Trade Me and why im moving away.

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ArcticSilver

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Topic # 57990 3-Mar-2010 16:51

Over the years I have bought and sold multiple products on trademe. What has happened on a auction today just topped off my wounds.

A couple of days ago I placed a autobid of $30 on 2 auctions. Both of these were competing fine, overbidding people till it reached $15.

Today a funny thing happened. Suddenly I automatically overbiddedmyself straight to $30 (from $15 on one auction and from $21 on the other). So in another words for some reason (a bug maybe?) trade me has bumped up my bid to my maximum even though i was winning.

What can i do?
Ring trade me?
No, i cant, because if i rang trademe i would have to ring a 0900 number which costs $2/min, i will not do that out of principal.

Email them? Call their free support for problems like this? I wish. They dont have any other contact details on the whole site. So 0900 @ $2/min or nothing. In another words, they stuff up, i pay to get it fixed.

To top this all off, fee's have shot up, adverts have popped up and bussinesses are selling like crazy on it. Its nolonger a trade site.

Im personally sick of how they are taking every opertunity to make a extra $ at the customers expense.

So thats it for me, i will never use them again, i will look for a alturnitive site with far better pricing and most importantly FREE SUPPORT!

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BDFL - Memuneh
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Reply # 304039 3-Mar-2010 16:56

Autobid on trademe has some rules. If you autobid to $30 and current bid is $14 then the next one will be $15 (yours).

If someone Autobid to $29 then your autobid of $30 will trigger automatically and it will look like a "jump".

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freitasm

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Reply # 304040 3-Mar-2010 16:58

From http://www.trademe.co.nz/HELP/TOPIC.ASPX?help_id=76

Why has my auto-bid jumped to its maximum?
If your auto-bid is below or equal to the reserve, your maximum auto-bid will be placed.

If an existing auto-bid is greater than yours, your auto-bid may also jump to it's maximum, and be immediately outbid.

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NZCoderGuy

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Reply # 304041 3-Mar-2010 16:58

the extra bids placed are because someone else had come in and bid against you - but seeing you had the auto-bid in place first, your bid is placed in priority to theirs - and most of the time you can't see who did it.

Now the other side of the fence - people do bid on popular auctions just to bump up the prices that things are going to win for, especially if they can tell there is an auto-bid on there.

Anyway this isn't a bug of trademe - its a feature. You are the first one to place an auto-bid - so Trade Me is giving you priority to win it - until someone bids over you.

Why did my auto-bid bid against itself?
If another member places a bid equal to your auto-bid, your maximum auto-bid will be placed. It will appear as two consecutive bids from you. Auto-bids have priority over normal bids of the same value as they were placed earlier.

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Perrin

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Reply # 304042 3-Mar-2010 16:58

The situation you just described will happen if someone else bids exactly $30 for the item -- your auto-bid is automatically placed (and it's yours instead of the other person's because your auto-bid was placed first).

At least that's how understand auto-bid to work.

Perrin

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Reply # 304043 3-Mar-2010 16:59

Wow, you guys were fast.

ArcticSilver

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Reply # 304044 3-Mar-2010 17:03

I see, i didn't realize it would not show the other bid.

I'm still going to head away from trademe though, i did not realize their only support contact was a 0900 number, which is ridiculous. Their fees are bad enough now.

Edit: Just to add, the alarm to me was the fact that i saw me @ $15 then me again above it at $30 yet no one in between. I have never seen this happen before.

freitasm

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Reply # 304045 3-Mar-2010 17:04

First, it shows you are playing a game you don't know the rules. Sure way to backfire. Second, you should read the rules. Third, there are rules...

I forgot the fourth thing...

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ArcticSilver

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Reply # 304048 3-Mar-2010 17:12

freitasm: First, it shows you are playing a game you don't know the rules. Sure way to backfire. Second, you should read the rules. Third, there are rules...

I forgot the fourth thing...

I have been with trademe for a very long time.

In every auction i have bidded on and/or watched i have never seen a jump like this with no middle man (no bid whatsoever between my $15 one and my $30 one). I have always seen $29 then mine $30, in that format.

I have read the rules, but i do not remember that bit, yes i was wrong, im not saying i wasnt. With the number of sites i go to personaly i skim read them and figure the rest out. I dont believe most people read the rules at every site they go to.

Either way, thank you for clearing that up to all of those posting, personally the whole idea of 0900 support leaves a sour taste im my mouth anyway so i will not be returning.

nativecoloradan

11 posts

Geek

Reply # 304049 3-Mar-2010 17:14

Is the fourth thing ....
I like the rules. I play the game. and I make sure I don't win. :P

patatrat

261 posts

Ultimate Geek

Reply # 304050 3-Mar-2010 17:15

To contact trademe without using the 0900 number, go to this page:

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Help/ContactUs.aspx?crm_subject_id=2

Select the issue you are having problems with.

Read the information about that issue. If it still doesn't solve your problem, click 'No'. This will take you to a 'contact us' page where you can ask the support team a question. Make sure you were logged on first.

However, in your case, don't do this. The information is already there for anyone to read.

NZtechfreak

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Reply # 304051 3-Mar-2010 17:17

I've had auctions do that, expected behaviour if other auto-bidders are about.

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ArcticSilver

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Reply # 304053 3-Mar-2010 17:17

patatrat: To contact trademe without using the 0900 number, go to this page:

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Help/ContactUs.aspx?crm_subject_id=2

Select the issue you are having problems with.

Read the information about that issue. If it still doesn't solve your problem, click 'No'. This will take you to a 'contact us' page where you can ask the support team a question. Make sure you were logged on first.

However, in your case, don't do this. The information is already there for anyone to read.

It seems i did miss that hidden in the bottom there.

Wrong again, must be a bad day =P.

Cheers

patatrat

261 posts

Ultimate Geek

Reply # 304055 3-Mar-2010 17:23

ArcticSilver:

It seems i did miss that hidden in the bottom there.

Wrong again, must be a bad day =P.

Cheers

No problem. I hope you do stay with Trademe. They aren't a bad bunch, considering all the bad deals, scammers and fraudsters they need to deal with on a daily basis. I'm sure that if you had fired the question off, you would have received a very polite response explaining the rules.

No, I don't work for them, but am friends with people who do and used to.

sella

3 posts

Wannabe Geek

Reply # 304082 3-Mar-2010 18:36

Have a look at sella. We're a free auction site with 170,000 items for sale, 400,000 monthly users and no fees.

Free support via our help desk, twitter or just send me a PM here on Geekzone if you need any help.

Cheers,
Mike

sella.co.nz

richms

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Reply # 304093 3-Mar-2010 19:16

Perrin: The situation you just described will happen if someone else bids exactly $30 for the item -- your auto-bid is automatically placed (and it's yours instead of the other person's because your auto-bid was placed first).

At least that's how understand auto-bid to work.

Yes, and you get emailed that your autobid has been equaled which explains it just fine.

Richard rich.ms

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