Online Deliveries: Heavy rain disrupts e-commerce operations in Pune | Pune News

Pune: Heavy rain and water logging in the city have been severely disrupted e-commerce operationsleading to a massive backlog of online orders.
E-commerce services are struggling with flooded warehouses causing delays in delivery and damages to the products being delivered and their packaging.

“Most of our micro-warehouses and distribution centers were located at ground floors for seamless disbursement.Several such centers have been waterlogged, resulting in damaged cardboard packages. While we were already filled with non-deliverable orders, we also have a large number of fresh deliveries. “On the other hand, some delivery agents and staff have taken ill and others dealing with vehicle damage and are unable to deliver,” said a city delivery manager of an e-commerce website.
Extreme weather conditions in other states have also contributed to the backlog as orders remain stuck at various warehouses throughout the country, like in Delhi, Karnataka, Kerala, Assam, and so on.
This has left online shoppers frustrated and disappointed, facing an uncertain and disrupted shopping experience. “After a few days of delay, my order of home furniture was canceled by the seller, so I had to look for other options on different e-commerce websites. Those are also delayed now,” said Sudhir Mahadik, a resident of Bibvewadi.
“I ordered some clothes, but they were damaged. I opted for a replacement but got something entirely different from what I ordered originally,” said Sana Ahmed, a college student from Erandwane.
As damaged packaging and compromised products have become an all too common grievance among consumers over the last two weeks, there is also a shortage of manpower to collect returns from them, further delaying the processes of refunds or replacements.
“I ordered a pair of headphones as a birthday gift for my sister well in advance, but it got delayed. When received, it turned out to be a damaged product and had to be returned. I was notified that the replacement will take two more weeks to be delivered. There is no choice but to wait,” said Nishika Trivedi, a homemaker from NIBM Road.
Santosh Pramane, a delivery agent working in the Kondhwa area, said, “We have to brave through waterlogged, pothole-ridden streets, drenched in the downpours to make deliveries, but now we have the added work of collecting increased number of returns. Many of us are also given the responsibility of restocking and helping with cleaning of the distribution centers and so on.”

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