Throughout my membership i have always mantained a clean record and never scammed or dissappointed anyone, including TM, who received payment for their fees promptly.
First hiccup was when i purchased a birthday gift from a seller who had extremely high volume of sales. As this was a while ago i am unsure of the exact numbers but i estimate that it was about 15,000 positive feedbacks and 300 negative feedbacks.
The trader scammed me, i deposited the money i had saved up for this present, the very fact it took me and my family a lot of saving to accumulate this money made me very angry when i realised that i had been taken for a ride). The item never arrived, i contacted the seller and he said that as he had sent the item, my query was with NZ Post, not him. At this point i believed his story, i requested the track and trace number (which i had paid for), so i could contact NZ Post and obtain details.
When he sent me the track and trace number for a parcel he had sent 1 week BEFORE i even won the auction, i realised he was taking me for a fool. I immediatley told him that i was aware of his game, and that i would report to trademe and police to ensure he pays the price.
Heres where i made the mistake, i emailed trademe , gave them the full story (including the dodgy track n trace number), the response was that trademe would not investigate the matter or take any action against the seller, purely because he had a lot of good feedback in comparison to his bad feedback, so trademe took the position that either he was telling the truth to me about the item being lost in the mail, or i was trying to keep the item and get my money back. This deeply offended me, and enlightened me to the horrible business practice of trademe. Each and every negative feedback is a person who has been defrauded, hoaxed and conned out of their money.
I believe it is both unfair and unethical practice to compare the negative feedback to the good feedback and all queries should be treated without any bias.
I warned trademe that i was 100% sure this was a scammer and his account should be disabled, as evidenced by the tracking number he gave me, and the recent negative feedbacks from other people who claimed their items had also been lost in the mail. At this point trademe incorrectly told me that my only option was to go to the Tribunal, that there was no point contacting police as it was strictly a civil matter.
A combination of being naive, stupid and frustrated, i believed this crap and thought that there is no way i can afford to take this person to court. I regrettably cut my losses and as a result i could no longer afford to buy the present, this deeply distressed and humiliated me.
Furthermore, i was enraged when a year later i was chatting with a lawyer and found out that the issue was infact a police matter and i was mislead by trademe, for what reason i do not know, it seems they supported the scammer in this case.
Trademe offered no further assistance and the scammer kept his account for a further 5 months, in which time he accumalated a whole lot of victims, as evidenced by the negative feedback that kept clouding his fb page. Finally, trademe disabled his account and he is no longer a member.
If trademe had heeded my warning atleast 50 people would have avoided the scammer in question
Second and most recent situation where i feel i have been let down by TM:
Regrettably i decided to use TM to sell my car, enticed by their "free relists until sold" offer i put my car up and my account went into -$45 debt. After multiple relists it became apparent that there was no interest in my vehicle and i was goin to have to settle for a live auction sale.
Even though i was unable to sell the car on TM, they mantain that i still owe them $45 and will have "free relists" for this car i no longer own. Upon emailing their support and requesting that they make it clear the $45 payment is non refundable, essentially making their claim to "free relists until sold" false advertising. They said they understood my query and fowarded the suggestion to the correct department, however i would still have to pay the $45 and my account would remain in debt.
I was astonished by this admission of wrongdoing yet continued demand of payment, i replied back stating i did not feel i owe them the money and requested immediate closure of my account. They promptly closed my account, saying goodbye to a paying customer of many years over an issue they admit was not my fault.
As i am a very open minded person, i would appreciate it if anyone who thinks i am being unreasonable comes foward and explains why, as of now i cannot understand

I eagerly anticipate the day that TM collapses as a result of its appalling support/management teams.
Anyone who asks me if trademe is a good site to trade gets a stern warning from me to steer clear.