Does TM actually honor their Buyer Protection promise?

Kia Ora Craig,

TM have responded to delays in processing Disputes in Post: Item not received

Sorry to read you have fallen into this category also, - there appears to be nothing further Members can do to speed this process up, as indicated in that Post - Members are being told to be patient when they have gotten through to staff using the  "Live Chat" - Cheers.

What I can't understand at all is why Trade Me have allowed this seller to continue listing more items. That's just crazy. I know they have the ability to block sellers from listing more items. It doesn't have to be disablement, just a temporary stop on them listing.

Surely the commonsense approach would be to turn the tap off so they can deal with the disputes already on the table. Otherwise the disputes are just going to carry on growing and getting even more out of hand aren't they?

I guess as long as the seller continues to pay success fees, which presumably they are still doing with the stolen money, then Trade Me don't care too much?

Indeed. Except that if this seller does end up doing a runner, and there is no money left in the kitty then TM presumably have to stump up their own cash to clear the disputes.

Furthermore by continuing to allow this seller on the website the trust in Trade Me overall declines. People have a bad experience. Their item doesn't arrive and Trade Me drag the chain sorting it out. People then decide not to shop here. That also affects Trade Me in the pocket, and other sellers as well!

Well, that's exactly the current situation. It doesn't take much searching on Reddit to find threads complaining that Trade Me has become the wild-west, and is not a trustworthy place to shop. Here's one of many recent negative reviews for this "trader":

Appalling Trader, avoid like the plague. It's been over a month and a half and still not received the goods and they are not replying to my emails and messages. Lodged a dispute with Trademe over 2 weeks ago and they have not been any better (don't even get updates when requesting one). Very disappointed with both Trademe and the Trader.

I'd suggest that by not proactively disabling sellers who are repeatedly not fulfilling orders, and not adding some sort of better rating system (i.e. percent of negative feedback over just the last month, rather than over all time) they are almost complicit in the wrongdoing.