Hello Sellers,

I’m Prashant, Business Head, PaisaPay.

I’m here to announce the launch of PaisaPay Seller Protection Program. PaisaPay Refund System, launched in Dec 2007, is designed to be fair to both buyers and sellers and ensures that no party bears the loss in an unfair manner. Nearly four months into launch we have not heard many complaints from our sellers on the loss incurred by them. However there may have been rare instances where the sellers may have incurred loss due to a Buyer Refund Claim. As mentioned in this post earlier this month and Rajan's interaction with the community in Feb we are happy to launch a program where we would address such rare instances.

While this program is effective today, to ensure that we do not miss on providing relief to our sellers from the transactions which they might feel to have been refunded incorrectly, we will also be covering transactions right from the 10th Dec 2007 i.e. when the new PaisaPay system was launched. For old transactions between 10th Dec 2007 and 31st March 2008 documents should be submitted within the next 10 days.

We believe that with this initiative we will be able to build a even stronger bond between our seller fraternity and PaisaPay. We, at PaisaPay, care for our sellers and hence we would keep taking initiatives to provide the best experience and thereby great service.

I’d request all our sellers to go through the PaisaPay Seller Protection Program. I will also be available for community interaction this Thursday between 4-5 PM to discuss any query related to PaisaPay. You can also post your queries for the session in advance on this thread.

Regards,
Prashant

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Hello Sellers,

Based on the feedback from the community (especially sellers selling Lingerie on site).

We are announcing the changes to the images guidelines for Lingerie category. (Note: this change in the images guidelines is only for Lingerie category and the images guidelines for rest of eBay.in categories remains unchanged).

The below guidelines provides a framework on what is allowed and not allowed in lingerie category.

Description	Past	Changes
Lingerie on Human Model	Not Allowed	Allowed
Lingerie on Human Model with Brand Watermarks	Not Allowed	Allowed (With Model Face)
Lingerie on Human Model without Brand Watermarks	Not Allowed	Allowed (Without Model Face)
Display of Human Models on  Lingerie Product Box	Not Allowed	Allowed
Display of partially nude male and female in lingerie	Not Allowed	Not Allowed
Intimate images of a Human Model or a couple in lingerie	Not Allowed	Not Allowed
Display of transparent lingerie on Human Model	Not Allowed	Not Allowed

This change is applicable for all listings starting from 26th March 2008 00.00 IST.

We hope this change will help our sellers enhance their listing in lingerie category and display their products efficiently to their buyers, consequently improving sales.

Regards,
The eBay Team

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Hello Sellers,

We would like to give you a quick update on the few key points that were discussed during Rajan’s Open House earlier last month.

1. Express Remittance (ER) – We have revised the ER criteria to include many more sellers and in addition we have also increased the Express Remittance limits for sellers. Please refer my earlier post for more details.

2. Seller Protection – We are happy to let you know that we will soon be launching “Seller Protection Program” covering all Sellers for PaisaPay Transactions. We will be announce more details about the program on 31st March’2008.

3. PaisaPay Timelines for Categories / Products Lines which need customization – We agree with your suggestion to increase timelines for such items. We are happy to inform that this feature is already under development and should get delivered by July / Aug 2008. We will update the community as we approach the launch date with more details. This change will address the issue sellers are facing in certain categories on PaisaPay timelines for both Domestic & International Shipments.

4. Extend Timelines for International Shipments – The current PaisaPay timelines allow a maximum of 31 days for shipment and delivery and can get as high as 62 days in case of acceptance of extension requests. Our data shows a majority of buyers accept time extension requests. Any increase beyond 31 days in international shipping timelines can impact buyers and sellers negatively. Buyers will have to wait longer to receive the product and the many sellers who do not avail of Express Remittance facility will have to wait much longer for remittance of their sale proceeds from PaisaPay. We have spoken with a wide variety of sellers and buyers and in the interest of overall community have decided not to change the International shipping timelines. Parallely as mentioned in point # 3 we are developing a systemic solve to the issue which should address most issues faced by sellers on this front.

5. VAT – We are taking seller feedback, evaluating options and will update the community on the path we are taking to address VAT concerns by 31st March’2008.

Best Regards,
Sharat Digumarti

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Dear Mobile and Laptop Sellers,

We wish to inform you that there would be a delay in the credits of PaisaPay remittances (due on 20 March 2008) to reflect in your Bank Account on account of bank holidays from 20th to 23rd March (Eid, Good Friday & Holi). The credit for the same should reflect on 24 March 2008.

Regards,
The PaisaPay Team

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Dear Mobile and Laptop Sellers,

We are happy to announce an exciting 100% Final Value Fee (FVF) waiver for Branded Mobile Handsets, PDAs and Laptops.

Seller’s Eligibility Criteria for Mobiles & PDA:

To participate:

1. Sellers need to list on eBay.in in the selected sub-categories of the mobile handset and handheld and PDA brands
2. Achieve the specified level of growth in their revenue during the promotion period

Sellers need to list Handsets or Handhelds and PDA of the selected brands by listing in the related sub-category on eBay.in. Brands eligible for this promotion are:

1. Nokia
2. Sony Ericsson
3. Motorola
4. Samsung
5. Blackberry
6. HTC
7. O2
8. HP
9. iPAQ
10. Imate
11. Palmone
12. LG
13. Panasonic
14. Philips
15. Qtek
16. Sagem
17. Spice
18. Haier
19. Benq
20. Bird
21. Eten
22. Geo
23. Pantech
24. Sendo
25. Sharp
26. Siemens
27. Trium
28. Mitsubishi
29. Alcatel

To be eligible for the 100% FVF waiver the below growth targets need to be achieved based on your total sales* in the above mentioned categories included in the promotion.

Total Sales* ( 1st Feb - 16th Mar’08)	Growth (17th Mar to 30th April’08)
Above Rs.2,50,000/-	30%
Rs.1,50,000/- to Rs.2,50,000/-	50%
Below Rs. 1,50,000/-	50% or Rs1,50,000 which ever is higher

*Total Sales: Sum of Item Prices for the items sold (excluding – Shipping Charges, VAT, Insurance, etc).

Insertion fees, Feature & Tool fees and PaisaPay fees shall be charged as applicable.

Sellers Eligibility Criteria for Laptops:

To participate:

• Sellers need to list on eBay.in in the sub-categories of Laptops.
• Achieve the specified level of sales during the promotion period.

All sellers who achieve Laptop sales of Rs 2,00,000 /- or more between 17th Mar and 30th April’08 will be eligible for the 100% Final Value Fee waiver.

Insertion fees, Feature & Tool fees and PaisaPay fees shall be charged as applicable.

Promotion Period:

Promotion on Branded Handsets, PDAs & Laptops will start on 17th March 2008 (00:00:01 hours) and shall end on 30th April 2008 (23:59:59 hours).

Guidelines:

• Sellers should be registered on eBay.in and based in India.
• Items should listed using either Auction, Buy it Now or Shop Inventory format.
• Sales generated due to item miscategorization will not qualify.
• Sellers should not have any policy violations during the promotion which may lead to restrictions or suspensions of their eBay account.
• eBay FVF credits will be given in May & June after the respective UPI periods are over. Hence UPI filing process should be followed.
• Sellers currently selling through multiple user IDs shall be evaluated based on the combined growth of all applicable user IDs.

General Terms & Conditions:

• eBay reserves the right at anytime to amend / add / remove / modify (in whole or part) any/all of the terms & conditions of this promotion or replace this promotion with another or completely withdraw this promotion.
• The employees and the immediate family members of the employees of eBay and its associate companies will not be eligible for this promotion.
• If eBay has suspicion or knowledge, that any seller has been involved in any fraudulent activity to avail the FVF waiver benefit, eBay reserves the right to disqualify the benefit to the seller.
• All decisions of eBay regarding all aspects / process / results of the promotion, data selection and seller qualification will be final and binding on all participants of this promotion. No appeals will be entertained in this regard.
• eBay does not warrant that the Site will run concurrently and error free during or after the Promotion Period and does not commit any uptime of the Site.
• eBay reminds participants of the nature and limitations of the Internet and is not responsible for any problems, technical malfunctions of any communications network, online system, or computer hardware/software failure, things outside the control of eBay, that may affect entry/participation to the promotion.
• Seller understands and agrees that participation in the promotion is good and sufficient consideration for you to agree and be bound by these Terms and Conditions.
• All communications with seller will be on their email address (registered on eBay) and seller will comply with the eBay User Agreement.

If you have any questions, click here to refer to the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs).

We look forward to our sellers earning rewards while growing their business on eBay through this promotion.

Best wishes,
The eBay Team

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Dear Members,

As Rajan mentioned in his message I will be taking on the responsibility of Country Manager, eBay India. At the outset I am extremely honoured at the trust that the organization has placed in me and will do my best to live up to that trust.

2007 was a fantastic year for us and we are all set to deliver to the priorities & challenges in 2008 and beyond. My team and I are committed to providing a consistently better experience for our community - both buyers and sellers. We will strive to make eBay India the place to find and buy a wide variety of products at great prices, acquire and retain buyers more efficiently, improve our sellers experience of selling on eBay, make Paisa Pay a best in class payment system and continue to grow cross border trade.

Our community has always been our most vocal supporter and our strongest critic. I’ve always loved the passion our community has for eBay and it always gave me great pleasure to interact with community members during the Top User Meet sessions. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank you for your support in the last few years and look forward to meeting your high expectations from eBay. I have no doubt that with the support of our community eBay India will continue to be India’s leading online shopping destination. Personally I enjoy selling on eBay and I am an active seller hoping to join the Power Seller club soon :-).

Last but not least, I would like to thank Rajan on behalf of eBay India for his exemplary leadership and the fantastic work he has done in the past few years and wish him all the best for his future endeavors. His passion for eBay and its Community is unmatched and I am sure that he will not be an easy act to follow :-).

Best Regards
Ambareesh Murty
Country Manager, eBay India

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Dear Members,

After many long and happy years at Baazee and eBay, I’ve decided to step down from my role of Country Manager, eBay India. Ambareesh Murty, currently Director - Marketing & Operations, will succeed me as the Country Manager of eBay India.

My association with eBay India has truly been memorable and I will always cherish this challenging yet immensely enjoyable phase of my professional career. The aspect of eBay that is most exciting to me is the impact that the business has on the community at large. I feel proud to have been associated with our passionate community of users and will attempt at keeping in touch with many of you I personally got a chance to meet. I’d like to take this opportunity to thank each one of you for the great support you provided us through 2007 and wish you lots of success selling on eBay in the years to come.

While at some levels the decision to leave has been difficult, I am comforted in the knowledge that I hand over the mantle at eBay India to Ambareesh, a very capable leader. Ambareesh has been with eBay since 2005 and over the last two years has led key functions like Category Management, Payments, Operations and Marketing. He has always been a close ally and a good friend. Ambareesh is very passionate about eBay and the Community, and I believe that he is the right person to steer eBay India in future.

Over the next few months, I’ll be transitioning the role to Ambareesh and will subsequently be pursuing my entrepreneurial interests. I will definitely also remain connected to eBay and you all as both a buyer and seller :-).

Thanks once again and till we meet again!

Best Regards
Rajan

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1. Apparels & accessories
2. Jewellery
3. Home décor & furnishings
4. Coins & stamps
5. Hobbies & collectibles
6. Movies & music

There is no limit to the number of listings that a seller can make during the offer period with the above combination of features.

When is it?
The promotion starts on Monday 10th Mar, 2008 at 00:00:01 IST (12:00 AM plus 1 second) and ends on Friday, 14th Mar 2008 at 23:59:59 IST (11:59 PM plus 59 seconds).

What are the benefits?
Buy Featured Plus for Rs. 60 and display your products internationally absolutely FREE in selected categories!

Get double exposure and increase your chance of sales!

Feature		Regular Fee / Listing		Promotional Fee
International Listing Fee		Rs.15 – Rs.90		Free

All other charges, FVF, and other Feature fees on the listings will be charged as applicable.

Who is eligible?
Sellers who list items in the above mentioned selected categories on eBay.in during the offer period are eligible for the promotion.

The following are also included under the promotion:

• The Online Auction and Fixed Price format listings.
  
• Listing in Apparels & Accessories, Jewellery, Home décor & furnishings, Coins & stamps, Hobbies & collectibles and Movies & music categories.
  
• Listings created before the offer period and going live during the offer period.
  
• Single quantity and multiple quantity listings.
  

What do you need to do?
Choose Featured Plus with your listing in Apparels & Accessories, Jewellery, Home Décor & furnishings, Coins & Stamps, Hobbies & Collectibles and Movies & Music categories and choose to ship your products worldwide.

What is excluded?

• Shop Inventory format & AD format listings
  
• Listings created during the promotion period and going live after the promotion period
• Listings that go live before the promotion period and are revised during the promotion to include the feature will be excluded.

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Dear Sellers

I'm Sharat Digumarti, Senior Manager, Category Management, eBay India. I’ve been interacting with the community members since the inception of Baazee/eBay India and feel proud to have been associated such an engaged community.

I may not be a new face to many, however would like to share that I have taken a new role in Category Management. I am excited to take the role in Category Management and me and my team will strongly focus to increase the business for sellers.

As suggested by many of you and discussed during Rajan’s Open House we are happy to let you know that we have revised the Qualified Sellers Criteria for PaisaPay Express Remittance for PaisaPay payments. This change will help sellers who are selling regularly to avail Express Remittance privilege. Given below is the new criteria and a comparison against the current one:

Other criteria such as no Buyer Protection claims against and not having any account level restrictions against the seller which restricts Express Remittance privilege remain unchanged.

The new criteria will be effective from 5th March 2008 and all sellers who meet the criteria would be included for the Express Remittance facility and shall be informed.

All sellers who meet the criteria and yet to complete the Additional Verification (KYC) (Learn more) will be contacted to complete the KYC.

If you have any questions regarding Express Remittance please click here or need any clarifications you can always contact our Customer Support or contact us at the following Toll Free numbers: 1800 209 3229 (For all landline and mobile phone) 1800 22 0288 (Only for MTNL / BSNL phones) (7 days a week from 10 am to 6 pm).

I’d also like to thank all our community members who provided inputs and their suggestions so that we could look at revising the criteria and serve the community better. We’d like to receive feedback on the revised criteria on this thread.

Best Regards,

Sharat Digumarti

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When is it?
The promotion starts on Tuesday 04th March, 2008 at 00:00:01 IST (12:00 AM plus 1 second) and ends on Friday, 07th March 2008 at 23:59:59 IST (11:59 PM plus 59 seconds).

What are the benefits?

All other charges, FVF, and other Feature fees on the listings will be charged as applicable.

Who is eligible?
Sellers who list items on eBay.in during the offer period are eligible for the promotion.

The following are also included under the promotion:

• The Online Auction and Fixed Price format listings.
  
• All categories.
  
• Listing in 2 categories.
  
• Listings created before the offer period and going live during the offer period.
  
• Single quantity and multiple quantity listings.
  

What do you need to do?
Choose Home Page Featured with your listing.

What is excluded?
▪ Shop Inventory format & AD format listings
▪ Listings created during the promotion period and going live after the promotion period
▪ Listings that go live before the promotion period and are revised during the promotion to include the feature will be excluded.

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Hello everyone,

I am Abhimanyu from Marketing at eBay India and I look after Buyer Engagement and Loyalty. I am here today to tell you about a BIG marketing promotion that eBay India has launched today - “10 Things to Do before you Die!”

eBay India has always been a place to find cool & unique things starting at prices as low as Re. 1/-. This promotion puts together some unique experiences and I’m certain that all of us have harboured secret ambitions of doing at least one of these in our lifetime! What’s more – each of these experiences are on auction starting Re 1/-.

Promotion Details

Presenting “10 Things to Do before you Die!” Auctions. These are 10 day Auctions each starting at Re.1/- to give you the freedom to bid and make your dreams come true. The experiences you can Bid on are:

1. Watch the F1 Grand Prix in Monaco
2. Co-Pilot a Combat aircraft – The L39 – in Russia
3. Drive an actual Formula 1 car in London
4. Enjoy a Romantic night at the Burj - Al – Arab hotel in Dubai
5. Skydiving for two in Thailand
6. Experience the Wimbledon Men’s Final live on Centre Court
7. Drive 5 high speed cars in a Euro Challenge
8. A thrilling Chopper Ride over Bombay OR the outskirts of Delhi
9. Experience Zero gravity
10. Climb the Great Pyramids in Egypt

Each of these auctions come as a complete package of travel, stay and experience and will have the adventurous bidder jet set his or her way around the world to places like Monaco, Moscow, London and Nice. So for the next 14 days (March 3rd – 16th) you can take a shot at fulfilling your dreams. Please find more details on the amazing things on offer here. We would encourage you to add www.ebay.in/things2do to your Favorites section to catch the action as it happens.

Why are we doing this?

The objective of the Promotion is to build awareness of eBay India and position it as a vibrant and exciting shopping destination.

How we plan to do this?

We have an integrated media campaign to make sure that awareness is at an all time high. We are targeting our key metro markets (Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad) through multiple channels. If you are in one of these cities, you may already have heard about the promotion on FM channels such as Red FM, Radio One & Fever. If you drive to work, you may have caught our Outdoor & Bus Stop hoardings. If you have missed these then we are sure the promotion will catch your attention at Barista outlets or while you browse through Yahoo, Rediff and other sites. Finally, direct mailers will be sent to over 5 Lakh employees at over 270 corporate offices. While you may catch this campaign while traveling you can also see them below this post. We would love to get your views - do let us know what you think about this promotion here.

All of this is in addition to the marketing we do to our existing user base through Onsite Merchandizing and Direct Mailers.

What’s in it for me?

If you are a seller on site, in addition to bidding on these exciting experiences, we would like to point out that on the promotion landing page (www.ebay.in/things2do) we will be promoting one paisa auctions in the following categories:

• Mobiles
• Computers
• Jewellery
• Electronics
• Cameras
• Watches
• Coins & Stamps

We are confident that the site will experience a significant increase in visitors and we encourage you to increase your One Paisa Auction listings in these categories and even put up great deals in the fixed price segment. So make sure that while we drive traffic to the site you are all set to convert them into your buyers!

We are very excited about this promotion and we look forward to your partnership in making this work for all of us!

Regards,

The eBay Team

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