As online commerce develops in Azerbaijan, certain problems are emerging in transportation and delivery services. Customers are often frustrated when goods are late or damaged, or not delivered at all. To clarify this problem, Ednews has conducted a survey on goods operated by cargo.
For more than two years, the pandemic that has raged around the world has created a kind of trend for online shopping among people. According to statistics, 60% of the world's population meets their daily needs online. In this case, as is said, the mechanism "where there is a service, there are always complaints" starts to work.
Currently, the most complained area in society is the services of cargo companies. Taking into account the numerous complaints of citizens, we first turned to the companies involved in this case.
"Complaints about the order is not always related to cargo,"
Ulker Mammadova, Trend’OL's administrator, says that "complaints about orders cannot be always bound with cargo, because there is a problem with customs due to complaints from customers."
Ms. Mammadova continues her thoughts as follows:
"Recently, the growing interest in online orders in Azerbaijan has increased the need for cargo companies. Receiving and delivering hundreds of products from different places every day, this service not only satisfies people, but also receives complaints. For example, when a product is lost, damaged or changed among the incoming orders, it strongly dissapoints customers.
Why does this happen?
Ulker Mammadova added that in such cases, sometimes customs are the cause.
"No matter how much the cargo companies are responsible for this, in some cases, according to customers, the disappearances occur during the customs inspection. In other words, according to the accusations of some customers, there are cases when the goods are lost, changed or "disclosed" during the customs inspection. The case of storage of goods at customs occurs mainly when the applicable limit ($ 300) is exceeded.
Mammadova also spoke about the procedure for returning orders when orders are sent incorrectly.
"Incorrect delivery of ordered goods depends more on the customer. Because when the customer places an order, he/she writes the address of the cargo in the address section of the site. In this case, many customers either enter the information incorrectly, or the random identities in the names cause the goods to be mistaken. As for the return of the order, this service is available in some, but not in all cargo companies. The return is made through Azerpocht (Azerbaijan's Postal services).
In addition, the expert spoke about the depreciation of the lira and its impact on purchasing, including cargo operations.
"Of course, the number of buyers has increased significantly due to the depreciation of the lira. This happened mostly in the first period, when the lira first depreciated.
The pandemic has boosted cargo activity
Ulker Mammadova believes that cargo activity had a more positive effect than the negative impact of the pandemic. According to her, even during the worst period of the pandemic, cargo companies were operating.
"Because our shops and shopping centres were closed due to the pandemic, everyone went to Turkish websites by cargo. Another positive reason was the price difference between the two countries. That is, when you look at the Turkish market, prices are higher in our country.
The State Customs Committee responded to the accusations ...
Customers also complain about the customs service. In order to clarify the allegations, we spoke to the head of the press department of the State Customs Committee Natig Akhundov.
Regarding the complaints and accusations, Akhundov said that none of the problems can be related to the customs service.
"The information disseminated and the allegations made do not reflect the truth," he said. When the goods arrive in the country they first enter the customs zone. And without any intervention of the customs officer, the products are placed on the monitor by the representatives of the transport company and the goods are inspected through a scanner. If there is any suspicious item in the package, it is opened by the representative of the transport company and then the customs officer examines the product. The product is then sealed and handed over to an employee of the transport company. In other words, the customs officer does not have the authority to arbitrarily interfere with any package. I would like to add that the package and parcels can remain at customs for a maximum of 1 day (24 hours). When the product reaches the customs control point, it is inspected immediately.
In addition, N. Akhundov informed about the limit of $ 300 imposed on customs duties.
"First of all, I would like to bring to your attention the innovation applied in this area. The Smart Customs mobile application shows the amount of goods ordered by the customer after declaring the product. If the order exceeds $ 300 in 1 month, then Smart Customs will inform you about the customs duties through which you will have to pay in excess of the limit. Then the buyer pays the specified amount through the mobile application without coming to the customs office.
Rena Murshud
