eBay India launch Community Court for feedback

October 14, 2008

eBay IndiaWhile many other eBay sites are rolling out feedback revision, eBay India are launching their own solution to ‘unfair’ feedback: the Community Court. This will allow sellers to appeal non-positive feedback which they believe to be unfair or unjustified; their claim will be judged by 21 randomly selected members.

The Community Court process will collect input from the buyer as well as the seller. If a majority (11) of jurors agree that the feedback is unjustified, it will be removed. There is no further appeal beyond this.

In order to participate as a juror, members will have to have been registered on eBay for six months. In addition, they must have participated in at least ten transactions as a buyer, or have twenty feedback stars with an overall rating of 97% feedback plus at least one transaction as a buyer. Anyone wishing to register now, though, seems to be out of luck, as the link from the announcement to sign up doesn’t appear to work.

This is not the first time we’ve seen the Community Court idea. eBay UK was due to lauch a similar project earlier this year which would have been open to both sellers and buyers, but this was abandoned when non-positive feedback for buyers was abolished. Now that buyers cannot be left negative feedback, the whole Court process seems unnecessarily formal, antagonistic and heavy-handed: giving sellers the facility to simply ask their buyers to remove feedback seems, in most cases, to be more than adequate.

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under Site Changes, eBay.in | 4 Comments 

eBay India make fee changes

June 26, 2008

eBay India have announced some major changes to their fee structure. They broadly follow the trend of other sites in weighting fees more towards sold items and reducing upfront costs for listing. Here are some of the highlights:

  • Insertion fees are Rs.1 per item, regardless of price (except in media categories which continue to be free to list). Insertion fees are capped at Rs.1500 per seller per month, so if you list more than 1500 items, that’s free.
  • International listing fees have been cut from Rs.15 to Rs.5 for items under Rs.2000, and from Rs.30 to Rs.10 for items above that.
  • Basic shop subscription fee will increase from Rs.199 to Rs.249 per month
  • Seller Manager increases in price from Rs.149 to Rs.199 per month, but Seller Manager Pro is reduced from Rs.500 to Rs.399.
  • Home page featured upgrade will be Rs.150 regardless of the number of items listed.
  • FVFs change: the current sliding scale according to price will be replaced with a flat fee dependent on category: 1% for technology, 6% for media, 5% for everything else

The new fee structure should encourage sellers to list more on the site, and in particular to offer their listings internationally now. If you’re a seller on eBay.in, how will this change your listing habits?

For those outside India wondering, Rs.100 is approximately £1.18.

Seller Non-Performance Changes

eBay India are also changing seller non-performance rules; the previous 30 days of data will now be taken into account instead of 90 days, and DSRs will be taken into account as well as INR and SNAD complaints. Like other sites around the world, India cites a “minimum number of bad transactions” without stating what that minimum might be: lets hope this isn’t the beginning of a fresh round of dolphins.

Written by Sue Bailey · Filed Under Site Changes, eBay.in | 2 Comments