mazdad wrote:It's a pity Trade Me don't get more involved in assisting people who have a genuine grievance than they do presently.
What do they care? They have your fees, and even if they refund them you'll be back for more. The only reason that have an investigations section in the first place is that they want to be seen to be making an attempt - so that there is not too much media attention. It is a bit like credit card companies - there is an acceptable 'loss' and the losses are just passed on to the punters through increased fees.
mazdad wrote:My experience generally with Trade Me has been absolutely excellent. Some really nice people out there in Trade Me land - bought my existing MX-5 through Trade Me.
So have mine, but it isn't really through any doing of trademe, more the honesty and consideration of most users.
mazdad wrote:However, when I tried to buy an MX-5 from a bloke in Taupo recently using the 'Buy Now' feature, then purchasing a VIN report and booking Air NZ flight to go collect it he came back and said sorry, his wife had already sold it to the AA chap who'd come to inspecvt it.
Do you want to mention who it was? We may know him.
I had a similar experience with selling a car. The buyer won the auction (with other bidders) then wanted an AA report. I said on two conditions:
1. I got a copy of the AA report whatever the outcome (so I could see that was wrong and fix it for either them, or another buyer)
2. They refunded my fees if they chose not to buy (so I could re-auction).
Both reasonable requests, and item 1 didn't even cost them anything. They wasted a couple of hours whilst I waited with AA, then didn't buy and didn't do either two things above. I can't even fathom a person being so strange in their thinking that they wouldn't even give me a copy of the report (which they had done and would just throw in the bin).
mazdad wrote:To add insult to injury the 'seller' then tried to claim back his Trade Me fee so Trade Me got in touch with me telling me they'd give me 'negative feedback' because I hadn't completed the sale.
As I say, A good system when folk play fair, but when you get the odd crook then Trade Me tends to walk away from their reponsibilities. Ultimately it will be this lack of customer support that kills Trade Me.
And like many monopolies, without being regulated or without media attention, they have no reason to do anything different.
I have learned a bunch of things since '99 when I joined trademe (my ID is less than 5000!). Unfortunately, the main ones are that you always suspect the worst, don't give feedback until someone else does first, and you have to write about 3 pages of info in your auction with all your conditions of sale.
