Open House Discussion with Rajan Mehra, member - eBay India Management Team

[rohit@ebay.com]

We are pleased to announce the second session of our ongoing Open House Program, where users get an opportunity to chat with the eBay India Management Team.

Join Rajan Mehra, member of eBay India Management Team, and Head of the Motors business, for a discussion on buying and selling on eBay India. Rajan will be available on this thread on Thursday, the 7th of July, 2005 from 5:00 PM to 6:00 PM IST.

You can submit your questions before or during the event by making a post on this thread. For help on using the discussion boards, please click here.

See you on the 7th at 5:00 PM!
Regards,
Rohit
Community Development Team

[rajanmehra@ebay.com]

Hi touch_and_shine,

It's my pleasure to be a part of this discussion. Thank you for joining in.

I hope my response to indconcepts addresses your comments on ratings.

On international listing fees - you've raised an issue that many of our sellers have asked us in various forums. Here is the simple reason why we charge an International Listing Fee.

As you might be aware, eBay charges a fee for every listing that goes up on the site in almost all other countries (this is called a listing fee). For example, the minimum listing fee on eBay.com is 25 cents. If we do not charge a fee for International Listing on the India site, what will happen is that all these sellers from other sites will list their items on the India site and make it available for sale Internationally. This way, their items will continue to be displayed on their own country site for free, thus bypassing the listing fee. To avoid the Indian site getting glutted with non-relevant international listings, it becomes important for us to charge an International Listing Fee. Best Regards
Rajan

[rajanmehra@ebay.com]

Hi nikemychoice,

You are right, we have not been advertising on TV lately. eBay's experience globally has been that Internet Marketing gives the maximum returns for our sellers, as we attract users who are more serious about online buying. Since we have about 25 million Internet users in the country as compared to about 75 million users with Cable and Satellite Access, we are focusing our energies on attracting those users by investing our energies on other web sites such as MSN, Yahoo, etc.

Interestingly, even though we have stopped Tv promotions, our marketing spend this year is much higher than earlier.

We have also recently hired a PR manager, to better communicate the eBay message of buying and selling across leading publications and TV channels as news stories.

Of late, we have been receiving feedback (such as yours) that we need to be more 'visible' in the mass media. We will evaluate this as part of our next years' marketing plans.

And no, it's not true that we have lost 30 % of our existing users in the migration. I am sure you will agree that, as in any business, there is some churn among our users, some users drop off, while other new users join in. In fact, June has been one of our best months ever in terms of aquiring new users.

As regards your question on increased customer support, we are considering providing Phone Support for our Top sellers, in addition to the existing mail and live chat support. As of now though, we do not have plans to provide 24 / 7 live chat support.

You are absolutely right that we need to give more time for our sellers to understand the eBay policies and abide by them. Please refer my response to skyshopindia in this regard. Best Regards
Rajan

[mobilesncables]

My paisapay cheque released 28th June.. I have still not recieved it.. I have faxed about it also but i dont know when the new DD will reach me..

Also please make the Seller account proper.. our accounts are closing because we have to pay such high amount.. and our sell has also not been that much..

Baazee had a better accounting system.. U will loose many sellers.. please do something about it..

[rajanmehra@ebay.com]

Hello smartcollection_in1

Your suggestions are very good. Thank you.

1. New User Verification - It might be difficult for us to verify each and every user who registers due to operational considerations. However, what we are considering is verification requirments for buyers who exhibit abnormal behaviour, such as bidding for a high value item immediately after registering, or bidding on a large number of items, etc. We need to balance restricting the buyer base, with the nascency of the Indian e-commerce market, such that we do not dissuade genuine bidders who may be unwilling to part with credit card information in their first transaction on the internet.

2. Re: your comment on credit cards - as stated above.

3. Re; your question on International Listing Fees - please refer to my response to touch_and_shine

4. I shall forward youur feedback to the PaisaPay team and see how best we can educate our International users about PaisaPay.

5. Again, very good feedback on PayPal, which I shall forward to the concerned team, and ask them to get back to you. Best Regards
Rajan

[rajanmehra@ebay.com]

Hello namastecalcutta,

Thank you for joining in. I am sorry that you feel that many of your points won't be replied. I am trying my best to answer most of the queries posted by our community.

I have answered the query on listing policies in my post, addressed to skyshopindia. But to reiterate, most of the policies are common globally. There are a few that are specific to India, simply because it is required due to the egal and regulatory environment in India.

I have also answered your query on International listing fee in my post addressed to touch_and_shine. This is to eliminate price arbitrage because almost all other eBay sites charge a listing fee to upload a listing, whereas India is a free listing site.

I am happy to announce that we have just launched the eBay Pulse on the Indian site (http://pulse.ebay.in/). This gives an user the ability to view popular searches, largest shops and most watched items on the site, and by category.

It would be great if you could also let us know what you feel are the positive points of eBay.

Thanks! Best Regards
Rajan

[rajanmehra@ebay.com]

Hello nikgss,

You can use Paypal for your international purchases, if you have a valid credit card. You need not be a US buyer for that. Yes, you cannot do a Bank Transfer. I agree, it will be a benefit if we could offer PayPal in India as well, but presently, PayPal does not have plans to enter India. Best Regards
Rajan

[rajanmehra@ebay.com]

Hello nikkins,

The eBay User Agreement states that it is obligatory for the winning bidder / buyer to complete the transaction with the seller. An Unpaid Item Strike helps the community identify that a particular user has a history of not having paid for their item. If a buyer gets too many strikes in too short a time period, their account will be suspended indefinitely.

Trust this answers your queries. Best Regards
Rajan

[rajanmehra@ebay.com]

Hello hi_techpower,

I am sorry to read that you have not received any response from us. I will check with the Customer Support team, and ensure that you receive a response.

As I have mentioned earlier, over the next few weeks, we are planning a set of initiatives to educate our sellers on the eBay site policies. To begin with, we will be focusing on educating our top sellers about eBay policies. eBay globally is working on a project to simplify the listing policies, and make it easier for our sellers to understand these. Once this project rolls out, every user of the site can read through the policies and have a better understanding of them. Best Regards
Rajan

[rajanmehra@ebay.com]

Hello again namastecalcutta,

While PaisaPay and PayPal are similar, there is one big difference between the two. PaisaPay is very closely integrated with eBay, and users can use PaisaPay only on eBay. PayPal, on the other hand, can be used by users off eBay as well. Hence the difference between PayPal and PaisaPay that you rightly pointed out.

Secondly, there is a process to be followed by sellers for reinstatement after suspension, and the seller gets reactivated as per the process. And as I have mentioned before, we will be launching initiatives to increase seller awareness of the listing policies and seller suspension.

Our endeavour is to continue to grow the number of users (buyers and sellers) on the site, and not to reduce the number by suspending our users! But yes, it is important that our users understand and adhere to the site policies. Hence, I would request all of our users, buyers and sellers, to read the user agreement and policies of the site in detail. Best Regards
Rajan

[rajanmehra@ebay.com]

Hello mobilesncables,

Thank you for joining this Open House.

I have checked with the PaisaPay team, and they have informed me that the cheques for the week ending 28th of June has been dispatched as per the normal schedule. So you should be receiving your cheque soon.

Can you please provide specific reasons why you feel that your account is not proper? You can also write in to our Customer Support through the Contact Us webform (http://pages.ebay.in/help/contact_us/_base/index.html), so that we can look into your issue and take necessary action. Best Regards
Rajan