If you are on TikTok you’d probably come across a video that has gone viral. In the video the TikToker orders an electric kettle from Daraz, Nepal’s biggest online shopping platform. He plugs the kettle in.

Then something unexpected happens. A female voice emerges from the device, “Your Bluetooth device is now connected.” The TikToker is perplexed. He concludes he has been duped into buying a cheap Chinese instrument.

Perhaps the video was made to poke fun at Daraz and its services, but many customers who have ordered goods from the platform have had their share of real surprises. When you place an order, you never know what you will get and in what form, customers say.

Bijay Adhikari (name changed) ordered groceries worth over Rs 10,000 from Daraz for this month. A few days ago, a Daraz delivery guy knocked at his door with a carton box. Inside was a small bottle of peanut butter wrapped in bubblewrap and tape. Adhikari, an environment science student, felt guilty that so much resource was wasted on a jar of peanut butter.

Social media is flooded with anecdotes on Daraz’s surprises. A user said he was delivered women’s innerwear when he ordered a speaker, another says she received a water bottle when she ordered a water filter. And when she wanted to return the water bottle she was asked to go through a lengthy process, including filling up a requisition form. She vows to never order from Daraz again.

Yet another customer at Ratopul was handed an incredibly light package when she ordered a frying pan. When she questioned the delivery boy what he had bought in the package, he didn’t have a clue. 

The list of complaints goes on and on.

Last year, the Department of Commerce fined Daraz Rs 300,000 after receiving complaints from consumers. But that doesn’t seem to have made much of a difference. These days, people ask themselves, “Maile Daraz bata saman nai kina magako?” (“Why did I even order goods from Daraz?”)