Some vendors take advantage of the absence of a statutory ceiling on delivery charges for their segment, it was pointed out.
Some citizens suggested that the owners of licensed and approved delivery companies in Qatar should be brought under the MoCI umbrella so that they will not charge customers on an arbitrary basis.
Ahmed al-Nama confirmed that some licensed home business owners who display their goods on social media such as foods, spices, incense, and perfumes exaggerate the delivery charge. "It starts from QR50 in Doha and reaches QR200 outside it. The vehicle used for delivery is most often owned by the owner of the home business. They tell the customer that it is that of a private company to increase their profit by adding a high delivery value to orders whose value may be close to the delivery value.
"The MoCI can compel the owners of home projects licensed on social media and smartphone apps to set the delivery price, in the same way it has obligated them months ago to set the price on displayed products on electronic platforms," he added.
Khaled al-Zwaidi confirmed that some home project owners marketing through Instagram charge a minimum delivery charge of QR50, irrespective of whether the customer's location is near of far. He advised the virtual platform trader to provide a free delivery service to compete with shop dealers, considering that some social media dealers are trying to put a high delivery charge.
Khaled al-Abdullah said many online merchants selling clothes, sweets, accessories, and others, are not dependent on the approved delivery companies operating in the country. "They carry out the delivery process on their own and charge arbitrarily.
These days a large number of consumers in Qatar do online purchases of a wide variety of products.
So the MoCI should bring all online outlets under their control," he urged.
