Online Shopping & Home Delivery In Nepal: Service Or Nightmare?

As we all know, online shopping and home delivery ‘system’ is booming in Nepal as well and it has become a part of a way of income for lots of new as well as old business. For such businesses, large or small, getting to the customer used to be harsh and to earn the trust of the customer was a different battle altogether. Even the smallest slip-up may jeopardize the business-customer relationship. With the faster internet and more availability of selling platforms and generating ads resources, for instance, Facebook pages, Instagram, etc., businesses are able to reach the number of customers that they could only imagine just a few years ago. With such availability of resources, entrepreneurs can start with smallest quantity but still reach customers from far beyond. But, with this development, are customers getting completely satisfied? For instance, if a business is selling some stuff online and someone bought it and then found out that the delivered product is not as explained or expected, then who will take care of these mishap? Lack of customer representatives can doom the whole process. Not just that, companies have started the “Customer Representative” measures now, but how effective are they. Assessment needs to be done.

For example, I ordered few items from Daraz on their 11.11 offer period. Luckily or in my case unluckily, all the items that I ordered were from same seller. The website promised me to deliver the items within 10 days. I knew as the order was placed during their offer period, it would take time to deliver but I thought, I would get it well within the promised period. However, on the evening of 11th day, I checked the app and status of my order and found out that the items are still at seller’s place. I was furious but kept calm and decided to wait for two more days. On the 14th day, there is no change on the order status. So, I decided to contact customer support via email. They politely referred me to chat support. I adhered but the person who was talking to me over the chat, seemed clueless what needs to be done. Had to make a telephone call and explain everything again and again. Then they asked me to place the order once again. I denied and asked them to process the same order. I had to talk to different people but finally someone knew what they were doing and processed as requested.

Unfortunate for me, the nightmare didn’t stop there. The order took 7 or 8 more days to delivery. Then, I found out that two of the items were damaged and most of the items were sub-standard. Feeling crushed and defeated, I decided to ask them to replace only the damaged once and contacted the support again for the same. Like the earlier attempts, they didn’t had complete knowledge of the product or support that were supposed to provide and made me go round and round to email, chat and phone call again. After long discussions and multiple phone calls later, they finally told me that as all the items were from a single seller, to my horror, I have to send everything back and place the order again. It looks like they do not care about the customer at all. No proper response, no knowledge of the product or support procedure, no record of complaints and issues reported by customer. Finally, I had to send the whole package back and it took them 5 to 7 days just to confirm that they have received the “package”. Then, three more weeks just to process the refund. That was one horrible experience that I had with Daraz.

I am not trying to criticize just any vendor or company with this post but just wanted to vent out my frustration with the current situation of “Online” system in Nepal. It is not just one company that I faced these issues with but most of the Customer Support that I have dealt with, has the same or at least similar issue. As experienced in the Customer Support field, I would like to suggest these companies that they should train the support agents regarding the product or support and they should also strictly maintain the records of the issues reported by the customers, so that they could act on it effectively. I understand that it will take time to fix these issues if these companies or vendors are willing to. But, till then we, as customer might feel little bit left out.

So, what do you think about the current situation in Nepal? Have you faced any issues similar to mine? If yes, please share your experience with us over the comment section below. Also, you can let us know on our Facebook Page as well. Do not forget to follow us on Instagram and show some love over our YouTube channel as well.