• TradeMe NZ

TradeMe NZ

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Overview

TradeMe NZ has a rating of 1.4 stars from 100 reviews, indicating that most customers are generally dissatisfied with their purchases. Reviewers complaining about TradeMe NZ most frequently mention customer service, buyer protection, and bank account problems. TradeMe NZ ranks 198th among Auction sites.

  • Service
    27
  • Value
    22
  • Shipping
    18
  • Returns
    18
  • Quality
    17
Positive reviews (last 12 months): 14.3%
Positive
1
Neutral
0
Negative
6
7
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How would you rate TradeMe NZ?
Top Positive Review

“Delete your account trade me is shit”

Rishi P.
9/22/22

Zero stars in my books there is no way of contacting their customer service team. If there is an issues there is no way of resolving it. The chat option is crap. I don't understand how trademe is NZ most trusted marketplace. Ordered Binoculars from trade me. Came in broken the guy refused to help me saying I must have broken them filed a dispute with trade me no one has contacted me yet. I will not buy from trade me again.

Top Critical Review

“Unethical site that is impossible to challenge”

Jane W.
9/21/24

T/M suspended my husband and my accounts for no logical reason. We are in our 80's and trying to declutter. Unethical, rude, bullying contacts. Seems to be no way to challenge them despite their atrocious feedback!

Reviews (100)

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customer service (26)
Thumbnail of user robinh522
2 reviews
4 helpful votes
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October 2nd, 2023

Don't use this platform as it is very unhelpful. They will accept your payment and told you the seller had been instructed to ship the goods. The next moment they would tell you they hold on the money until a PING verification code had been received. As the seller had not received the money, the seller would not send the goods. When this happened, they would never answer your emails. You will be so helpless because they don't give their phone contact. This happened to me. They have held on my money one weeks already and I still have not received the goods. Neither my bank nor I know what the PING verification code was. Like Lazada of Shopee, they should protect the sellers and buyers, not just to hold the money on for a verification code but as a stakeholder. They have no right to hold it unless the sellers agree because ithe money is for the sellers. When the buyers have received the goods in good state and condition, they should within three days thereof release the money to sellers. If there is an issue raised within these three days they should solve it for them. Trade is just useless platform not helping the buyers and buyers when there is sn issue.

Tip for consumers:
I still have not received the goods though Trade Me had received my money a week already

Service
Value
Returns
Thumbnail of user sahss
1 review
4 helpful votes
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September 23rd, 2018

THIS PEOPLE ARE GOING FAR ABOVE THE CUSTOMER RIGHTS. FIRST YOU NEED YO PAY IF YOU PLACE AN ADD AND THEN IT TELLS YOU HOW LONG IS VALID FOR?! YOU MNAY BE BADLY SURPRISED WHEN YOU FIND OUT THAT THE ADD IS VALID FOR 3 WEEKS ONLY AND YOU HAVE PAID $100. HOWEVER FACEBOOK MARKETS ARE FOR FREE AND EVERYONE USING IT. I HAVE REPORTED THEM TO THE GOV!

Thumbnail of user rzzzx
1 review
1 helpful vote
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May 2nd, 2017

Everything there, even something not on earth. My whole family love this site, we use it buy things, sometime its help, sometime we sell stuff on it, good job

Thumbnail of user namen17
1 review
3 helpful votes
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July 7th, 2020

Held my money. Someone payed me using ping, and when i tried to transfer the money out of my account they held it because they didn't except my proof of id. They still need to pay my $800

Thumbnail of user kathyo21
2 reviews
5 helpful votes
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February 21st, 2018

I have now bought a super feature on trademe more than once and wondered why the property was not showing up on the 7 day rotator after paying $199? I called them and they said it has to wait to get into the rotator as wellington has a high demand and it has to wait for enough room to get onto the rotator. I was then also told my property would not be on for the full 7 days i had already paid for?... rather only the days left once it got onto the rotator?!@#$%^&*! Really trademe that is the biggest rip off... i am shocked and so dissappointed - this is clearly not giving me what i have paid for which is 7 days on a rotator marketing my property - i may be really unlucky and not even get one day and have paid for 7 days of marketing. The sooner someone gets a competitive website i am moving on shame on you trademe shame on fairfax! The fees full stop these days are a rip off shame on u fairfax I dont bother advertising anything anymore for $1 reserve as the fees are just not worth it. So its off to the tip recycling shop. You need to think about the whole picture fairfax and also get some telephone staff who are a little less casual... spend some of your trillions on training

Thumbnail of user gorillag1
1 review
3 helpful votes
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August 28th, 2020

By far the worst online shopping experience ever

My case:
I am the seller and I've put an item to auction.
During "adding item procedure" one of the options to choose from is the method of payment. There are several options available which include cash, bank transfer but also something called Ping. Ping is advertised as instant payment option. Obviously such service comes at a cost and they charge you for it.
After auction has finished, I have received an email message from trademe in which they advise me to get in touch with buyer to organize a payment?
Why I was charged extra then? Furthermore that didn't stop them to immediately charge my account with their full fee. That email also advised me that banktransfer option is mandatory. If it is mandatory why that checkbox wasn't checked in payment options? I'll tell you why, because then I would never chose Ping and gave them extra money. I tried removing Ping from my other still active auctions and I wasn't able to, because, imagine, Ping checkbox is greyed out.
Then I tried to get in touch with them. They are in million dollar business and they don't have a phone number to call. After going through tons of meaningless blogs I finally found chat which luckily wasn't chat bot. I had two conversations there, wasting my time by typing. Their first response was to copy/paste me same blog nonsense insulting my IQ several times during the process. I remained persistent and demanded answers which ended up by them hanging up on me twice!

Tbh I feel like a robbed off idiot.
Sad panda.

STAY AWAY!

Service
Value
Shipping
Returns
Quality
Thumbnail of user jamiep116
1 review
8 helpful votes
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August 31st, 2018

I've sent half a dozen emails over the past week about a fraudulent auction I paid for through Ping and getting my money back. So far trademe staff have just entirely ignored this claim. I'm still out the money that I paid for a bunch of headphones that weren't what they claimed to be, it appears the Ping buyer protection is total bull$#*!.

It appears that sellers can effectively just lie and say a product is something that it is not to drum up the price (which is essentially fraud) and trademe has no problem with this happening on their site.

Not once in the reply emails they've sent me over the past 5 days has one person even addressed my refund claim. I'm utterly disgusted at the service they offer. When I posted bad feedback on the scammer they just posted bad feedback back on me, and I had to chase and chase trademe (including a $30 phonecall!) just to get that removed. And I'm still out the money that the seller scammed me out of. I shall be telling every person I possibly can that trademes buyer protection is a crock of $#*! and they just ignore you when you try to invoke it.

Thumbnail of user kieranw7
2 reviews
6 helpful votes
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April 28th, 2014

They charged me for removing an auction that had 0 bids on it. Doesn't get much worse than that. Don't support a site that would do this.

Thumbnail of user aler12
1 review
0 helpful votes
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July 7th, 2021

Expenses everywhere.
Options to select items are too basic and limited.
After a couple of emails between myself and the admin, it is clear that people operating the site don't care about the consumers and are just out to make a dollar.

It's nice to see a few other sites slowly gaining momentum in nz

Service
Value
Shipping
Returns
Quality
Thumbnail of user anthonyf71
3 reviews
17 helpful votes
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July 10th, 2018

Such terrible service. They do not answer your questions. Everything is beat around the Bush. Soòoooooooooooo bad why do we keep going with you

Thumbnail of user benf25
2 reviews
4 helpful votes
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April 21st, 2014

Trademe sux eggs, the fees are exuberant, and because of there stupid cockups they have removed me. Wheedle seems the better way to go.
STAY AWAY FROM TRADEME!

Thumbnail of user nickg
2 reviews
6 helpful votes
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April 23rd, 2010

trademe.co.nz is a great site, you don't pay for bids and can see who you will buy from, i have had many great times there and never had any trouble!

Thumbnail of user iffih
2 reviews
4 helpful votes
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December 31st, 2018

It is really really dump site, it has even no control over its own policies. No equal rights for sellers.

Thumbnail of user anguss41
1 review
2 helpful votes
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February 16th, 2022

When I log on to trade me it llinks to a site asking for bank account which I gave and it took funds from my account. Please inform your customers

Thumbnail of user victimo5
1 review
4 helpful votes
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December 2nd, 2018

No protection against bad buyers as there are many that do not complete sales and trademe doesn't stop them

Thumbnail of user tw219
1 review
5 helpful votes
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February 22nd, 2018
• Updated review

After being a trader on there for over 10 years and trading with around 1000 people I have now seen the lowest of low of Trade Me who are now increasing fees that force many traders to pay them a slice of the shipping fees as well as the regular auction success fees. They have no right to do this and are forcing traders to provide free shipping or to increase their overall sale price to become free shipping, either way they make more money for doing nothing. We already foot the bill as sellers for people who chose "Paynow" when that cost should be on the credit card holder. Add to that they warn you that your address verification is about to run out in 2 weeks so to watch out for the letter they are going to send with a new activation code. No letter received and after emailing them twice, no answer to my queries after a week for a trader who has been on there for 10 years, and when they finally do they blame it on the letter getting lost in the post... disgusting and my address verification has now been revoked until I can get a code sent to me by applying all over again. I am now looking at selling on other sites, even Ebay will be better than Tardme... Trade Me you suck big time!. Tardme are a truely greedy money grabbing pack of baffoons who also favour feral traders that lie to claim back fees from trades they either have changed their mind about or because they are just slack. How about doing something for the people who actually make you money Tardme, we have certainly made you bit of it?!... many top sellers on there are now discussing taking their businesses elsewhere... that will be interesting.

Trademe used to be fun but now it isnt!
August 8th, 2015
• Previous review

Trademe used to be a lot of fun, but now they have increased fees. They have stupid people who buy items who don't ask questions and then moan about it later. Who expect absolute perfection on second hand items. They say they don't get involved, but they do allow unfair feedback and choose to believe one side only, sometimes its the wrong one. The feedback system is very flawed... I have been selling on there for years but am starting to hate it now, might look elsewhere.

Thumbnail of user susanb191
2 reviews
9 helpful votes
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July 14th, 2016

I was subscribed to the newsletter without my consent and have requested to be unsubscribed several times to no avail.

Thumbnail of user teodoram2
3 reviews
13 helpful votes
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February 19th, 2019

Been scammed and the support staff hang up the phone when I told them I was scammed! Absolutely no support, shocking!

Thumbnail of user danw1439
1 review
2 helpful votes
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January 27th, 2023

High fees and hard to deal with, not recommended. Wouldn't use trade me if there was another option available

Thumbnail of user freda290
1 review
13 helpful votes
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January 31st, 2020

Tricky Doggy Ugly Awful Shame of NZ monopoly no way to compliant or $1.99+GST for any complaint
Trademe is a joke Shame on the world

Thumbnail of user georgieb2
1 review
2 helpful votes
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December 3rd, 2017

I am going to point out some things here about Trade Me as follows:
1. They charge 8% success fees and they are very slow in getting back to you about any issues such as non-paying buyer and getting reimbursed or credited for fees. Takes forever and a day to even hear back from them about when you might get your fees back.
2. Navigating the site is old-fashioned and non-upgraded. It is like the guy who made millions made the site as fast as he could to sell it off and it has not changed much ever since.
3. The tools and menu selections are hard to use and not informative or user-friendly. Anyone using Trade Me will have to accept that the standards are low in NZ and so is Trade Me's standards. When you go through listing title options they are leaving out so many that it is hard to know if you even got the right title listing...
4. Another issue is that Trade Me allows traders with negative feedback to continually exists. You have no control who bids on your auctions and if you state those with no-negative feedback are only allowed to bid on your listings and place a clause in your seller's policies- good luck having Trade Me Enforce it- they do not. When it comes to taking your money, they are there but when it comes to getting back you money then they are not there and can take forever and a day to get back to you- the longer they hold your money, the more interest they make off of it.
5. the last issue I wish to mention is that their website on the computer and on the cell phone or not consistent. I cannot change a title of a listing by cell phone as the spaces allowed are not the same on cell phone as computer. This is just one of their many non-upgraded glitches. They also charge you to phone them per minute no matter if it is their mistake or not. Talk about poor customer service policies. They barricade you from contacting them easily and make you pay so you might do it by email.
Personally, I do not like Trade Me and find them non-modern and old-fashioned with low standards or poor customer service overall. I cannot wait till eBay comes into NZ as I would happily switch and their fees are lesser than Trade Me.
New Zealand only has consumer protection acts or acts for consumer or trading rights on paper and absolutely nothing to back up these claims. Basically, you have no rights in NZ. You can only sort out things by negotiation and good luck negotiating with Trade Me when not giving you back fees or removing traders with a hoard of negative feedback who continually remain on their site trading. These business practices are common in NZ and these came from England. Good luck!

Thumbnail of user joyw234
1 review
1 helpful vote
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August 24th, 2021

Very bad experience, bad customer service experience. Trademe put restrictions radomly on one of my listings, I have provided photo and serial number for verification, received email saying the Quarantine Lifted, however I still can't make change to my listings or answer questions. Wrote so many emails, no one replied me. Went to online chat, asked me to wait for a response. Been 4 days already. I asked them to remove my listings and close my account, so I can advertise somewhere else. They still asked me to wait for the response. Very unhelpful and Useless.
Fianlly received email from trademe, advised they need to see the orginal receipt of the item. I advised got no receipt for this one as this is a second hand old mobile phone. They came back said they think my phone may be on contact and may be blacklist in the future. I provided a video to show that my phone is not under contact and it is unlocked to all network. They can check my serial number with any network provider. However, Trademe still belive this is not sufficent. I asked them what evidence Trademe has to prove my phone is under a contract and will be blocked to all network, which part of the legislation says I need to provide receipt to be able to sell an item on trademe and an explaination on how can a phone is currently unlocked to all network still under a contract. Non of above been answered. They said becuase the phone looks new, therefore, they are randomly picking people and accuse people do not have right to sell their own stuff.

Instead of resolving my issue, they closed my account. This is the way they resolved issues.
I am very surprised with the way trademe treating its customers like a rubbish.
Not sure how long this company can survive.

Service
Value
Shipping
Returns
Quality
Thumbnail of user wendyw7
Delete M.
1 review
5 helpful votes
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June 29th, 2013

THIS IS AN ABSOLUTE USELESS WEBSITE OUTSIDE OF NZ. THEY EXPECT YOU TO HAVE A NZ BANK ACCOUNT TO BE ABLE TO SELL ITEMS. AN ABSOLUTE SCAM!

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About the business

Want to buy or sell? Head to Trade Me, NZ? ۪s biggest & most popular auction & classifieds site, with thousands of new & used items in a wide range of categories.

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