Why can't I block eBay in Outlook?

[silenus]

Every time I block email from eBay, it never sticks. The reply address is always the same, but I block it and block it and block it, and I still get several stupid messages a day from them. How can I block them for good without changing my address or mail server?

[PastTense]

You might change your eBay mail preferences:
https://pages.ebay.com/help/account/change-preferences.html

[silenus]

A-ha. That looks like it might do it. Still doesn’t explain why they can’t be blocked from the receiving end, though.

Thank you.

[dstarfire]

If you’re using the outlook option “block emails from …” you’re filtering by SENDER, not reply-to address.

In large companies, the reply-to address is often different from the sending address, even to the point of having different subdomains. This lets different departments release information while insuring that any questions about or responses to that information go to, for example, customer relations.

I did a quick poke around outlook couldn’t find an option to filter by reply-to address.

[Weisshund]

block mail from *@ebay.com
that will kill off ALL ebay email

[74westy]

@Weisshund

block mail from *@ebay.com
that will kill off ALL ebay email

How is that done in outlook?

[LSLGuy]

@Weisshund

block mail from *@ebay.com
that will kill off ALL ebay email

Not necessarily. That won’t block mail from an address like “abc@def.ebay.com”. Which eBay may well use for many different values of “def”.

After turning the emails off at the source via eBay’s configuration page as PastTense wisely suggests, if the problem continues the OP probably wants to look into using Outlook’s “Rules” feature to make a smarter blocking rule. The “Block sender” menu item is the kiddy training wheels version of Rules.

Doing that will require looking in detail at the headers of the emails still coming in from eBay to identify which attributes are common to all of them and so can be used as selection criteria for a rule which will grab all the eBay emails and no others. It may in fact take a couple of rules to get them all.

[Weisshund]

@LSLGuy

Not necessarily. That won’t block mail from an address like “abc@def.ebay.com”. Which eBay may well use for many different values of “def”.

After turning the emails off at the source via eBay’s configuration page as PastTense wisely suggests, if the problem continues the OP probably wants to look into using Outlook’s “Rules” feature to make a smarter blocking rule. The “Block sender” menu item is the kiddy training wheels version of Rules.

Doing that will require looking in detail at the headers of the emails still coming in from eBay to identify which attributes are common to all of them and so can be used as selection criteria for a rule which will grab all the eBay emails and no others. It may in fact take a couple of rules to get them all.

It should but if not then do @.ebay.com

[Dewey_Finn]

Why not just use *.ebay.com for the Outlook rule?

[Blakeyrat]

@dstarfire

If you’re using the outlook option “block emails from …” you’re filtering by SENDER, not reply-to address.

In large companies, the reply-to address is often different from the sending address, even to the point of having different subdomains. This lets different departments release information while insuring that any questions about or responses to that information go to, for example, customer relations.

I did a quick poke around outlook couldn’t find an option to filter by reply-to address.

You can create a “mail rule” that sends those messages directly to the trash folder. Close enough. Mail Rules certainly allow actions based on the reply-to address.