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Help > Safe Buying Advice
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Trade Me helps you to buy almost anything from over 1 million other Kiwis.
Listed below are some guidelines for safe buying. Combined with your common
sense, they will help keep you safe.
Know your seller
Review the member's selling feedback.
Click their feedback rating, then the "selling" tab. This shows other items
they've sold recently and comments from previous buyers.
Make sure the seller is Address Verified.
Sellers can address verify themselves for free and it helps us track the seller
down in the rare event that something goes wrong.
Learn more about Address Verified.
Know what you're buying
Carefully read the item description and answers to questions.
Before you bid you need to know exactly what is being auctioned - including any
free accessories, the age and condition of item and even why it's being sold.
Poor english may indicate that the seller is overseas or that you may struggle
to understand each other.
Ask your own questions and ensure the seller answers them. Lots of
unanswered questions are a danger sign.
Be very careful of sellers who bypass the auction process.
Transactions conducted outside of Trade Me have a much lower chance of being
resolved if they go wrong.
Check the postage costs. Postage typically costs extra and will vary
greatly based on the item and your distance from the seller. Make sure you
understand the postage costs before bidding. If the seller will let you pick
up, we suggest you do.
Pay wisely
Only pay into New Zealand bank accounts or by credit card. Never pay for
goods with Western Union, MoneyGram or instant cash transfers as they cannot be
traced. Payment by PayPal is uncommon in New Zealand and is not recommended. Paymate is a safe and secure method for online credit card payments.
More about payment options.
Get a phone number. If you are the winning bidder on a higher value
item, ask the seller for a phone number in case you need to call them.
Keep all payment details and emails exchanged with the seller.
These details will help us locate the seller if things go wrong.
We recommend SafeTrader, which is owned and operated by Trade Me, for
higher value items from higher risk sellers with low feedback ratings or who
are not Address Verified. Learn more about
SafeTrader.
If something does go wrong...
Most problems are the result of either poor communication or differing
expectations between the buyer and the seller.
Stay in contact with the seller and ensure you understand when to expect
delivery. Sellers will typically wait for payment to clear before shipping
goods, which can take a couple of days or longer on weekends and bank holidays.
Delivery itself can reasonably take another 2-4 business days meaning a
possibility of seven days or more between paying and receiving goods.
Frequently buyers and sellers may not be receiving one another's emails due to
spam filters or email filtering. Check your junk or bulk email folders.
More on spam filters.
If you have paid and the seller isn't responding to your emails, place a
neutral or negative feedback on the seller saying so. This should prompt them
into action and serves to warn other buyers. You can edit the feedback you
place, but only once.
If you still can't contact the seller after several days, or think you are the
victim of fraud, please contact
us immediately.
The vast majority of problems reported to us resolve themselves through good
communication and patience. So be patient, use your common sense, and happy
trading.
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