Thousands of merchants whose non-essential item orders were cancelled on Amazon India and Flipkart have to wait longer to get their payments cleared.
The development comes even as these e-tailers start initiating refunds to thousands of customers who had to scrap their orders of non-essentials made before the lockdown, two people aware of the matter said.
The wait for merchants on Amazon India will be till the items get ordered again. On Flipkart, payments that were supposed to be made on April 1 will come a week later. Some consumers have already started getting refunds, but others still have to wait.
Like Delhi-based Manish Kumar, who had ordered an air-conditioner on one of the online marketplaces before the lockdown kicked in. He cancelled his order when he realised that the shipment will not be delivered. But the amount that he paid was not been refunded and, what’s worse, he could not contact anybody at customer service.
Amazon said it has temporarily paused return pickups and has also deferred movements of already picked-up items, because of which a few customers may see a delayed refund. Amazon India is sending non-essential products, which were shipped already or were out for delivery, back to its own warehouses or sellers’ fulfilment centres.
“For cancelled orders with non-essential items, refunds are currently being initiated. Given the guidance of the government and the volume of orders we could not deliver, there may be slightly longer timelines than usual,” an Amazon India spokesperson said.
“In the current unprecedented crisis, we are taking the appropriate right calls for our customers, keeping in mind the present situation and advisory from the government,” a Flipkart spokesperson said. The company added there were no delays in settling payments with sellers.
Online sellers for both Flipkart and Amazon, however, mentioned in their group chats that payments were getting delayed by at least a week, or even more in some cases. This comes at a time when merchants are worried over their cash flows as no new sales are happening either. Merchants said they are concerned as they have been informally given an indication that sale of non-essentials on Amazon may not begin immediately after April 14, which is supposed to be the final day of the current 21-day lockdown.
“There are payment delays across marketplaces like Amazon, Flipkart. In such situations, sellers are facing credit risks. There needs to be a safeguard in place. Government should not expect sellers to pay salaries during lockdown,” said a spokesperson of AIOVA, a group of online vendors.
Amazon India said it has waived several fulfilment and storage fees for sellers whose non-essential orders had to be cancelled.
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