Evaly, an e-commerce platform, has initiated the refund process for the customers who have lodged complaints with the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection (DNCRP).
Evaly has taken this initiative after DNCRP served a notice on the company.
Initially, 236 customers are expected to get refund on Sunday at DNCRP office in Dhaka in the presence of senior officials.
Earlier, DNCRP issued a show-cause notice to Evaly on January 1 and asked it to take measures to resolve the complaints filed by buyers.
Evaly's Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Mohammad Rassel was given seven days to respond to the notice.
Director General of DNCRP AHM Shafiquzzaman said, “About 6,500 out of total cases filed against Evaly have not yet been settled. But Mr. Rassel started his business again after he was released on bail. He should pay dues of customers first.”
After that Mr. Rassel announced the start of the refund process on his verified Facebook page On January 31. He said that after initial screening, the process of resolving 100 complaints will officially start on February 4.
“Also, we will soon start the formal process of refunding money to all the customers,” he said.
Mr Russell was arrested on September 16, 2021 in a fraud case filed by consumers. He was released on December 18 after getting bail in all cases recently.
The government has, however, formed a high-powered committee on crisis-ridden e-commerce company Evaly aiming to monitor and prepare a report to refund money to customers, sources said.
A meeting held recently on e-commerce has been constituted the 11-member committee regarding the issue.
The trouble-torn online shopping company has recently started its business after releasing on bail of Mohammad Rassel.
And it earlier sought government intervention to arrange a meeting with payment gateways and courier services with an eye to expanding its business.
Prior to the suspension of Evaly's operations, several products were provided to courier companies for delivery, meaning that the payment of the products was with a gateway's escrow service.
Later, no information regarding the delivery of these goods was available from courier companies.
For this, a meeting with courier companies, including Paperfly, REDX, eCourier and AJR Courier Service Ltd, is needed for collection of delivery information, the letter reads.
A sitting is also needed with gateways - bKash, Nagad, The City Bank, Upay, SSLCOMMERZ and South East Bank - to expedite the refund process, citied the letter.
"In the circumstances, we are requested to hold a meeting with the gateway and courier companies based on the stated context.
As he was freed from jail, Mr Rassel announced an offer named 'Big Bang'.
The company returned over Tk 104 million to its customers until 22 November 2023.
It has more than 200,000 customers, according to an earlier data submitted by the dotcom.
Evaly's available assets stood at only Tk 651.78 million against its total liabilities of over Tk 4.07 billion to its clients and merchants as of 14 March 2021, it cited.
Evaly, however, resumed its operation in October 2022 following an order of the High Court.
