It has been at least 4 years since I first used online payment in Shanghai. There were always dissatisfactions and “exceptions” either in the system, or credit card payment, or delivery.
Today, my experience to book a ticket on CTRIP, Pay with China Merchant Bank credit card, and claim e-ticket from China Eastern Airlines were perfect. I vote it as the best ecommerce experience I have ever had so far.
I am excited about the improvement in online stores, credit card system, and electronic flight ticket.
Booking
There are many improvement in the CTRIP system, that enables me to quickly enter all the information I need. For example, they store all the previous names on ticket, so I won’t need to enter my Chinese name, National ID, and Birthday again. These information are required by airline.
It responded quickly and suggested me e-ticket was available.
Payment
The credit card from CMB works best for me. I entered the card, and the system just went through. For many system, like net.cn, they have complicated system, and still simply does not work. When I enter a credit card number, those system reports scary technical details of an error, that is not possible to understand.
This time, payment is OK.
e-Ticket
MU (China Eastern Airlines) and CA (Air China) started e-ticket years ago, and kept expansion of their e-ticket services. There were always problems with a new systems before.
This time, the system seems to be mature already. I was told to visit the counter A, B in Pudong Airport to claim the boarding pass.
No burden of delivery the ticket.
3 minutes
Everything happens in 3 minutes. This is exactly what ecommerce should look like. From the idea to reality, it takes more than 5 years!
Change happens all the time. It is not as fast as we original expect, but when it happens, we realize it is actually faster than we thought.
Bill Gates said: “The development of technology is always below our expection in 5 year frame, but dramatically above our expectation in 10 year frame.”
It applies to social change too.
IMO China merchant bank has the best online bank in China.
I used their online bank services for almost 6 years. Never has hassles.
Taobao.com + China merchant bank online service becomes my favorite way to buy goods online.
BTW, is the online banking service pages of CMB available, er, i mean, tolerable, using Firefox???
I prefer using http://www.airticket.com.cn for their realtime price listing.
Thanks Wen. I felt flattered. :-D Best wishes to you and your friends!
Ecommerce has great potential in China’s future I believe.
But I just have little experience
I just once bought a book and two CDs through dangdang.com.
It is still COD.
I don’t understand why Taobao.com and CMB online services uses ActiveX technology which made them firefox unfriendly. That’s pitty.
Jianshuo, Can you kindly delete my post on on April 24, 2006 12:13 PM? I just got called by my friends, there were too many personal information contained in it.
I feel quite insecure and especially when it appears everytime after people do a google search on my name.
Thank you very much.
wen, it is removed. Don’t worry. It often happens.