stuart test blog

According to the NZ Herald, Trade Me are banning all iPhone auctions as they can’t be sure that the sellers actually have the goods in their possession. Seems a bit drastic but I guess when you command the majority share of the market, you can afford to lose a few auctions here or there.

Upcoming auction sites like SellMeFree, are grabbing the opportunity to increase their profile. SellMeFree’s CEO, Josh Bortwick said: "There are a lot of people wanting to use this technology, and we don’t really think that it’s fair to make New Zealanders wait for another year or two before they can."

To be sure that SellMeFree sellers do actually have possession of the iPhones, they are contacting each seller on a case-by-case basis. Not Trade Me though – spokesman Dean Winter says that it’s easier to place a blanket ban on the iPhones: "It is very difficult, if we know that a product is not available in New Zealand, to know if they’re legitimate it or not."

This is a classic example of a company becoming all ‘corporate‘ and losing touch with it’s customers. I’ll certainly be using some of the competing auction sites from now on.