There is a way around this - just don’t offer shipping. Make all your auctions buyer must pick up. What you offer instead is a free packing service, so that way the buyers can organise the couriers themselves from their end and pay the couriers themselves, we have found that it really doesn’t hurt sales, and it takes away all the dramas of dealing with the couriers ourselves or the accusations of overcharging etc. Give it a go for a few items, if it doesn’t work for you then it doesn’t work, no harm done, however it might really suit and change your life. Don’t know if you don’t try.
What we are finding is that they don’t read or simply don’t receive the automatic instructions, which we then have to copy and paste into an email. Ping has also led to more dawdling when it comes to picking up.
A lesson I learned long ago, was dont try and compete with the All Blacks, dont set your auctions to close during an All Blacks game, but otherwise evenings between 6:45 - 7:30 are best.
This sounds so fishy, so very, very fishy, like snapper fillets left out on the bench in the kitchen for a week in full sunlight kinda fishy. For a start getting a negative after 2 hours of non payment, is completely unreasonable, and that is not acceptable and unfair, you should also talk to chat about getting it removed, that is ridiculous.
Hi there Mate - Just another member like yourself. Indeed, you buyer is being a dick. If they couldn't collect for 3 weeks, this is something they should have raised with you in the Q&A, and asked if it was ok for them to bid. Not dictate to you after the auction closed. Yes, your auction should have stated pick-up in 7 days, Trade Me says that trades should be completed in 7 days, but it doesn't hurt to put it into all of your auctions as well, it only takes 3 seconds to type out. But for sure, you did have a reasonable expectation that it would just happen that way. 3 weeks for pick-up is...
You are welcome Hayley. Personally I do wish there was a simple "Report this Question" feature, not just for your situation, which is common enough, but also to report trolling and low balling, some buyers treat the Q&A like a facebook forum as well, to share the opinions, rather than ask legit questions, I think this is something that should be looked at.
If they are putting in phone numbers for example you can do a community watch. Which is the little sherifs badge at the bottom of every listing. Just follow the prompts, select Q&A feature being abused. Word it something like this = "Hi there! I am reporting my own listing, Someone is sharing personal details in the Q&A, can this be removed please, also I have had this problem before, can you also email them, to ask them to not abuse the Q&A like this. Thank you for your trouble." T-Me staff will remove it, they just need a couple of days to get it done.
Callum's list is good. The only one I would add / ask is have you logged in and out recently? Have you put things onto you watchlist or place bids? How active is your account? If you account is inactive for a long time, they get suspended/closed, because Trade Me assumes you are DEAD! They have an automated system for identify accounts of members who may have died before closing their accounts, (if they didn't, their servers would be full of dead peoples, dead accounts wasting space) if your account was inactive for a while, this may have triggered it.
Also another option, sometimes this also happens if Trade Me have suspended, or kicked the member from the site. They may already be gone.
This is a growing problem Lee, you are not alone at having to deal with this, some users treat Trade Me like a social Media discussion forum. and think the Q&A is a great place for their unwanted opinions. I would love to see Trade Me add a "report question' feature, that was just a one or two click process, that would Quarantine it, until it got reviewed by a staff member for them to decide if its fair or not, and remove if needs be.