Feedback on TradeMe

I have one Red Negative feedback. I got it because the dickhead seller refused to provide their bank details in a form acceptable to my bank so that the transfer of funds could proceed. The aforementioned dickhead then blacklisted me. I posted the following as a trader response on their feedback.
I would not buy anything from this person anyway due to their generally unhelpful nature so they may take their blacklisting and thoroughly enjoy it with my compliments.
Since this episode I have been more tolerant of traders with less than 100% positive feedback as I know it only takes one idiot to make a trader look bad.

The most frustrating issue we have with Trade Me is the amount of emails we send post-auction that apparently are relegated to people's spam/junkmail folder, so never sure if they are actually received. Judging by the number of traders that include a comment in their listings or profile along the lines of 'Check your hotmail junk mail folder' we are by far not the only trader that is affected this way. I also note plenty of attempts to contact sellers via the Q&A of a subsequent listing.

The problem is that once a sale is triggered on Trade Me all communication reverts to buyers'/sellers' email which due to the increasingly restrictive spam filters being adopted by ISPs and email handling programs is very prone to non-delivery, particularly where an email carries a website based address such as ours do []

The alternative is for Trade Me to adopt an in-house communication system between buyer and seller such as that available through eBay. This type of system not only ensures that communication throughout the sales process is far more certain but also a 'paper trail' is logged with eBay/PayPal which can be accessed and quoted in the case of any dispute. If the parties choose to communicate directly this can be done using the email address details that are disclosed post-sale but this not usually made use of, apart from later bulk promotional mailouts in our case.

Hopefully the upgrades that will (have to) be made to Trade Me's operations once their international intentions are embarked on will include addressing the tardiness that exists in this regard, amongst others :rolleyes:

I'm one of the original six Scambusters ;

www.scambusters.co.nz/history.html

Scams (auctions where goods would not be delivered and 'knock off' auctions) were rife back in those days. I once purposefully won an auction simply to ensure the other bidders in it didn't 'win' because it was a known scammer and TM hadn't disabled the trader yet. As soon as the TM system sent me the trader's email on winning - I sent a message to the trader saying: get lost, we know you are a scammer - you won't get a cent from me and I plan to 'win' every one of your auctions until such time as TM respond by disabling you.

Anyway the trader immediately placed a reddie on my feedback - but TM removed it when they also got around to disabling the trader.

TM really beefed up their security in the year following the Scambusters establishment .. although none of us were reinstated to being able to post on the TM message board - as they really didn't like us at all! :rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:

Thanks for that link Aria - lots of very useful info on that website.

Good on you guys for fighting the good fight...[]

Perhaps your poll should also have something about placing neutral feedback. That's what I usually use rather than the negative, if I am not happy with a trade. I am also careful to be diplomatic, precisely because I am proud of our 100% record. I have had a few nasty comments written in the questions from some people. I blacklist them. I also had a buyer who never turned, up and tried to say we were not home. He got blacklisted too.

Thanks, Aria - very revealing. TradeMe always wins - they get their commission. One of our sons bought a cellphone from a scammer, paid but never received any goods. The only thing TradeMe suggested was to go to the disputes tribunal - in China!

Stikkibeek - once the poll is live it can't be changed. My questions are not ideal by any standard as I didn't know that I really have to think them through BEFORE I hit the 'Enter' button.

And - the good news is:

the red face is gone gone gone gone gone gone gone gone

I sent a pic of the item and the whole email conversation to them and he's still got his red face hahahahahaha

Great that you got your reddie removed, Simkin - but I assume from what you say that the trader is still trading? Are they selling multiple items like the not-fit-for-purpose one you bought? If so, TM should either disable them or at the very least have those items/auctions removed.

Aria;433365 wrote: Great that you got your reddie removed, Simkin - but I assume from what you say that the trader is still trading? Are they selling multiple items like the not-fit-for-purpose one you bought? If so, TM should either disable them or at the very least have those items/auctions removed.

He only had one pair of those plugs - they were used. It's funny - in his other auctions people now ask: 'has it got a NZ plug'?