Evaly demands video clips of tearing cheques for refunds 

E-commerce platform Evaly asked customers to tear the refund cheques it had given them for failing to deliver products after advance payments and send to it a video clip of the cheques being shredded into pieces. The people who will do so will apparently get the money refunded in their bank accounts. 

These people who could not cash the cheques are connected through social media platforms, such as Telegram, WhatsApp and Facebook messenger. Many of them shared audio clips in their network of the conversations with Evaly officials over the phone, in which they had been asked to tear off the cheques. 

Evaly Managing Director and CEO Mohammad Rassel, who is also allegedly a member of such group on Telegram, admitted that customers had been asked to send the video clips. 

Many customers in the social media groups said they had placed orders for motorbikes in January on discounts offered by Evaly, but the company instead of delivering products issued cheques of several banks, including The City Banks and Midland Bank, months later with advance dates. 

Last month, Evaly officials called customers to tell them not to submit the cheques to banks. Those, who did, saw the cheques bounce or were told that a stop payment order had been issued against the cheques by the account holder. 
 
Cheques bounce or get rejected when the account does not have enough cash to pay the money or when the signatures of the account holder do not match up. The account holder can issue a stop payment order against cheques they have issued by sending the cheque numbers to the banks asking them not to disburse the cash. 

Making phone calls since Monday, Evaly staff also warned that those who would not send video footage of cheques bring torn to certain WhatsApp numbers would face complications in getting their money back. 

Evaly CEO Mohammad Rassel said that Evaly's Midland Bank account was dormant now. 

"So, instead of replacing cheques, we are opting for real-time gross settlement. We have made the refunds for those who have torn the cheques and sent us a video clip. In future, we will first deposit money to our customers' bank account and then will ask them to send video clips of cheques being shredded." 
 
Many customers of Evaly on Telegram complained that its software was showing items "delivered" though customers were yet to receive the products and refunds made though buyers did not get the cash. 

They worry that Evaly might have taken a strategy to encourage customers to tear off the cheques by giving refunds to a few buyers upon receiving such video clips. On the allegations of false notifications, Rassel said cheques might bounce if account numbers were wrong. He also said Evaly corrected the mistakes if it was informed of wrong notifications on its website. 

"Sometimes, the matter is automatically resolved."

Customers said once the cheques were torn into pieces, buyers would have no document to legally claim the money if the company refused to refund. 

On that, Rassel said the proof of order placement was the document of the customers for demanding refunds.  
 
"In future, we will ask them to tear the cheques after the money is deposited [in their accounts]. We will have more work to do then. Customers may also not want to cut the cheques."  

Rejection of City Bank's cheques 
 
For failing to deliver products on time, Evaly issued a City Bank cheque of Tk5 lakh on 5 July to Md. Enjamul Ahsan Galib, but when he submitted the cheque on 18 July it got rejected because of inadequate cash in the account. 

A few days back, he said he could cash the cheque yet. 

Coming to Facebook live, the Evaly CEO on 25 July said the problem arose after the bank had "blocked" the company's account and it would be solved in 7-10 days. 
 
But The Business Standard found that the account had Tk35 lakh put on hold. Minus the lien amount, the account had less than Tk20,000 as of 2 August. 
 
According to the Bangladesh Bank, Evaly had Tk2.04 crore in its 10 bank accounts as of 28 February.   

After The Business Standard published news on Evaly based on a report of the Central bank in June, orders on its site and advance payments fell drastically, sources said.  
 
On the other hand, customers and merchants began pressurizing Evaly for the dues. As a result, the company faces an imbalance between income and expenses.  

Sources in mobile financial service provider Nagad said, "Evaly's refund to the customers remained suspended for one month. It resumed last week, but the refund amount is not that big."