Is there any way to block buyers who have not placed an order?

[hyrerk]

Hello everyone, I have encountered some problems with a buyer and would like to hear your advice.

I received an order a few months ago. The buyer asked me to provide simple sketches before he paid for the order. That makes sense to me, because some buyers may want to check if their ideas fit with my style and then decide whether to change their order requirements. But the process of completing the order afterwards was not pleasant. 

This buyer took a long time to pay for the order and made numerous requests for modification. I am happy to make changes until my work meet buyers' needs, but this buyer was very vague in his demands and reversed his original ideas almost everyday. Although I repeatedly reminded him that it was time consuming to keep reversing basic designs and it would be more efficient for us to communicate if he could decide on an idea before telling me, he still asked me to change character appearance at the last minute. After the order was delivered, he still contacted me with the same frequency to make changes, so I blocked his account.

I thought that was the end of it, but to my surprise this buyer used a new account and then disguised himself as another person to ask if I could accept his order. I didn't recognize him at first, until he sent me the same reference image as before. I want to block his new account, but it doesn't look like a seller can block messages from accounts that haven't submitted any order.

I would like to know if you have encountered anything similar or have suggestions on how to solve this problem, thanks!

[sunboatrecords]

As far as I know, you can block messages by reporting them for spam for buyers that have not placed orders.

This will not prevent them for placing an order, though. You must have worked with somebody to block them from ordering again.

As for advice, do not work for free. Stick to the order scope and revisions that were agreed upon. Work within the order page and only after an order has been placed. Do not fall into the trap of working through messages.

When you have to provide a sample, do just that. Provide a sample. Do not spend a lot of time on it. 

You will soon find yourself having worked 100s of hours just on samples.

Be firm with your boundaries!

Hope this helps.

[hyrerk]

4 hours ago, sunboatrecords said:

As far as I know, you can block messages by reporting them for spam for buyers that have not placed orders.

This will not prevent them for placing an order, though. You must have worked with somebody to block them from ordering again.

As for advice, do not work for free. Stick to the order scope and revisions that were agreed upon. Work within the order page and only after an order has been placed. Do not fall into the trap of working through messages.

When you have to provide a sample, do just that. Provide a sample. Do not spend a lot of time on it. 

You will soon find yourself having worked 100s of hours just on samples.

Be firm with your boundaries!

Hope this helps.

Thank you for the reply, it was very helpful!