There has been quite some back and forth between Snapdeal and its sellers, who have been claiming that Snapdeal has not been paying up dues. Some vendor associations even wrote to the government and threatened to bring a stay on the Snapdeal-Flipkart sale.
Snapdeal however released a statement on Thursday claiming that there is no amount outstanding to the sellers from the company.
Now in a fresh row of controversy, according to an Economic Times report, All India Online Vendors Association (AIOVA) says that claims made by Snapdeal are false and that the to-be-sold ecommerce major is falsely claiming to have made payments within 3-5 days of sale.
Speaking to ET, an AIOVA spokesperson said, “They are falsely claiming to make payment within 3-5 days of sale in the released statement. They have also mentioned that they have a robust grievance redressal mechanism, however they have hidden the fact that seller helpline 18004190050 was shut down without any notice in March.”
AIOVA has also objected to Snapdeal VP-finance Sanjay Agarwal’s statement on reinforcing internal audit to control fraudulent seller practices and impose suitable penalties and deductions towards such exceptions.
Snapdeal, however, seems to be firm in saying that it does not owe its vendors any money. As per the ET report, Agarwal said in a statement that legal action has been taken against nearly 35 sellers, including initiation of criminal proceedings where required.
To this, the AIOVA has strongly objected the statement calling it irresponsible. “This highlights the step-motherly attitude of Snapdeal towards its sellers’ woes and the intimidation power that they are showing against small sellers. We have also raised intimidation issue with the commerce ministry in the past,” AIOVA spokesperson told ET.
Several sellers have been claiming in the past month that Snapdeal owes them money, including seller Rajdhani Cotton who filed a complaint against Snapdeal and Sameer Parwani of CouponDunia, who called out to Kunal Bahl on Twitter, claiming that Snapdeal was three months behind in clearing his payments.