Open House Discussion with Sharat Digumarti, 29th June 5 PM

[sapana@ebay.com]

Hi,

I am Sharat Digumarti, Senior Manager in charge of Marketplace Health for eBay India. Under this role, my team is responsible for Enhancing Trust and Safety and Investing in Seller Development on the site

We had met last February where we discussed many topics of interest of both buyers and sellers. I am back to give you some more updates on the Trust and Safety and on Seller Development front. Also, I will be available on June 29th 5-6 PM on this thread for an Open House discussion on the topics.

Trust and Safety Updates:

Enhanced Communication with Buyers in case of dispute – We want to ensure that our buyers who have filed a dispute, do not miss out on Buyer Protection claim. Thus, we have introduced enhanced support for buyers who file a dispute. With the new processes, any buyer filling a dispute will not only be regularly informed on the timelines, but will also be educated on the process to escalate the case for buyer protection claim.

Warranty Policy – In order to bring greater transparency in the warranty being offered in listings and to reduce ambiguity that leads to bad experiences between buyers and sellers, we introduced the Warranty Policy. This will ensure that all buyers are completely aware of the warranty that accompanies the product and thus will make an informed decision. It still early days to see any impact, however I am confident that in the coming week sellers would start abiding to this policy

Reduction in Unpaid Item disputes – I am glad to inform you all that the measures taken to reduce the Un-Paid items have borne good results. We have seen a consistent decline in site wide UPI rate. Some sellers have already reported a decline in their individual UPI rates. I hope all our sellers would have seen the benefit of the same.

Improvement in Seller Non Performance - I am glad to inform that we are doing certain changes in the SNP which would help genuine sellers. I will share more details on this during the open house session.


Seller Retention and Development Program

Business Badshah – The Business Badshah program was initiated to encourage sellers to increase their business. Some sellers have already received the benefit of the program. Most sellers will start seeing the credits in their account by next month. It was great to see an increase in business of many sellers. I hope you are as much proud of your improved performance as are we.

New Seller Support – Based on the feedback we have done some changes to our current program that helps new sellers in building their business on ebay. The changes include the period we proactively reach to new sellers and give guidance across all aspects of successful selling on ebay

Increasing feedback Adoption - Feedback is the cornerstone of the eBay Marketplace. We believe that feedback adoption by most buyers will greatly benefit genuine sellers. I am glad to inform that the various efforts taken over the past few months like, Detailed Seller Rating, Cricket Mania Promotion etc have greatly helped in increasing the number of buyers who are leaving feedback on site.

As I mentioned earlier, I will be present on the Community Boards for an Open House Session on 29th June 2007, 5 – 6 PM. I will encourage you to post your thoughts, comments and suggestion on this thread. I am looking forward towards this meeting and I hope to gather lot of useful feedback from you.

See you on 29th for Open house discussion!

Regards,
Sharat Digumarti
Senior Manager - Marketplace Health

[yash@ebay.com]

Dear rashida_r

Thanks for your post
I will inform the seller training team and they would get in touch with you some time next week

Happy Selling
Regards

Yash

[yash@ebay.com]

Dear blogram

Thanks for making this post and your observation.

Your are right in your assessment that Feedback helps users in building their reputation on the platform and we do come across users trying to manipulate the system and action is taken and ranges it from

• Feedback removal
• Loss of PowerSeller status
• Account suspension
• Listing or Want It Now post cancellation
• Forfeit of eBay fees on cancelled listings
• Limits placed on account privileges

I will ask the team to check on this particular user and post investigation they would take action as appropriate.

Also most transactions are done by users who are new on ebay and hence at times most sellers have majority of the from buyer who are yet to receive any Feedback.

Thanks for bringing to our attention
Regards

Yash

[yash@ebay.com]

Dear edealsdirect

Thanks for your post

There are couples of concerns raised in your post needs investigation before I can answer. I will ensure we send you a response within the next one week

I agree with you that some of the transactions are not successfully completed and sellers need to complete the Unpaid Item process. We have been significantly working and we have made reasonable progress. I could also see some comments from other members sharing their experiences and noticing an improvement

We have announced about the changes in the buying flow and I am confident that it would improve the number of buyers would pay to increase. Please read this announcement

http://www2.ebay.com/aw/in/200706261523372.html

On Feedback Adoption, I think it is a very valid concern and very soon we would start work on an initiative which will increase the number of ratings being given
Regards

Yash

[yash@ebay.com]

Dear soniyadahar,
Thanks for your post and noted the suggestion. We have heard this suggestion in the past and the team is working on building a better search functionality.

Regarding the specific suggestion to show total price though it is most desirable, it is not the most user friendly as the most sellers offer shipping costs are based on various parameters, local, national, international, cash on delivery and there are also buyer preference and the cost changes based the location and option hence the system decision may not be helpful for all buyers.

On the books section we will try and see on we can segment Hardbound books and will try and increase the choice of books available on our site
Regards

Yash

[yash@ebay.com]

Dear ethnicraft

Thanks for your post and extremely to have on ebay India community boards.

Ebay users can participate on any topic which they like across ebay site and the whole purpose of these boards is to learn from each other.
Regards

Yash

[veedeedirect]

Hello,

Your SNP module still leaves a lot to be desired. Why does a seller have to face undue harrassment when:

1) Buyer has not paid but still files an INR.

2) Buyer does not bother to close the dispute. Why does the seller have to go after him and have him close the dispute? Or go to ODR and get proof the dispute is closed. ebaY washes it hands of Buyer Protection 90 days from close of auction but seller can be pulled up even 18 months after auction date? Shouldn't a case where buyer is not longer interested be automatically closed?

Even in a court of law when the appellant does not turn up for hearing, the case is thrown out. But in ebaY, the seller has to give proof of the buyer's disinterestedness in pursuing the case and even pay for the same? Doesn't this sound weird even to your ears?

3) Since feedback is an opinion, why do you treat it as a dispute, resolution of which has to been given to TnS. If a buyer has an issue he can always open a dispute.

And more importantly you are still evading this question, how can a PowerSeller be a Non Performing Seller?

By defination a PS is

"As pillars of our community, Power Sellers are committed to upholding and embracing the core values that are the very foundation of eBay. They are exemplary members who are held to the highest standards of professionalism, having achieved and maintained a 98% positive feedback rating and an excellent sales performance record."

How can you term such sellers as Non Performers and make them go through the utterly humiliating SNP process.

[booksandcdsonline]

My problem is

Buyers purchase from my store are new. After repeated attempts I do not get feedback from them.Though I give them as soon as I ship the material.

They just checkout and do not make the payment buy. I forced to join dispute console for unpaid item.

[yash@ebay.com]

Dear All
In the past there has been lot of feedback and suggestion around the way Seller Non Performance action are taken.

As it is challenging for sellers to get resolution/proof for older cases we are trying to move smaller time frame which is more realistic where sellers who be able to contact buyer or provide necessary proof as a dispute resolution

Earlier this year we mentioned that we would move in the direction to increase seller standards on the site which would reduce bad buyer experiences.

Also when taking action against Seller Non Performance we would adopt restrictions as the first approach instead of suspension which helps sellers to complete the pending transactions and gives the ability to access one’s account for necessary information

We have started this process and in the coming months the transition to the process would be complete
Regards

Yash

[sale-o-sale]

Sir, Instead of having this cumbersome process of Disputes INR / SNAD and SNP process, would it not be much simpler for an emerging market to have a Customer Service team which would interact between buyers and seller and give resolution within days rather than to keep disputes pending for months on end.

[kastbhanjancollection]

Sir, Just wondering why such a cold response to this open house session? Where have all the seller gone? Have you managed to suspend all the seller?