Seller sold faulty item - will likely be unable to contact him.
AnsweredI bought an item (video card) on the 22nd of February. I paid via ping so I could get purchase protection.
The seller took around 25 days to get the item to me so I lost a good chunk of the protection (he disappeared until I filed the first report about being unable to complete the trade).
I left the item for about two weeks as I didn't have time to test it. When I tested it, I found that the seller had lied on the listing saying that it was working well. The item (video card) crashes any time it is put under load and only works when outputting basic video. For the less tech savvy, an analogy would be buying a car and then finding out that it breaks down when you try to accelerate (turning it on and idling still works).
I have contacted the seller and asked to return the item for a refund as it is faulty, but based on our previous interaction (he ghosted me for weeks until he couldn't anymore), I don't think he'll even reply to my email.
My question is am I still covered by the ping buyer protection? It is now after 45 days, however, I filed a dispute on the day before the deadline was up.
Thanks,
Anthony
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Callum Community Superuser
Easy answer here: Yes.
If the time period was up, you wouldn't have been able to open the dispute.
Assuming you didn't close the dispute by saying you were satisfied, it should still be open, and you should be able to piggy back on that.
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Michelle
Trade Me staff - Community team
EditedKia ora Anthony, if your original dispute isn't still open, and you're unable to file a new dispute, get in touch with the team they may still be able to help you with this.
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S Community Superuser
Kia Ora Anthony,
Yes! TradeMe support Faulty goods claims if the item is faulty within a reasonable time frame regardless of the 45 day timeframe - Cheers.
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S Community Superuser
To be eligible for the Buyer Protection Policy on non Faulty items when paying by Ping your Dispute Resolution report must be filed within 30 days of purchasing the item,

For full eligibility criteria Refer to Buyer Protection policy – Help - Trade Me - Cheers.
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TradeMe once contacted me after 3 months to say a buyer was unhappy with the goods they bought.I thought surely they couldn't pressure me into refunding the buyer after all this time.But no I was wrong they kept putting the pressure on me to contact the buyer so I did & got them to send back the item in which I refunded them in full once returned.So in answer to whether you are still protected after 45 days then my answer is YES you are especially if you hound TradeMe for a refund.The funny thing about it they wouldn't have had any way of knowing who the seller was if I hadn't left feedback on their account !
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Thanks all,
If I can see my dispute under "My Requests", with the status of Pending does this mean that the dispute is still open? When I click into the actual request it lets me reply to it to add additional information so I am assuming that it is still open.
Sorry for the dumb questions in advance, just feeling a bit down over the whole situation and i'm hoping i'll be able to return the item for my money back.
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S Community Superuser
Kia Ora Anthony,
Yes! That's correct - Pending status means the company has sent a reply - this could mean to your Seller or yourself, the status will show as closed when they have finished with the case.
This is all the status's your case could enter...

No dumb questions here, it's an overwhelming time for you! - All the Best!
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