Diwali pile-up worries e-commerce firms in India

Shortage of airport staff results in shipment delays, angry customers

Leading e-commerce players have run into delivery issues following the unprecedented volume of shipments flowing in and out of the cargo sections of many airports in India during the festive season .

E-commerce giants eBay India and Amazon.in said on Saturday that they have been expecting delays in clearing some shipments lying at key airports across the country, especially Mumbai’s nodal Chhatrapati Shivaji International Airport.

Lack of manpower, especially loaders, has meant that there is a huge backlog of shipments at various airports across the country, due to which consumers as well as companies are feeling the pinch, e-commerce firms said.

"Many loaders have taken leaves due to Diwali and Bhai Dooj due to which the cargo is piling up at the airport. Also, a lot of cargo staff have been absent as well affecting the clearing," a source at one of the airports told Deccan Herald.

eBay India wrote in a mail to customers this week that “commercial and cargo airlines and logistics service providers are working overtime to clear the shipments; we have been informed to expect delays in clearing the shipments.”

eBay said that given the delay in clearing the cargo pile-ups, delivery of items purchased by customers from sellers on eBay India may take more number of days than the specified date of shipping.

“While we understand that this may affect some of our users who made transactions on our platform, you’d appreciate that we have no control in this scenario,” eBay told customers, without specifying the goods volumes or value of the delayed consignments.Confirming the delay without citing any airport in particular, an Amazon India spokesperson attributed the delivery delays to higher festive season sales. 

However, customers have been quick to vent their ire on social networking sites. Sameer Bhodia, who had ordered a product on October 14 from a popular e-commerce website to be despatched by Diwali day (October 23) to his wife was a frustrated man.

 "Selling a product, the e-commerce company makes money and by delivering the product, the courier firm makes money. But they can’t make money at the cost of the customer’s happiness. Check the number of emails I’ve sent them and their staff’s reply/ confirmation for delivery on (October) 23 on them.

Check the number of minutes I’ve wasted on phone with them in order to highlight this, but zero action from them. I've been under mental torture dealing with them,” Bhodia wrote on a social networking site.

The GVK-operated Mumbai International Airport Limited (MIAL), however, denied any logistical issues created from the Diwali cargo boom.

"There has been no cargo pile-up issue at the Mumbai airport and everything is working absolutely smoothly," a MIAL spokesperson claimed on Saturday.