Customers of e-commerce platform E-orange held a demonstration again on Monday afternoon demanding accountability from the platform, a video of which went viral on Facebook.
Fearing the owners of the company will flee the country, the customers demanded authorities to take steps in this regard, and many voiced their concerns across several social media platforms.
One customer, Prosanto Kumar wrote in a Facebook post: “It was Mashrafe Bin Mortaza’s ads that got people to trust e-orange, otherwise a lot of people would not have bought from this platform.”
Kazi Nazrul Islam, another customer, wrote in a post tagging the official page of the former Bangladeshi cricket captain: “Sir, we follow you. You asked us to trust the brand and based on that we had ordered from e-orange. What will happen to our money?”
However, earlier in June, Mashrafe stated from his verified Facebook page that last April, he got involved with an organization named SPC Group.
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“I had an agreement of being the brand ambassador of the platform on the condition that they will undertake social development projects. In return, they would install 100 high-quality CCTV cameras in Narail. But I came to know the business structure that I was told about is not exactly like that,” he added.
On Monday, E-orange announced on its official Facebook page that its contract with Mashrafe had ended in July and the shop apologized for using his pictures in promotional materials even after the end of the agreement.
“He [Mashrafe] is not aware of any official matters of E-orange and cannot give any updates,” the post reads, adding: “We apologize to those who have ordered products from us but have not received those yet. We hope to resolve these problems soon and deliver the products to you. Since Mashrafe Bin Mortaza is no longer in a contract with us, we request everyone to refrain from contacting him regarding these matters.”
E-orange further added in the post that they will begin delivering all pending orders — except motorcycles, for which customers will be refunded in phases — from August 19.
In another post on its Facebook page, the e-commerce platform said that an internal audit found some of the motorcycle suppliers had swindled large sums of money from customers but had not delivered the products.
“Therefore, legal action has been taken against the motorcycle suppliers including cancellation of E-orange’s contracts with them,” it added.
Last Wednesday police had to be called in to defuse tensions during a protest in front of E-orange’s Gulshan office, which stemmed from a post on Facebook where the platform announced a change in ownership.
Later law enforcers contacted E-orange authorities, who assured of scheduling a meeting with the agitated consumers this week.
E-orange, on its website and official social media account, also posted that a list of canceled deliveries will be announced on August 16, while other deliveries would resume from August 17.
Customers will be informed about their respective delivery dates via SMS, they also said.
According to the protesters, this was a strategic move to cause further delay as E-orange was supposed to deliver products earlier in August and even before that, but rescheduled again on August 3, stating the lockdown as the reason.
Additionally, the E-orange office was found closed even when government restrictions had been lifted.
However, E-orange on Facebook claimed that they had reopened earlier, but some "re-sellers" had forced their way into the office and vandalized it.
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The e-commerce platform authorities were forced to call the police.
Even after this incident, three more reseller groups came to the office at different times and tried to vandalize and loot, they further claimed.
"In this situation, our office will be closed until our delivery activities begin and the activities will be carried out from the home office. However, our delivery list will be published and the delivery date will remain unchanged.”
According to another of its earlier posts, Bithi Akter has been named the new owner of the company.
The old owner, Sonia Mehjabin, has allegedly fled the country, sources claimed.
Earlier, a number of leading banks and a mobile banking service temporarily suspended the use of their cards for transactions with 10 e-commerce sites, including E-orange, after the Bangladesh Financial Intelligence Unit (BFIU) of the central bank sought bank account details of the e-commerce platforms.
