Buyer paid less than their winning bid when collecting the item - what now?

Did the first buyer also not want it due to the scratch? Surprising perhaps she didn't learn from that and mention it when it was listed on Trade Me. Not sure why you/she would complain to Trade Me. The buyer noticed something that wasn't disclosed, your daughter made a lower offer and the buyer accepted it. Deal done. The only other option would have been to cancel the trade completely and then relist it mentioning the scratch.

She did mention imperfections and put pictures of them on Trade Me. But the buyer found an extra scratch and used that as an excuse not to complete the sale for the agreed price. And I got it wrong - he offered $50 and she accepted it because she was so frustrated. The first buyer found a different scratch/defect. This was a structurally sound, one-year-old bed that had hardly been used, with a matching mattress in mint condition (I know because I bought it). These buyers were obviously trying to bargain by pointing out every little imperfection they could find. My point is this is not the way Trade Me works - you have to pay the agreed price. My daughter definitely should have declined the offer and relisted the bed. But she didn't. The Trade Me buyer was also difficult to communicate with, ignored requests to pay via bank deposit, wanted her address before agreeing a pick-up time etc etc.

Nothing much could be done now. That's just a tactic some buyers used to bag a bargain. What you have suggested are what she should have done, ie. declining the offer, etc. It's a jungle out there, selling on any platform is a risk, especially if pick up is offered, some people even get robbed or assaulted. If it's not something quite valuable, and if you're not short of the cash, just donate that and save all the trouble.

If you daughter is serious about selling on TM or other platforms, these are the things she has to go through to learn unfortunately, especially if she's not used to saying "No". Just cut off a buyer if you're not comfortable with them, cancel the deal and blacklist them (and risk getting a negative feedback, TM might help to remove if you have a good reason).

Hi Fiona, I'm sorry this has been an upsetting trade for your daughter. If she would like to talk to us about it directly, it would be a good idea for her to get in touch with us. We can adjust the success fee for her since it sold for less than recorded. 

This is a bit late, but thanks for all the feedback! I really appreciate it - it was very helpful. My daughter did decide to 'put it down to experience' in the end. She was quite upset at the time, but is OK now.

Hi I sold my mower for 1150 but ended up agreeing on1000 how does that affect my sale fee. Thanks

Hi Wade. When an auction closes the success fee is automatically taken from your Trademe account for the total sale price. If you have reduced the price after it's sold, you can ask Trademe if they will give you a partial refund of your success fee. Just type success fee refund in the search box up top to find the page for more info or use Live chat, as there appears to be someone there at the moment.