Support Experience at Trade Me - Behind the Scenes
Hi everyone,
We’re wanting to share a bit more with you about what goes on behind the scenes to bring you our customer support experience. Here in our Help centre Community, for the most part you see my name, but there are actually a number of people and a few different teams behind our support experience offering.
One of the fundamental teams is our Support Experience Squad. This is made up of a product manager, a lead engineer, developers and a designer. Their role is to build or enhance the tools we need to be able to help you, and those that you use to help yourselves as well as keeping you safe onsite. The work they do empowers us to be as effective as possible.
We all know the old adage that a good craftsperson doesn't blame their tools, but it’s also very hard to do what we need to if things aren’t there or aren’t working properly! So the squad serves an extremely important function to both the inner workings and front-end presentation of our product.
The Product Manager owns and creates the strategy for their area, they then create a roadmap to get us there. Once the roadmap is set, the Delivery Lead steps in to coach on getting value out to customers as quickly and efficiently as possible. The Developers work closely with the Designer to code and create something that is going to work for our customers before getting to work on testing it. Eventually when all the ducks are in a row, there will be a deployment. The result might be something that you’ll all notice or that we’ll post about in Community; other times it may be a subtle change as simple as where a particular option is on a page or even a background change to ensure our site remains safe and secure.
Before its launch in October 2021, the squad was instrumental in preparing and tweaking Community. They continue to play a very active part in fixing any issues that crop up and in developing new features that will make life easier for us - you might recall the Product Manager Dan has even come on to Community and commented a few times.
So there’s just a little insight into what one of the many teams do behind the scenes at Trade Me. 
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S Community SuperuserCheers Lucy for the info' - Is this the Team the 'Tell us what you think' info gets sent to please Or are they separate Tech Squads?
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DanTrade Me staff - Product Manager
Hey S, thanks for the question! There are lots of squads at Trade Me that support and improve different parts of the website. The 'Welcome to the new look Trade Me. Tell us what you think" feedback goes into a company-wide channel where we can all read it, discuss and if appropriate take action :)
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S Community Superuser
Thank you very much Dan 😊
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Lucy
Trade Me staff - Community team
Hi everyone.
Some comments have been removed from this post since they weren't in keeping with the spirit of Community - please always follow our guidelines when you comment or post. We work hard to keep a balanced dialogue open here on Community, however we don't tolerate overly disparaging comments towards others or towards us.
Ngā mihi.1 -
I really think that we should have the right to be able to question some of the 'improvements' that have been made.
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Lucy
Yes, I agree. And you have that right. Moderating disparaging and unpleasant comments and upholding our guidelines does not remove that.
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short hand for. we welcome positive comments only
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comes down to freedom of speech a human right as long as we agree with the team. possable an illegal act
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Trade me is the most challenging online platform I have ever come across. Purchased a car in October 2022 the seller a car dealer which is BB Auto Imports not send us the three-year warranty which was part of the contract. Now trying to find the listing number or original details which were on the listing. I spent hours and hours trying to contact trad me but had no luck. the system is so confusing and can't find answers. even trying to find live chat but with no success. I wish there were another platform to buy and sell I would never ever use trade me but unfortunately I'm now.
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If you go down the bottom of any page to 'Contact Us' and use the pull-down menu, live chat will come up.
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S Community Superuser
Kia Ora Ali,
Sorry to hear you are having such a hard time there,
You will be able to get your auction listing number from your emails when you purchased the car - check your draft & sent email folders also if needed.
To access the "Live Chat" facility select the 'Contact Us' link at the very bottom of this, or any, TM page yes you come to a drop down form however if you give the page several seconds the 'Chat' bubble will come up in blue at the bottom right of the page.
The 'Live Chat' manned hrs Monday - Friday are 8:am - 6:30pm & Saturday - Sunday 8:30am - 4:pm.
If you have no luck finding that auction listing number the TM staff member will be able to assist you.All the Best - Cheers.1 -
S Community Superuser
Kia Ora Russ,
Firstly you will have to remove your email address from your Comment - Currently you have left your Email Account Vulnerable to Hackers & Scammers scanning TM / Community for this Information.
Secondly have a read through Post: Not receiving Trade Me confirmation email when I've sold an item - This is a fairly large Post though reading from the last page backwards you will see the latest info' on this issue and you may find a resolve from there.
All the Best - Cheers.
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S Community Superuser
Kia Ora Polly,
WoW! - You are best to contact TM Staff direct to assist with this - Follow the "Live Chat" instructions above. - it's 10:30am Saturday - the Chat will be manned through to 4pm today - Cheers.
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PollyEditedIll have been on the live chat ill explain what happened it would be awesome if the trademe trust and safety team could unbanned from the live chat plus would really truly appreciated it for a little bit of help and assistance
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S Community Superuser
Sorry to hear that Polly - You should have received a 'Chat' transcript Email of the conversation - Reply to that email requesting a manager - They can't just leave you in Limbo there And they can't say there is No further Help either - you need their assistance with this one and that's a terrible situation! - You will have the Name of the Staff Agent you chatted with in that transcript email and you will be able to advise the Manager of your experience - I'm sure the manager will ensure that isn't repeated! - All the Best - Cheers.
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would be nice if they had just one actual computer wizz but alas looking at overall mess its not to be
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Gary-NZStocked Community SuperuserPolly, all you can do is to email them if they have blocked you from live chat, which seems rather bizarre. If you can't find a contact form, just do as S suggested and reply to one of the chat transcript emails Trademe have sent you. They will get through.
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unfortunatly polly unless you heap praise on trademe you will be out of luck. best just forget it and try to have as lees contact as possable
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I have an issue too complex (now) to explain in the live chat forum. Sent email about it, as the so called improved more customer friendly system led me nowhere. Options given virtually never match the problem. Why? Extraordinarilly lacking in insightfulness and very maddening. Why no option for 'other'?
My email explained the item brought, the seller, his fraudulence and his posted response to my negative feedback, leaving me with a rating of 75% out of my 9 transactions, even though the other 8 were fine. Requested it be deleted from my file. Email from Trade Me (my letter attached) said the battery charger matter would be investigated, though I never mentioned a charger. Emailed the email back, asking how she hadn't read my letter attached to her email to me, but Trade Me emailed to say 'We don't receive direct emails.'
It looks as if Trade Me customer service is set up now not to serve, but rather, to drive people crazy by sending round in endless circles. Kevin.
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S Community Superuser
Kia Ora Kevin,
Did you file a report Disputing feedback from the seller – Help - Trade Me?
- Cheers.
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