum Bids – Stop overtly aggressive bidders

Configuring standards upfront minimizes headaches without limiting most buyers. Let’s explore some best practice requirements to consider.

*Note: Buyer Requirements live under *Account Settings > Site Preferences > Buyer Requirements in your seller backend.

Account Age Requirements

eBay allows setting a minimum Days Since Registration value preventing accounts newer than that duration from bidding.

For example, setting this to 30 days blocks any user created in past 30 days.

I recommend starting with 60-90 days minimum. This filters obvious scammers using fresh accounts while allowing normal new buyers. Be sure checking it monthly as 5-10% of eBay users are newly registered.

Avoid extremes unless dealing with severe fraud previously. Find the sweet spot shielding your business without blanket discrimination.

Feedback Score Requirements

Similar to account age, eBay enables blocking buyers below a minimum feedback score threshold.

This means new users with no ratings or reviews are automatically prohibited from bidding.

Again, balance caution against limiting your buyer pool unfairly:

I suggest starting at 25 feedback points minimum and assessing over time. Remember that new users start at 0 — so this does discount many buyers unfairly.

Monitor your blocked buyers list for those failing your Feedback Score rule and assess if legitimate buyers get caught often. Adjust accordingly.

Purchase Location Requirements

Selling internationally opens your products to buyers globally. However, most sellers start locally focused.

Prevent international headaches by limiting buyers to domestic regions only at first. As you expand shipping zones, adjust location settings in tandem.

Under Purchase Location options:

1. Check box: “Block buyers whose primary shipping address is in a location I don‘t ship to”

2. Select all countries you currently do ship to

This automatically hides listings from ineligible international visitors. And if an international user does buy, eBay auto-cancels explaining seller shipping restrictions. Very handy!

Pro Tip: Only selling domestically? Click “United States” under Purchase Preferences to shortcut excluding all non-US buyers upfront.

Restrict Mid-Auction Bid Retractions

Savvy buyers use bid retractions tactically in auctions, like placing an immediate high bid then retracting once leading. This throws the auction dynamics.

Block this behavior by:

1. Check “Block buyers who retract bids during the last 12 hours”
2. Customize the cutoff window as you see fit

This forces buyers to commit once auctions enter final stages, increasing integrity.

The Impact of Ignoring Problem eBay Buyers

"Just ignore bad buyers and they‘ll move on" reflects hopeful thinking rather than reality.

In practice, tolerating a few "bad apples" signals open acceptance of poor behavior. Word spreads among other buyers regarding what they can get away with.

Letting issues slide also saps your precious time and profit margins. Consider:

• 63% likelihood of abandoned auctions after non-payments
• 2 hours average spent weekly managing returns requests
• 58% of sellers surveyed reporting discount demands post-auction

**This translates directly into:

• Lost listing fees
• Wasted relisting efforts
• Reduced average selling prices

Getting strict may seem harsh initially. But lax policies only breed more bad buyers and headaches over time.

Implement standards shielding the high percentage of good buyers from the unethical few attempting to exploit vulnerabilities.

Both your buyer community and your business will thrive as a result.

Now that you‘ve blocked buyers, what about evasive buyers trying to bypass restrictions? Let‘s discuss…

Preventing Blocked Buyers From Contacting You

Blocking buyers on eBay successfully limits bidding and messaging privileges…from their original account.

However, clever problem-buyers have secondary accounts, alternate emails, and other tricks up their sleeves for bypassing blocks.

Once banned, blocked buyers may harass you through new usernames or off-platform via email and social media.

When evasive buyers bypass your restrictions, immediately take these next steps:

Step 1: Block All Associated Accounts

If you receive contact attempts from an alternate username, block the new account just as you did their original ID.

Additionally, check message headers to identify the actual email address they registered new accounts under. Consider adding their email domain to your blacklist or filter.

Step 2: Report Buyer for Further Investigation

When a blocked buyer circumvents restrictions, they violate eBay policies. All accounts associated with evasion of blocks face permanent suspension.

Report abusive alts to eBay for investigation by:

1. Clicking Report this buyer from any message received
2. Select The buyer is harassing me when asked why submitting the report

eBay seller support will open a harassment case gathering evidence from your account. If violations found, the buyer’s entire network of accounts faces termination.

Step 3: Contact eBay Immediately for Assistance

Finally, reach out to eBay seller support teams referencing your open harassment reports against the buyer.

Ask that eBay reviews messages across your selling history with this buyer to establish documentation of abuse over time, spanning their alternate accounts and contact points.

Reiterate the buyer evaded blocks through duplicate accounts and continued harassment attempts.

In nearly all cases, eBay will escalate investigations and shut down any accounts engaging in harassment and evasion tactics.

Pro Tip: The more details and examples you can provide, the quicker resolution typically comes. So document everything along the way.

While nothing guarantees stopping the most aggressive fraudsters, taking action is key to resolution.

Final Thoughts on Blocking Bad eBay Buyers

As we‘ve discussed in this 2,300+ word guide, even the most attentive eBay seller will eventually encounter problematic buyers.

However, what separates novices from experts is taking action addressing issues rather than tolerating death by a thousand paper cuts.

Implement proactive blocking and requirements so you filter out risks preemptively, before bidding ever opens.

Understand why buyers get added to your Blocked List, from non-payments to harassment and policy violations.

And should the worst of worst slip through the cracks, exercise your knowledge of eBay restriction evasion protocols.

Blocking buyers may seem overly harsh initially. But doing so maintains your trading integrity and business growth trajectory.

Here‘s to fewer troublesome buyers and more sales going forward!