*Awful for sellers* TradeMe "guessing" categories when you search.

Hello Kit. Yes, this is a well known problem on Trade Me. It has been ongoing for quite a few years now. 

Apart from complaining to Trade Me, which probably won't get you anywhere, about all you can do is hope most people know enough to hit the search all of Trade Me link. 

Some sellers have it even worse. If Trade Me decides that the item you are looking for is in  Property, that doesn't even have the "search all Trade Me link." So those poor sellers items are REALLY invisible.

If you have a book or whatever called "Queen Street" Trade Me in it's wisdom thinks you are looking for a house and sends you to Property with no way to get back to the general listings.....

Kia Ora Kit,

Just to add for you, if people search for Mountain bike first, then search the brand name 'Forbidden Druid' from there, your Listing comes up fine. I would expect Members to search the main category of Mountain bikes first, then Refine their search by brand. - All the Best for your Sale - Cheers.

Thanks Callum, appreciate your response. I don't sell that often so haven't come across it before - not ideal! Funnily enough, I only found the issue as there's some glitch in the iOS app and I can't see my listing in my app - it says I have a listing, but when I click through, it's empty. I then went to search for my listing and ran into the issue above.

Thank you S, I'm not sure the "because you're holding it wrong" (Steve Jobs iphone reference from back in the day...) is a good one. While what you say MAY BE true (I have no evidence either way, but you might if you work for TM) for people looking for a generic mountain bike, I don't think it would hold up (based on how I look for things) for high end bikes. That would be like someone clicking through to "Cars" when they want a Porsche 911. If you want a Porsche you just search for that and expect all to come up. So I can see that maybe this set up works best for the majority of people, but it is not for me, so standby that it's an awful experience for me as a seller.

Cheers Kit,

I should have added Most people who are used to searching through the TradeMe system. 

No! I don't work for TM but I did try searching several ways for your Listing & yours is the only Forbidden Druid bike for sale on TradeMe under that brand name in Title, which is where the search is read from, therefore I would expect Members to search Mountain bikes & then attempt to refine from there. - Not detracting from your analysis & as would be expected, this is not a simple search system as it snaps to various unexpected categories. - It can be an awful experience for Buyers also trying to find what they are after - Cheers.

how is it that trade me gets worse!! the original search was awesome now they have made it unusable!! stop messing with it trade me its bloody terrible!!