Every now and then, you just want to block someone on Etsy.
Whether you’re the seller who has a customer who’s harassing you, or you’re a buyer who wants a shop owner to stop contacting you, it would seem that blocking someone would be all you need to do in order to stop the harassment.
But blocking someone on Etsy isn’t what it seems to be, and it doesn’t really do that much.
What does blocking someone on Etsy really accomplish?
Blocking someone on Etsy only prevents them from seeing your personal account activity. It doesn’t prevent them from contacting you, or from seeing and purchasing from your shop. In order to prevent someone from contacting or purchasing from you, you will need to contact Etsy support to get them involved.
So yes, blocking someone on Etsy is fairly pointless, but there are some reasons to do it, so let’s go into the specifics.
Table of Contents
- How do I block someone on Etsy?
- Can I block a buyer on Etsy?
- If I block someone on Etsy can they see my shop?
- How to report harassment on Etsy.
- Is blocking someone on Etsy good for anything?
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How do I block someone on Etsy?
To block someone on Etsy:
- Go to their personal profile where their favorites are displayed.
- Scroll to the bottom of the page and find the link that says “block this person.”
- Click the link and open the dialog box.
- Choose “block,” or “cancel” if you change your mind.
- The person you blocked will not be able to follow your personal activity on Etsy anymore.
- The person you blocked won’t be notified that you blocked them.
Again, blocking only lets you prevent someone from following your personal profile and seeing the things that you’ve favorited.
If Etsy shows any type of “items from people you follow” features, your activity won’t show up in that person’s feed after you block them.
Can I block a buyer on Etsy?
You can’t really block an Etsy buyer…You can block a buyer by blocking their personal profile, but it won’t prevent them from seeing your shop or buying from you.
So you can block a buyer, but you can’t prevent them from buying from you.
You can tell someone that you don’t want them to send you messages using the Etsy system, and if they do send you more messages you can contact Etsy to tell them about it.
One of the terms of the Etsy messaging system is that if someone tells you to stop messaging them, you have to stop. If you continue, it’s violating the Etsy terms of use and your messaging privileges can be suspended.
Even if you do go so far as to tell them not to message you, they can still place orders (which you can cancel.)
And realistically, if someone doesn’t buy from you, they could get their friend to do it, so there’s no good way to 100% prevent someone from buying from you.
It’s annoying, but with online shopping there are ways to buy from people regardless, so you can’t 100% block a buyer on Etsy.
If I block someone on Etsy can they see my shop?
If you block someone on Etsy, they can still see your shop activity and purchase from it. You can cancel those orders, but it won’t prevent someone from ordering to begin with. Etsy doesn’t currently have a system in place that prevents people from purchasing from your shop completely.
Because there’s no way to prevent people from placing orders in a sneaky way, Etsy doesn’t offer the ability to totally block them to sellers.
The truth is, even if you blocked someone, that isn’t going to stop them from opening a new account to try to scam you, or stop them from getting someone else to purchase for them.
You can cancel and refund any order that you receive on Etsy, so if you have a customer who keeps purchasing from you after you told them you won’t sell to them, you can cancel the orders, but you should also contact Etsy if they’re being annoying and persistent.
Multiple attempts to purchase after you tell them that you won’t sell to them is harassment, so you should treat it that way.
To see the full Artisan Shopping Directory sections, including signups for discounts, click here.
How to report harassment on Etsy.
Etsy will get involved in cases where customers are harassing sellers, or when sellers are buying from other sellers just to leave a bad review. Those behaviors are against the Etsy Terms Of Use and can get the account and IP address of the customer blocked in the Etsy system.
If you’re experiencing any form of harassment on Etsy, whether it’s from another seller or a buyer, you can contact Etsy support about it. I wrote an article specifically about how to do that here: How to contact Etsy support.
If you’re an Etsy seller who’s being harassed by a customer, you should explicitly tell them to stop contacting you, then mark their messages as spam.
Continue to mark all messages as spam, but also report them to Etsy. If you mark messages as spam a few times Etsy will look into it.
If they continue to contact you after you told them to stop, they’re violating Etsy’s Terms of Use and you should contact Etsy to report the harassment and let them handle it.
As a buyer, if an Etsy seller is using the convo system to send you messages that you don’t like, you can also mark them as spam and/or report them to Etsy.
If you’re experiencing any type of harassment that’s crossing the line, and you actually feel like you’re being seriously threatened, contact Etsy and your local law enforcement to ask if there’s something that you should do.
To go to the Artisan Shopping Directory categories, click here.
Is blocking someone on Etsy good for anything?
Blocking someone on Etsy only prevents them from seeing your personal activity, but that can still come in handy if you want to prevent competitors or other people from seeing your favorites.
Some sellers purchase supplies from other Etsy sellers, and it puts them at a disadvantage if they can’t favorite things for fear of someone copying their sources. Blocking the competitor will prevent that from happening.
If you use your favorites to keep track of supply sources, product inspiration, or anything else that you don’t want people to see, you can block them and they won’t see your account activity.
You might also want to prevent nosey people who you actually do know (like your relatives) from seeing the things that you’ve favorited.
Blocking them on Etsy will prevent them from following you and seeing what your personal Etsy activity is.
Blocking people on Etsy isn’t a great way to prevent them to have access to your business, but it will keep them out of your personal business.
That can come in handy sometimes, but just be aware of the limitations of blocking someone on Etsy, and don’t let it give you a false sense of security!
