20 Qcoom customers get refunds for undelivered goods

Twenty Qcoom customers who did not receive their products even after paying in advance at least seven months ago have got refunds of Tk40 lakh after the government stepped in to recover some of its blocked funds.

The refunds were made through Islami Bank at a function at the commerce ministry on Monday. The amounts were drawn from the online shopping platform's account with the payment gateway service Foster Payments following Bangladesh Bank's instructions.

The recipients are the first of 6,721 customers on a list compiled by Foster and Qcoom; they had ordered products worth Tk59 crore.

All the customers on the list are expected to get their money back in the next few days, said Tapan Kanti Ghosh, senior secretary to the commerce ministry.

At the programme, he said the government was working on how to return payments to all online shoppers who have not got their products from various e-commerce platforms after paying the prices in advance.

"The money that has been stuck in the payment gateways since the launch of the escrow service is now being refunded. In this case, action will be taken as per the instructions of the court to remove legal complications."

Tapan said the government was working hard to bring the e-commerce sector to a place of trust.

According to the Bangladesh Bank, Tk214 crore was stuck in payment gateways till 14 October last year since the launch of escrow on 30 June that year. Of the amount, Tk166 crore was deposited by Qcoom customers. Qcoom has another Tk231 crore stuck in Foster's accounts.

The commerce ministry had instructed Qcoom and Foster to prepare the list of aggrieved customers and the two companies initially made a list of 6,721 customers and sought more time for enlisting the remaining such customers.

None among Qcoom, Foster and the commerce ministry has an accurate account of how many more customers have not received products after making advance payment.

In addition to Tk397 crore stuck with Foster, goods worth Tk100 crore are in the warehouse of Qcoom, which were bought against orders from buyers but were not delivered.

According to the Bangladesh Bank's Financial Intelligence Unit, Qcoom, in its six accounts, had Tk790 crore, paid by customers.
The suspended accounts currently have a deposit of Tk2.97 crore as the company withdrew the rest.