The future of shopping from eBay India! (IndiContest)

O Nebula... am sorry to hear of such an aweful experience.

I have a story too. :(

I bought a limited edition Sachin silver coin (10g) from the 2k voucher plus Rs. 500 more from my end. For more than a month, the seller kept asking for grace period for delivering the item. The item is still not delivered. And now a couple of days ago I got a mail from ebay saying that they will initiate the refund process since the seller could not deliver the item in time.

- The refund is yet to be processed, it's not reflecting in my account.

- After the refund I will be stuck with Rs 2500 in my account. Dont really want to buy anything from ebay now, their catalogue is very uninspiring.Indiadmins, please look into this. 

They might refund you only Rs.500 and not the 2k voucher... So you better watch out...

Seeing what Nebula has gone through, one has always to carefully read through all the terms and conditions and the entire product listing for the product. I am sorry to read, what she had to go through, to save her hard earned money from getting wasted. But, IMO, partly, it may be a fault on her own part too (I know I'll be bombed for thinking so), probably because she shopped on ebay for the first time. Being someone who has been shopping online regularly for around 5 years now, all I can say that, it is you who is the most responsible for any such incidents. Since most online shopping sites like Flipkart, Ebay, Snapdeal, Naaptol, Tradus, Indiatimes Shopping, Shopclues, etc. are Online Marketplaces, which serve as platform for a number of sellers who sell a variety of products at different prices and with different terms and conditions.

One who wants to shop online has to keep into consideration that you are the one responsible for your purchases. For instance, there are a few examples that I have found on different ebay product listings:

1. Warranty: There are different kinds of warranties that different sellers offer you. Most often these warranty conditions are: a) Manufacturer Warranty - The most common type of warranty condition, wherein the manufacturer of the product provides you with the after sales support, and warranty services. b) Seller's Warranty - This can be found on ebay and other market places quite often. This states that irrespective of the brand, the product belongs to, the seller who has sold it to you will be responsible for any after sales support, repairs and product warranty claims. c) No Warranty - This means there is no warranty of any kind. Many a times, we fall in trap of a cheap product overseeing the clause "Seller Warranty" and such things. I understand that at many times, the deal is so great that there is a difference of around 15-20% in the cost of a product with manufacturer warranty and one with seller warranty, that you are tempted to take a risk. So, you should beware before proceeding, considering the fact that the seller may or may not honour the promise, or claiming one may be a headache.

2. Bill: A lot of the sellers on ebay are some common small shop owners and individuals who buy products at lower (wholesale) prices and sell you. In most such cases the seller won't probably give you a bill, because he/she himself was a buyer. Like I, for example, may approach some computer dealer in Nehru Place, buy products for cheap and sell them at a premium at such market places. I won't be able to give you a vat paid bill because I do not have a VAT or CST number. A number of sellers provide you with a proper VAT Paid bill and most of the times, such cases are properly listed on the product listing page. This is because such a listing increases the reliability of the product, thus increasing the chances of sales too. YOU SHOULD ALWAYS check out whether the seller is providing a bill or not. If info on this hasn't been provided there, you can contact the seller and ask before purchasing it. MOREOVER, BE PREPARED TO SUFFER as the manufacturer is not liable to provide you with warranty services without a proper bill, and you don't have rights to start a legal battle without a proper bill.

3. Item Condition: The item condition is another important thing. Make sure that you check this out, atleast on ebay, where people do sell used products too. Anyone selling used products has to include the item condition in the listing and failing to do so, the seller is liable to be penalized by the marketplace.

4. Seller Ratings: Most online marketplaces now have in place, a method to show the seller's reputition, based on a variety of factors including Product price, shipping time, ease of communication, product quality, and consumer review and ratings and such. These seller ratings come in handy whenever you are there to buy some product on ebay or any market place, even if it is Flipkart.com. Always go with reputed sellers. If required, check out the customer's reviews and ratings. On Ebay, there is a very extensive system to check out seller reputition. Just keep into consideration that there are people who can't ever be satisfied, no matter what you do, so there may be some odd negative reviews and ratings too. On ebay, seller's ratings is one great tool with buyers, which can draastically harm the seller's ratings, business, at times, even making it impossible for the seller to carry on the business on ebay. Just the fear of negative review, for most sellers gets the work done. This would be more important for a reputer seller, than a rookie. There are seller badges and coloured star indications against each seller and buyers, based upon the number of products sold/purchased by them.

5. Check the Price: Since online marketplaces are crowded, there are hundreds of sellers spanning over tens of such marketplaces who offer similar products at varied prices and conditions. Considering all the points I stated above, the comparision of the price of the product you are about to buy is the most important consideration, but you should keep it at the lowest point of list of considerations.

6. Reputition of the Online Marketplace: This has to be considered because based on this will be your shopping experience. The reputition of the marketplace also is an outcome of a number of factors including the product prices, quality of products, shipping times, customer service and other such stuff. By this, I consider that Flipkart.com is the best online marketplace, followed by Homeshop18.com, Ebay.in(com), Amazon.in (?-because I haven't shopped with them that much to reach a conclusion), shopclues.com. My ranking of these marketplaces depends upon the factors I have pointed above. Wheneve you're out there to buy expensive products, go with reputed online marketplaces/sites. I'll suggest Flipkart.com (WS Retail) to anyone, anyday, because, as per my experience they are the best, even if they are not the cheapest.

7. Read the Product Listing Carefully: You must make sure that you read all the product's listing, each and every point carefully before making a purchase decision. A lapse in your understanding of a product listing may result in you losing the entire money, because, the seller made it available on the products listing but, it was a lapse on your part in reading/understanding it.

I have been shopping with ebay.in since 2007, when I bought logitech multimedia speakers, my first ever online purchase. The journey so far has been through lows and highs and I believe that most of the times, the sellers have got the disputes resolved themselves. Whenever I had to reach the customer care of Ebay, it too has been a decent experience, considering their stringent customer protection programmes, that as per my experience, is the best among all the marketplaces in the Indian scene, except Flipkart.com. At another forum, I've read that people have faced problems with Flipkart too, and the plight of that person was featured as an article on the website of a leading technology magazine.

Just a tip: Whenever you shop online at a marketplace, make sure that you take a backup of the product's listing page. This is because, in case of a dispute, there's a small probability that the seller may change some specific terms or conditions or listing details like product colour, etc. Having a backup of the entire listing makes sure that you have a valid evidence to prove your point. You can do this by saving the page as a pdf file, easily possible on Google Chrome.

When Dealing with Seller/Customer Care: Always try and make sure that you keep all interactions/communication on email (written evidence). It may take more time than phone support, to resolve your case, but it's the best method, AFAIK, if, you are forced to proceed further.

Yay. I wrote another essay. 

Very informative and long essay

Point 5 applies to me.  I recently bought an item at double its price.  ( golmal wala  )

CK, I finally read each and every word you wrote religiously

*dizzy*

Now let me narrate my story also.  5-6 years ago, I bought a pen ( forgot whether it was 200Rs or 400Rs  ) on IndiaTimes/IndiaPlaza. ( forgot which site it was  ) The case in which it was sent was broken. I sent them an email. Within a few days, I received a reply saying that they will credit my account for that purchase. They did not ask for any proof and also didn't ask me to return that defective item. 

Now, I'm sure if they would have done the same thing if it was a 20k laptop 

Now, I'm sure if they would have done the same thing if it was a 20k laptop

Now, I'm *not sure if they would have done the same thing if it was a 20k laptop

Pehle sure phir not sure. lol 

Ranjith seems to be confused a lot, now-a-days 

i always buy cash on delivery or thru gift voucher and small items only.....i get scared how people buy huge amt stuff thru credit card online

ND, AFAIK, there's nothing like being scared of in online transactions, as most of the online trading sites have sufficient protection enabled to allow us to shop securely. Almost all online shops have secured transaction pages right from the time you put an item in the cart and proceed to check out. I believe you must be knowing about the https (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure), which signifies that your transaction is taking place on a secured server, and that the communication between your computer and the seller's server is encrypted, which means that even if someone is sniffing through the transaction, it would take them days or even months to decipher the information that was being passed, using extremely capable computing systems.Unless you have your computer compromised or some malicious applications like keyloggers running on your system, or someone knows your card details, there is no way a fraud can happen.

ck 

B CK ND 

No, the one I am talking about is another pen 

Hey Guys, we are collecting details on all the issues you are facing with the vouchers currently. We will be sending an email to all the winners shortly to take care of it. Sorry for the inconvenience you guys have faced so far.

Karthik, Still trying to figure out- How can a Voucher have 'expired' though the use-by-date was still there!

Finally the purchase was successful...Purchased a household product for Rs 2,500 and now finally got it... First time my voucher had went waste because the seller didn't do the delivery..I had to wait for 15/20 days to get a new voucher.After getting the voucher too I got confuse that whether the same experience will happen again.. Ebay advised me to buy from high rated buyer..According to me the product price was little higher when compared to some other stores but the packaging was done well and the product reached me in 4 days which is not bad...

Mohit, At least Ebay sent you a fresh Voucher Code. They have promised me the same too, but I am still waiting for mine...

I am sorry to hear of all the ordeals faced by fellow-winners of the contest. I have a similar tale.

I have informed Team IB of the difficulty I have faced to claim my prize-voucher for the contest. Though I tried placing the order within the due date, yet I got an error message from Ebay that my Voucher has expired! When I finally got in touch,Ebay informed that I would be issued a fresh voucher code to claim my prize.

Yet after innumerable mails & umpteen phone-calls to Ebay, I am yet to receive the same... Sad when Sponsors do this...

ddnt u win a hard disk??

ND, Not yet. Ebay had mailed me a Code to claim the prize- Hard-disk from their site.

When I tried doing so, I got error message that the code has expired!

It would be simpler if prizes are just mailed across to winners address! Trying to claim them is so crazy!

they'll go out of business very soon...to be frank when i first saw those vouchers becoming valid only if we brought something of greater amount --- it looked fishy from start...but didnt expect the 'main prizes' had to be claimed via vouchers too

Just imagine

'Claiming' prizes is another challenge, after supposedly winning

I believe Indiblogger should stick to brands offering Flipkart vouchers for any upcoming contests...

And of course, physical prizes should be sent directly, rather than winners having to claim them against vouchers...

BTW, Anita, you got the voucher of equivalent price value, or of a particular hard disk?...

Agree with you, Anant Feels silly to contact the IB Team to complain about the prizes not received!

Ebay sent me an email with the Voucher-Code & no other info about which Brand I was eligible for.

When I asked them for clarification that which one should I chose as there are so many "2 TB External Hard Disk Drive" in choices, they said, "pick any one!"

But, the Voucher Code didn't work! Still waiting to hear from them...

Anant...the contest was organised by ebay themselves...they wont send prizes via flipkart their rival

Yes Nandini, so the inference is IB should part ways with eBay now, till Internet exists...

I felt hopeful of winning something in this one but now I feel thankful to have not done so...

I can sense the dissatisfaction and disappointment of firstly having to wait a few months to claim a winner's prize and then when you finally click the order button, it gulps an "Expired voucher" message...   

Hi! I have just sent an email to all the winners regarding the issues pertaining to eBay voucher redemption. 

Please..please please reply to that email with your specific problem and we will sort this out on priority.

Thanks!

Swati, The day before yesterday, I emailed the Grievance Officer of Ebay. I got a call from them yesterday that they are looking into it. I even asked them to check out this IndiBlogger Forum link that I had shared in my mail and requested them to attend to all the concerns ASAP. They said they are doing that too!

I have replied to your email! Thanks a lot! Now that you are also following this up, ALL IZZ WELL

Indiadmins, My predicament still remains unresolved.Am still awaiting a fresh coupon after the last one was cancelled. Plus the Rs. 500 that I spent on the cancelled transaction too has not been refunded till now.  And it's almost been well over 3 months since the coupon was cancelled by eBay.Would much appreciate an update on this.