Ping, AfterPay and Cash now only options from November

Today, all my listings have expired and I have absolutely no motivation to relist again on Trade Me. As a seller I always offered ping and bank transfer payments but preferred ping to be honest. But what i absolutely object to my intelligence being insulted and being treated like I don't have a brain. I have maintained 100% positive feedback and only I know the effort I have put in for this feedback, being a tiny In Trade seller.

I Object to these statements in Trade Me's communication about changing payment options and i believe this is just a farce for money gouging.

1. Kia ora Sharon, To create a safer and more streamlined experience for you and your buyers, we are updating the accepted payment methods for in-trade sellers on Trade Me. - A complete lie and I see no reason for a single group of In Trade sellers being targetted.

2. When you receive a payment via Ping, a transaction fee of 2.19% will be deducted from the total amount the buyer pays (including shipping). If you choose to offer Afterpay, a transaction fee of 4.95% is deducted from the total payment amount (including shipping). - I exercise my right not to accept this.

I have not explored another option (another website) to sell my inventory, But I take a stand for what i believe was a poor act of bad faith.

my contribution to Trade Me's revenue is just an ant sized glitch or even smaller given the current economic conditions. My days of putting up with bull**** are over.

I will be deleting my account in due course. Will wait for 45 days from my last trade to request the deletion. Good bye! Trade Me, see you around .......or not!

A while back I deleted my Disney Plus account as a protest, knowing it was a mere fleabite in the scheme of things. But as we found out some fleas bite bigger than others. Protesting against stupidity and injustice is always worthwhile.

My earlier comment didn't get passed moderation.

But, I will just put my prices up 5% and then offer a 5% discount on cash or bank deposit payments. 

as jay mentioned above the site is flooded with tens of thousands of listings from overseas sellers and they are scattered randomly anywhere all over the site and yep trademe dont do anything about that. majority of these sellers have really bad feedback but trademe continue to let them sell on here. all those listing are paid for via ping meaning trademe could be refunding more than they ae making through ping fees. is this the reason nz in trade sellers are being forced to use ping so that it can pay the refunds for all those bad overseas sellers? i agree with many and said it days ago...this is purely a way for trademe to make more money as was the fee on shipping costs. 

also i know of a seller that sold a brand new item that was paid for via ping. the buyer said it was scratched and trademe refunded him. the seller got the item back and its in brand new condition as described in the listing and photos with no scratches...i have seen it. why should a seller have to refund just because somebody changes their mind and lies to trademe. its a bit crap that trademe can refund the sellers money because they believe the lies of a buyer. this seller was not an in trade member and it was a personal item he sold

Sharon

I would personally not close your account as of yet, that is a bit harsh, as as it reads in a lot of comments a lot of Legality comes into play and by things I have read, there maybe a chance Trade Me may have to renege on their forcing Ping on us,

I will be waiting to see the outcome of all our complaints made to appropriate sources, But the old saying goes, you have to spend money to make money, and nature of items and way I sell, Market place on Facebook is not for me, as I will not allow pick ups, and will not be running around meeting people in other places, Only time I have put stuff on Market Place FB it just attracted scammers/Tire kickers, and it was only kitchen clean out stuff,

Neil I had someone send back a new Merino top but they had taken photos of the damage which was a tiny cut but 1 of their photos had caught a much bigger piece of glitter glue on it! Trademe Pinged the money back to her!

JAY  I think you will find that 5% thing to be very illegal - power companies used to do it similar - imagine if KMART upped their toy prices  5 % then offered by  5% disc - youd be pretty annoyed!

Spoke to a reporter today. He's doing some more digging...

Popped in here to see what’s happening. Kudos to the person who has gone to the media. And kudos to the person who went to ComCom.

Business Desk has an article on the matter and apparently there were around 27 complaints made to ComCom so I presume that means they will look into it?

Excellent! They are one of several media I spoke with. Will check out the article.

I am increasingly reaching out to repeat customers direct and selling much, much more stuff outside of TradeMe.

Thanks TradeMe…you helped motivate me to work harder to reduce what I pay you, and it’s paying off!

I know of another journalist looking into this as well.

Trade Me are saying they are confident that they are in compliance with the Fair Trading Act, that this is a product change which is permitted under their T&Cs and they have been upfront about the changes.

No mention of things like this causing a constraint in trade, unfair contract terms, an unsolicited service - or it being anti-competitive, which there already is precedence for in Australia, with the AU version of ComCom blocking eBay from taking away bank payments and mandating Paypal, when they still owned Paypal.

Re-posting the below, for anyone who wants to have a quick way to file with ComCom, or wants to encourage others to do the same:

------------------------------------------

The Business Desk Article:

https://businessdesk.co.nz/article/retail/trade-me-payment-options-changes-anger-professional-sellers

Nancy  

It would be nice to be able to read the whole article without signing up,

if anyone has access, would you please share it with the rest of us, (Copy & Paste) as it concerns us all, 

It would be appreciated by many, as stated many times above in thread not everyone has a credit card, Lol!,

and some of us just do not sign up for one off things,

Hi Flossy, unfortunately I do not have access to the full article either.

It's time like this RemovePaywall dot com comes in handy. 3rd option did it on that article from memory.

TradeMe should offer insurance instead of forcing Ping.
In-trade sellers aren't the problem segment, it's untrustworthy sellers in-trade or casual. 
Imposing Ping is a blunt instrument punishment to in-trade to their detriment.
Instead, Sellers purchasing by Ping could choose, or not, insurance. 
This would mean all sellers are equal, buyers get peace of mind, TradeMe still makes money. 

You know Callum, that's exactly what Trade Me are doing. Taking the right away from the small/sole trader to earn an honest living - with all the fees that they have initiated, especially the success on postage - which only served to make 'in trade' sellers increase their prices, and now forcing Ping on in-trade sellers only. As well as a two-tier success fee structure. Add to that the frustration of a site that has become so much more user-unfriendly - even My Products doesn't function in a timely manner, although you continue to extol its virtues.  You seem to be Trade Me's chief cheerleader - a very lonely position at the moment I would think. 

Copyright and IP is a western capitalist construct. 
In the east, it's considered that everyone contributes to everyone else's ideas so no one person owns it. 
Mine, mine, mine is only in our individualistic societies. 

I've been told the article quotes Trade Me saying they are confident they comply with all relevant laws and that ComCom will take no further action at this stage. 

The way AI is 'adopting' intellectual property, copyright is really just a fig leaf, and one only those with enormous resources can afford to pursue. Having our work 'stolen' is something most makers have got used to...

I have been told today that the following has been filed with the Serious Fraud Office and the Commerce Commission:

Kia ora,

I am writing to raise a serious concern regarding what appears to be a persistent failure to investigate potentially anti-competitive and unfair practices by Trade Me Group. Despite multiple reports made to the Commerce Commission over time by various parties, it appears no meaningful investigation has taken place.

The issues of concern are as follows:

1. Broken dispute resolution system – Trade Me’s internal dispute process frequently results in unfair outcomes, such as unjustified account closures, with no transparent or independent appeal mechanism.

2. Forced use of Trade Me’s Ping payment system – From 3 November 2025, Trade Me is removing the option for in-trade sellers to use bank transfers and mandating its own Ping platform for all payments. This removes consumer choice and imposes unnecessary costs on sellers.

3. Precedent in Australia – This conduct is nearly identical to what eBay attempted in 2008 (while still owning PayPal). The Australian Competition & Consumer Commission (ACCC) ruled the move anti-competitive and forced eBay to abandon the plan. Trade Me's actions seem equally restrictive and harmful to competition in New Zealand.

4. Potential breaches of the Fair Trading Act 1986 – These policies may violate the Act’s provisions around unfair contract terms, especially where sellers are locked into a proprietary payment platform without choice or meaningful negotiation.

I am particularly concerned that despite the seriousness of these issues and public reporting by users and sellers, the Commerce Commission appears to have taken no visible enforcement action. This raises questions about whether Trade Me’s conduct is receiving proper regulatory oversight.

I believe this matter warrants urgent and independent investigation — both into Trade Me’s conduct and whether any internal factors are contributing to the Commission’s repeated inaction.

I am raising this in good faith and request confidentiality in handling this report. I am also willing to provide further details if contacted securely.

Ngā mihi,

An excellent summary and letter Nancy and looking at the mood among sellers in here it had better work. 

With luck they'll take a broader look and also see that service fee experiment thing which was in fact blatant theft without even the courtesy of a shamed face.

I wonder if we’ve reached the tipping point where people stop selling then buyers stop looking then it spreads from one category to the next and plop!

Commerce Commision are a sad excuse these days compared to what they used to be thanks to under funding.

There is no sale without a buyer.

Hi Nancy, thank you very much for the great template.  Another issue that should be addressed is the success fees taken on postage.  I will be sending the following to the Commerce Commission because I believe this should also be looked into.

Trade Me continues to charge success fees on postage and shipping costs — a practice that is both unfair and financially damaging to sellers. At the same time, Trade Me insists that sellers must charge buyers only the actual cost of shipping. This contradiction forces sellers into a lose-lose situation: either absorb the fee and incur a loss, or inflate shipping charges to offset the fee, which violates Trade Me’s own policies.

Trade Me has no legitimate right to apply success fees to postage, as these fees are not part of the product value or seller profit. Despite repeated complaints from traders over the years, this issue has never been meaningfully investigated or addressed.

This practice raises serious questions about fairness, transparency, and compliance with consumer protection standards. It deserves urgent scrutiny by the Commerce Commission and other relevant authorities.

I have to agree about the fees on postage charges Trademe seem to forget that we have to buy courier bag theres the ink for printing the labels  packaging envelopes  etc . I know some people charge ridiculous amounts for postage. They should be targeting these people .  Do they think we just put he product un packaging in the mail or maybe they think all the courier bags packaging are free. I have been trading for 19 years now and ive have enough we are selling out and closing down over net 12 months  it isn't worth it to line the pockets of the greedy and work your arse off for  making nothing . I am sad and I m angry that we mean so little to them they don't hear our voices as sellers  I have emailed Comm comm  radio TV news and not had one acknowledgement of my complaint  what does that tell me. IT TELLS ME IM NEARLY 70 AND i DONT MATTER i WONT STOP DYEING MY BEAUTIFUL WOOL BUT I WONT GIVE TRADEME MY MONEY

Hello Steve. If you didn't get an acknowledgment of your complaint to the Commerce Commission you might not have done it correctly. They are obligated to acknowledge complaints. I'm not sure about general emails. But if you made your complaint via the online form they provide you should have got an instant acknowledgement with a reference number.