Shopee delivery delays add to holiday stress of platform users

Delivery delays are putting a damper on the holiday cheer of buyers, sellers, and riders of online shopping platform Shopee, who say their complaints have been ignored.

“Shopee should immediately address the shipping delay which deeply affects the sellers and customers using the shopping platform. These delays have been occurring for quite some time now and the stakeholders are caught in its incompetence,” said digital advocacy group Digital Pinoys in a Dec. 20 statement.  

Posts in the Shopee Sellers Support group on Facebook describe parcels being kept in sorting hubs for up to a week instead of the usual one day, despite being located near the recipients. 

On social media, netizens have been speculating that riders have been quitting recently due to low pay, resulting in parcels stuck in sorting hubs despite notifications to the contrary.

Netizens have also expressed dismay over parcels not arriving in time for Christmas parties. Online shop Happy Finds shared a photo of a gift exchange gone wrong, with the receiver holding up a screenshot saying that the package is still in transit: 

Lauren S., a 25-year-old professional in Metro Manila, who was notified by the app that her “order may be delayed due to high order volume,” said that the “wait time has gotten too ridiculous to bear,” in a Dec. 19 Messenger conversation with BusinessWorld.

Her order, placed on Dec. 12, was shipped by J&T Express from Quezon City. The parcel has been sitting in the sorting facility for a week and will be delivered by Dec. 23, according to the tracker in the app. 

“I’d get it if my order came from outside Metro Manila, but right now this order is from a store in QC and I’ve brought from them before! It never took this long,” Lauren said. 

Meanwhile, Judy P. Ingcoco, a seller at Shopee, told BusinessWorld on Dec. 20 that it has been frustrating to have no control over the delays. 

One of her orders was placed on Dec. 7 and had departed from the sorting facility in Navotas on Dec. 9, but remained in the Makati delivery hub for 10 days. In another instance, her items in Pasay were never picked up by Shopee Express. 

“There are delayed pick-ups now which have led to my shop’s ratings going down,” said Mrs. Ingcoco via Messenger. 

As of Dec. 20, Shopee has not responded to BusinessWorld‘s inquiries on the matter. — Brontë H. Lacsamana