Gumtree.com / featured adverts really suck!
Gumtree (www.GumTree.com) has just pinched £20 from my credit card - without featuring my ad as promised.
I have the gumtree invoice and the gumtree ad approval to prove my point - but my gumtree advert is nowhere to be seen and has been deleted.
Meanwhile the £20 fee has already been grabbed from my credit card by gumtree.
I have emailed all of the staff, but they are not responding.
The advert was not offensive, and there are many other free adverts of similar wording (And type) on gumtree.com.
After doing further research, I have found out that gumtree frequently creams such funds off people's credit cards on a regular basis.
Many of the featured advertisers who do not follow up their paid adverts will then be duped into thinking that gumtree has posted their advert - when in fact their ads have since been deleted.
My advice is that you should not upgrade your free gumtree advert to a paid featured gumtree ad until gumtree comes clean on it's fraudulent advert deletion policies.
More Gumtree.com Complaints & Reviews
- Gumtree - gumtree ripped me off!!! [2]
- Gumtree - processing time a joke [1]
- Gumtree - processing time of an ad for 48 hours [1]
- Gumtree.com - featured ads are a scam! [1]
- Gumtree - scam [6]
- Gumtree - price of phone charges
- Gumtree - scams
- Gumtree - removal of ad
- Gumtree - vintage oak chest of draws
- Gumtree - kittens for sale
Comments
I wholeheartidly agree friend. I posted an advertisement indicating I was looking for a fitness partner in the relationship section. I was then advised my advert should have went in the 'age unverified' - "casual relationship section". They haven't refunded my money, or offered a valid explanation as to why my advert was removed!!?.
Won't use this site again, and if they don't refund my money in the next few day's, I'll happily take further action against them.
GUMTREE.COM = BBC WATCHDOG . Yes I had the same expereince and it is about time Gumtree.com are reported for investigation about several other issues including fraudulant behaviour . GUMTREE denied extracting money from my debit card account and NOT featuring my business advert, just because I am based in LEEDS and their offices are LONDON makes no difference whasoever . The site displays illegal inappropriate content anyway, there customer service is appaulling, I remember one report from somebody on a link to a site sometime ago proporting to know an employee of Gumtree who had a history of fraud, other complaints I remember reading in various links were absolutely shocking . I was postitve they were trading illegally, but apprently not they are registered under ' complaines house ' but this does not mean that there company activites are acceptable, they are a lying, cheating company that cant be tracked down and have no contact number, I WANT MORE PEOPLE TO CAMPAIGN TO STRIKE THIS WEBSITE OFFLINE it is a disgrace to our communities and displays concerning material for our children to gain easy access to . I have already reported GUMTREE TO BBC WATCHDOG but they need to generate enough complaints for public exposure . I URGE many people to complain to WATCHDOG in particular of fraudulant matters . PLEASE DO NOT HESITATE DO SO NOW .
I agree with everything that has been said about this web site. We are a legitimate holistic health and male grooming compnay based in the south side of glasgow. We offer our clients a valuable quality service, that they can't get anywhere else. We are male therapists, which a very few and far between. But our add always seem to get booted off the site and we are told that they are not conforming to gumtree policy. I would like to point out that we are a professional group with international qualifications that can be checked, registered with governing bodies and full insured. We have many years experience in this industry and working in the NHS, so we wouldn't be operating anything suss, as we still work part time for the NHS. I have complained to gumtree about other advertisers who seem to put multiple and inappropriate adverts on the system and get away with it. It makes you wonder if they are not getting a cut. I have a mind to start an internet web site of my own, but I wouldn't know where to start ! ! ! !
PS I would like to hear from anyone who has the same problems with gumtree. You can contact me at naturalarts"hotmail.co.uk / www.naturalartsuk.com tell me if you think my business is inappropriate ? Cheers Nick & Will
28-10-08
Press release following BBC Watchdog program of 27-10-08.
Gumtree 4x4 Ltd, a small independent garage specialising in Land Rovers and MOT testing based at Ditchling Common in Mid-Sussex, would like to make it completely clear that it has no connection with the website Gumtree.com which was mentioned as being the starting point for an accommodation related scam on the BBC Watchdog program last night.
John Bowden, the founder and managing director of Gumtree 4x4, said that they have been suffering from an almost daily barrage of phone calls and e-mails from unhappy, irate and confused customers of gumtree.com and also from the police caused by the fact that there is no helpdesk telephone number available for the website and directory enquiries defaults to Gumtree 4x4 as the nearest similar entry.
John has managed to contact gumtree.com and has been assured via e-mail that they have “improved” their website design and performance to make it easier for them to be contacted but this has done nothing to reduce the confusion and gumtree.com now ignore his e-mails.
“We have been in business since 1981” says John, “and it is very frustrating to find that our name is associated with a website that seems uninterested in helping customers and hides away without any telephone access”.
GUMTREE GUMTREE GUMTREE GUMTREE GUMTREE.
We are all well aware of this fraudulant website, it's about time that the police looked in to the way they operate.
Gumtree are stealing £1000's of pounds on a daily basis, from genuine customers looking to use their advertising space.
I personally DO NOT USE GUMTREE because of these issues.
i did paid 35 pounds on wed 11/11/2008 by credit card. i find no my ad since . i try to contact them
on tel no but they don't have. i did reply back by emai . it become permenent error. i felt fruad .
what can i do to take action on them? pls someone advice me?
After becoming deperate to sell my industrial Table Saw and a pair of Technics DJ Turntables before my moving out deadline, I finally decided to pay the extortionate £10 per advert to have them Featured for 7 days. I must have been one of the lucky ones then and I at least got my 2 £10 ads Featured fo 1 Whole Day!!
I have the confirmation and receipt email from them dated 31 March and my ads both vanished into thin air on the 1st of April. I thought perhaps it might be an April Fool's prank or something but the ads really are gone. I have since emailed to complain to them and request that the £20 be paid back into my Paypal account where the money was taken from by them, and had no response.
It is now 03:30 Saturday the 4th of April and this means that my ads should still be Featured for another 46 hours... but they're gone!! And so is my £20!!! And I have not sold the equipment I need to sell and will now probably lose it to the Landlords when I move out today. Thanks Gumtree, Burn In Hell.
I must say though... I remember a couple years back when the Gumtree.com was still the FREE Community Website where you could be sure to sell your unwantededs, buy a bargain, get a job or a service, offer a job or a service, find a place to live and so much more. We could even just update the ad's we placed everyday to go back to the top of the new days list but now you can update your ad til your blue inthe face and it just keeps sliping into the abyss of time past.
Now recently I believe the Gumtree.com site was sold to some corporate rapists and pillagers and that was the birth of the Featured Ad. Gumtree.com now is no longer a FREE Community Webite by the people for the people... It's just another big Corporate Scam Site.
Now correct me if I'm wrong, but we're all struggling at the moment, so why the should we let these thieves get away with it? COMPLAIN PEOPLE!!! PLEASE JUST STAND UP FOR YOURSELVES AND YOUR PEERS!!
We should have them eliminated.
There are still sites that are truly free such as
Vivastreet.co.uk
Adzooks.co.uk
to name a few.
Justin.
The problem seems to be wider than gumtree. I believe that Gumtree was taken over by ebay. The customer service on ebay has also declined sharply with the use of automated replies leading to philippine call centers that are a nightmare to deal with. I am a client with a 780 purple star rating with ebay and a long time user of gumtree for letting my london studio. Now everytime I post an ad on gumtree, no matter what telephone or email I use, it doesn't get posted or is deleted. I am quite prepared to pay but am put off by other people's and my own experience. There is obviously a big gap in the market for someone to step in with a friendly and effecient service. WAKE UP EBAY. WAKE UP GUMTREE.
virginwin
virginwin@aol.com
Yes, I agree with all above- gumtree used to be great, but isn't any more
given the thousands of ads that gumtree does every day, they seem to do pretty well. you are always going to get a couple going wrong. there response rate could be better right enough. the usual problem is that people dont follow the complaint problem precedure
yeadeal.com is a free online auction site. An gumtree alternative offering free auctions. Internet Auctions Website. Buy or sell in thousands of internet
We paid Gumtree via Paypal for an advert. They did not publish the advert and we got the usual automated email nonsense from them.
We asked them to refund the money and we received no reply.
We opened a case via Paypal and asked for a refund.
They only refunded the money at the last minute!
They HIDE behind their website with no phone number and seem to think that they can take people for a ride.
If they had not refunded our money, we would have gone after them for a claim via the county court.
Our advice for anyone is NOT to pay any money to Gumtree.
If they want customers to pay, they need to publish a phone number on the website like any other proper company!
Any website that does not have a working phone number should be treated as a ROGUE site!
I suppose that there is no chance of getting our money back then :(
I might try opening a dispute with PayPal.
I paid less than you guys - £9.95 to feature an advert selling clothes. A tenner is a lot to me cos I'm a student and the whole point of featuring was so I could sell the clothes and get a little bit more money before term starts.
I'd put a link to eBay in it because I was selling 40+ items and you can only show 3 photos. I didn't know this wasn't allowed because there were other ads already there with the same thing! Anyway, I paid for the feature thing and then got an email saying 'ad Pending'. So they'd taken my money and never bothered to put my ad up. They hadn't even given me the oppo to modify the ad to 'conform' to their rules. SO, no ad, no £10 and a bag of clothes unsold... Thanks a lot gumtree!!
I have posted my on gumtree for computer services and it was not placed there, When I tried to manage it to see what happened it says, your add is off due to posting rules violation. I asked them to explain what I did wrong, or pay my money back. They never replied .I paid through my debit card what can I do.
I totally agree with the comments regarding the unacceptable behaviour by gumtree. This website needs to be struck off immediatly as the seem to do with their paying customer's adverts who they treat so abysmally. I have emailed them on numerous occasions asking for an explaination as to why they have removed my paid advert but nothing, no response and yet they are quick enough to remove your advert with no explaination. They are completely unprofessional to the point of being rude and their activity must be illegal so why are they still allowed to get away with it. DO NOT USE GUMTREE.COM to sell or advertise your business and DO NOT PAY GUMTREE.COM as they will take your money and run. Customer Service at gumtree is non- existent! Ther is no phone number and no direct email to complain to so if you give them your money there is apparently no come back. Customer Berware, stay away from gumtree!
I agree - my advert was removed after 12 hours - and I can't find an email/phone number to contact them. Tried to get onto their bulletin board - was told that moderator had to OK it - but they haven't.
i had my ad removed from casual relationships, with no reason given.i checked my wording and everything seemed fine.i notice now they have offensive ads on there site with the word rape being used and also they have put on ads with mobile numbers included which is against there posting rules.i guess its pot luck if you get on or not and they do seem to do as they please.no contact number, no response to emails.stinks of fraud.
I paid 20.00 for Birmingham homepage ad - www.imoveit.co.uk - The site kept on telling me to pay for an advert, as soon as i made payment the advert was no where to be seen, Gumtree have NOT come back to me - what can i do about this - GUMTREE are a rip off!!!
Here is another to the list of complaints. I am a small business(man and van)who advertises on gumtree.My adverts meet their requirements but still they take your credit card details and don't display your add. I pay for the homepage featured add and the standard featured add which is nearly £30 per week. A lot of money when your just setting up a business. Many of times i have complained why my adverts are not on sometimes they reply and get the adds on then sometimes they can't even be bothered to reply. I will not be using Gumtree anymore or should i say Scamtree. Come on somebody you must have the power to shut this site down until it can improve and be monitored
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