KEY POINTS:
My name is mud on Trade Me. But I don't care. I know Sam Morgan is widely considered a cross between the Dalai Lama and Bill Gates, but saint or not, I think the online auction site he founded is obnoxious and intrusive.
I am a Trade Me neophyte but it didn't take long to get a bad rep. The first thing I bought was an old wooden kids' high chair for $30. I was meant to pick it up from the other side of Auckland, but in the meantime I bought another rumptier one for $20, delivered.
The seller of the first high chair kept asking me when I was going to pick it up. I couldn't see myself getting to Blockhouse Bay so I emailed the seller to say they could keep the money - I had paid by internet banking - and list it again. I thought this would be a satisfactory outcome for the seller. After all, they could get twice the price.
But then I noticed my Trade Me account had a black mark next to it. "Pointless trade - made no attempt to pay or pick up - wasted our time and forced us to relist. You may be new to Trade Me, but really, it's not that hard ..."
In the meantime I got a message from the seller of the second high chair, which had been delivered, asking me to post feedback about them. That's like being forced to write thank-you notes by your mum. Did Sam Morgan have to post feedback when he got his bonus of $14 million from Fairfax the other day? "Good trade!" And then I got this snotty email from Trade Me with the subject line: "High number of negative feedbacks". One negative feedback, that is. "Trade Me operates a trading community that is based on trust yadda yadda ... If you continue to receive negative feedbacks you may be removed from the site."
The whole experience made me feel cross. Is it really so unreasonable to simply want to buy something without all this other bossy palaver? I am fed up with companies wanting to have a "relationship" with me. From now on I say no to loyalty cards, corporate Facebook groups and folksy company newsletters. I have taken a vow of commercial celibacy.
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Does Vodafone have a pretty good revenue-generating wheeze going in Auckland? You may have discerned that there are some black holes in coverage in city locales including College Hill, at Spaghetti Junction and down Lake Rd on your way to Devonport. You notice this if talking on the phone when driving: calls just drop out, maybe because Vodafone has stopped upgrading its 2G network.
That means if more people move into an area, the reach of each cell site shrinks. Losing a call is irksome to you or me, but from Vodafone's point of view it may be revenue-positive. When you lose your connection you have to ring the person back again and even if you talk for 10 seconds, you are still billed for a minute.
I interviewed Vodafone's then-CEO Arun Sarin when he was in New Zealand a few years ago and he raved about how this market was the pin-up model for the rest of the multinational. Last year Vodafone made a profit of 9 billion ($23.5 billion), on revenue up 14 per cent on the previous year. But it seems they can't afford blanket network coverage in the centre of this country's biggest city.
deborah@coneandco.com
