This is Ambareesh Murty, Country Manager of eBay India and I’d like to invite you to an Open House discussion with me on Wednesday, 12th Jan 2011 from 4-5 PM IST.
At the outset I will like to thank all of you for your continued passionate support and in helping us reinforce eBay as India's most preferred online shopping destination. With your support we made tremendous strides in 2010 and continued to deliver on our promise of making lots of safe easy deals available to our buyers. A BIG thanks to our seller community for expanding the available range of products, providing compelling deals and delivering high levels of service to make buying enjoyable on eBay.
1. Our 360 degree marketing campaigns ensured that a lot more users bought for the first time on eBay. 2010 was packed with TV ads, coupons, social media engagement and several high profile charity auctions.
2. The Category Team’s efforts towards ensuring wide spread seller success yielded positive results. More entrepreneurs started successful eBay businesses and existing sellers benefited from increased sales.
3. To enhance our user experience and give buyers more ways to pay, we expanded PaisaPay payment options with more OBT banks, more EMI options and also introduced the PaisaPay COD option.
4. The launch of eBay Guarantee* made it easier, faster and convenient for buyers to resolve their concerns in the off chance that they had a problematic transaction, thereby increasing trust on eBay.
I recognize that there is still lots to be done to deliver a seamless marketplace experience for our buyers and sellers and in 2011 we will continue to provide lots more safe easy deals to buyers to ensure that even more online Indian's try out eBay.
Our community has always been our most vocal supporter and our strongest critic and I look forward to your suggestions for further improving our user experience and answer your eBay related questions during my Open House discussion.
You can post your questions in advance on this thread, or join me live on 12th Jan at 4 PM. See you on the 12th!
Regards Ambareesh Murty Country Manager – eBay India
Over the course of the last few hours, I've tried my best to respond to as many posts as possible.
While I have read all the posts, I realize that there are a few members to whom I've not yet been able to respond. My team and I shall do so in the course of the next few days.
It's been great being here and I am looking forward to our next interaction soon.
To MISYS12/NARAYANANBYJUVADAKKUMKARAYIL/SINGH.MANAS/RAHUL_7777/LIFEISNICE03/SHUBHAMLEEKHA
I am informed by my team that your claims have either been settled or are in process. While eBay settles your claims at the earliest, refunds sometime take time to reflect in your bank/credit statements due to processing time at your bank's end.
Further, let me take this opportunity to assure all buyers that eBay sticks by its resolution Guarantee* and we are committed to further improving the Guarantee experience for all our sellers and buyers.
Our purpose in Global Easy Buy is to provide great international variety to buyers in India. We think we would have significant challenges in managing buyer expectations while purchasing used/refurbished items and therefore currently do not provide the same.
While Global Easy Buy surfaces great inventory, the benefit of a marketplace is such that if the prices are found to be high, the buyer can choose not to purchase internationally and seek similar products from India.
I have also asked my team to look into specific service issues on Global Easy Buy/I2C raised on this thread and they will be reaching out to you over the next few days.
First of all congratulations to Ebay Team for some of the achievements of 2010. Like most others we have have a few points. We are relatively new to EBay with less than 1 year on EBay with close to 5000+ feedbacks(with 3 months self closure in between)
EBay New Year Coupon Distribution Coupon distribution is a great way of attracting new buyers.However a) Sellers should be pre-informed if coupons will be distributed on a large scale.reasons.First impression is the last one.On new year with severe FOG and cold , our deliveries are impacted.Also some of the staff wanted leave for holidays so we sanctioned.We could have made better arrangements had we been pre-informed that sales will be 3-4 times normal sales.This would leave a good impression about EBay India on new buyers. b) It should be limited to new buyers and not those who have created 10-100 accounts just for it.Also in these accounts the addresses are wrong/numbers wrong and we are sent mails "Please change address" which screws up our automated processes.
Information Sharing EBay's transactions have a lot of information which can be useful.For example 1.All related id-s or atleast the alternative phone numbers of buyers/sellers. 2.Last courier sent by which courier and received fast.We need to call and find out from buyer which courier is there at their location if pincodes are not shown in courier sites.In these cases numbers are not reachable/invalid a number of times.The whole idea is to get the buyer satisfied and such information can be helpful for all sellers.Why ebay retains this data to itself? For example if XYZ courier has doe very well for a location it will enhance the knowledge of all sellers.This knowledge will bear fruits someday. 3.We block certain buyers but they manage with new id's.TNS should do some great job here atleast so that all related-id's are blocked if not shown to us.
EBay Account Managers & Management Our experience has been very good.Be it Raghu,Dipty,Sapana,Arun,Raj,Praseeth,Ravi.Talking to them has always sent positive vibes.
Holidays We are also humans and want free time with our family/friends.When EBay does not work after 7pm , even we should be spared on Sunday.In the Park with Family on Sunday we get "What should we do with ....". How can we remember each and every transaction if we are sending high volumes daily?
EBay India's Love for "Magic" Numbers We feel that somewhere there are magic numbers created.For example the magic figure of 4cases and 100 feedbacks in CRF.We dont know what heuristics were used to get these numbers but they are not logical.The best way for us to override this is to split our account into multiple id-s and just increase these numbers for us automatically since CRF judgements are not logical.
Recently Introduced CRF We would give it a BIG thumbs down.Why?Till now 2 got verdict for 2 cases Case 1.Item Sent , delivered in 4 days by DTDC.Village address with zero internet connectivity.Buyer played tricks files under ebay guarantee and in less than 24hrs ebay closed case in favor of buyer.(What was the hurry?) .In 24hrs to get a POD from a village who can manage.Left Negatiive , in CRF replied that HE WANTS TO CHANGE FEEDBACK (since he got money and item) but CRF could not reach Majority.
Case 2.Sealed Item delivered.Buyer claimed not working, within minutes we replied to please send back.Buyer left negative.Without any proof of defect , do we need to re-ship? CRF said Feedback should stay. BUYERS WILL USE -VE FEEDBACKS AS A MECHNISM TO GET MULTIPLE ITEMS.Sellers will increase prices to cover such losses and this will inturn affect EBay India's price reputation.We already add a small percentage as "IRRATIONAL PAISAPAY REFUND COST" to our prices since December 2010.
If CRF continues this way , we will need to re-think on our business strategy/partners.
4% Paisapay Penalty Clause 1.Buyers order , go for vacation, courier comes back to us.EBays "In hurry" Paisapay prefers refund. 2.Buyers order and send mails to cancel saying ordered by mistake. 3.Buyer rejects to accept parcel, plays tricks just to misuse this clause.We have proof buyer did this with mutiple id's and same address and then raised refund one by one. 4.Buyer unhappy or did not read the listing properly, when we refund we are doing something bad for our account. In all these cases where is seller at Fault?
TNS We would describe it as a "Copy Paste Expert Department".An example Feedback "at the purchasing time it displayed no shipping charge. but i payed 40 rs extra" What was sellers fault here? Do we need to give free shipping for all items so that ebay's software problems dont get us -ves. We wrote to TNS and got a standard copy pasted reply.We wrote again but TNS did not remove. We sent out a case of multiple items being listed 4 times , TNS insists on item numbers.We sent step by step instructions but it preferred spoon feeding of item numbers only.TNS is a backbone and should be a Mossad / CIA supported by robust /innovative automated processes.
Auction Mode We tried once, but its irritating as most items are not paid for.
Seller "Terms Of Sale" Protection We list a few points under Terms of Sale.Any feedback or violation of the sale by us or buyer should be a violation. For example We mentioned in listing "Output:DC 12V 300mA.Check the current requirements before buying". We got Neutral stating "All car battery outputs 12v/10 Amps but the item outputs only 500ma.waste product". This product used very well with chargers /FM modulators, etc but will have to stay with this neutral. Will TNS remove this ? ..we will get the standard reply, so we did not write to them. We would love to have "Seller TOS Guarantee".
EBay Logistics We know EBay has been working hard on this , but the sooner the better.
There are a lot of great things about EBay India and thats why we all are here.We like most humans also are "Greedy" and we just hope that things get better and better so that we all grow exponentially TOGETHER !!!
Once Again congrats for all the great work done by your team which we have not written here !!!
Hi HIGHSKYINDIA/INFOTECHMART/HAPPY.SHOPPEE/COOL_DEALS30
I understand that sometimes INR cases happen due to no fault of our sellers (logistical issues/non service areas etc).
Fortunately these incidences are low and we have factored this into our INR penalty policy where only sellers with greater than 4% INR (which is much higher than site average) are required to pay a penalty on INR's above the threshold 4% level.
We formulated/revised the policy basis community feedback and I believe will help improve our buyer experience substantially going forward.
Our promotional credits process incorporates/requires account/item reconciliations and therefore takes a certain amount of time. While we will endeavor to reduce the lag however minimally I foresee a 6-8 week timeframe for credits to reflect in your accounts.
Hi MURALIPHILA/VINAYAGA_RAMAN/COOL_DEALS30/RAHUL_7777/BENEDICT_KMU/MUSICMYSOUL3/ANKITJI123/SN-SHOPPE/LIFEISNICE03/JAYWEBS/AMIT-JAIPUR/and all community members
There have been several posts on eBay CS; my views are as below:
Often as a customer, I feel pained when I do not receive a high level of customer support. Therefore I can understand the need for eBay to provide the highest levels of service at all times.
While we've improved over the last few years by putting in place strong training processes, attention to detail and requisite escalation mechanisms, basis your feedback it seems that we need to do a lot more.
We'll continue to improve the quality of our support and hopefully your feedback on customer support will be more positive when next we meet.
Hi DIGIMART_ONLINE_IN1/VKRM200/HIGHSKYINDIA/JAYWEBS
While I take on board all your suggestions on UPI, I dont think taking advance payments from buyers would help. This would only create high friction in the buying process which would be detrimental to the marketplace and our objective of getting new buyers to try eBay.
Over the last few years, we have taken several steps to reduce UPI and have seen it reduce significantly. I am certain that we will see UPI reduce even further over the next year or so.
In 2010, we had launched the PaisaPay COD service basis feedback from our Members. I acknowledge the fact that there have been teething issues in ensuring that the monies collected are remitted to the respective sellers on time.
We are constantly engaging with the Couriers on this issue and are addressing the same with them on a priority basis. I would assure you that this would be resolved very soon.
Cash on Delivery presents a huge opportunity for growth in a market like India where issues such as lack of touch & feel and non-availability of credit/debit cards, are barriers to shopping online. We are committed to making this a success and request the co-operation of all sellers in adopting the same.
Hi CRUIS_112/ARABHILASH/NIHIT2010/PRADEEPA_SATHYAN/VARAHB and ILAPRAVEENSHASTRI
Logistics of gifts are sometimes impacted by:
1. Incomplete registration addresses provided by our users 2. Buyers not being contactable 3. Buyers not being available when the courier's arrive
Issues 2&3 are responsible for 85% of cases where the delay's have happened and my team works hard to resolve/ensure that the gift items are redespatched at the earliest.
I have noted your specific issues and rest assured you shall receive the gift items soon.
You had questions/suggestions on the Community Court/Community Review Forum. Here is my take:
The community court was set up to ensure that sellers have a forum to appeal against unjustified negative feedback. Recent changes and formation of the Community Review Forum ensure that ONLY community members with a strong past track record of delivering a great eBay experience review the cases that are filed. We've also REDUCED the timeline for cases to be decided and the minimum number of votes for a decision. Finally, we've limited the number of cases that can be filed by a member at a time as we noticed that certain members were filing an inordinately high number of feedback removal appeals.
As a jury member in the forum I believe that these changes will ensure that the key purpose of the community feedback forum will be better addressed and the forum will be fair to both buyers and sellers.
Sir, i had purchased GEB item # 380302854639 on 27/12/2010. My paisa pay Id is 28074151655. I came to know from International re-seller himself that he has submitted me false shipping details. You can verify the same by calling on 022-42468000 ext. 118. This is nothing but cheating with me for no reason. I mean, if the 'i2cworld' the international re-seller has not purchased the item then why he is provided false shipping details and hold my refund?
Even after continuous following with ebay customer care they are not able to support me. They provided me assurance that Ms. Priya will call you and assist you but she also did not turned up.
What is that you can help? and What step you would take against i2cworld seller?
Please help me here, is it all that difficult to incorporate in ebay software that NON-PAYING buyers cannot leave Negative feedback or open any cases. Is it really all that difficult ??. There are many such small things that go a long way in improving a persons over all experience, why does not ebay listen or have a "suggestion box" section where such issues and be put forth and someone from ebay is made in charge of such queries.
You are aware that a question survey is sent out every month for years now but what do you do with that, no action is taken on anything at all.
Adding to the post below, I want to add one more important info, I was bothered about the gift because I was not just for me, Three of my friends and me bought various items with the DIWALI gift coupons, But none of us for none of the items received the gifts.
eBay has all the database of which seller shipped which item to which pincode from which location using which courier.
A comparative study should be done and a performance report should be created out of the past data. Sellers should be provided suggestions for shipping using that database. For example along with the Successful paisapay mail a small column of recommended courier to buyer's pincode should be given. This small step will avoid a lot of confusion. And will help a lot of small and medium level sellers
Wish You a Happy New Year. I bought a Nokia Phone over Rs.5000 and I applied a gift coupon (DIWALISP14) against my purchase which promised me a Jabra Bluetooth Headset BT 2035. This is a diwali gift. The Item Number which I bought is 170551840590. This transaction happened on 22 October 2010. BUT I didn't received the gift item yet. I queried for this to the customer support and they told "I WILL RECEIVE THE ITEM" for three items. I queried once every month roughly. What is the intention behind this type of statements and irresponsible answers and actions of not sending a gift which is promised. If you don't have the intention of giving the gift WHY you promised that in the first place and if you use this method for mere advertisement, you are actually cheating your customers which make you NOT trustworthy which is what I feel now about ebay. P.S This is NOT just about my gift.
Recently I faced a strange problem when I listed some items for the first time in ebay.While listing I clearly mentioned that these item are only for shipping to India. But a buyer from abroad bought a few items without contacting me and started asking for payment instructions.So I gently regretted and opened a case in resolution center for the cancellation of the order as advised by your customer care Dept.But I was shocked to note the clause "if the buyer declines I won't be refunded the final value fees".But I was lucky my buyer agreed and I got the refund.But Item was not sold because Indian budget buyers (like me) who buy items at the stating bid could not get a chance to bid.I really don't understand as to why Ebay does not have a check in the system for such careless buyers so that we sellers don't have to suffer like this. Another point I would like to highlight here.Why only buyers have the privilege to give negative feedback.Why this discrimination? This means that buyer can torture sellers to any extent and at the end can give negative feedback and spoil somebody's reputation which takes years to build.This a gross injustice to sellers.I am giving one example of suffering I had to go through.Recently one of my buyer did not mark item received at all even after sending a dozen reminders.Ultimately I was paid via system initiated payment that too after 15-20 days.Please let me know what is my fault.I think ebay must change its policy to end this discrimination.
2) Penalty for refunds is ery critical shud be more flexible
3) Shipping & delivery with ebay having courier tiep for sellers / powersellers tht will overall improve delivery time,delivery, less claims being filed , seller also wqill make sure he does his best for shipping etc
4) Community feedback forum purouse is good but structure too rigid
5) Credits to sellers for deals come in very late
6) Interactive tutorial to buyers should have overall good benefits to selling n buying , how to make sure items are being paid by buyers in acution format winning bid thats how ebay started , why leave our roots
7) Response from insellerverification isnt upto the mark always
Though 1 hour is a too short tie to discuss on overall isuues & improvement in terms of business on ebay , we still thank you for the short discussion & your time & expect positive changes implemeted for buyers & sellers. We as sellers also do our best to give bestperformance.
When we say cheap shipping, It is very difficult to negotiate prices with courier companies, with the little volume we sellers have. But when eBay will approach them with the enormous volume it has no doubt they will come running with best rates.
When some shopping website like rediff can negotiate rates and provide its sellers a centralized shipping solution, why cant eBay do same?
On eBay 90% of problems are logistic related and those can only be solved if a centralized eBay controlled and maintained shipping method is devised.
Thanks for the prompt steps to look into our matters.
I just received a call from ebay.in named Jadhav in our India office regarding the promotion advertisement on ebay.in webpage. Im really glad for it.
But it is shame and unfortunately he has no knowledge of promotion marketing instead he is asking some very irrelevant questions which are not useful and has no relation for the promotion advertising. complete waste of time.
Other concern is: Please use email rather call... Why they dont email us because call last for only few minutes and nothing works and later there is no evidence of what was discussed earlier. I prefer email as most of the times Im abroad and told the ebay staff many times but they all turn deaf hears to it.
I still appreciate your time and concern in resolving the the issues but if ebay.in has to grow they have to take care of all their sellers and buyers properly.
Once again staff training is must!!!!! I would suggest to have a look over Mikitanis: Rakuten Japan President and their work culture regarding the ecommerce business and market.
having experience on ecommerce abroad, I would like to receive Email if you have time. I would like to discuss/advise many things regarding the ebay.in working.
Thanks for your question! I agree that eBay is a Community and like any Community the value we uphold the highest is the trust of members.
Ensuring the products are good and as promised in the listing. The eBay Category Managers select items for promotion basis assurances from our selling partners that the items are in good working condition.
In the rare case that promoted items do not function as desired, eBay and the seller are committed to ensuring that the buyers receive a refund/replacement fast.
We are in the midst of strengthening our 'deal' selection processes to ensure that high transactional velocity is driven only on quality products.
For many issues the final resort given to us in inrswebhelp@ebay.com or insellerverification but then the Live chat doesnt solve the purpouse there.
More time should be given to sellers for arranging Proof Of delivery when reqd cos not all sellers use/ can use Blue Dart or TNT etc
Steps are taken for buying experience improvement, ceratin steps should be implemented for selling experience on ebay addressing issues like - Feedbacks,Unpaid items so on .....
Time to time ebay should look into bringing more traffice on site apart from deals like ebay guarantee is 1 such option though its too hard at sellers end ,Gift Vouchers, community feedback forum i dont agree with that totally.
I see several posts related to suspensions and restrictions. While discussing individual cases is not appropriate for this forum (you can reach out to your Account Managers and CS in case required) below please find my view on adherence to selling standards on eBay.
We interact with a lot of our buyers on a regular basis and have found that buyers expect retail like service when they purchase online. This means clear description of items, prompt (and cheap) shipping, high levels of communication and great prices overall. These standards will continue to evolve and I am certain that basis consumer expectations we'll need to keep raising the bar.
The feedback and DSR system helps us measure the performance of our sellers with respect to these buyer expectations and this information is made available to buyers and sellers in detail.
We act to restrict/suspend accounts based on underperformance vis-a-vis standards over a reasonably long period of time. We also believe that not taking action on below standard performance is detrimental to the overall marketplace and therefore to our seller community at large.
I know that eBay will grow only if our sellers do and therefore our actions are in the best interests of the community at large.
1) Credits for Paisapay IDs/Item numbers which were in deal of the Week or Foneozone etc , credits for these came in very late after 3 months some are still pending total amount going in lkhs for credit to be passed to seller
2) community Feedback forum with limit of 4 feedback appeals in favcour of buyer then seller has to wait for nxt 100 feedback to appeal doesnt look justified as many buyers leave UNFAIR negative / neutral feedback
3) If paisapay fees / ebay fees reduces then we can expect more n more sales , as sales normally is much less compared to sales in Deals
PLZ REDUCE THE OVERALL FEES FOR MOBILE CATOGORIES COZ PRICES GET VERY HIGH IN GENERAL LISTINGS AND THEN ALL D SALES GETS LIMITED TO DEAL OF D WEEKS...ITS 5.53% AND 7.16% FOR EMI INCLUDING TAXES. EEVEN IF IT GETS REDUCED TO 5% FLAT INCLUDIN TAXES FOR GENERAL AND EMI BOTH TRANSACTIONS. ITS GONNA HELP A LOT IMPOVING SALES ON EBAY IN GENERAL LISTINGS.
1) On site interactive tutorials for buyer for bidding ( winning bid specifically ) , buying , changing shipping address before making purchase
I have stopped using auction format cos many buyers did not pay in auctiion format ,we cannot compel buyer to pay n buy but ebay can have some restrictions on buyers account so that they know its value & treat it with seriousness next time & not just bid for fun.
I HAVE A VERY BIG PROBLEM WITH EBAY FEES REFUND SYSTEM. WE HAVE TO MAIL AGAIN AND AGAIN FOR GETTING 1% EBAY FEES REFUND FOR REFUNDED TRANSACTIONS. ITS JANUARY AND I HAVENT GOT EBAY FEES REFUND FOR TRANSACTIONS REFUNDED IN OCTOBER. I HAVE MAILED THRICE IN LAST 1 AND HALF MONTH. BUT NOT DONE YET. HOW DO WE KEEP SO MUCH RECORDS AND KEEP MAILING AGAIN N AGAIN FOR THIS??? PLZ DO SOMETHING REGARDING THIS. IT SHD BE DONE FROM EBAY THEIRSELVES.
Would like to address certain buyer & seller related concerns -
1) Paisapay fees & listing fees with features overall increases the product price many a times more than the retail prices
2) If ebay itself had a solution for shipping & deivery like courier tieup of ebay with say Blue Dart to sellers or powersellers so that most/may shipping issues , delivery issues will be wel taen care of , will also result in lower shipping charges n ultimately lower product price , if not then an option to seller in listing to include all pindoes in a file where picodes are listed out by seller for buyer to check purchase
3) Overall buying experience is reviewed on ebay for buyers but what steps how many times & changes have been done for selling expereience on ebay
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