Dear members,

We are pleased to announce the launch of “Cash Back” promotion for ICICI Bank credit card users. Starting today, buyers can use their ICICI Bank Credit Card to buy any product on www.ebay.in during the 2-month promotion period and get 10% of the amount paid credited back to their card account.

The Cash Back offer is also available on EMI payments. Buyers can maximise their savings by paying in 3 or 6 month interest-free installments and also get 10% cash back. So for EMI payments, buyers save on Finance Cost + 0% Processing Cost + get 10% Cash Back!

The promotion will be on till 30th September 2008.

We expect a significant increase in transactions, especially EMI transactions because of the great value proposition. We encourage our sellers to make the best use of this opportunity to maximise their profits by offering value deals and EMI listings.

We also encourage sellers to be proactive in providing a great buying experience by shipping items early and ensuring that transactions do not get cancelled due to unavailability of stock.

Click here to know more about the promotion. Please note that this offer cannot be clubbed with any other eBay promotion, like eBay gift vouchers.

Regards
The eBay Team

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Dear members,

We are all set to have our first ever 'eBay Visits' session tomorrow and we feel truly excited to have rrelectro, sjewelsdk, skexports_in1 and snrama visiting our office.

As announced earlier in the below announcement that we will schedule a small online meet with the first 4 LUCKY PowerSellers of the 1st 'eBay Visits' Program, please feel free to post your comments on this thread while they would be online on the community boards tomorrow from 4:00 pm onwards.

We hope to see the excitement flowing in all our other PowerSellers who will soon be a part of this monthly program. So please post your messages on this thread and be a part of the FUN!!

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	***Original: eBay Visits: PowerSellers pack your bags and VISIT eBay for a day!!***
	23 July, 2008 | 03:49 PM IST To further build a strong bond with our sellers, we had announced the “eBay Visits” program some time back exclusively for our PowerSellers. It is a chance for the eBay team to get face-to-face with some of the most active and successful sellers in our Community. We are kicking off this event on 30th July’08 and are really thrilled to invite rrelectro, sjewelsdk, skexports_in1 and snrama to personally visit the Mumbai office and meet with our teams. It’s a unique opportunity for the sellers to get an inside look into how eBay functions, and for our teams to understand what makes these sellers and the Community tick. We will be posting their experiences and pictures of this special event right here on the Boards! So watch this space. We will also arrange a small online meet of those attending our office on our community boards while they are here and talk to them on anything that comes to your mind. Looking forward to the FUN!! Regards, The eBay Team
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Promote your products and grab the top spot in search results to enjoy increased chances of sales.

Promote your product at the top of other eBay listings on search and category pages at 50% discount. All banners on the Home Page which lead to search results have listings being displayed in 'Gallery' view. Hence this is a great opportunity to buy the feature at a discounted price and make your listings being displayed at the top.

What is it?
Listers who list during the promotion period will receive a flat 50% discount on Gallery Featured.

When is it?
The promotion starts on Monday 21st Jul, 2008 at 00:00:01 IST (12:00 AM plus 1 second) and ends on Friday, 25th Jul 2008 at 23:59:59 IST (11:59 PM plus 59 seconds).

What are the benefits?

Feature		Gallery Featured Fee (Regular)		Gallery Featured Fee (Promotional)
Gallery Featured		Rs. 60.00		Rs. 30.00

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

Who is eligible?
All sellers listing on eBay.in are eligible for the promotion.

The following are also included under the promotion:

• Online Auction and Fixed Price.
  
• All categories.
  
• Listings 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 Gallery Featured while listing your product.

What is excluded?

• Shop Inventory format and Classified 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 Members,

It has been our constant endeavour to add new features in PaisaPay to make it the “Best-in-class” online payment service. In the second half of May, we had announced some new features in PaisaPay. We are happy to announce another set of improvements that have been rolled-out recently:

1. Searching transactions in My PaisaPay made easier: We had received feedback from sellers that it is not easy to search a transaction in My PaisaPay, especially when a seller has large volumes. With the objective of providing an easy interface to search PaisaPay transactions, we have added a search feature in your My PaisaPay > Sold with PaisaPay section. You will be able to search transactions by PaisaPay ID, buyer user ID or item number.
2. Improvement to messaging in Emails, My PaisaPay and Transaction Details page for sellers: We have enhanced messaging on Emails, My PaisaPay and Transaction Details page for sellers in order to provide increased clarity and make next steps more clear. It also incorporates additional information (like item title) which will make fulfillment of PaisaPay order much easier.
3. Prominent messaging to buyer to leave Feedback: With the objective of improving feedback adoption by PaisaPay buyers, we have made changes to encourage buyers to leave Feedback once the buyer confirms receipt of item.
4. Contacting members through transaction details page: You can now email your buyer / seller directly from the Transaction Details page saving time to switch windows to send a message through eBay. These messages will be stored in your ‘My Messages’ in ‘My eBay’. On the Transaction Details page, click the buyer user ID and then click on the email address. You will be taken to the “My Message: Ask a Question” page.

We are confident that the above features and changes will improve your PaisaPay experience. Besides the above, features like PaisaPay Mobile Alerts, Print Shipping Label, Declaration & Invoice and Extended Timelines for products requiring customization are currently in development and will be available in the next few months.

If you have any questions regarding these changes, please do contact us.

We look forward to receiving your feedback and suggestions as always.

Regards,
The eBay Team

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	***Previous update: Upcoming enhancements in PaisaPay product features!***
	30 May, 2008 | 04:39 PM IST Dear Members, As an addition in the below list of new enhancements that are being made in the PaisaPay product features I’d like to also announce that we have made a small update in one of the features as well. We have added the following courier company names in the list of courier companies that get displayed in the drop-down tab while entering the shipping details. This is based on the popularity of these couriers when the sellers select "Others". Please find below the list of courier company names that we found were popular enough to be in the options list. Flyking Courier GMS Express India Post (Registered / Ordinary Post) Maruti Courier Pafex Trackon Courier United Couier XPS Courier Also we have changed the previously named ‘India Post’ option to ‘Speed Post’ and added another option as above for ordinary/registered India Post. Regards, The eBay Team
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	***Original: Upcoming enhancements in PaisaPay product features!***
	22 May, 2008 | 04:33 PM IST Dear Members, We have some exciting news to share with you. Your most preferred payment service, PaisaPay is even better now, thanks to the improvements that are being released by tomorrow! Since the launch of new PaisaPay at the end of last year we have been working on further improving your experience on eBay. We have also kept close eye on feedback received from you and have incorporated many of them in this release. The new features are elaborated below. This feature enhancement is the first among many others that are currently in development and should be released in July-August of this year (PaisaPay Mobile Alerts; Print Shipping Label, Declaration & Invoice; more time to ship items requiring customization, improvement to Seller’s My PaisaPay; etc.) Features live from tomorrow: Improvement in system generated emails to buyers: We have improved many system-generated emails that are sent to buyers at various stages of a PaisaPay transaction. This is where we received many feedbacks. The content in the mail has been simplified. Unnecessary content has been done away with. Action required from buyers (like Confirming item receipt in My PaisaPay) has been called out prominently. Some missing information has been incorporated. Overall the new set of emails will be more effective for buyer communication. Buyer Transaction Details page & Buyer’s My PaisaPay: We have received feedback from you in terms of messaging on the PaisaPay process pages and therefore have simplified the messaging on the transactions details pages and “Paid with PaisaPay” section of My PaisaPay for buyers. These changes would provide better clarity on the transaction and next steps. Launch of PaisaPay Resolution Center (PRC): We have introduced a resolution hub for buyers to get additional information in case of an unlikely event of an issue in a PaisaPay transaction. The PRC encourages buyers to first contact the seller and resolve the matter amicably. Link to PRC has been given at various places where buyers could have a problem with the transaction (For example: Next to “Claim Refund” button so that the buyer sees all the possible resolution options and selects most suitable one). Gift Voucher messaging: We have seen some encouraging results of rewarding buyers with Gift Vouchers. We send out Gift Vouchers to buyers for their use while making the purchase. To ensure increased usage by buyers we have increased prominence of Gift Vouchers on the payment pages and also encourage usage of Gift Vouchers. Seller’s My PaisaPay: We are improving the PaisaPay Account Balance page so that our sellers can keep a tab on their sales in a better way. You can now easily access your older remittance details from the new account balance page. You will also see more details of transactions for which remittances are not yet processed. Seller’s KYC completion status has been added in My PaisaPay Summary. Resetting of KYC in case of edit in bank details: In our continued efforts to keep the site safe we had initiated the KYC process for our sellers. Since KYC is done for the beneficiary name appearing on the bank account, it is natural that KYC would be required to be done again in case there is a change in the beneficiary else the purpose of this verification would be lost. Due to some limitations we could not incorporate this feature in December. Henceforth KYC, if already done, would be reset in case the bank details are edited. However in case you edit the details but do not change the beneficiary name (Eg: From Ajay Varma, HDFC Bank, A/c 123456 to Ajay Varma, ICICI Bank 876543) you will not be required o submit the verification documents again. But since the system can not differentiate between change in beneficiary name and other details, KYC will be reset for all edits. However our Support team would proactively complete KYC in case beneficiary name is not changed. Minimum payment amount for EMI: EMI has been a strong contributor of high value transactions recently. When we launched the EMI feature in December, we had introduced an additional flat fee of Rs. 200 in case the payment amount was below Rs 1,500. This was done as the financer of EMI, ICICI Bank does not process small amount EMIs. We are happy to inform that we have waived this fee for all sellers for all transactions since December. To ensure that EMI transactions meet the financer’s minimum amount requirement a feature has been built whereby 3-month EMI would have a minimum payment amount of Rs. 500 whereas minimum amount for a 6-month EMI would be Rs. 1500. Hence if a buyer attempts to make payment for less than the minimum amounts specified above he will get an error message. Please note that the minimum amount is at an order level (in other words the payment amount including shipping & other charges) and not at the item price. Sellers will continue to be able to list items of any amount with EMI. We have also put in relevant messaging in place to guide the buyers through the payment process. We encourage sellers not to list items less than the minimum amount with EMI in favor of better buying experience. Please keep providing your feedback and suggestion on PaisaPay like in past. It helps us take better decisions and selection. We hope that the new features rolled out after careful evaluation and preparation will help you transact better on eBay.in. Besides rolling out new features we are also in the process of talking with leading logistics companies for a shipping integration. We will update you later once more progress in made. You would already see some of these features live on the site as they are in the roll out process. This roll out process will complete by tomorrow. During this time you may face some intermittent challenges on My PaisaPay. As always we are here for any assistance you may require. Please feel free to get in touch with our Customer support for any queries. Regards, The eBay Team
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Dear Users,

We are pleased to announce that we have made changes to the category structure on eBay.in to make it easier for members browsing eBay & find what they are looking for. Many of these changes are driven by community suggestions, so a big thank you to all those members who wrote in!

We have launched a new Meta (i.e. Main Category) called Memory Cards, Pen Drives & HDD which will house a variety of Digital Storage Media like Memory Cards, Pen Drives, Hard Disk Drives (Internal & External), Blank CD / DVD. All Digital Storage media from Computers & Peripherals, Mobiles & Accessories & Cameras & Optics will be transferred to the new meta categories

The other major change is that all Video Game Consoles & PC Gaming Devices (Accessories) will now be a part of Consumer Electronics. This is in context to the changes in the fee structure for these categories and as announced here (link to the Pricing AB) the new fee structure will be applicable to this category and will attract a nominal Final Value Fee of 1% only.

The Video & Computer Games category will now contain only Video Game CDs & Cartridges under various brands like X-Box, Playstation etc & will be treated as a media category similar to Books & Magazines & Movies & Music i.e. No Listing fee Category with 6% Final Value Fees.

We have also given separate categories for HTC, imate, O2, Dopod accessories under Mobile Accessories.

Many Digital Diaries have changed into Smart Phones, we have moved these brands / models into Handsets under Mobiles & Accessories.

Construction Equipment & Farm Equipment have been added to Commercial Vehicles under Cars, Bikes & CVs.

To view the present category structure, with category numbers, click on the 'Buy' link at the top of almost every page. Click on the 'See all categories' link towards the bottom of the page. You will reach the Category index page. Select the 'Show category numbers' radio button, and then click 'Show'. You can now view all the categories, with their respective category numbers.

As always, you can move your item to another category by revising your listing as long as it has not received a bid and there are more than 12 hours left in the listing. Click here for details on how to revise your item.

These changes are live on site and visible. We strongly encourage members to pay careful attention to which categories have changed and to update their listings as appropriate.

We always welcome community suggestions and incorporate them wherever possible. To submit a suggestion to eBay, click here.

Sellers using Turbo Lister are advised to update their tool by following the below steps:

1. Open your Turbo Lister tool and from the Menu bar on the top select 'Tools'.
2. From the dropdown options, please select 'Check for program updates' and wait for the tool to perform updates.
3. Once the tool completes the updation process, a dialog box appears which says 'Instal Now'. Click on the same and the new category structure would reflect in the tool.

Happy Trading!

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Dear Mobile Sellers,

With the recent changes to Pricing and to further augment the vibrancy in new Mobile Handsets we would actively be promoting Popular Handsets through various onsite merchandising slots and banners on key pages such as Home Page, Mobile Search Pages, and Mobiles Landing Page etc.

eBay Team would regularly select he top selling models such as Nokia N Series, E Series, 6000 Series, Sony Ericsson, Business Phones form brands such as HTC etc from sellers providing good buyer experience and listing in a fixed price format, offering lowest prices on eBay with all inclusive prices and Free Shipping.

eBay would use its judgment in selecting the model and evaluating the proposal sent by sellers. While the key parameter for selection would the Price of the mobile phone, other factors such as Seller’s record of providing consistent good buyer experience would also be considered.

Your Category Manager & Account Manager would work with sellers participating or willing to participate in further refining the details of your offer / listing so as to make it lucrative to the Buyers as well as you.

For the selected popular models being promoted through these banners, we would take the buyer directly to the item page for quick and easy transaction. Each of the identified models would showcase one listing with the most attractive deal and thus it is imperative for you, given the need to offer attractive prices to the Buyer, to ensure that you are aggressive in managing your product sourcing as well as pricing strategy.

At regular intervals both the models and sellers will be added/removed keeping the market trends on popular handsets and special offers from sellers.

The targeted merchandising of Popular Mobiles of specific items will also boost sales for the participating sellers across the other products being offered which creates a tremendous opportunity for every mobile seller to leverage this merchandising property as promotional tool and grow their overall business on eBay.

eBay would not charge any additional fee/marketing charges to be promoted hence it is a tremendous opportunity for sellers to constantly work on selected and timely offers for buyers.

Sellers can also submit any specific promotion plans on popular handsets by sending their proposal at roadtosuccess@ebay.com for evaluation.

Grab this opportunity to boost your sales!

Warm Regards
The eBay Team

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Hello Everyone,

I'm Sharat Digumarti, Head of Category Management, eBay India.

Since the begining of the year me and my team have been working to improve the success of sellers on eBay India through close collaboration. We have made progress in this direction and we continue doing so.

With our endeavour to make sellers business robust, the recent fee changes give tremendous opportunity for every seller to grow their sales on eBay by showcasing more variety, offering great deals which translates to a good buyer experience.

I would be here on the community boards on Tuesday, 15th July, 4 – 5 PM discuss topics such as how can we work together and assist each of you to grow your business on eBay. I am looking forward for an active participation which would also help me to understand the priorities you all would like us to focus in the remaining part of the year

To post your message on this workshop please click here and click on 'Post a reply' tab below this thread.

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It's been less than a month since I saw many of you at eBay Live!, and already I have more news to share. In Chicago, I provided progress updates on many of the changes we've made over the past six months; early indications tell us that we're getting a lot of things right, as evidenced by more sellers improving their DSRs and fewer top buyers reporting bad experiences.

Many of you told me personally that you believed the changes were for the better, but we also heard concerns from Community members around the world about Feedback. As I said at eBay Live!, we are listening. Open, constructive discussion about what's working and what's not is a strength of our Community, and essential to the collective good of eBay. When we get something wrong, we want to make it right. And when you have ideas that benefit the collective good, we want to make them happen. To that end, we are making the following changes based on your input.

Recalculating Feedback percentages without neutrals: Effective in late August, neutrals will no longer be counted as part of the Feedback percentage. This means we will be recalculating Feedback percentages retroactively for users worldwide. In the interim, no one will lose their PowerSeller status as a result of neutrals being included in their Feedback percentage.

Helping you resolve issues and satisfy buyers: By the end of October, we will roll out a new process to help you resolve issues with buyers, even after the buyer has left negative feedback. Everybody makes mistakes – buyers and sellers alike, and buyers should have a mechanism to change feedback if they make a mistake or if the seller rectifies an issue in a timely manner. Unlike with our previous Mutual Feedback Withdrawal system, our new process will enable buyers to change their feedback of the seller, not just withdraw the rating. We'll provide more details of this new process in the fall.

This is part of our overall effort to improve the customer experience, especially for sellers. In fact, we're already making progress in addressing one of your biggest pain points -- removing negative and neutral feedback left by buyers who violate our policies. For example, since we debuted the new Feedback system in May, we have removed more than 60 percent of the negative/neutral feedback left by buyers in an unpaid item (UPI) process. Looking ahead, you will see us continue to take the steps needed to protect your reputation on eBay. In the meantime, you can also protect yourself by following some well-defined best practices in using Feedback. I encourage you to check them out.

Finally, we're working to resolve other important issues that eBay sellers have raised over the past several months. I hope what I've shared with you today demonstrates our commitment to listening and responding quickly with solutions. We want to make eBay a great place for you to do business, but it's going to take all of us -- together -- to get it right for the collective good. I want to thank you for your patience, your business and your continued commitment to eBay.

Sincerely,

Lorrie Norrington
President, eBay Global Marketplace Operations

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Dear Sellers,

The wait is over!!

We are pleased to announce that the New Fee Structure that we had mentioned in the below post has come into effect and LIVE.

As announced, Gaming Consoles will be treated as a technology category for which the Final Value Fee is 1% only. Currently the Gaming Consoles would be charged Final Value Fees at 6% and we would give necessary manual credits. We are working to have this corrected and shall inform once the same is completed.

We hope that sellers are busy building their new business models basis these changes to grow their businesses many folds.

Cheers!!

Regards,
eBay International AG

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	***Original: Upcoming Pricing Changes on eBay India!!***
	26 June, 2008 | 04:17 PM IST Dear Sellers, You have always strived to provide abundant variety, attractive deals and a great experience to our buyers and to enable you to do even better, we are making fundamental changes to the economics of selling on eBay. To help you expand and grow your eBay business, we are pleased to announce significant revisions to the eBay India Fee Structure. The fee changes have been designed to help you: Offer better value and great deals. Provide wider selection of items on the site. Grow your International eBay business. Promote and manage your business using eBay Shops and selling tools. Optimise upfront costs and grow a prosperous and profitable business on eBay. In doing so, we have also simplified the fee structure to make it easier for you to calculate your cost of selling. In brief, we have revised the following: Listing fees Final value fees (FVF) International listing fees (ILF) Home page featured fees Basic Shop subscription SM & SM Pro subscription These changes will be effective for all categories and listing formats (except Classified Ads). Changes to Listing Fee, FVF, ILF and Home page featured will come into effect at 00:01 IST on 9th July, 2008 (TBD). The changes to Basic Shop, SM and SM Pro subscriptions will come into effect from 1st August, 2008. Key changes in fee structure are as follows: Listing fee reduction: Flat listing fees of Re. 1 per listing with a maximum cap of Rs. 1500 per month. Zero insertion fees for Books, Movies, Music & Video games categories. The new price structure will have a flat listing fee of just Re. 1 for any item of any value in all non-media categories (irrespective of quantity listed). Media categories: There will continue to be no listing fees in Books & Magazines and Movies & Music categories. Additionally, no listing fees would apply to the Video & Computer Games category. Video & Computer Games will include only game CDs / DVDs & Cartridges etc Video Game Consoles will move into Consumer Electronics as a separate sub-category. Plus, the maximum listing fees you will be charged in a month will be Rs. 1500 – this means that if your listing fees exceeds Rs.1500 in a month, you can list additional items (over and above the maximum cap of Rs 1500) for free. Category-based Final Value Fees (FVF) Flat FVF to be charged based on category of the item sold. Technology categories will be charged a flat 1% FVF. FVF for Books & Magazines, Movies & Music and Video & Computer Games (Not including Video Game Consoles) will be a flat 6%. All other categories will be charged a flat 5% FVF. Current FVF Proposed FVF See a detailed list of categories and their classification International Listing Fees (ILF) reduction: Listing exposure on international sites now available at Rs 5*. *For more details please refer the tables below. Current International Listing Fee Proposed International Listing Fee International Listing Fees would reduce to a minimum of Rs. 5 (as compared to Rs 15 earlier) making it more attractive for you to sell internationally by reaching out to global buyers. Learn more about selling Internationally here. Home Page Featured reduction: Home page featured fee for multiple quantity listings reduced to Rs.150. Learn more about the features and benefits of Home Page Featured. Changes in Selling Tools Subscription Fees: The subscription fee for Selling Manager is being revised from Rs. 149 to Rs. 199. Selling Manager has now been provided with the Auto-relist functionality to further enhance its features. Learn in detail about Selling Manager. The subscription fee for a Basic eBay Shop is also being revised from Rs. 199 to Rs. 249. Selling Manager continues to come free along a Basic Shop subscription. Learn more about Shops. The Selling Manager Pro now offers even better value with the fee being reduced from Rs. 500 to Rs. 399. Learn more about Selling Manager Pro. All listings created on eBay India will be subject to the revised Listing Fees, Final Value Fees, Feature Fees and Seller Tool Fees. All other seller tools and feature fees remain unchanged. We understand that you may need to make changes to your business strategy to accommodate these new fee changes. We encourage you to use any of the resources given below to help you with these changes. Download the Fee Calculator. Use our Customer Support Resources to help you understand your overall strategy. Learn more about these Fee changes with our FAQ section. Your suggestions and comments are valuable to us and we encourage you to share your feedback with us on this thread. We are confident you will appreciate that these changes are a step in the right direction and will help your business scale new heights. We look forward to receiving your continued support in providing better deals and increased variety on the eBay marketplace. Regards, eBay International AG
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Dear Users,

We are glad to inform you that the problem with ICICI Net-banking payments has been resolved today (i.e.08 July 08).

We regret the inconvenience caused to you in this regard.

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	***Previous update: Maintenance at ICICI bank for ICICI Net Banking payments***
	07 July, 2008 | 08:03 PM IST Dear Members, Due to a maintenance activity being undertaken by ICICI Bank, our users will be unable to make payments for their purchases using ICICI Net Banking as a mode of payment for the period from 10:00 am (07th July '08) to 10:00 am (08th July '08)IST. Once the maintenance is over the users will be able use ICICI Net Banking for making payments. We regret the inconvenience caused to you in this regard. Regards, The PaisaPay Team
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	***Original: Maintenance at ICICI bank for ICICI Net Banking payments***
	07 July, 2008 | 11:40 AM IST Dear Members, Due to a maintenance activity being undertaken by ICICI Bank, our users will be unable to make payments for their purchases using ICICI Net Banking as a mode of payment for the period from 10:00 am to 05:00 pm (IST) today (07th July '08). Once the maintenance is over the users will be able use ICICI Net Banking for making payments. We regret the inconvenience caused to you in this regard. Regards, The PaisaPay Team
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