Common

Many internet and ecommerce websites try numerous offline methods to boost their sales and customer base such as TV commercials, newspaper advertisements. However, this does not work due to a very fundamental problem of internet availability in India. In some areas, internet connectivity is available at a reasonable price and internet users can surf the internet without worrying about expenses . In other areas, accessing the internet becomes expensive because of many reasons such as
1.Refusal to provide an internet connection by certain ISPs.
2. Bandwidth theft – the internet connection is used by someone other than the subscriber.The subscriber gets a slow internet connection and is forced to pay the bill for internet usage which some one else uses.
3. Hacking of computers and laptops by anonymous hackers, who remain unaffected and are well protected, while the innocent internet user has his or her life ruined due to the slander campaign and pay up for the damages caused by the hackers. The internet may have a lot of information, but it is not worth spending much time online, if the person is left penniless in his or her old age, or framed for crimes he or she did not commit.
4. Identity theft – online usage patterns are analysed, and one person spends the money, does the work, someone else gets the credit.
For a person with a non-IT background, it is very difficult to get any kind of support or assistance when the computer is hacked, as most other people do not face a similar problem. For example, I noticed that a certain Url was not accessible on a laptop. However, the same url could be opened on the laptop of other users sharing the same wifi connection.

An internet user has been trying to make a purchase on an Ecommerce website at home, but the connection is so slow (it is a 3G connection) that it takes 5 minutes to open a single page. It is not advisable to make the same purchase in a cybercafe using a credit card due to security reasons, so the buyer will be forced to buy offline.

Selling products through a digital marketplace can be expensive as the seller often has to pay a listing fee, subscription and a final value fee . Also some sellers leave feedback in an arbitrary manner with no consideration as to how it may affect the seller in the long term.
However, marketplaces have a large number of visitors consisting of both sellers and buyers, and unlike direct purchases, there is some mechanism in place to verify information about both the buyers and sellers. This may be useful for the seller, as these buyers may be converted into repeat customers for selling similar or related products. The user information can also be mined and used for formulating the marketing strategy in future.

A little known fact about working online in India is that for non-ecommerce online business owners, a person without an MBA, MCA or Computer Science degree or young enough will find it extremely difficult to get any kind of support. In fact, when this individual shops online, many substandard products will be dumped on the person in an attempt to waste money and manufacturers support will be encouraged to avoid giving after sales service. This problem is most acute for electronics products like netbooks/laptops/tablets and mobiles.

A netbook(Toshiba make) purchased online from F** had a power supply button which was not functioning properly. The keyboard started malfunctioning after 2 months , and even though the netbook was under warranty, it took more than 1 month for the netbook to be repaired. Similarly, a Blackberry playbook costing more than 12k is not functional, despite repeated follow-up with the service centre. The seller does not provide any proper customer support in this case also. Repeated phone calls and emails to the support centre are a waste of time, as customer support is not interested in solving the buyers problem. Additionally, the buyer may also be subjected to identity theft by ruthless criminal gangs, who will try to frame the online buyer in order to get credit for the online purchase. Many buyers buy online to save time, but the poor quality and lack of customer support results in wastage of time.

In such cases, though it may be a little more expensive, some buyers will revert to buying offline . If a laptop is purchased from a store, the buyer can get customer support, since it is difficult to behave badly in public. If it starts malfunctioning, the customer can take it to the store, where sales will usually help since they do not want to drive away other customers in the store. Some Online sellers should learn to treat customers professionally and not misuse the online purchases as a means to settle personal scores/prejudices.

The disadvantage of using the feedback score to judge a seller is that it is mostly manipulated and is not an indication of the sellers performance.
Analysis of the negative feedback on Ebay for one seller shows that:
1. Two thirds of the negative feedback is from competitors who are selling the same or similar products. In real life few businesses will promote their competitors, they usually do everything possible to damage their reputation. Then why is a competitors opinion treated as important on Ebay?
2. Many online sellers are targetted by ruthless and extremely well connected identity theft gangs.These gangs and their friends have no qualms leaving negative feedback, so as to damage the reputation and business of the seller.

One of the hallmarks of working online, is that people will carelessly give negative feedback just to spoil a sellers reputation,even when the seller has supplied the product as specified.

Another buyer who leaves malicious and unjustified negative feedback is
ashosts (Website ashosts.com )
Buyer information:
Syed S Murtaza
918968402885
azadari121@gmail.com
Buyer shipping address:
Syed Shoaib Murtaza
Manzil I Hussaini Hassanabad Rainawari
Srinagar KMR 190003
Srinagar – 190003
Jammu and Kashmir
IN

When asked to justify the negative feedback, this malicious buyer did not bother to reply. Unfortunately marketplaces do little to curb these buyers, forcing the sellers to look at other options.(preferably outside the internet industry where such behaviour will not be tolerated)