What the consumer did here definitely was a smart thing to do. Shame on the person who tried to dupe him, I hope he is found out and stopped in his tracks.  

The power definitely lies in the hands of consumers these days. And what is interesting to me is that sellers need not be big corporations today, either: they can be everyday people who have allegedly committed some injustice. The danger, I suppose, is when the buyer has falsified a story to destroy someone’s reputation.  

Just wondering Jack, are trademe and ebay covered by the consumers guarantee act? Obviously with ebay being an overseas company the rules would be different...  

There are certain provisions of CGA 1993 that a company may contract out of, but generally, TradeMe would be covered by it. However, eBay could be a different kettle of fish. I’ve never bought a thing off either, but I would imagine that your suspicion is right. EBay, being a foreign company, needs not be bound by the Act even if consumers here buy from it. It will depend largely on private international law—which, in lay terms, says (a) you can specify the law you want to be bound by; and (b) that in the absence of this, a court will look at which jurisdiction has more connections with the deal.
   If this case happened in New Zealand, and it were as the buyer said, CGA 1993 would kick in, as would the Fair Trading Act 1986 (the seller’s misrepresentation) and straight contract law. I would even think that this would be considered a crime under the Crimes Act 1961, because the seller defrauded the buyer.  

If you use Ebay, your safest payment method is through Paypal, as this will cover you in the situation where you get a faulty product, or have problems with the seller.  

I use ebay all the time. The safest method of Payment is Paypal, they have a guarantee that means you will get your money back should you run into problems such as the one the "laptop" purchaser had.  

Colette, how nice of you to drop by! Great to see you here on my blog. How are things Stateside?