Trade me Shenanigans

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Balchy

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#33076 29-Apr-2009 10:26

So heres the deal.

I have a TM account, and my wife has a TM account.

Mine is in debt so was disabled, So I stopped using trademe.

My wife continues using hers until she attempts to sell her scooter on there at which time they disable her account saying that is a duplicate of mine.

They then thake the funds out of her account and transfer it to my debt, without authorisation.

So I email them and advise look they are separate accounts, blah blah blah. To which they say they will only resinstate her account once mine has been paid as they still think there are too many similarities between the accounts.

Umm wtf? of course there are similarities WE ARE MARRIED, so have the same address, surname, phone number, credit card number, and crazily enough our DOB is the same albeit 1 year apart.

No matter how much I try to explain that they have no right to transfer funds or close my wifes account they wont listen, even after sending them copies of both of our ID's!

Does this happen with all married couples or what?

SO FRUSTRATING!

For billions of years since the outset of time, every single one of your ancestors survived, every single person on your Mum and Dads side, successfully looked after and passed onto you life. What are the chances of that like?

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#210439 29-Apr-2009 10:36

Why the need for two seperate accounts? Pay off your debt, close your account and move on, yeah?

freitasm

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#210442 29-Apr-2009 10:38

I have heard of many of these stories and they remind me of people complaining of PayPal freezing their accounts...

A few years ago Paypal froze my account. I sent my credit card statement and bank statement via fax five times to confirm name, address and bank institution. They wouldn't let it go. The last strawe was something about not seeing my name on the statements. I called their 1800 number, and finally got through someone who look at my fax. I asked her to look at the top left. What do you see there? My name! Great, now could you please unlock the account?

Since then I had no more problems with PayPal.

Reality is PayPal deals with money, and there are too many scammers around. Even more now. The same goes for Trade Me. They don't deal with money directly, but intermediate transactions. People get scammed. A lot!

A couple of years ago I attended Trade Me's birthday party and the Police Commisioner was there too. He was invited because they have a special relationship. The NZ Police gets involved a lot with those things.

My advice is to be nice, and call. You are going to pay the 0900 call (this is something I think is absurd), but you should try talking to someone. Emails are not good. People follow scripts and discard email inquiries because there's no way to validate identity, etc.

If you called already, call again.

ajobbins

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#210446 29-Apr-2009 10:44

I'm sure if you pay the debt (Which you owe anyway) then they will sort everything out.

The way I see it, you are lucky they just suspended the account and didn't refer the debt to a debt collection agency, which I am sure they are entitled to do, which would leave you with a bad credit rating.

I'm not sure about the law surrounding these things, but perhaps as you are married you are in effect jointly liable for the debt anyway?

End of the day, if you had paid the money you owe (Not too much to ask I don't think), then this would never have happened in the first place.

itxtme

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#210451 29-Apr-2009 11:01

Can you honestly say that you never ever buy or sell anything on trademe using her account? Never?

To me this is like getting an agent to sell your house and then you deciding not to pay! You have not paid your bill and to be honest this hasn't affected you personally, your wife should be the one trying to open her own account. As far as they are concerned you’re a bad debtor that they may as well send to the dept collectors!!

Balchy

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#210454 29-Apr-2009 11:10

Yes I am well aware there is a debt to pay on my account, and I will be paying it when I get around to it.

That is not the point, the point is that they are saying they are one in the same account despite evidence to the contrary.

What if the same situation happened to flatmates rather then a married couple? surely the still dont have the right to take from one acount and put into the other, just because some of the details are the same.

And yes I can honestly say I never buy or sell with her account, I tend to try to avoid the temptation of trade me, and unfortunately I cannot say the same for my wife who practically lives on the site.

Decimate

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#210455 29-Apr-2009 11:15

adamj: I'm sure if you pay the debt (Which you owe anyway) then they will sort everything out.

The way I see it, you are lucky they just suspended the account and didn't refer the debt to a debt collection agency, which I am sure they are entitled to do, which would leave you with a bad credit rating.
.

Can they do this? God I hope not, that would be like me downloading alot of games on a prepaid mobile whwn it has a 1c balance (as you used to be able to do in the good old days) and then Telcom/Voda hitting me with a bill with Baycorp. I'm sure its in the T's & C's somewhere, but I've had an old account which I neevr paid and despite the numerous warning emails they mentioned nothing about referral to debt collection.

Lets hope not

rscole86

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#210456 29-Apr-2009 11:15

I have seen the same scenario. My partners account got closed, with no explanation. There was another account at the same physical address, that used the same domain in the registered email address. But they were separate accounts. I do not see why we should have to pay for phone calls to fix their mistake, and emails go un answered.
We just set up another account, this time with a different domain.

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Balchy

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#210460 29-Apr-2009 11:19

rscole86: I have seen the same scenario. My partners account got closed, with no explanation. There was another account at the same physical address, that used the same domain in the registered email address. But they were separate accounts. I do not see why we should have to pay for phone calls to fix their mistake, and emails go un answered.

We just set up another account, this time with a different domain.

Exactly, its crazy and its like they cannot think for themselves, their response is that their "security software" identified it. Well gee a piece of software that gets something wrong? who would have thought?

Even with proof that we are different people it has no effect, and yes why should we have to pay by calling an 0900 number to fix their error?

gehenna

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#210461 29-Apr-2009 11:20

This is a similar situation to me. I just sold a bunch of expensive items and my Trade Me account is in debt $222. I'm planning on paying this in the next few weeks. My partner has an account as well and it is in credit. I'll be selling a few things on her account until I pay my own debt off.

My account is completely separate from my partners account. And some of the comments here stating "why not just have one account" or the like are a bit rubbish to be honest. The point is that each persons account is their own account, regardless of whether they come from the same IP address or physical house address. What if Trade Me decided two flatmates were in the same position - two completely independent and unrelated people?

If this happens to my account there'll be hell to pay. Not to mention my partner used to work for Trade Me, so i'm sure it'll be a quick thing to get the problem resolved if it DOES happen, but either way I'll be angry as hell - just because I'm in a relationship with someone at the same address does not mean our accounts are one in the same. I want my own account because I sell a lot of tech stuff - my feedback is important in this regard. My partner sells a lot of clothes and the like - her feedback is important in that regard.

And yes Trade Me need to review their debt payment procedures. It's only been 2 weeks since my account went into debt but I've already received 3 notifications from them. Any normal creditor only notifies you once a month.

/rantover

Balchy

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#210464 29-Apr-2009 11:23

gehenna: This is a similar situation to me. I just sold a bunch of expensive items and my Trade Me account is in debt $222. I'm planning on paying this in the next few weeks. My partner has an account as well and it is in credit. I'll be selling a few things on her account until I pay my own debt off.

My account is completely separate from my partners account. And some of the comments here stating "why not just have one account" or the like are a bit rubbish to be honest. The point is that each persons account is their own account, regardless of whether they come from the same IP address or physical house address. What if Trade Me decided two flatmates were in the same position - two completely independent and unrelated people?

If this happens to my account there'll be hell to pay. Not to mention my partner used to work for Trade Me, so i'm sure it'll be a quick thing to get the problem resolved if it DOES happen, but either way I'll be angry as hell - just because I'm in a relationship with someone at the same address does not mean our accounts are one in the same. I want my own account because I sell a lot of tech stuff - my feedback is important in this regard. My partner sells a lot of clothes and the like - her feedback is important in that regard.

And yes Trade Me need to review their debt payment procedures. It's only been 2 weeks since my account went into debt but I've already received 3 notifications from them. Any normal creditor only notifies you once a month.

/rantover

AMEN Brother!

Its not the fact that there is a debt, its the principle and the fact that they refuse to use their own judgement. They were emailing back within 5 minutes everytime I emailed them and explained it to them. Once I sent them both of our ID's I hear nothing, it's like they have gone oops maybe we did make a mistake, lets just not reply and hope he goes away.

Yeah, real good "customer service"

ajobbins

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#210467 29-Apr-2009 11:36

gehenna: ...And yes Trade Me need to review their debt payment procedures. It's only been 2 weeks since my account went into debt but I've already received 3 notifications from them. Any normal creditor only notifies you once a month./rantover

Trade Me is NOT a creditor! It's a prepaid account.

They allow you to list into debt as a courtesey, on the understanding you pay the debt immediately!

If you read their Terms and Conditions it's in there plain as day.

Balchy

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#210468 29-Apr-2009 11:37

As said, this discussion is not about the debt it is about their right to cancel accounts without proper investigation or authorisation, same with transferring funds from one account to a totally separate account.

The debt side of things is an ancillary issue and not entirely relevant to the discussion

bcourtney

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#210470 29-Apr-2009 11:41

Balchy: The debt side of things is an ancillary issue and not entirely relevant to the discussion

No I don't agree with that. If there was no debt on your own account then this problem would not exist.

kiwitrc

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#210471 29-Apr-2009 11:41

If you feel strongly about this take them to the Commerce Commission.

Balchy

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#210472 29-Apr-2009 11:43

bcourtney:
Balchy: The debt side of things is an ancillary issue and not entirely relevant to the discussion

No I don't agree with that. If there was no debt on your own account then this problem would not exist.

Well you are quite wrong there. They stated they disabled the accounts due to multiple memberships not the fact that one of them was in debt.

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