Can you try infraction route next time?
I want to check if it will work like the other sister sites we have. Somehow, when the site were split some functions does not work the same way or at all.
The nice thing about using the infraction module (if it works right) is that it gives the users notification and self documents via a thread posting why the user was infracted.
That way I can keep track of the spammers that get banned via infraction instead of scanning the site for post that was deleted and have to view to check if it a spammer, etc.