BOOK DEALERS AND TRADE ME HAVING A SPAT

Bookman Beattie has learned that the book dealers who trade on Trade Me are currently up in arms over a decision taken about a month ago to remove the "New Zealand' subcategory from Non-Fiction book listings. There appears to be no logic for this decision.

This has caused an uproar on the Trade Me message board [see http://www.trademe.co.nz/Community/MessageBoard/Threads.aspx?topic=20 and find the thread headed Books: Non Fiction NZ.Category removed. WHY? )

- there are 275 messages logged therein and although you may not want to read them all you can quickly get the sense of why everyone is so bloody upset .

Many traders have sent messages of complaint to Trade Me - some have rung the $.1.99 a minute hotline but as yet I gather none has got any substantive response from Trade Me - all get either automated or placatory responses from people in 'Trade Me support' [all of whose emails invite a response if further info is required but also say at the top you can't reply to this email] but no-one in Management has responded to anyone.

Come on Trade Me, give these guys a go. What possible reason can you give for removing the NZ sub-category? Bah humbug!