The escrow service was launched on July 4 to alleviate the ongoing crisis of not offering products to customers for a long time with advance payment for online shopping. However, under this rule, large sums of money from e-commerce platforms are stuck in the ‘payment gateway’.
After the delivery of the product, at least BDT 420 crore of Qcoom was stuck. The list also includes Alesha Mart, Anander Bazar and Evaly. In all, more than BDT 100 crore is stuck in the payment gateway.
The companies have already started complaining to the e-commerce association of Bangladesh – e-Cab, about their money being stuck in the payment gateway, said Jahangir Alam Shovon, general manager of e-Cab. He said some of the money that was delivered last July too is still stuck.
He said that apart from written complaints, many have complained verbally. In all, more than hundreds of crores of Taka remain stuck in the gateway. He said that this is a complication as the buyers are being paid after phone calls are made.
On the other hand, Rafeza Akhter, DGM of Payment Systems Gateway of Bangladesh Bank said that since July, whether the customer has received the product is now being checked manually. This is why in some cases there is a delay in the delivery of money from payment gateway systems.
