How do I remove followers who are spying me?

[kitten_slave]

Hi,

I do not sell on Ebay, I only buy. Unfortunately a rival collector has worked out what my user name is and has started following me, to keep track of what I buy and who from. 

To my mind this is clear 'spying' (I wanted to use the word that starts with "s" and ends with "talking" but Ebay have banned it). If I was bidding on items in a real life auction, the auction house would not allow a third party to 'spy' on me in this way.

How can I remove followers? As stated, I NEVER sell anything, only buy, so there is no reason to follow me other than to spy on me. 

(Ebay does not detail the ID of the follower, which means I do not even know the user ID of my stalker!)

[papso22]

Presumably this is on another account.

You can't remove followers,  but as all you do is buy you can make your feedback private so he can't see what you have bought.

He can only track your purchases through feedback,  following is really just another way of bookmarking a member, so as he has your ID he can still check what you buy unless you make your feedback private. 

[tressygirl]

Just to add,  eBay have removed the ID from followers,  not only from the data protection side for GDPR rulings,  but also to stop any ' off eBay' sales'  which were being made,  sellers sending buyers who were following,  messages to sell their items privately,  and so not paying any seller fee.

[1956glyn]

There is maybe another option.........you can hide all your feedback from other members.

IF you ever want to sell then you do have to make it visable to all

Making your feedback public or private

We strongly encourage everyone to keep all their feedback information public. It helps you earn the trust of other eBay members, increasing the likelihood that they’ll trade with you.

If you want to sell on eBay, your feedback must be visible to everyone.

If you choose to make your feedback private, you won’t be able to sell items on eBay and the feedback you’ve left and received will be hidden from other members. However, your overall number of positive, neutral, and negative feedback ratings will still be displayed.

Here’s how to change who can see your feedback:

1. Go to your feedback profile - opens in new window or tab.
2. Scroll down to the All received Feedback section and set the toggle to either Visible to everyone or Hide.

[four_mid_able]

If you have any saved sellers you are also a "follower" from their side of things.

Making your feedback private may work but i know that some sellers add members to their blocked bidder list when they see a member with private feedback even if they have had no dealings with them.

As far as the " competitor" is concerned i'm not sure how that actually works as you are only a buyer.

You bid you win you bid you lose.

Competitors only really come in to it of you bid early and start a bidding war which you can avoid completely if you bid once ,bid late and bid the maximum you are willing to pay.Win or lose.

[1956glyn]

Hi

"Making your feedback private may work but i know that some sellers add members to their blocked bidder list when they see a member with private feedback even if they have had no dealings with them"

I agree that can be a negative thing to do. Saying that if i see a member is pretty active but has private feedback i just think that maybe they are a business too on Ebay and its just their buying account.   Swings and roundabouts come to mind. 

I have over 50 odd followers.....just wish they would stop following and start buying a bit more 🙂

[papso22]

Interestingly if a business has a buying account for business purchases that is also meant to be a business account.  That makes it clear to the seller that the buyer is not a consumer for the purposes of consumer protection regulations.  Of course the MBG does not contain those subtleties! 

[1956glyn]

Good points especially your first sentence...which to be honest i didnt realise.

[naughty_neena]

Have you considered changing your id.?

just adding a full stop to your existing id or something along those lines will stop anyone following your id.

After a while they may have stopped following and you could change it back.

Changing your username | eBay

[1956glyn]

I am not sure that would work.    I think it would only work if the OP makes a brand new account.

If they are currently following the OP and they just change their existing username then the person would still be following their account.   The only difference would be that they would be informed that the OP had recently changed their username by clicking on the icon next to their username.

To my knowledge the OP would indeed have to make another account.

[plpmr]

you could have lots of followers that you don't know about - if they have bookmarked you.

[jckl1957]

You don't seem to use the account you are posting from, but on this account, you have 3 followers.

It may be that this in your profile, 'I created this new Ebay account to shake off stalkers.' encourages a certain type of person to follow you.

I certainly would not put that in my profile if I wanted to discourage followers.

[naughty_neena]

Thinking about how helpfull ebay are when you dont want them to be, you could well be right.

Ahh well back to the drawing board.