Yes this is completely unfair, you are probably dealing with a novice seller who doesnt know the rules (well at least I hope so, if it was an "in-trade" they should know better). You should contact Trade Me, through the live chat system, that is manned during business hours, if you give them the Auction number, title, and sellers profile name, they should be able to go back and see what happened.  

We tend to allow them 2 weekends as well, and then on the Second I give up emailling them and put through a Success fee refund request, you can select "Buyer has not made contact" this triggers an auto email form trade me asking them if they want to complete the trade or not. After 3 days if they have not responded to that message, then you get refunded. The next step after that is to leave a red face feedback - but very black and white. "Buyer won auction on XX/XX/XXXX, they promised pick-up on XXth , they didn't collect, I mailed again on XXth, they again said they would collect and faile...

99.18% certain this will be a seller with more than 1 of the item, if they are a second hand seller, its a bit of a conundrum for them, on what to do if you have multiple of the same item. Do you advertise that fact? Or do you just put one on and see what happens? If they put one on, then they can take the others to their market stalls for example, it give a bit more freedom, if you advertise you have more than 1, then people may not bid, thinking that they will bid on the next one, or the one after, and then no one bids, and they don't make the sale. I sure you will be fine, just sit tight...

The short answer would be - yes (with the information you have supplied). If this seller is marked "In Trade" then 100% they have a responsibly to manage buyer expectations, if they assured you that the battery would last a long time without being replaced, then 9 days would not count as a long time. Can I ask if it was a Rikconda? Those things have terrible batteries. Also how much did you pay? Say if the bike was $50 then it could be said, that at that price your expectations had been managed, and the value of the components is worth more than $50, and you brought a project, and were luck...

Nothing stops the process faster than threatening sellers with Police action, it is viewed as an intimidation tactic, and instead of making getting a refund faster, it slows things down. Have they said to you in an email that they are refusing to refund you? Have the acknowledged that you have returned the item? How long has this been going on for? (When was sale completed, when was Item found faulty, when was Item returned, what was the item? Could it be argued that you had reasonable use from it?  ...) Have you got an email from them admitting that the item is faulty and offering you a re...

This happens - its not the first time that this has come up on this page. Buyers need to accept that if they ask for a "Buy-Now" they run the risk of being sniped, whoever hits the buy now first is the new owner, its really not your problem, if they are harassing you on your other listings add them to your black list. This is their own fault not yours, perhaps if they just played the game and put on a bid, they may have been the new owner, but they made the choice to ask for a buy now, its on them not you. You have nothing to feel guilty about. You have done nothing wrong. Just sell it to t...

The easiest option is to just refund them and relist. No hassles T-Me will refund your fees and you just go right ahead and relist - Honestly the amount of times I relist something just to have it sell for more the second time around is staggering, we did some lighting a few weeks ago, $54 then buyer backed out, we relisted and got $148, this happens a lot. You would also be within your rights to stand your ground and not refund, tell them that they own it now, and if they don't want it, they can make a listing and sell it themselves or give it to a charity shop or something, not your probl...

The other thing Sarah (even if this was not a scam) is don't let buyers bully you into something you don't want to do, for example if you had created a listing that said "CASH ONLY" then that is your right, and if a buyer cannot figure that out, then its their problem to solve not yours to solve for them. Stick to your guns.

I still have not removed the bid yet. I will do it today though, I just wanted T-Me Customer service to see what has happened before I did anything. In response to the Remove my bid question, I am thinking of responding something like this "I am not that happy about this, all you have done is reveal the Auto-bid of ******, if ***** sees this and wants their bid removed as well, so they can reset their Auto-bid this fine, just let me know, I got you buddy" . I was a little surprised to find that their was a provision for this - although I assume its intended for reporting Shill bidders? Oh a...

Hi there S - How would you word a CW for this? Also what category did you put it under? This is something that needs to stop. Its a dirty trick, it puts Sellers to trouble, because we have to physically remove the bid, and then what do we do for the under bidder? Do we remove their bids as well? What if they are not montioring the auction, and dont see that their Autobid has removed? That's not fair. Then as a seller you have an upset under-bidder to placate if they do end up winning the auction because they have been "run-up" unfairly, it makes the seller look like they have organized a sh...