NEW CHANGES: Stopping Bank Transfers & Only Allowing PING or AFTERPAY or CASH

One reason I hate Ping and will never use after-pay, I sell low cost 2nd hand Non Essential items, making it too easy for some people to get into debt paying via Ping etc. and not Completing and after pay payments, it adds to their debt,

this is one reason some shops have now done away with offering After-pay, people using it then cannot make payments,

If they do not have the money to pay via bank deposit Only, then they should not be buying non essential items,

Trade Me are aiding these people get into even more debt by forcing ping in their face making it too easy to buy non essential 2nd hand items, where a bank deposit is only option, oh not enough money in my account this week, will walk away?, 

Yes, I have had buyers come back cannot make a bank deposit this week, no money in account, because car broke down etc. no worries, but had they paid via Ping, oh I cannot pay credit card off now. Yes sometimes in life things happen, but at least I am not aiding them get into more debt?

Hence I only used Bank Deposit, I have been there, my parents struggled for a few years when I was a child, literally living on smell of a oily rag, we had to go without a lot of things, as non essential, 

Just my thoughts on it, in these hard times for some, some things others do not even think about, 

honornz247 I have been using Ping (and it's predecessor paynow) for over 10 years with more than 30,000 transactions. I think in that time I have had 2 attempts by a buyer to claw their money back. Both were unsuccessful. One was a stolen credit card. On top of that Trade Me always do some background checking for larger value trades, or it's a new buyer, new card, or there is something else flagged as suspicious. I get maybe 2 or 3 of those per month. The Ping payment is put onhold for a short while and Trade Me do some checks. 95% go through OK and you are then instructed to send the goods. 5% or so they don't manage to confirm everything and the sale is cancelled. 

So Ping is very safe. You just have to be sure to not send items if Trade Me have put a hold on them and instruct you not to. 

My answer regarding Ping has gone into pending and will clear soon. 

For Afterpay there is NO RISK on you as a seller. If a buyer defaults that's on Afterpay, not you. Your money is safe and can't be clawed back. 

llossy63 I was answering honornz247's question really. 

I don't generally offer Afterpay either. Only because the fee is too high. I'm happy to add it on application if the buyer wants to pay the fee. Yes, I do despair when someone asks me for Afterpay on a $10 item. Like you I would never use it myself or get my credit card into negative territory. But we are no doubt of a different generation.

However I don't see it as my place to tell a buyer not to use Afterpay or Credit Cards because it's dangerous and they could default. Like all lessons, the best way is to learn that themselves the hard way........

I guess for me the biggest issue is that I dont have a choice. If I want to sell on TM outside Christchurch I HAVE to use Ping & Afterpay or go elsewhere. I sell my second hand stuff I dont use anymore or Ive upgraded years or clothes/shoes or the odd thing I sell for a couple of people who dont have PC's or or are older & dont want to deal with the internet. Ive lost a lot of weight over the last three years. I have 5x sizes of clothing that too big for me now. I upgrade certain items every 4-6 years (major electrical) before the warranty runs out. They are easier to sell with a bit of warranty on them, I put the sale money to the upgraded appliance & pay off the rest interest free. This was I have relatively modern items all the time and never pay repair fees on older items. Now I have to wait on the $ from the sale of those items & even lower valued items with Ping or pay fees on Afterpay (not an option). I said to my brother when the announcement came out that success fees were being scrapped. 'I lay money on it, there will be a catch. Something that benefits TM more than us'. I was right. Its so sad. 

honornz247, some great questions you have there. I don't think they've thought this through completely and/or your questions didn't come up at the time this was in the planning.  Pity an official TradeMe person doesn't reply, someone other than Callum who comes across as the spokesperson for them, even though he says he isn't.  

@honornz247 - note the ping fees of 2.19% apply both on the item and shipping cost, in most cases work out cheaper than the 7.99 success fee that WAS charged on the item. So just looking at it from a pure financial perspective, it doesnt benefit trademe more than you as they receive less in fees

Replying to honornz247,

You've raised good questions in your earlier comment. In your latter comment, I feel the same way as you do, and I would rather not be pushed into using Ping. I have used it before and I didn't really feel it was a good experience for a casual seller just selling stuff that I no longer want - I don't have a huge cashflow , so the time it took for PIng money to be downloaded to my account so I can pay fees and book couriers was cumbersome and annoying. I had to log in many times to check up and see what was going on, so it just doesn't streamline the whole selling experience like it does with bank transfer. I chose NOT to use it. I dislike that we have no choice and it's being forced. I also think it's pushing the bill a bit saying it's protecting us. In all the years I've had my TM account, I've never encountered anything suspect with a bank transfer. Besides that, I'm not silly enough to fall for a scam. If anything looked suspicious, I'd be sorting it out myself. My bank protects me pretty well so to me it seems that TM are paying lip service to 'protecting' us sellers. I don't need it and I don't want it. End of story. I also think that the tiered 'service fee', is just another way of setting a sellers fee  - they're just calling it something different. 

With regards to Ping transaction times. When you receive a Ping payment it is available instantly in your Ping account. You can use this immediately if you wish to purchase something on Trade Me. If you want to transfer it to your bank account that happens same day (or next day) depending on the time you request it. 

You can also set it up so any credit in your Ping account automatically transfers out every day. 

Yes, jpicard. There is no reason why you couldn't offer to do that. You will also automatically get a partial refund yourself on the Ping fee for any payment you refund to the buyer. 

Kia Ora jpicard,

That's an honorable way of trading, you are the second Seller I have read who has declared they will cover the Service fee for Buyers and 1 which I think will work well for auctions whereas Buy Now listings will have the Buyer possibly thinking the Service fee is built-in with the sale price. This wording on your auctions will see a favourable return to your listings from a Buyers point so well worth including. - Cheers.

Kia Ora retrocentric,

The Service fee tiers are paid by the Buyer if they select Ping as the payment method on Casual Sellers Marketplace Listings and are only applicable to Listings sold/won over $20.00

The Success fee, which is now removed, has been restructured and redistributed between the Ping fee on the sale price + shipping at 2.19% for the Seller and the Buyers Service fee tier, as above, meaning the fee charged upon sale for the Seller is reduced in cost However the Buyer now has an extra charge therefore TradeMe earnings on sales remain reasonably similar unless the Buyer selects the cash payment option - Cash payments attract no Ping or Service fee charged to either the Seller or the Buyer therefore no financial gain for the company outside of any chosen Listing extras the Seller has opted. - Cheers.

Query, where is the comment from jpicard that you both seem to be referring to?

opo18  It appears to have been deleted by the poster?, Just went back up through E-Mails, 

Thank you flossy63 :)

Replying to S,

Okay, I understand now.

Sellers pay the Ping fee which includes shipping.

Buyers pay the service fee as per the tier.

Thanks for that clarification.

Regards,

Cathy

Trademe have confirmed casual sellers can refund service fees to the buyers via Ping if they want.

So if some sellers decide to refund the service fee are all others expected to follow. Even the sellers who don't follow the message board who would be surprised by the being asked by a buyer to give their service fee back.

If everyone got on board with this it would seem to negate the initiation of this fee entirely. But the only ones who would lose money over time would be the casual sellers. It all slowly adds up. Unless a seller says they are offering a refund but have added the small fee to their auctions. no one would be the wiser if they did. Trade Me of course will still be collecting the fee.

casual sellers no longer have to pay a 7.9% sales fee ! wouldn't that add up over time? why not give a small amount back to the buyer? 

Just food for thought. Not an opinion. Yes the success fees have added up for everyone over a very long time. Now it's changing to ping fee for sellers and a smaller service fee for buyers. 

With mandatory Ping will TM finally get around to allow partial withdrawals from our Ping accounts ?

I raised this years ago and got the standard "we are working on it" response.

Coming up to three years now !

goodsound, it's your money so why shouldn't you?

Guess it will be like ENTAIN & TAB structure, a mess with the National Cash Register lurking in the background and Digital Monopoly.