TM mandating Ping payment option

[harm_less]

An email has just landed from Trade Me advising that as of Friday all listings will have to include Ping as a payment option. As a trader who hasn't offered Ping as a payment method and who avoids paying by this method if possible I see this as a heavy handed strategy by Trade Me to force sellers to allow them to clip the ticket on this inhouse payment function.

We will be allowing our existing listings to time out over the next week and beyond that will cease using Trade Me as a selling platform. Not a difficult decision as the percentage of our sales via TM is very small.

[king1]

yeah agree given they take 7% of anything i sell i don't feel like letting them have any more. so basically no more paying by cash is it?

[king1]

haven't had anything myself in the email, i wonder if this is something they are introducing for intrade accounts maybe. I saw a reddit post from months ago on much the same subject so maybe something they are phasing in... I think they want to become more of a market place than an auction site now days

I usually stick the prices up to 9999 or some unreasonable amount so no one buys, to avoid there stupid $4 withdrawal fee. If it were me i'd reply to that email and say as of Friday I will no longer be listing anything with TM... nothing like immediate feedback

[harm_less]

haven't had anything myself in the email, i wonder if this is something they are introducing for intrade accounts maybe.  I saw a reddit post from months ago on much the same subject so maybe something they are phasing in...  I think they want to become more of a market place than an auction site now days

I usually stick the prices up to 9999 or some unreasonable amount so no one buys, to avoid there stupid $4 withdrawal fee.  If it were me i'd reply to that email and say as of Friday I will no longer be listing anything with TM...  nothing like immediate feedback

The TM email has a no reply return path, and yes it was to In Trade sellers. I've changed our TM profile to tell prospective buyers that we'll be discontinuing listings there but stopped short of providing our website URL to avoid losing the account altogether.

---

yeah agree given they take 7% of anything i sell i don't feel like letting them have any more.  so basically no more paying by cash is it?

Under a heading "Ping on Every Listing"


Kia ora Tony at harm less solutions,

To create a safer and more streamlined experience for you and your buyers, we are updating the accepted payment methods for in-trade sellers on Trade Me.



From Monday 3 November, new listings from in-trade sellers will exclusively use Ping, with cash and Afterpay as optional additions.
How it works

    The available payment options via our website, app, and for listings created via listing tools will be updated from Monday 3 November.
    Your current active listings will remain unchanged until they expire and are relisted after the date of change. Once they relist or are edited, Ping will automatically be added and bank transfer as a payment option will be removed. You can still accept payments via Afterpay and cash.
    All new listings from this date will have Ping automatically enabled as a payment option and you can choose to add cash and Afterpay.

What you need to do

To ensure you're ready to accept Ping payments, check that your correct NZ bank account is linked to your Ping account.



When you receive a payment via Ping, a transaction fee of 2.19% will be deducted from the total amount the buyer pays (including shipping). If you choose to offer Afterpay, a transaction fee of 4.95% is deducted from the total payment amount (including shipping).



Ping and Afterpay payments are covered by our Buyer Protection policy.



By moving to secure payments, we're better protecting your business and our members with every transaction.



Ngā mihi,

The Trade Me team"

[king1]

maybe it's an attempt to catch out the scammers, could be beneficial then I guess, if it protects you as well...

[harm_less]

maybe it's an attempt to catch out the scammers, could be beneficial then I guess, if it protects you as well...

No goods leave our premises until they are paid for. That is our robust protection against being ripped off. We don't want Trade Me to require us to add another 2% to the prices of items we sell there for a payment method we don't need. Our TM prices are already 10% higher than our webstore pricing to cover TM's ticket clipping. 

Can't imagine being a business that extends credit lines in today's economic climate. That would be scary!

[Oh_hunnihunni]

Let them know you are pulling out. A while back they made Ping opt out only on new listings and a few of us kicked up a fuss on the community page and a few weeks later they quietly reversed that change/ Push back works.

[harm_less]

Let them know you are pulling out. A while back they made Ping opt out only on new listings and a few of us kicked up a fuss on the community  page and a few weeks later they quietly reversed that change/ Push back works.

If the email had a return path I would let rip at them but without an address for them I've just posted the 'end of listings' advice in our TM profile. 

Can you provide an email address that will get to someone with actual clout at TM? I'm not interested in a protracted email exchange with one of their lackeys. To be honest TM don't move enough items for us to be bothered pissing around to that degree.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

You can post on the community page -
https://help.trademe.co.nz/hc/en-us/community/topics

Be polite though, all new posts are marked Pending Approval, lol...

And while they're at it, there's a new service fee being added to some auctions. Which of course the buyer pays. Not this buyer thank you very much.

https://help.trademe.co.nz/hc/en-us/arti...experiment

[harm_less]

You can post on the community page - 
https://help.trademe.co.nz/hc/en-us/community/topics

Be polite though, all new posts are marked Pending Approval, lol...

And while they're at it, there's a new service fee being added to some auctions. Which of course the buyer pays. Not this buyer thank you very much.

https://help.trademe.co.nz/hc/en-us/arti...experiment

Can't find an obvious place to start a thread, post a question or lodge a complaint. Must be honest that I really can't be arsed trawling around their platform. Not worth the effort.

[Agent_24]

Service fee for improving their platform? Fuvk off

That's what the success fee is for

And they haven't been improving it recently, they've been making it worse

[Oh_hunnihunni]

Someone has started a thread on your issue harmless...

https://help.trademe.co.nz/hc/en-us/comm...n-Required

[harm_less]

Someone has started a thread on your issue harmless...

https://help.trademe.co.nz/hc/en-us/comm...n-Required

Dead link "403 error"

[nzoomed]

They charged us $250 for selling our spa pool. No wonder people are selling on Facebook, this is the last straw.

[harm_less]

The prices for our products listed on Trade Me have a 10% increase over our webstore prices (when total delivered cost is calculated) in order to cover Trade Me's listing and success fees. I'm not prepared to add another 2% to cover the cost of interacting with Ping, and that's apart from using a payment method that can be reversed at Trade Me's whim if a delinquent buyer decides to play that game.

[Oh_hunnihunni]

Someone has started a thread on your issue harmless...

https://help.trademe.co.nz/hc/en-us/comm...n-Required

Dead link "403 error"

Well, that'd be my feckless techlessness, lol. But the discussion is heating up... 

---

"personally can’t believe that this pricing is anything less than predatory. It certainly is uncompetitive. To that end I have already emailed an enquiry to the Commerce Commission asking if in their opinion this requirement to provide of a payment option that includes a surcharge is anti-competitive.

I strongly suggest other In Trade sellers fire off a quick email to the Commerce Commision to PaymentsTeam@comcom.govt.nz as they often require a few enquiries before they look at an issue. Don’t just comment at this thread…COMPLAIN TO THE COMMERCE COMMISSION and then post back here that you’ve done it. It’s easy…just forward them the email you got from TradeMe advising of this pricing decision and state that you believe it to be anti-competitive.

TradeMe: I strongly suggest that you open comments at your announcement thread, so that we can comment DIRECTLY in response to that notice; seek clarification on this decision; and raise valid questions about being forced to accept one payment type against our will."

Part of a post on the site...

[king1]

and the backlash begins...

[harm_less]

Dead link "403 error"

Well, that'd be my feckless techlessness, lol. But the discussion is heating up... 

I suspect it has more to do with Trade Me closing comments on this topic (and access to existing content?). Seems to have touch a nerve at TM 

[zqwerty]

"Well, that'd be my feckless techlessness, lol. But the discussion is heating up... "

No your link was working perfectly but they closed down the thread your link went to and opened another one which purportedly linked to another post which had more similar complaints than the one you added, Oh_hunnihunni,

I can't find it in my History but I definitely went to the thread you linked to earlier on where Trade Me had added yet another link to what they said was a more complete thread with more posters which I also went to.

[king1]

must be this one
https://help.trademe.co.nz/hc/en-us/comm...al-sellers

41 down votes and counting
"Post is closed for comments." - no surprises there