Has Trade Me had its day?

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Rikkitic

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Topic # 185424 22-Nov-2015 15:01

The relevance of Trade Me in today's e-commerce world is a subject that has been dealt with before but I feel impelled to revisit it once more.

I live at a rural address and I often need to buy small items. I used to use Trade Me for this but increasingly the traders there insist on using only courier post, with ridiculous charges for delivery to rural addresses. Often the postage is more than the cost of the item.

Yes, we all have friends in town to get around that but my question is why should we have to? I have posted about this on the Trade Me forum in the past and most of the responses were along the lines of it's only a few dollars so what is your problem? I guess my problem is that where I grew up the customer was always king. If this kind of service is what the customer wants, then it should be provided without question. Otherwise you go out of business.

Today I ran into the same thing again. I needed a couple of small items and looked first on Trade Me. I sent a query to the seller and the response was not only could they not send it by ordinary post at my risk, but I could only pay for it through the bank, despite Pay Now being on the listing.

My response? Why bother? I went to Aliexpress and immediately found better alternatives for less money, not to mention free shipping to any address in New Zealand, rural or otherwise. Is it any wonder that Trade Me is losing customers?

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Reply # 1432645 22-Nov-2015 15:01

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Hmmmm. Here we go.

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Reply # 1432652 22-Nov-2015 15:13

Trademe is for secondhand items, large and small.

johnr

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Reply # 1432655 22-Nov-2015 15:14

Trademe has a dam strong brand

tardtasticx

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Reply # 1432663 22-Nov-2015 15:20

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The issue isn't TradeMe, it's the ridiculous fees charged by CourierPost and other postal services. A lot of the items being sold on TradeMe are being sold by random members of the public who only have access to CourierPost through their consumer services, like a $4.50 prepaid bag at the post shop or something.

The difference between consumers and businesses, is that businesses can get a bulk discount on CourierPost services. But then the savings aren't huge for the end consumer since the business has to factor in things like warehouse and staffing costs.

Then the difference between NZ and China, is that NZ charges based on size, weight and area. China on the other hand only charges based on weight from what I've read. I've also seen some sites say that their government subsidises China Post to help increase exports etc and boost their economy. I don't believe NZ has such a thing.

I guess this is just one of the perils of choosing to live in the country, someone eventually has to foot the bill and it's unfair to expect that to be a seller on TradeMe.

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Reply # 1432665 22-Nov-2015 15:25

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No, it hasn't. Small businesses use courier as it's traceable, so dishonest people have a more difficult time saying "I didn't get this parcel". They will have a small set of tickets, that won't include rural delivery, as you have to buy books of 25 or something or else pay penalty rates for not using them. This is likely why postage is expensive for you. If you don't want to use it, don't.

Shipping from ebay/China is cheaper than shipping from Wellington to Auckland. I buy a lot of little things from there - it just takes a month to arrive.

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Reply # 1432668 22-Nov-2015 15:35

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It's not the courier charges that you should worry about but the extortionate success fees, they've been gradually creeping towards 10% for a while and that is by far more of an issue to me.

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Reply # 1432669 22-Nov-2015 15:36

It's NZ Post and the couriers and their antediluvian delivery systems not TM.

Royal Mail will deliver parcels from London to Benbecula on the Outer Hebrides by 1730 next day for the same price as they would anywhere else. Neither would the residents of Benbecula have to pay extra for 'rural delivery'.

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Reply # 1432673 22-Nov-2015 15:43

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Which is just plain stupid when there *IS* a huge cost difference. There is a cost to living rural

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Rikkitic

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Reply # 1432674 22-Nov-2015 15:45

What galls me about the rural charge is that the parcel is delivered in the exact, same identical way, i.e., the rural postie picks it up in town, brings it out with the mail, leaves it in the mailbox. There is no difference whatsoever between ordinary post and unsigned courier post, except the ridiculous surcharge. That is why I object to it so much.

As far as liability goes, I always specify at my risk when requesting ordinary post. In my experience, it has never failed and is no different than 'courier' post.

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Reply # 1432678 22-Nov-2015 15:49

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IMHO "peak Trademe" occurred a long time ago. Is Trademe still relevant? Yes. Very.

I do however share the same view with shipping costs. I buy a lot of goods from Aliexpress and other Chinese sites, and having to wait 10 days for something that's not super important to turn up when I can buy it incl free shipping for far less than it costs to ship something with NZ Post domestically doesn't worry me.

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Reply # 1432680 22-Nov-2015 16:02

Geektastic: It's NZ Post and the couriers and their antediluvian delivery systems not TM.

Royal Mail will deliver parcels from London to Benbecula on the Outer Hebrides by 1730 next day for the same price as they would anywhere else. Neither would the residents of Benbecula have to pay extra for 'rural delivery'.

Difference in delivery systems? Royal Mail has been price regulated for years now more or less privatised is still subject to various controls which the corporation is wanting removed. Benbecula is in for a shock.

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Reply # 1432681 22-Nov-2015 16:04

Rikkitic: What galls me about the rural charge is that the parcel is delivered in the exact, same identical way, i.e., the rural postie picks it up in town, brings it out with the mail, leaves it in the mailbox. There is no difference whatsoever between ordinary post and unsigned courier post, except the ridiculous surcharge. That is why I object to it so much.

As far as liability goes, I always specify at my risk when requesting ordinary post. In my experience, it has never failed and is no different than 'courier' post.

Delivered yes, but how is it collected?

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Reply # 1432683 22-Nov-2015 16:14

Rikkitic: The relevance of Trade Me in today's e-commerce world is a subject that has been dealt with before but I feel impelled to revisit it once more.

I live at a rural address and I often need to buy small items. I used to use Trade Me for this but increasingly the traders there insist on using only courier post, with ridiculous charges for delivery to rural addresses. Often the postage is more than the cost of the item.

Yes, we all have friends in town to get around that but my question is why should we have to? I have posted about this on the Trade Me forum in the past and most of the responses were along the lines of it's only a few dollars so what is your problem? I guess my problem is that where I grew up the customer was always king. If this kind of service is what the customer wants, then it should be provided without question. Otherwise you go out of business.

Today I ran into the same thing again. I needed a couple of small items and looked first on Trade Me. I sent a query to the seller and the response was not only could they not send it by ordinary post at my risk, but I could only pay for it through the bank, despite Pay Now being on the listing.

My response? Why bother? I went to Aliexpress and immediately found better alternatives for less money, not to mention free shipping to any address in New Zealand, rural or otherwise. Is it any wonder that Trade Me is losing customers?

Some courier brands don't charge extra for RD, such as passtheparcel. I am unsure how NZ post makes any money when delivering an overseas package, when the cost was only couple of dollar US. You can always negotiate the shipping with the seller prior to purchases. What annoys me with some pro trademe sellers, and also some of these TV advertorials, is that they don't actually make much money on the actual product, the profit seems to be in the postage, as it can be substantially higher than the raw cost.

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Reply # 1432702 22-Nov-2015 16:32

Trademe has changed from its original concept. There is an increasing number of dodgy declared In Trade traders and even dodgier undeclared In Trade traders that are muddying the waters a bit. However there is the odd thing that is good. I have only ever purchased a handful of stuff, I have never sold anything on there, I will just give it away to family, friends or Salvation Army.

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Reply # 1432712 22-Nov-2015 16:34

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The RD thing is also not kept up to date.

Our house is RD. Yet you can walk to the middle of the village in 20 minutes and drive it in 3. We are on town water. The issue is that the boundaries of what is and is not RD are way out of date and no doubt that is the case elsewhere also.

We get round it by using a PO Box in the village (Courier Post will deliver to that) or various places like the BP station who act as a depot.

The speed of delivery is sometimes so slow as to beggar belief - 4 different courier companies handling the item between Auckland and our house is not uncommon.

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