Several Businesses Call Out Dubious Delivery Service For Being Unreliable
Setting up a small business is no mean feat. Apart from making the product, owners have to settle logistical issues, which can be costly.
So when a private delivery service, M32_Delivery, reached out to wedding florist Overthemoon.fleur offering a package deal at a reasonable price, the owner, Ms Zariza Tay, decided to give it a try.
Unfortunately, a series of unfortunate events followed, such as late deliveries and no-shows. The delivery service also allegedly has the habit of keeping the customer’s money from cash-on-delivery orders for personal use.
And Overthemoon.fleur was not alone. Several businesses MS News spoke to had gone through the same ordeal after engaging the delivery service.
Upon termination of services, the delivery company would also be late on refunding clients, citing funding issues. At the point of writing, M32_Delivery allegedly owes at least two businesses a total of S$2,500.
Overthemoon.fleur owner and other affected business owners have lodged a police report on Thursday (7 Jul). They also hope to warn others to be wary.
Delivery service often late & unreliable
On 18 May, M32_Delivery’s supposed owner, Marcus, reached out to Overthemoon.fleur on Instagram.
Source: Ms Tay
Ms Tay told MS News that he offered package delivery services at an attractive price, even name-dropping a notable Singapore business as a client.
Source: Ms Tay
She was also promised that delivery drops would be at a flat rate, no matter the distance or vehicle needed.
Initially, things went smoothly with Marcus personally handling the deliveries.
However, by the fourth delivery, Ms Tay said drivers often showed up 30 minutes to one hour late. Sometimes, they were nowhere to be found.
She alleged that during deliveries, M32_Delivery would collect customers’ cash-on-delivery money for personal use.
There would then be delays in submitting this money to Overthemoon.fleur, with Marcus giving a series of excuses such as having low cash flow or having to go to court.
Source: Ms Tay
Additionally, M32_Delivery would borrow Overthemoon.fleur’s Lalamove account to make the deliveries. To make matters worse, Marcus, who linked his phone number to the account, would delay payments to the Lalamove driver despite multiple reminders.
In the end, Ms Tay would be contacted to make payment for him as she was the main account holder.
She added that throughout the few weeks of engaging M32_Delivery’s services, she was asked to introduce other businesses to Marcus so that he could supposedly hit his ‘quota’ and get more commission.
Failed to give full refunds
For Ms Tay, the breaking point came when she engaged M32_Delivery’s lorry services for a customer’s wedding flowers on 4 Jun.
The lorry was supposed to show up at 9.30am that day. To ensure that things would proceed smoothly, Ms Tay tried calling Marcus from 9.15am to remind him not to be late. But he never picked up.
At 10am, the lorry was nowhere in sight, and Ms Tay ordered a Lalamove instead for immediate delivery.
Source: Ms Tay
On the same day, Ms Tay told Marcus she wanted to terminate his services and requested a refund for the remaining drops in her package, which amounted to S$2,100.
When he replied to her two days later, on 6 Jun, Marcus said his company was facing financial issues and asked Ms Tay to give him some time.
In Ms Tay’s recordings of their phone conversations heard by MS News, Marcus promised that he would return her at least half the sum by 14 Jun.
However, on 14 Jun, no payment was made. On 15 Jun, Marcus only transferred S$250.
Source: Ms Tay
Ms Tay said even though he had been returning the money in small sums, he still owes her S$1,600 to date.
Frustrated, Ms Tay posted a warning to other business owners about M32_Delivery on Overthemoon.fleur’s Instagram account on 16 Jun.
Other businesses face same problems
Ms Tay soon discovered that she was not the only one who faced such problems with the delivery service. She found out the notable business owner, name-dropped by Marcus earlier, had similar experiences.
The notable business owner, who requested to remain anonymous, immediately reached out to Ms Tay to share his encounters.
Source: Ms Tay
Speaking with MS News, the business owner, who shall hereafter be referred to as Mr A for clarity, said after engaging M32_Delivery, his products were often damaged.
He added that deliveries were typically late by two to three hours. Marcus was also uncontactable at times.
Some of Mr A’s other grievances included having his business being name-dropped to get sales from other companies. He also had information that Marcus was already in debt at the time.
Mr A said he had terminated M32_Delivery’s services too. He still has not done so despite allowing Marcus only to return half the sum of refunds owed, from S$3,200 to S$1,600.
Currently, he is owed S$700 and S$200 from the remaining invoices.
Delivery service allegedly does not have a proper UEN
Besides Mr A and Ms Tay, at least two other businesses, including a florist and a bakery, which also engaged M32_Delivery, told MS News they felt the service was unreliable.
All four entrepreneurs gave consistent accounts of how they perceive M32_Delivery’s business model to be:
- Marcus would sell them packages that entail each delivery to cost around S$10.
- He would then engage Lalamove to make the deliveries
- However, Lalamove’s fees would cost around S$20 to S$30 per delivery.
The business owners wondered how M32_Delivery could profit from such a model. Some suspected he would get clients to sign packages to pay these fees.
Banding together to sus the people behind the service out, the bakery owner said M32_Delivery did not have a valid Unique Entity Number (UEN) to prove that they’re a company registered with Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority (ACRA).
According to screenshots seen by MS News, Marcus has sent two UENs to the business owners, claiming that he ran two legitimate companies belonging to him.
However, MS News understands that the two UEN profiles on ACRA showed that the businesses were registered to three different names, none of which were his.
Research thoroughly before engaging in business-to-business services
Currently, Ms Tay is still holding out hope that Marcus would miraculously honour his word and eventually give a full refund as promised.
But one thing was clear — all business owners MS News spoke to hoped to warn others about the delivery service so they would not fall into the same trap.
We’ve reached out to Marcus of M32_Delivery multiple times for comment. When asked about Ms Tay’s case, Marcus mentioned that he had made several refunds on that. However, a check with Ms Tay showed that the refund was not made in full.
Several follow-up questions regarding the refund status and M32_Delivery’s UEN went unanswered.
We will update this article when he gets back.
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Featured image courtesy of Ms Tay.
