What do customers in CHAT see when they've been BLOCKED by us?

[CreativeLeahG]

Out of interest when a customer in CHAT is blocked, what happens when they try to message us?

I am asking as I have had to block some customers who are coming to me for things only Customer Services ( CS) can assist with and despite my referring them to CS they come back to me. Hence I block them to ensure they go back to CS. Does the customer know they've been blocked, diverted, do they keep messaging but we simply do not receive them? How are their blocked chats handled?

Thanks

[Cat]

I too would love to know the answer to this. I've only blocked users who send spam or offensive/inappropriate messages, but I do wonder what they see on their end.

[Windy]

One of you could block the other and the blocked could write back.....and then you will know.

[chessie]

I didn't realize i could block a customers message and i am often referring them to the customer service link. 

Good to know. 

Chessie's Fine Designs

[Username · Accepted solution]

I've tested this with an old Zazzle account I still use for testing and trying out stuff.

With the old/test account I sent a message to my creator account, 'Hello Blocktest!'. Logged out with the old/test account, logged in with my creator account, saw that 'Hello Blocktest!' message and blocked the rude annoying 'sender'. Then logged out of my creator account, logged in with my old/test account again and it shows no sign of having been blocked by the creator, no blocked notification message, nada. Then I sent another message again 'Blocktest again!', and nothing let me know that the creator would not receive it. Then I logged in with my creator account again and I had not received the message from the blocked account.

Also, neither e-mail account attached to these accounts got a notice of this block, nor a message that future communication is being directed, diverted, or checked by anyone.

On the creator side though, I noticed the blocked sender account will not be visible anymore in the chat list. Under the little blue settings wheel, to the right of your own chat name above everybody else's, you can unblock previously blocked customers/chat-people-persons and they will pop back into your chat list, including the previously held convo.

Hope this helped 🙂

[CreativeLeahG]

Yikes, so potentially these customers of mine are firing off goodness knows what in frustration! We definitely need a block/refer to CS for assistance option! Thank you for your detailed reply and congrats on soon-to-be 500k!! 

[Username]

(😀 Who said anything about 'soon-to-be'? I state that I'm 'on my way', as we all are 😁)

[Hamoudi]

Hi there,

Lead engineer on chat chiming in. I built the whole backend of the system myself. This is a good response and covers most "normal" cases. The reason we don't tell the user that they have been blocked is because it would then be relatively easy for them to create a new account and start spamming you from THAT new account instead. This way, they are none-the-wiser as to whether you have blocked them or are just unresponsive.

So yes, to summarize, for "regular" chats, the person blocked will have no idea that they have been blocked. The person who did the blocking will not receive their new chat messages and will have the conversation removed from their chat panel entirely until they unblock the user. After unblocking, any messages that were sent during the blocking are still hidden from you.

However, slightly different rules apply when considering the chat associated with a collaboration. If you've ever used this feature, you'll know that a separate chat is created for each collaboration you have been a part of, this can hold more than just 2 users and is more akin to a "group chat". In this case, we don't hide the messages of the blocked user from these group chats, as reading the chat may become non-sensical to you (showing the messages of some collaborators and hiding those of another). In this case, if you're being spammed within a collaboration's chat, you can either remove the offending user from the collaboration (if it is owned by you) or simply leave said collaboration. In addition, a blocked user is also not able to add you to a collaboration (which at the moment is impossible unless they somehow know your Zazzle account email in the first place).

Hope this is helpful!
Hamoudi

[chessie]

Thanks for the info Hamoudi . 

[Cat]

@Username Thank you so much! It sounds like it basically has the same effect as if you just ignored their messages. 

LOVE your user name, BTW! 😂

[Username]

On their (customer) side yes, they will only see that you read it their message, cause the little blue check mark on the bottom appears on their side. But on your (creator) side you won't see them in your chat list anymore and won't receive their messages. It's easier to 'ignore' something/somebody that you don't know of if it's there or not, than ignoring something/somebody that you've read and know of that it's there (even though you don't want to respond).

Thanks for noticing the silly username 😉 That one came about cause we had to fill out a the username field to sign up for the forum. And I was like.. alright then, here we go, have it your way... typed 'Username' and hit the submit button. Who knew knew after choosing a community forum name you'd be stuck with it? Almost nobody! At first the name annoyed me, but now I'm used to seeing it and I plan on keeping it 😆