Beleaguered e-commerce platform Alesha Mart has halted its official operations until further notice citing an unwanted situation and inadequate security.

In a Facebook post around 12:30am on Wednesday, it said, "We are being forced to make such a decision because some people physically harassed our office staff yesterday.

"Note that those people are not our customers and they did not have a payment schedule as they didn't receive any SMS. Our activities will resume as soon as we get adequate security."

Contacted, Manjurul Alam Sikder, chairman and managing director of Alesha Mart, claimed that a vested quarter began taking money from customers assuring them of faster refunds from the platform.

"And those influential people are now harassing my staff," he said.

He also said they set a policy to refund those owed below Tk 1 lakh by them.

"We still have around 7,000 pending orders worth Tk 200 crore. Of them, around 3,900 are small. We are prioritising on refunding them," he said. 

Manjurul also said they had already refunded about Tk 90 crore in the past several weeks and were working to refund another Tk 200 crore to customers.

Alesha Mart, a subsidiary of Alesha Holdings Limited, was launched on 1 January this year to get a slice of the rapidly expanding online market by promising buyers faster delivery, quality products and hefty discounts with the slogan 'Click, Relax, Enjoy'.

But the buyers' satisfaction appeared to fade within six months of its operation. Many started complaining about delays in delivery despite making advance payments.

A customer said he made advance payment of over Tk 350,000 to Alesha Mart for three motorcycles in June, but he neither got the delivery nor the refund. Like him, many customers lodged complaints against the platform to the Directorate of National Consumer Rights Protection for not getting products or refunds.

Alesha Mart is yet another platform which takes advance payments pledging hefty discounts and now limping to deliver products or refunds.

E-commerce platforms with Evaly model mushroomed since the middle of last year when the first lockdown for Covid-19 was lifted and they were taking advance payments with luring customers as much as 70 to 80 per cent discounts.

Like Evaly, Alesha Mart was the title sponsor for a few series of the Bangladesh Cricket Board.

Coming to a Facebook live yesterday, Sikder of the platform said all the customers would get their money back by January 30.

He urged the government to ensure security of Alesha Mart's staff.

On July 18, he said in a press conference that Alesha Mart gave a subsidy of Tk 350 crore in six months since its inception and made a profit of Tk 140 crore by selling products.

AHM Shafiquzzaman, chief of Digital Commerce Cell of the commerce ministry, told The Daily Star yesterday that Alesha Mart was making some refunds, but they now want security since some people have beaten its staff.