Ezbuy Founder Wrote Letter to Jack Ma. Taobao Responded with Fire

ezbuy’s all the rage lately, but it might not be for the reason you’re thinking of.

Recently, ezbuy halted new China Buy-For-Me orders just before Singles’ Day on 11 Nov, saying that a “very popular China e-commerce website” had suspended many of the accounts of its purchasing partners.

Even more recently, the online shopping commerce posted a sincere apology on its Facebook page.

And now, the latest episode of the ezbuy saga has been uploaded, and it guest stars a very influential figure in the online shopping scene:

Jack Ma.

On Friday (8 Dec) night, ezbuy founder He Jian posted an open letter to Mr Ma on Chinese social media platform WeChat, accusing Taobao of “bullying a smaller player.”

And Alibaba Group has responded. In brutal, honest fashion.

What happened?

Mr He introduced himself as “an engineer who started a platform in 2010 with a few partners in Singapore.”

In his letter, Mr He asked Mr Ma if the latter could “explain why the accounts had been blocked from purchasing around Singles’ Day.”

“I hope that we, these ants on the Internet, will at least be able to shout our grievances and not just be bullied by anyone,” he wrote.

You can read the full letter here.

Response

On the same day, Alibaba issued a statement on its Taobao website, saying “ezbuy’s act of creating accounts to buy items from Taobao and reselling them was an act of scalping, which it does not tolerate and will penalise.”

A spokesman for Alibaba has also stepped up, saying that such acts “severely damage both consumers’ and sellers’ rights, disrupts normal business transactions and perpetrators should be penalised.”

“We have followed regulations and carried out the corresponding punishments as appropriate for such acts,” said Alibaba. The acts in question basically refer to the freezing of ezbuy’s purchasing accounts.

“As ezbuy company described in its open letter, the over 1,000 accounts that placed several orders at one go under a single address, reselling them at a higher price, has long breached the regulations of a daigou,” wrote Alibaba. “This is a typical case of scalping behaviour.”

(Note: daigou refers to a third party acting as a channel to purchase goods on behalf of a buyer, generally shipping from China to other countries.)

Which kind of hits the mark, since ezbuy acknowledged the notion even in the statement it had sent to Alibaba beforehand.

“We started the Buy-For-Me service for China to help customers in Singapore to buy from Taobao and several other e-commerce platforms in early 2010,” wrote ezbuy. “On a rough estimate, we have delivered hundreds of millions of orders to customers in Singapore for the past seven years and have contributed a significant amount to Taobao’s business.”

It added that its “only wish” was for the “freezing of its purchasing accounts to be lifted so it can resume the Buy-For-Me service to its customers.”

Well, ezbuy, we are all hoping that you’ll be able to resume the Buy-For-Me service soon.

But judging by the looks of it…

It might take quite a while.

In the meantime, stay tuned to this channel for more updates on the ezbuy saga.

Because like Star Wars, it’s kinda lengthy. Lengthier than needed, really.

#incomingflames #dodge

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This article was first published on goodyfeed.com

Read Also

• 10 Facts About the Ezbuy ‘Delays’ That Actually Happened Way Before 11.11
• Don’t Say Bojio: ezbuy Massive Clearance Sale with Over 150,000 Brand New Products From $1 (17-19 Feb)
• Ezbuy Has Responded to Its Delay & It was a Sincere Apology

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Featured image: Facebook (ezbuy) / YourStory