EBay Korea, operator of Korea’s largest e-commerce sites Gmarket and Auction, has banned a rival company’s deliverymen from entering the office mail room after some employees were spotted using the competitor’s service.
In a recent email to employees, eBay Korea asked the workers to avoid shopping at other websites, with the justification that “every action of the workers affects the brand image.”
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| (Illustration by Suk Gee-hyun) |
The email began with the subject line “Security is everybody’s business,” but the essence of the message seemed closer to a threat, warning employees not to use the service from Coupang, a rising competitor in the open-market business.
The company said “From now on, Coupang Men (Coupang’s brand of deliverymen) are banned from entering the office. Anyone who sees a Coupang Man in their uniform coming into the office should report it to security.”
The firm also attached a captured image of a Coupang Man walking into the company’s mail room with a box an eBay Korea worker had ordered.
“We, the sellers, have to be the customers,” the company added.
One eBay Korea worker who received the email expressed displeasure over the incident.
“I use the company’s service most of the time, but it’s sometimes unavoidable to use competitors’ when ours don’t have a specific item or when others have a cheaper price tag,” he said.
An official from a major department store pointed out that the company should have tried to understand why its own workers used other online shopping outlets in order to improve its service.
“This is like blaming others for everything,” he said, asking to stay anonymous.
EBay Korea has been fearful of increasing competition from Coupang, which recently launched its open market service.
More recently, five Auction employees were indicted for spreading malignant rumors about a Coupang employee who committed suicide, which raised speculations that the company may have deliberately ordered the employees to do so.
By Suk Gee-hyun
(monicasuk@heraldcorp.com)
