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.
-
momaha's Response, Feb 16, 2018
motorcycle ad 1286859948 please put up front [protected]@yahoo.com tel 01443226706
-
Mother b's Response, Apr 24, 2018
I have paid for my advertisement for a job It was there and now it has disappeared
Help me please
More Gumtree.com Complaints & Reviews
- Gumtree - gumtree ripped me off!!! [2]
- Gumtree - processing time of an ad for 48 hours [1]
- Gumtree - processing time a joke [1]
- Gumtree - minkos macs [6]
- Gumtree.com - featured ads are a scam! [1]
- Gumtree - removed ad [1]
- Gumtree - complaint about a seller
- Gumtree Uk - removal of my ad [1]
- Gumtree - someone is selling things using my number an I can not talk to or get in contact with gumtree
- Gumtree - gumtree [2]
Date
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
[protected]@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
Try OzAdz.com - never had a problem with them!
http://www.ozadz.com/
DO NOT PAY £119 for advertising your flat/house on HOME PAGE - Its a scam!!!
Guys, Gumtree is an absolute rip off, no customer service, no telephone number> I advertised my Flat, paid £119 & £74 in 2 weeks, the spotlight add mentioned that my flat would be viewed by 1000's on the home page at the premium £119 rate. Well after paying I couldn't find my add anywhere, home page or otherwise. I received a spec' email saying that my advert was on a "ROTATIONAL BASIS" on the home page, and that if I repeatedly refreshed the page it would show up!!! Well I refreshed it 20 times and couldn't find it! Less than 30 people viewed the add in 4 days!
I did eventually get my cash back, I advertise through my work for jobs and managed to speak to my account manager, he gave me the all important CUSTOMER SERVICE NUMBER..YES IT DOES EXIST..
************** 0208 610 0155 *******************
The girl Zsuzsu was lovely, she refunded my money immediately!
I’m not in the office at the minute but I’m 99% sure the number is – 0208 610 0155
Let me know if you have any problems.
Yes, the Gumtree site is certainly pushing their luck. When you pay for a service, you should be protected and guaranteed to recieve a reasoable and ethical standard and service. Firstly, they should not post advertisements that contravene their policies as this compromises paying advertisers adverts because it usually gives the contravening advert an advantage. They then also rely on the public to report adverts that contravene their own policies, which I think is a cheek (you do not have newspapers, magazines, directories etc relying on the public to do this) !!! But to make matters even worse, if you make an effort to report and bring this to their attention, they usually and generally do nothing about removing it, and if they do it is invariably not timeously as the advert has already had the exposure it wanted. Unfortunately, this unethical and poor management will probably continue while people continue to pay for this disgraceful "service" or until some form of legislation forces them to do the basics properly.
Gumtree is a scam site owned by ebay, another scam site. There are two ways to deal with the problem of gumtree stealing money
1: If you must pay gumtree, always use a credit card, not a debit card. With a credit card the provider is legally obliged to refund you if you have not received the service you paid for. Given enough complaints, gumtree will lose their credit card facility and then they will be stuffed, nasty bunch of idiots they are. NEVER EVER pay by Debit card which works like a cheque, there is no re-course so you will lose your money. CREDIT CARDS ONLY
2: Issue a complaint to the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) stating your money was stolen. The ASA act like little Hitlers so Gumtree will have some fun with this one
I applied for a vacancy on gumtree website only to find it was a scam, luckily my bank spotted it and to my surprise this person was a con man, I have kept all the e mails that we both sent for future refference, and am letting you know jus in case you have come across this sort of thing before.
Gumtree have turned into a very poor site. It seems that most people have realised it is a junk site. At one time, the hits to ads ran at 100+ but now, its a meager 20-30. The reader no longer trusts Gumtree as they are a disgusting site
I had an ad for my car on there last week, I started to receive suspicious emails from what I now know to be car scammers from Malaysia. I sent Gumtree the emails so they could warn other users and they sent me an email back saying that my ad had been removed and I had been blocked from using the service!!! Unbelievable incompetence! I sent two emails complaining but you guessed it - no reply! Does anyone know their address?
Gumtree have been doing this for a long time, there own forums are full of it. Trading Standards should be looking at Gumtree, they really are a scam site that should either buck themselves up or be closed down.
People hate gumtree that's a fact. All they advertise now are MLM rubbish where most people will lose their money ... and it's against their rules, they are a farce and run by a bunch of idiots to say the least
ITS FULL OF CROOKS SCAMMERS DRUG DEALERS AND THIEF'S NEEDS TO BE REGISTERED ONLY SITE WITH A FORM SENT TO EVERY ADDRESS WITH A CODE TO INPUT IN TO THE GUMTREE SITE ONCE YOU GET THE LETTER AT YOUR ADDRESS :) NEVER AMAZES ME WHAT I SEE ON GUMTREE EVEN SEEN BODY PARTS FOR SALE ON IT DRUGS THAT ARE PRESCRIPTION ONLY AND THIEFS GALORE AND WHEN YOU REPORT IT ON GUMTREE NINE OUT OF TEN TIMES THEY DON'T DO NOTHING AND LEAVE THE ADD UP GUMTREE NEEDS CLOSING DOWN TODAY NOT TOMORROW TODAY
Wow they just did it to me im the same as maddie and they took the money for my featured ad and now nothing - there must be something we can do - they cant just take money like that
Just as a matter of interest, the Gumtree.com used to be a brilliant community website,
until EBAY bought the site! So, now you know EBAY owns the GUMTREE.COM, are you
still surprised at how badly it is managed?
Its so painful after all this complaints the interpol are doing nothing about it. I have just got my piece of the cake as well from this so called fraudulent company called Gum tree. At least 5 complaints is enough to close down the site of Gum tree. I uploaded 4 pics with different view of my car i want to urgently sell. After registering and posting the add i was ask to put in my credit card details. They don't hesitate to pull the money out. After 2 days i received an email saying my post was removed because i violated the terms. I sent them an email immediately appealing to them i never violated their rules and regulation. Up till date no response. My fellow readers lets do something to curb this from happening to others by placing more complaints.
we bought a pedigree collie last weekend /it was totally unsuitable was very aggressive towards husband she gave a false write up about the dog it was in derby we returned the dog next day now we want our hundred and twenty pound back please tried to contact her but was ignored could u please help us thanks kay 07846351908
we bought a collie from a lady in derby she lied in her advert said the dog was clean it wasent it ### in the house pissed on door was agressive we hubby and not a nice dog at all we could not keep him sent him back to derby dident get our money back it was ihundred and twenty pounds now i want this back please the ladys address is 41 stenson road littleover derby the ladys name is mrs hewlett and the dog is called alfie please help or im getting police to u and her
Gumtree is an absolute waste of time, even more so the fact that ebay now own them, they constantly delete adds without any explanation at all, I AM PLEASED THESE WERE FREE, as I will not use gumtree any more, they are the most ignorant bunch of USE IMAGINATION IN THIS SPACE
I have the same problem. I changed my advert to feature and bumped it up so total bill about £50 and it's been processing for 22 hours. What a joke and waste of money plus two emails to them with no reply.
Yep folks I am another victim of scam tree or ### tree I like to call em. I turned my free ad that was up for 30 days into a featured ad, and yep it was not there the next day, once they had my money I suppose . I have the dispute forms from my bank to get my dish back I hope. Also the site is full of scammers, it is a dirty little site that needs taking down and the ### that own it need locking up where they deserve to be.
These rats will get their comeuppance in other ways, the fools.
I have also always had terrible experiences with gumtree. I am a property agent and I have lost loads of money with adverts not going live, or showing pending forever. Nowadays I prefer to use the smaller property sites like pop london (http://poplondon.co.uk) because at least they take the time to respond to their customers
I have never before seen or heard of this site until a debit showed up on my card for 6.20 and then again the next day for the same. I am in the process of trying to get ahold of them and will be changing my card number.
The fact that eBay Australia had increased its fees to specifically exclude most small enterprises, and the general frustration and dissatisfaction on their owned site gumtree is the main reason why most sellers are jumping ship to sites like iBuyWeSell, which is generally better.