Refunds not possible without cross-checking customer info through server-app: Evaly MD

The current Managing Director (MD) of Evaly Mahbub Kabir Milon said it is not possible to refund money of customers of the non-functional digital commerce company without examining information of clients from the server.

In a facebook post in the late evening yesterday, he said it is not possible to return money to customers only based on papers customers have.

For us, without examining customers' records through a server app, it is not possible to cross-check whether customers have got the products delivered, or whether anyone is claiming money even after getting the product, he said in the post.

Milon, who was appointed as ex-officio managing director of Evaly by the High Court (HC) in October last year, said they will need permission from the HC to make the server app to examine details of customers.

The HC formed a five-member board, headed by Shamsuddin Chowdhury Manik, a former of the appellate division of the Supreme Court, following a series of hearings on a petition filed by an aggrieved customer seeking Evaly's liquidation.

A month before, Evaly's Chairman Shamima Nasrin and CEO and MD Mohammad Rassel was arrested on allegation of embezzling money amid complaints that many neither get delivery of products nor refund of the payments from the controversial ecommerce platform.

In his facebook post, Milon said refunding money to customers stopped after the arrest of Rassel as none from Evaly placed refund requests to the payment gateways which hold the money in the escrow accounts as per the directive of the government.

Amid rising complaints of delayed or non-delivery of goods to customers against payments, the government made rules that money will be at the payment gateways until delivery of goods to customers by ecommerce companies.

Digital commerce firms will get payments after confirmation of delivery.

He said money in the escrow account at the payment gateways was of the customers who had placed orders since July 1, 2021.

Milon said in order to return the money to the aggrieved customers, they (the present panel) sat with payment gateways on many occasions.

All of them told us that they did not get correct information of many customers through random sampling, he said in his facebook post.

He said the present board did not have any information or documents of customers based on which they could prepare refund orders.

They (payment gateways) want clearance or refund orders from Evaly for this, he said.

As all the information is preserved in the server, a server app would be required for doing the job. At the same time, some former officials have to be hired, said Milon, also an additional secretary of the government.

He said no money, except for the payments kept in the escrow accounts, could be found.

Not a single penny in the escrow account has been spent, he added.

The Daily Star contacted Milon but he did not want to talk further.