Yes, this seems to be a new one (to New Zealand) but has been around for a while overseas. Hopefully it won't gain too much traction on Trade Me. One positive is that the scammer has to be a Trade Me member to contact you so it's a pretty simple fix for TM to disable the scam account. As well as the great advice from S, it might be a good idea to also report it to CERT and / or netsafe. They can monitor these and see if a trend is developing. https://www.cert.govt.nz/individuals/report-an-issue/

The $22 sticker is a between island with max dimensions of 5kg weight or 0.025m3 volume.  If the item is above those specs yes, you will pay $44 which is the price you have been quoted.There is potential to reduce it to $22 plus a bag for a few items that would otherwise push it over the sticker limit. BUT as others have said, you have quoted your price the buyer needs to take it or leave it. You aren't even charging for packaging materials which many others do. As your buyer says there is a potential for it to just sneak through if it is only marginally over those limits. But that is certa...

Hi Dean. Members can either close their accounts themselves, or be banned by Trade Me. Unfortunately there is no way for us to tell which has happened, the error message is the same. Trade Me will know. Am I understanding you correctly that you purchased something that had an issue. You returned it to the seller but didn't get a refund? Did you pay for this item via Ping or afterpay? You would be covered by the Buyer Protection Policy. Even if you didn't use these methods you can still open a dispute for the item to get Trade Me involved. The Police interest would probably be nil. At the mo...

Many people with xtra and yahoo email accounts abandoned them years ago when they had multiple hacking issues. For a long time member but seldom trading it's most likely they just haven't updated their email address on here. I often get buyers with xtra or yahoo accounts that bounce. With automatic login to Trade Me they simply don't realise their email account is an old inactve one. But still, if you have that gut feeling, it's good to trust it. One thing I like to do if I'm not feeling confident is tell the seller I would like to collect the item and ask for an address and phone number(s)...

Gina if you are not able to dispatch your goods promptly you will be in breach of TradeMe T&Cs. So if you are doing that currently when you go overseas, even with a note, that's not a good look. If TM do implement an official holiday policy like your suggestion then yes, you could do it. On a personal level I do get annoyed when I see that banner on eBay. I'm pretty sure it gets abused a bit. I can tell some sellers aren't on holiday at all, but are using it as an excuse to delay shipping for whatever reason.      

No. But going by a survey I completed recently for Trade Me it is possibly something they are looking at for the future. Most of the “normal” couriers and NZPost don’t deal with larger items (25kg and over weight or volumetric.)  For them you will need a freight company. You can also try furniture removal companies. If it is a local delivery some people have had success asking the sallies or an op shop with delivery truck to collect and deliver items for a donation.   Here are some companies you can try: Backload4u.co.nz Shipmytrade.co.nz Mainfreight.co.nz Stuck.co.nz Toll.co.nz Mainstream....

Unfortunately the error messages are not at all helpful these days. Could mean anything. More than 45 days have passed, you already left feedback, you are not logged in.......

Hi Alex. It will depend what method you are using to interact with Trade Me. Here is the desktop. Tring to bid, and asking a question  

Hi Alex. It's a bit confusing but it depends if you had your vehicle listed as a classified or an auction. Overall there is no need to worry. Nobody can purchase or interact with a withdrawn item at all. It also doesn't appear on the website by browsing or searching. If it was a classified that's it. It's gone. Sold and withdrawn are the same thing. If it was an auction people who had it on their watchlist can get to the auction still but they can't purchase it, or bid, or ask questions.

Why does it bother you? Just don't look. I have no idea who or why people watch my items. I'm only interested in sales :)