Postage charges after winning auction

If you go back and read the listing page they may have postage as TBA or unknown, I am guessing this is either to allow them to check the address for a current postage price or they don't want to be using ping so by not having the freight listed it be an option. 

Kia ora ventreaterre, we recommend paying by Ping (or Afterpay) so that you are covered by Buyer Protection for eligible purchases (we removed bank transfer as a payment option earlier in the year when we removed success fess for casual sellers). However if you win an auction where shipping is to be arranged with the seller you'll need to pay for shipping separately via bank transfer, or the seller can set up a new listing that has the correct shipping for you to pay for the total with Ping. 

After winning the four bids from one seller I asked them to combine postage [not included in listing and no point asking until after I won]. Refuse to issue replacement invoice. They want payment to bank account. This is not secure for seller. On "Won" page only option is "pay instantly". As a newby bought four items in five days - paid ping - no issue. If I click pay now does this allow me to see what is being charged. Or do I pay total direct to seller. Up to seller to list properly - I understand TM automatically calculates for each listing what the price will be. In this case cigarette cards - fit in standard envelope

As I am setup in TM address errors are simply my fault - but I do know my address. Silly if I have to pay through ping $14 and $4 directly to seller. What if I pay seller directly $18 on system the listings will surely show as unpaid / incomplete. Does not give a newby confidence in transaction simplicity / security. TM should not allow bank transfers 

I agree ventreaterre. It is silly. 

Trade Me needs to stop  "shipping to be arranged." If the seller can't list the shipping costs they should be blocked from listing anything. Hopefully they are working towards this. 

For you, just pay the item cost with Ping, this will cover you for Buyer Protection. Then ask the seller to setup another auction for you for JUST THE SHIPPING so you can pay that with Ping. Otherwise you can pay the shipping by transfer to their bank account. You will still be covered by Buyer Protection as you have paid for the item with Ping. 

Callum. While most listings should be able to list shipping costs as on courier, there are cases where larger items going by heavy freight have pretty much a different shipping cost to each town, and often different between suburbs in same town. To further complicate heavy freight, their rates are often spot rates, so vary day to day depending on demand in the freight sysyem. So simply not possible to quote a shipping rate in those cases.

Thank you to everyone for your feedback - appreciated. After winning the four lots I did ask the seller about relisting as a one lot so postage would be one x minimal - cigarette cards afterall. Emailed again 7pm last night " would appreciate cooperation" and said I would contact again today about 7pm if they had not responded. Was stunned today to see the seller had relisted them - time to move on I guess

Yes, electricfencenz. I am aware there are certain occasions where that is needed. But generally those will be in-trade sellers anyway. Trade Me have that covered already in their listing tool (see below) 

99.9% of cases are NOT that though. Being blunt about it it comes down to sellers being lazy or just now knowing. In my opinion Trade Me need to completely remove the option to add shipping costs later, UNLESS it is the situation you are mentioning. 

It might need an education campaign to give those occasional or new sellers the knowledge to add shipping costs. This could be done as part of the listing process. But it certainly is possible. 

Of course as soon as I typed that Trade Me come up with their solution.....

Buyers are still left in the dark what the costs will be if the seller hasn't added it beforehand.

https://help.trademe.co.nz/hc/en-us/community/posts/17334835563919-A-new-way-to-handle-payment-for-shipping

Yes! Buyers still need to use the Q&A feature to request shipping costs prior to purchase so they can budget accordingly and to avoid elevated shipping costs applied.

Thanks for comments - after "winning" the four lots the seller refused to issue updated listing as I may have only won partial listings or none. Gave 24 hours to "appreciate cooperation on postage", accept settlement through TM system, dead silence, then relisted

Kia Ora ventreaterre,

Sorry to read of your experience with those trades,

Remember to place feedback on all four purchases, be careful not to add any defaming statements. - Cheers.

Tried to "warn other prospectives" by logging a comment against each listing that I had won the auction but now relisted - message "invalid state"

The seller has probably blacklisted you. Usual uninformative error message from Trade Me........