An Open Letter to Avinish Bajaj (Reposted)

[quicksilvervoho]

Sometime back in 2001, I registered in Baazee on impulse and forgot all about it. Later in 2003, I realized the tremendous potential of online trading and the yeoman service that Baazee was doing and decided to spend quality time listing my products on Baazee. In the process I became a Super Seller and developed a strong rapport with your colleagues in both Chennai and Mumbai. As Samar would authenticate, it was my pleasure to go on stage during your last meet in Aruna Inn, Chennai and talk about the potential, the biz options and integrity of Baazee. I felt proud that an Indian Auction site was going great guns and gaining some terrific momentum.

It came as a jolt when you announced the amalgamation (should I say, Sale to?) with eBay, which I consider as a much disorganized, cluttered site. I’d always felt that we Indians were doing a much better job in terms of Technology usage, coding, layouts etc. And just as Baazee was getting into that mind-set, you decided to de-Indianise the site. Why? There were some tremendous changes planned on Baazee that was looked forward by the members that could have taken B into the next level and even given eBay or Wal-Mart a run for their money. And just about everyone, Seller, Buyer, Employees were very disappointed (check the CafГ© postings) about the move that lost Baazee its identity.

Just about everyone wondered on the need to sell a very successful site that would have probably fetched more than what it fetched the *Hotmai* guys, if only you had waited for another couple of years? In the process, you would understand that a lot of resentment gained against Baazee as you can see from the CafГ©.

But all this resentment vanished when it came to providing you the support during the MMS issue. I guess just about everyone stood firmly behind you in your hour of crisis. The Editors of publications, the Letters-to-the-Editor writers, the IT sector, name it… and you had them speaking aloud on the treatment meted out to you. The Baazee community was behind you every moment of your bad time. But, today, Baazee’s attitude does not honour these sentiments. One can understand that the Delhi cops were not fully educated or advised on cyber laws and probably acted in haste when they took you into custody, but today it’s Baazee which seems to be acting uninformed and arbitrary. You seem to be doing crisis management rather than auction portal management. Just about everything on Baazee is focused on listings’ content that you look so cowed down in the eyes of the discerning public. It seems that your operations currently are aimed at pleasing the lawmakers rather than approaching the issue in a professional manner.

Baazee seem to be removing at will some of the listings without defining any parameters in the 1st place. Pls understand it takes nettime and effort to create a CSV sheet, connect and upload, only to find that fraudwatch (ugh! What a name!) has not allowed it. Why not have a directive on listings that would pop-up instead of Popular products, which hardly serves any purpose in any case? Today, a harmless Music CD (Fusion, not even Heavy Metal 🙂 ) of mine was removed without any rhyme or reason. Why? It was Titled “KarmaSutra” and probably some over-enthu fraudwatch exec read it as Kamasurta and reacted “Ooh.. this guy is trying to upload sex (asterisks? Is it a Bad word? Dont you guys on Baazee-eBay do it?) on Baazee. Delete it” Like I said earlier, Baazee seems to be intent on action before thought. But what takes the cake is that I’m able to list the same item on e-bay 🙂 .

And that’s the problem. This hurried effort to comply with all policies and directives of eBay. Rather than tell eBay that Indian Auction portals and Indians in general work very differently from the rest of the European / US online communities.

One gets the impression that you wanted to sell Baazee and be done with it. I’m not sure if you had a long term thought process when you started Baazee, but selling it in such a hurry rather than developing further seems to give the impression that you had only short-term plans. I’m sure folks like Mr.Ramalinga Raju or Mr. Narayanamurthy would have been tempted to sell off Satyam or Infosys in its early success stages and made a meager 100 Mil, but I guess they were thinking long-term. I too was thinking long-term on my association with Baazee, and so did a lot of Sellers, but alas, you thought otherwise. If you had just the patience and vision, each of us could have earned 45 Mil in a couple of years from now.

Pray, tell me, how has the association with eBay helped Baazee? Except for a few cosmetic changes in the layout and rating scenario, there is no improvement in terms of Site speed, Technology or services. Areas such as database management, Piasa Pay continue to be cause for concern. How has it helped the Sellers / Buyers who trusted you so much to give their Blood, Sweat and Tears to give Baazee an International status? It is this exposure and support by the Baazee community that led you to price Baazee in Millions to eBay. Just an enthu CEO with a great, dedicated bunch of employees would have made no impact, if not for the encouraging participation from the Baazee community. It is sad that Baazee’s obsession with eBay is overshadowing this contribution. A level of frustration is also evident in your colleagues and the way they are reacting. What more, you seem to have a lost a dedicated bunch of Indian employees in your efforts to please your ebay partners. Just not fair at all. I know personally how much of Blood, Sweat and Tears that Sethu, Sam or Saravanan of your Chennai office put in to make Baazee a popular force.Yet, these guys have been given the boot b'cos your ebay partners brought in some stupid rules and regulations.

Soon, you will have restrictions on words like Unisex (asterisks? Yeah this is the paraonia) T-shirts and may pull down my T-shirt listings. My Kid-21 games CDs may be removed b’cos the Desc has the word “Speed’, which is associated with amphetamines. You may probably remove my Bedspreads b’cos people may buy it to make Love on them.

It is very clear that Baazee will never be the same again, much like the pre-Tsunami Chennai Marina that we loved with all our hearts. Except that the latter was not man-made. The Premier Indian Auction site becomes just another mall on the net, not the Active, Qualitative, Community site that it was. For you never took the community into account when you made your decisions. I did not attend the Seminar in Chennai this beacuse there was nothing good to talk about Baazee and I didn't want to bullshit to the attendees anymore.

I guess asking you to buy back Baazee from eBay would be frivolous, but the feeling lingers that Baazee as an Indian Portal would have been better off than its today.

I dunno how long I’ll continue with Baazee, but surely will b’cos I’ve been involved deeply and as an online Store Owner myself (I’d never sell “my baby” whatever the temptation), I understand that Unsubscribing would only affect the concept of “Online Shopping” as a whole. But one thing, I’m going to spend very less time here till some clarity and focus is seen on Baazee.

Regards

[bash005_in1]

Dear Seller,
I hope in earnest that Mr. Bajaj will certainly read your posting and seriously think on the developments, on the New Baazee outlook..
Immediate reforms is required to address the concerns which you have raised, it concerns all of B Community.
I appreciate your open letter and feel you have represented all of us, by bringing these issues to the notice of Mr.Bajaj.

Regards

[quicksilvervoho]

Hi bash,

Thanks for the sentis.

I hate to disappoint you. Nopes. Mr.Bajaj never responded. Actually this post was in the Old Cafe and I again reposted it into this "New Look Cafe".

Old or New, nothing happened...

I read somewhere that a CEO's attitude reflects on the performance of his employees. I think it was about Narayanamurthy or Gates, I'm not sure. Well, that article was written about the positive aspects of a CEO..

[baazeecafe]

Dear QuicksilverVoHo and bash005,

We had responded to the post made earlier here:

http://forums.baazee.com/thread.jspa?messageID=100000890#100000890

We had mentioned then that we are working on making changes in the important areas that you had mentioned. We wish to assure you and our entire community that we have been doing so. We request your co-operation and support for some more time, by when you can see the results of these changes for yourself.

Thanks and regards,
The Baazee Team

[quicksilvervoho]

Nopes, the Post that you are referring to was probably written by someone else. Not CEO material.

The response was just a typical corporate junk reply that meant nothing and absolutely no value-addition whatsoever.

It was just a response b'cos I cribbed more than the others.

Just forget it, don't even attempt to justify. Just about nobody on eBayzee- Sellers, Buyers, Staff, Management are going to believe it.

Sorry, folks to burst ypur bubble, but the Baazee magic is over.

But, I'm looking forward to your next bash at Chennai. Last meet I went up to the podium and endorsed Baazee. This time, I'm going to ask some embarassing ?s to eBayzee.

[happyoncam]

Mr Murali Krishnan,
Now why will Baazee invite to any meeting in Chennai, you are no longer part of Baazee as you have been suspended.

[quicksilvervoho]

Hi Happy,



If that's the case, I'll walk in as a newbie. I can still ask ?s, right? ]:) All I want to ask is one question. How would a buyer select a Green Colour M Sized Tee from my collection and pay for it and get the Tee immediately as I was doing b4 ( It was working perfectly )? A simple question, that eBayzee is yet to answer.



That's all my dear happy. Btw, no offense meant, but I notice from your profile that you are relatively new to Baazee and that you were not fortunate to have enjoyed the scenario while it was beautifully Baazee. You dont know whay you are missing. Of course, there were diference of opinions, but never resentment or mistrust, as exists today.



Regarding my suspened membership, that's something between Baazee and me and I'd like to keep it that way, unless you wish to be mailed with tons of email material and read through them to understand the reason for my non-payment of dues, which has resulted in de-activation .


There is one thing you must however appreciate. That all the serious cribbers here on Baazee are the ones who loved it most and that's why still spend time to reply to posts and keep the Cafe active. Else, the Cafe would just be another memory on eBayzee.


Cheers, mate and Happy Shopping before the Nigerians take over.

[happyoncam]

Dear Quicksilver,

I am sorry if I hurt your feelings, I did not meant to offend you by saying that u have been suspended.
A friendly advice to you, why dont you get the matter settled with Baazee, its always better to have a good relation with all. In long run when Baazee get amalgamated with ebay it will be more beneficial, specially to those who are dealing in jewellery, clothings, handicrafts, stamps and coins.Our Indian products have a worldwide demand and it will benefit you more.
Though I am very new on Baazee and have bought just few things, it had helped me a lot.

Sorry once again,
happyoncam

[quicksilvervoho]

happy, no offense taken.

in fact, I have tried to reason out with eBayzee, but in vain.
What i was trying to say is that Baazee was a better and a much technologically advanced place than eBayzee.
The sad part is eBay is de-Indianising Baazee that it is hurting
It is like disconnecting the mouse from the Desktop, jus b'cos Wi-Fi is avaiable. Get my point ?

It's simple, happy, eBayzee will not work unless they respect the Indian sentiments.
Cheers, mate and like I said, no offense taken at your expressions.

[quicksilvervoho]

Just an after-thought.

there are several sites which sell the kinda stuff you are mentioning targeted at the NRI and overseas ppl.

And if I were to look at an International audience, why would I look at eBay, when Walmart or Amazon have better security standrads

Baazee was a cool Indian Portal that is no more...