Trade Me complaint?

Do you have a dispute or a bad customer experience with Trade Me? Report it through our website to maximize the chance of getting it resolved.

We help you write an effective complaint in minutes. Our AI models are trained on thousands of effective complaint letters. Then we push it through emails, social media, paper complaint letters and other tools at our disposal. And you are not alone: our helpful community is there for advice.

Trade Me customer service works through its help centre: Tautoko Bot, an automated chat, answers first, and you can leave a message for the Wellington-based support team. The Contact our Support team page, linked in the contact details above, explains both routes. Have your member name, the listing number and screenshots of the listing and messages ready, and keep the reference of every request.

Listing pulled, payment held or account locked? Start your complaint here too, and we push it out to Trade Me by email, social media and printed letters.

No: Trade Me publishes no public customer service phone number for members. Support runs through Tautoko Bot, the automated chat in the Trade Me help centre, and messages to its Wellington-based support team, both explained on the Contact our Support team page linked in the contact details above. Keep the reference of each request so every exchange stays linked to your case, and be wary of numbers posted elsewhere that claim to be Trade Me support, especially if they ask for card or login details.

Yes, but only about Trade Me's financial services: the Financial Dispute Resolution Service (FDRS) in New Zealand covers complaints about how Trade Me holds or transfers your money or arranges payments for you, such as through Ping, not ordinary disputes between buyers and sellers. FDRS generally expects Trade Me to have had the chance to put things right first, so keep a record of every message and request.

Payment held or a transfer gone wrong? Raise it through our complaint process: our trained AI opens a case and coaches you on what to send next and when to push again.

A Trade Me Buyer Protection claim is made through the Trade Me help centre, for eligible purchases where the item did not arrive or is significantly different from the listing. The help centre sets out which purchases and payment methods are covered, so read that before you claim, and include the listing number, your payment record, the messages with the seller and photos of what arrived. Keep the item, the packaging and every message until the claim is decided.

If the purchase is not covered, the payment record still matters: a card payment can sometimes be disputed with the card provider.

No. Scammers who have stolen card details use them to buy on Trade Me, then call the cardholder pretending to be the bank or Trade Me to get the Ping verification code that completes the purchase. Trade Me warns never to share that code, a password or a PIN with anyone who calls.

Nothing has been reported about Trade Me here yet. Our research shows what typically goes wrong at online marketplaces: items paid for that never arrive, goods that are not as described, sellers who back out after an auction closes, Buyer Protection claims that are turned down, payments held or refunds slow to come through, listing and success fees members did not expect, and accounts that are suspended or locked.

Seller took the money and the item never came? Be the first to report it: your case gives the next buyer bidding on Trade Me a record to check before paying.

Your complaint gets its own public page on Complain.biz and we get to work: we bring it to the attention of Trade Me through emails, social media, paper complaint letters and other tools at our disposal.

And we stay with it after you file. Our trained AI opens a case file for you and keeps coaching: what to reply, when to push again, and how to escalate if nothing happens.

Yes. We have an active community of consumers, and complaints here are public: people who ran into the same problem with Trade Me can give you advice or back you up with their own story. A complaint with a community behind it is much harder to overlook.