1. Members have 2 days within winning/purchasing a listing to make contact and organise pick up dates/delivery.
2. Payment & Trades are to be completed within a week of purchase, unless otherwise agreed to terms by both parties outside of this, whether stipulated in the listing, relayed via the Q&A section or by email/phone communication.
3. Did you keep your seller fully informed throughout the 5 months?
4. When did you request a pick up address and contact phone number?
5. Given the trade terms your seller has been more than patient in allowing you 5 months prior to relisting the item.

After original e-mail saying pick up ok, which contained no address or phone number the seller has sent no e-mails at all. As soon as I noticed the seller had relisted I sent her an e-mail, asking her about relisting the item and saying I was sorry I hadn't picked the item up but got no response. Actually sent 3 e-mails. Tried to put a comment on the auction but just got a not valid come up. She is a private seller with over 2000 trades, I don't mind not getting the item but would of liked my money back and it really was annoying that out of curtisy she never e-mailed to say pickup or I will relist.

The first question is what was agreed or stated re pick up on the auction? If nothing stated or agreed, then as S states, it should be within a week. Did you respond to their initial email?

You sent 3 emails over the 5 month period? When were they sent and why did you let it drag on for 5 months without opening up a dispute with trademe? Did you check your spam/junk folders?

When you try to ask a question on the current auction, what is the actual error message? Are you trying to put your contact details on the question (which isnt allowed)? If so, just try an initial question about it. If you cant, maybe the seller blacklisted you.

What help link.  acknowledge it was lax to not keep in contact, although seller isn't obliged the way you see it, an e-mail from them would of been nice, just relisting the item, Which sold for nearly $400 more than I paid and keeping my money as well is a little on the nose and even though you have your rules as such under the fair trading act, I am sure she would of at least have had to try and make contact or at least offer a refund not block me. This is the reason so many people no long use trade me and use facebook instead as sellers know buyers haven't a leg to stand on if there is a dispute, you just say take them to the small claims court at the end of the day. This dispute could of been solved by just removing the item from the auction and saying to the seller she is obliged to refund the money before reauctioning it.

karirose

Yes I agree, there is always obligations on both sides to make contact and resolve. As you havent answered my questions or provided all the information/details about contact, its hard to work out the exact blame here. However if they have not responded to your messages about pick up address then yes they also have some fault too. If you paid using PING you could try your luck and contact trademe about refunding, however you'd have to be able to prove your comms to the seller is as it should be.

The way this reads to me is the OP only reached out to the seller once they saw the item relisted, no attempt to engage contact to offer a delay response or gain pickup address or contact number was made prior to seeing the item relisted. The OP has made a complaint to TradeMe therefore they are awaiting a response. TradeMe may reach out to the seller to facilitate contact. Yes! the seller owes a refund here, No! TradeMe will not cover Buyer Protection, the rules are clear, a dispute report is to be filed within the first 30 days of purchase made. If one has time to browse and discover an item relisted then one has time and ability to contact the seller before being blacklisted, this is 5 months on when initial contact stated the item would be picked up within 2-3 weeks and has left the seller in the dark since. If the OP can't locate a contact path they need to await TradeMe's response. 

I have stated several times that I didn't contact seller after first e-mail sent after purchase 5 months ago, last contact from seller also stating ok pick up 2-3 weeks. Yes only tried to contact seller after seeing item listed, when I sent various e-mails etc to try and sort this out, but no response. To tell the truth this is not the norm for me as I always ask for an address and contact phone number, I thought I had as I had something in Napier to pick up also and was planning to pick both items up in the same day (i do have details for this). It just got missed. The blame will go round and round in circles, does the seller get to keep the money I paid because I didn't keep in contact. You seem to infer that it only my responsibility, as a seller she has no moral responsibility to check if I still want the item I paid for or my money back because you have the one month rule. As I understand it the NZ fair trading act out rules your rules where it comes to her keeping my money by keeping silent. 

Yes! the seller sent an initial email saying pick up ok then has awaited further communication toward the 2-3 weeks timeframe before giving pick up address and that contact never came. The "not heard from them" is in response to the 3 emails sent at 5 months when the OP noticed the seller had already relisted and blacklisted. This may be beyond the company's scope unless the OP can show otherwise as you've advised in their ability to prove their comms to the seller is as it should be. - Cheers.

Im assuming your response is to S, due to the fact that Ive not stated its only your responsibility as a seller.

However S did read it right and while I agree with you (and as stated previously), you both have a requirement to communicate. Clearly you did not, and maybe neither did the seller. Irrespective of this, I agree with S that the seller should refund your money. Trademe is not obliged to refund you, but they may never the less under compassionate or other similar reasons (outside their buyer protection), its not likely but its not completely out of the question. Good luck with that.

If you dont get any joy from trademe, you can go to the dispute tribunal. Trademe will provide you with their details if you formally request it from them for this as you need it to lodge the case.

Please note the fair trading act only applies to those in trade.

AJ Thank you. AS I said I was wrong in not keeping contact, but if I was in the sellers position and buyer had paid ($125 in this case promptly) and had agreed to pickup, but hadn't hear from buyer I would send them an email after a period of time to ask if they still wanted item and organise pickup or they would relist . I would not just ignore them after that and block them as that is dishonest and shows your right, they wouldn't refund the money. I never expected trademe to refund me, but I had thought they might remove the auction till this was sorted. This gives the message to dodgy sellers that they can behave like they want. The way trademe rules read after 1 month the seller can more or less do what they want in any dispute,unless you take it further to a tribunal, which most people can't be bothered to do.

This has happened to me, more times than I care to remember. Someone buys something says they will pick up in a week or 2 and then poof! They are gone like a fart in the breeze. Never to be heard from again. Normally I wait 90 days after the 45 day trade me feedback window and then put the item up for sale again, have never actually had someone come back after 5 months or any amount of time longer than that and ask for their money back?

I have never figured out why this happens, why someone will pay for something and then vanish, I am certain the odd one dies, or goes to prison but it seems way to frequent for these to factors alone to explain it.

The rules from the commerce commission about abandoned goods really needs to be updated, it looks like they were conceived in the 1890s or something, where you are supposed to put adverts in News papers (who reads those any more) just so everyone can be really clear about their rights in situations that are outlined in the op.

This is exactly what the problem is S, there is no real formula for buyers and sellers to follow, how long do you wait after someone has paid to come and collect their item? What is a reasonable attempt at contact? Who should be making contact? At what point do sellers get to keep the cash as on offset of storage cost and general inconvenience?
I did try raising this a while ago with that red tape commission reporting outfit, but they never got back, next time I bump into a politician I will raise with them in person.

I just send those slow buyers this redbeard6

Is it legal? Probably not if it was tested. But I feel it covers me somewhat, and more importantly gives the buyer the message to hurry up:

"You purchased this item X days ago. Unless you collect it within a further X days, storage fees will be charged at X per day. When all your funds are used in storage fees, the item will be deemed abandoned, and it will be resold or otherwise disposed of."

I had one, where I sold a mid Victorian era Sutherland Table, that had some nice little Regency design features to it as well. Lady brought it and said she would pick up on the 10th of the next month, so she was asking me to store it for 3 or 4 weeks, not ideal but ok, she then said she would pay… this is where I broke my own rule, normally I prefer inspection welcome before payment, but she seemed so pumped I figured what’s the harm.
The 10th comes and goes, and I emailed her on about the 14th or something, she said she was held up but would be in the next day. That comes and goes, and I ended up putting a packing blanket over it to keep safe.

Then over time I forgot. Ended up putting things on the table, and generally using it. It was like a year and half later I wondered what was under the packing blanket, I removed it and behold! The Sutherland table was sitting there. I believe I did email her again but got no response, so I just found the old word document that had the advert on it, took new photographs and then resold it with no dramas. But I was always left wondering … what happened? What was the story?

- did she die?
- was she arrested and go to jail without passing go?
- was she a Russian FSB agent and got recalled to Moscow before she could collect the table?
- did she win lotto and buy a tropical island, and no longer needed an 1870s table?
- was all this an elaborate scheme to hid $$$ from the Mafia?
- was this a Deepstate physiological experiment to see how I would react to this situation?

I am never ever going to find out what happened. This is why I find this op to be so fascinating, they always just vanish, never seen anyone come back and complain about this before from the buyer perspective.

Sure gets you wondering doesn't it redbeard6?

I had one confirmed death in a car accident in-between buying and collecting. The estate emailed me. I secretly hoped they weren't coming to get it when it happened. I didn't ask. It was a sub $100 item and the estate said to keep the item and the money. More paperwork than it was worth getting it back officially into the estate system they said. I donated the funds to a charity, mainly to offset my own guilts. 

1. Contract terms must be agreed before the sale

2. Any claimed loss must be real, reasonable, and foreseeable

• actual,
• reasonably foreseeable at the time of sale,
• proportionate to the situation.

3. Storage fees are only justifiable for large items

• large,
• bulky,
• taking up significant space, and
• the seller warned the buyer in advance that fees would apply after a certain date.

4. Seller remedies when an item is not collected

• cancel the sale,
• relist the item,
• continue holding it without charging additional fees (unless fees were pre‑agreed and reasonable).

5. Summary

• it must be agreed before the sale,
• it must be reasonable,
• it must reflect actual cost, and
• it must relate to a large item that creates a genuine burden.

As the buyer has breached the terms of the contract, the seller probably has every right to cancel the trade. In which case the CCLA no longer applies

Yes! the CCLA clearly states the Seller's rights to cancel the trade.

ADD: The Contract and Commercial Law Act 2017 governs all sales of goods in NZ, including situations where one party breaches the agreement. The Act doesn’t stop applying just because someone didn’t perform their part of the deal, it doesn’t create new rights for the seller, it just activates the normal remedies like setting a new pickup deadline, cancelling the sale, or relisting the item.

What the CCLA allows a seller to do after a buyer breaches (non‑pickup)

1. Seller may cancel the contract

2. Seller may relist the item

3. Seller may deduct actual, provable losses

4. Seller may not invent new fees