1 in 3 complaints on National Consumer Helpline in June were against ecommerce

In June, of the 45,446 complains recorded on the helpline, 14,480 were for ecommerce. Between April and June, the ecommerce sector saw the maximum complaints by any sector, with 23,859 'dockets' recorded on the helpline in the quarter.

This is far above sectors such as banking, which saw 8,133 complaints in the quarter, telecom, which saw 5,891 complaints, and broadband and internet, which saw 5,054 complaints. Between January and June, the ecommerce sector saw 57,805 complaints recorded on the helpline.

"There is a spike in complaints relating to ecommerce. Normally, it used to be around 22 percent and it has now increased to 32 percent," said Suresh Misra, project director, National Consumer Helpline.

"This could largely be because of the supply chain disruptions the sector saw during the last few months, which led to longer waiting periods for customers," he added.

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The National Consumer Helpline is run under the Department of Consumer Affairs, and managed by the Centre for Consumer Studies, Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi.

Non-refund of money was the biggest complaint among consumers, followed by delay or non-delivery of products, defect in products, and delivery of wrong products. The new ecommerce rules under the Consumer Protection Act aim to protect consumers from exactly these issues.

Ecommerce companies will have to appoint a grievance officer for consumer grievance redressal, who will have to resolve the complaint within a month. Sellers cannot refuse to take back goods or withdraw services or refuse refunds, if such goods or services are defective, deficient, delivered late, or if they do not meet the description on the platform.

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Ecommerce companies are also required to take an undertaking from sellers to ensure that descriptions, images of goods or services on their platform is accurate. Ecommerce companies also cannot impose cancellation charges on consumers cancelling after confirming purchase, unless ecommerce companies pay similar charge when they cancel an order unilaterally for any reason.

Several ecommerce companies said they have been prompt in resolving consumer complaints and that they have grievance redressal mechanism in place.

"As a customer first organisation, Flipkart has a robust grievance redressal system in place. With a strong Ethics and Compliance team in place, our grievance office looks after all customer escalations and based on the nature of the complaint provides relevant resolution swiftly," a Flipkart spokesperson said.

Amazon said it is resolves customer issues in the "shortest possible time". "Our closure rate is nearly 98 percent on customer complaints, and as a customer-centric company, we are committed to closing customer issues in the shortest possible time. We will continue to comply with all e-commerce rules that are applicable to the sector," an Amazon spokesperson said.

Abhishek Rajan, chief operating officer, Paytm Mall said, "The company complies with several of the rules proposed under the Consumer Protection Act. Paytm Mall does not charge anything from the customer on returned products. We prominently display the seller details such as the name of the merchant, location, and whether they are brand-authorized or not."

"For the existing catalog, we have already started getting all requisite information from the sellers and would complete the process in due course. For new products being listed on the platform, we will get it completed as soon as possible. After that this information will be part of standard listing templates," he added.