Question Regarding Service Fee Notification When Moving Between Tier Bands

Yes the buyers being charged a service fee is the next uproar when this is rolled put. There will be many buyers who up till now have not had to have Ping or be charged anything when they have brought off trade me. Yes they will be told it only applies to purchases higher than $20 but its still a fee they are not used to. Have heard alot on the media about sucess fees being removed and Ping but not that buyers will potentially be paying fees. Watch this space

Kia ora flossy21, yes, there will be information for buyers that a service fee may apply to the listing. On listings there will be the option to click for more information to get a pop out modal with information on the service fees. 

Thank you for your reply Michelle. When the service fee testing was done I saw the words 'service fee may apply', so I assume you are rolling that form out for listings in the under $20.01 tier. My concern with this is that it is not clear how much the service fee is or what it is to someone who doesn't regularly use Trade Me. Even if you can click on a link to find more information, this is still a barrier to anyone looking to purchase an item. I saw listings with this on and simply bypassed them during the experiment and I expect this is going to be a real barrier to selling.

Kia ora flossy21, I see what you're saying, this is a big change and we want people to know what the fees may be. For bidding, the messaging will adjust the fee amount to your bid (or top bid if autobid) so it's clear what you may pay. 

I have decided that when I list anything, I will make it clear on any auctions I sell privately ( also have an in-trade account) that, as the seller, I will cover any service fee that may apply. If the payment goes through on Ping, I will just refund the $ sum trade me apply. It’s easy to refund via Ping.

It is truly frustrating to see today the wording, 'service fee applies' and no price upfront on all the listings I clicked on in the books category. This is one of the worst performing categories due to the sheer volume of items and also one where there are large In Trade sellers that just upload their entire catalogs of books. 

Kia ora flossy21, the service fee only applies to casual sellers listings, if you aren't seeing a Service Fee on a listing, it may be a listing by an In trade seller. When you're on a listing where the Service Fee may apply, you'll see this box, you can click for more information and it will show you the tiers.

When you bid on a listing that has a Service Fee applied, you'll get a message telling you how much the fee will be for the amount you are bidding, if you win. I'm happy to take a look at any listings you are unsure about if you want to pop a listing number on here. 

I am a private seller Michelle, selling off an exceptionally large estate in this particular category. I specifically looked at my current listing and other sellers who are private sellers and all of us had Service Fee Applies with no specified costs. If you look in other categories there is a mix of the service fee showing on the listing for example $4.99 or just the wording Service Fee Applies. 

Kia ora flossy21, if the listing only has a Buy Now price then the Service Fee that applies to the Buy Now price will show. If the start price and Buy Now price are different, it won't display a fee, just the info box, and bidders see the fee when they go to bid.

Ok, So I won an auction this morning on my personal account, I paid the service fee against my will, grumble grumble, has have no choice, when something comes up you want,

But why has the service fee been given back?, why the top up for service fee?, I am confused about this, did I miss something somewhere?,

I was thinking it may have been listed before the 10th, but no item only listed this morning, as browse latest listings,

as I sold today stuff listed on the 9th so expected to pay Success fees, but no fees, and had Bank deposit as I had no ping then, 

Kia ora flossy63, when a Service Fee is paid with a Ping purchase, the money goes into your Trade Me account balance as a top up to cover the Service Fee that's charged there.

Kia Ora Michelle,

Now I'm slightly confused here ...

A Service fee is charged on a Ping purchase above $20. from your TM account however that fee charged is placed into your TM account to top up the fee charge? - Why are you being charged at all then if it's coming straight back from where it's been taken from? - Thanks.

Hi S

The way i read it is that the service fee paid by the buyer goes into the sellers ping account to offset the 2.19% fee paid by the seller.

Either way it could be read, it's news to me...or confusing.

Yes I am still confused too?,

as those sellers who are offering to refund the fee are actually paying the buyer, giving the buyer a discount on their reserve?, if the fee goes back to buyers account?, so buyer double dipping so to speak?,

This is so confusing, why the fee if it gets given back?, does not make sense at all, so why even have the fee in this instance? something not right here at all, just all a bit nonsensical to be honest,

I have purchased an item and was confused about this too. The way it looks in my account is the 99c service fee shows as being added to my purchase in my PING account. Then in my Trade Me Account statement it looks like Flossy's above with the Top Up of 99c and then deduction of 99c. I think somewhere it must have been transferred from my PING account to my Trade Me account but the step doesn't actually show.

Flossy, in a buyer refund case it goes in reverse, both the top up and payment are refunded and the 99c moves back into the PING account. 

From a seller's point of view, I haven't sold anything so I don't know the answer there.

Mine looks like this; e.g PING account 21.99 (Purchase amount + Service Fee), then my account statement looks like yours. Somewhere behind the scenes the 99c has moved invisibly from PING to my account statement. 

Ok, it sounds like what's happening is a Buyer is charged the Service fee to their payment card when making a qualifying Ping purchase, the Service fee is transferred from the Ping payment to their TM account possibly as a means of a mandatory Top up of their TM account to counteract TM accounts becoming in debit as the Service fee charged is automatically taken from their TM account balance to pay the company. - Clear as mud & awaiting confirmation from Michelle or a TradeMe staff member.

Kia ora flossy21, what S has said is correct. However to add to the confusion here it looks like your seller has refunded you via Ping, service fees are refunded automatically when a seller fully refunds a Ping transaction.

Thanks for your confirmation Michelle, 

Much appreciated😊