Abusive seller and feedback on Trade Me - Resolved

Kia Ora May,

Sorry to read your ordeal,

Download a statutory declaration form 

Refer to Making a Disputes Tribunal claim as a buyer – Help - Trade Me

You really need to report this Member to TradeMe staff who you can contact through "Live Chat" - once you've selected the Contact us Link at the bottom of any TM page you need to give the landing page a count of 15+ seconds for the Chat Tab to Pop up in blue at the bottom right of your screen, there is a slight delay in this appearing.

Thank you. Yes I will talk to Trademe staff on live chat. I am undergoing a difficult medical crises with a 5cm Brain Tumour on my top right brain and I am being monitored by the Neurosurgeon because anytime if there is an emergency I need to go for Brain Surgery. I have this seller who intimidated me and calling me names a freak, evil and hell. No compassion and very mean to me. I have filed a Police Report online and said I required Victim Support as I am going through depression and anxiety and on prescription medications. I dont need this kind of person to treat me badly and with disdain. No regards for a Brain Tumour patient and I showed him my MRI report and medical bill yet he went on to intimidate and ridiculed me on the negative feedbacks and lied what he said. He said freak check your bank account you evil woman. Refunded. I was out for dinner didnt bring mobile phone how am I to know. He continued to intimidate me and lied said I didnt acknowledged the refund. I even refunded $3 to him as he overpaid becos it was only $17 not $20. I emailed with the proof of the $3 and said I wont take more than what I did not pay. Yet he lied on the feedback said I sent him offensive emails. He was the one that did to me so I retaliated. Why are these people so mean? Despite showed proof of my brain tumour report to him, he deemed I am a liar.

I have already filed a misappropriate behaviour report to Trademe with the seller's email that reads: Go check your bank account you ignorant woman. Go on your knees and repent to God for you are truly evil. I will get the police to go to your house with a restraining order if you ever contact me again. The book was missing so I asked for a refund. I am not aware of the refund because I went out for dinner with my husband and I left the phone at home. Then to come back to received the nasty email. I refunded the overpayment should be $17 but this person overpaid $20. I sent a courtesy email about the overpayment and the response was a nasty email intimidating me said reported to police come to my house arrest me with Restraining Order. I have anxiety and depression becos of the brain tumour. This seller has instilled fear in me causing me extreme stress and depression with acute insomnia. Time now is 3.41am Monday. I cant sleep as I dont want to be arrested by the police becos a trademe seller intimidated me and made a police report on me. I have also lodged a police report on intimidation and fear. This will be followed by a Restraining Order on this seller of Trademe.

I am sorry to read all of that May and Thank you for further information on the Trade,

As refunds have been exchanged you won't need the Dispute Tribunal for claims. - Once you have reported this to TradeMe staff, including all email correspondence of the intimidation & threats as evidence, staff will also be able to work with you in regards to the Feedback placed, after which I hope you can put this person out of mind to refocus on your health. - All the Best - Cheers.

May, sorry to hear about the ongoing issue, it must be very stressful at this time having a number of stress inducing things going on.

 However you need too look at this through just a legal perspective and keep your emotions out of the process as its likely to complicate things. While you maybe due a refund, it does not add any strength to the legal case as you happen to need the money for a specific medical procedure.

You mention getting a restraining order from the disputes tribunal. While im not a legal techie, I believe that disputes tribunal does not cover that area of law so may not be able to help. While the disputes tribunal may help to get funds back, its likely to take a long time (I recently filed a Disputes tribunal case and it took 10 months from =application to end). It would also seem that the amount involved is small and that the disputes tribunal filing fee would be considerably more so taking the case would lead to a negative financial situation for you, it may vindicate you and give you a win, but at the cost of a lot of stress. Considering this, it maybe a pragmatic decision to walk away from the disputes tribunal option as the case not only may not gain you $sss but will lead to a load of extra stress which you clearly dont need with your present medical situation.

If you contact TM through the chat bubble and supply them the correspondence between you and the seller, its quite likely based on what you have said that TM will ban them on TM for using it as a basis for abuse. Although I realise that this does not solve the problem that has already happened. Many of us on trademe have experienced totally weird rude traders, its not nice, but that small % or rude people are representative of a tiny % of the population.

Good luck with sorting the issue with this trader and the health situation

Hello May. Sorry to hear of your issues.

Completely agree with Donal. The Disputes Tribunal can't issue restraining orders. It seems like you have been refunded already by the seller anyway so there isn't even a dispute as far as I can see? If you try to file a DT claim you will likely not even be accepted. Likewise Trade Me possibly won't provide the sellers details to you because you have been refunded.

My advice would be to just block the other persons email and numbers, blacklist their account on here. Try to relax and move on. It is not worth adding more stress to yourself all over over $17

Depending on the strength of abuse, intimidation & threats this is the correct place you need to be for restraining orders, which is free to apply for if it is necessary - Cheers. 

Apply for a Restraining Order | New Zealand Ministry of Justice

Also you can block the seller on Trade Me to ensure that you never need to deal with them again - https://www.trademe.co.nz/MyTradeMe/BlackList.aspx

Thank you for all the advise and opinion you all have provided me. Since I got the $17 back after undergoing abuse from that seller, it has caused me a lot of anxiety and stress. My high blood pressure reading will certainly go up to 174 or 180. It is not good for me and it is really hurtful to be abused, bullied and intimidated like that. Thats why I have asked the Police to refer this case to Victim Support. I hope Victim Support will contact me. I only wanted to file the Restraining Order on this abusive seller so I need the address of this abuser in order to do that not going to the Dispute Tribunal claim but going to the District Court to file a Restraining Order which is free. I wonder if I can send the Statutory Declaration to Tradme? In order for me to provide to the District Court to get a Restraining Order to prevent this abuser from abusing me? Yes I have blacklisted this abuser and blocked his email from Gmail but cant block his email from Yahoo mail. I have reported and attached the abuser email to your team about Inappropriate Behaviour on this seller. Now it is up to your team to look imto this. I am seriously thinking of closing this Trademe account of mine and use my husband's Trademe account instead. I want to avoid coming in contact with abusive and angry sellers on Trademe. If I use my husband's Trademe account he will be liaising with these sellers not me. Moreover he is a Dutch Kiwi so he can handle and deal with people better than me without getting emotional like me. In this way I can stay out of having to deal directly with trademe sellers.

Have you contacted Trade Me yet?

The Statutory Declaration form is for Dispute Tribunal proceedings only, so I think you are best to contact Trade Me to explain the situation and get the details you need - at the same time you can also report the seller to make sure he doesn't do this to anyone else.

I really think you should contact Trade Me now to get this solved - https://help.trademe.co.nz/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=360000518892 begin filling in the form, and in about 15 seconds a Blue Circle will appear in the bottom right hand corner - click on the circle, and it will let you talk to someone from Trade Me in real time (like S said.)

I have reported about this seller in the Unfair Feedback from the seller section and loaded all the emails from the seller to me and vice versa. This seller has 10 negative feedbacks and seems to refund other buyers for missing books. It was just unfortunate that I had been an easy target for abuse because I tend to get my emotions involved. I am waiting for your team to investigate about unfair feedback and inappropriate behaviour. Thank you.

Looks like I cant get Trademe to release the seller's details to the District Court for me to file a restraining order because you said it is for Dispute Tribunal claims only. As I am not allowed to put the Ticket ID numbers here for you to have a look at the reports I submitted early this morning at 3.41am. I had insomnia due to this problem.

Kia Ora May,

Thank you. I thought you guys are from TM customer service. The Trust & Safety team has just replied to the Ticket ID and looking at this abusive seller's account. I have blacklisted the seller.

You're in good hands with TradeMe May 😊

It is very easy to mistake Members as being TM staff as the email you receive from our Comments are addressed from Trade Me - Customer Support. - All the Best - Cheers.

Hi Shane, Callum, Donal etc
Thank you for your kind assistance. Trademe Trust and Safety has resolved the issue wirh the abusive seller. The seller negative feedback on me has been removed because it is character slaying called me evil, ignorant, freak and asked people to avoid me like a plaque. He said asked police come to my house to arrest me with a restraining order. This has caused me fear and anxiety. I thought the police will knock on my door for what crime? Becos I asked for refund of a missing book. I have made a police report on this abusive seller incase he email and intimidate me again. I have since blacklisted him and blocked his email on Gmail. Thank you for your help. Merry Christmas!!

That's great to hear TM have helped to resolve this trouble so quickly for you May, allowing you to refocus on your health.

Thank you for letting us know - Merry Christmas 🎅🎄🤶

Apparently the seller didnt send the book at all. He relisted under his wife's Trademe. Same picture same book. It is appalling that he increased the price of the book from $8.00 to $20.00. He lied to me that the book was missing.
Should I inform TM Trust & Safety about this?
I am thinking of shutting my Trademe account. Will I be able to transfer the credit to my husband's Trademe account? I wont deal with individual booksellers anymore especially those who doesnt use Ping or Afterpay. I thought checked with you guys before I inform TM. Is it illegal to hike up the price of the same book in a new listing? If TM asked this seller, he will give the excuse and said he has another copy of the same book. He can lie through his teeth. I have also blacklisted his wife's account.

Hi May. At least you seem to have tracked down the actual thing that happened and it shows the seller as dishonest along with a dose of sellers remorse. However its certainly not illegal to raise your price in a new listing, sellers can insert what ever price they want.

I will inform TM Trust & Safety about this for their information only. At least TM knows what this seller is like. Thanks.

Hi there May

This guy is a known dirt bag - yes they can set what ever price they want, is what they have done illegal ? Probably not, but is it unethical? 100%!

I would say, please dont close your account! Most sellers are decent people, most of the responses you have had on your post here have been from sellers, we are trying to look after you.

If you close your account all the feedbacks and reputation you have built up for yourself over time will be gone, and if you decide to start up again, you will be starting from 0. If you want to walk away from Trade Me for a while and leave your account dormant, thats fine, but I wouldnt go and nuke it.