MANILA — The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) urged online platforms on Thursday to look into wrong package deliveries and make sure that their consumers receive the correct items they ordered.

Trade Undersecretary Ruth Castelo said e-commerce platforms should be careful in handling packages, following an incident on Wednesday wherein a customer claimed she received two blocks of wood instead of the cellphones she ordered.

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Castelo said this was not the first time that an incident like that happened.

“The platform should also look into saan talaga, anong source ng mga ganiyan na incidents. Is it with them, is it with the personnel that they employ, is it with the logistics sector?” she said in an interview with ABS-CBN News.

(The platform should look into the reason behind such incidents.)

She urged online selling platforms to closely monitor deliveries and the logistics provider they use.

“Bantayan nilang mabuti yung mga tao nila na kung ano yung goods na in-order, ‘yun ang maide-deliver sa customer. [Bantayan din] pati yung kanilang logistics provider that they use,” she said.

(They should guard their staff, and make sure that the goods these customers ordered will be delivered. They should also guard the logistics provider they use.)

Lazada on Thursday said they are already investigating the incident regarding the blocks of wood delivered to a customer.

"Lazada is aware of a current order transaction circulating on social media, and we are in contact with the customer to resolve the situation. We take all feedback seriously and wish to thank the community for bringing this to our attention. Together, we can safeguard a safe online shopping space for everyone," the statement from Lazada read.

Castelo also added that consumers should file complaints against online platforms once they have delivered the wrong items. She also said customers should make sure that they get their respective refund.

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She also encouraged customers to file complaints to the DTI as this would help improve their guidelines to make online shopping safer.

“Habang ginagawa pa natin ngayon, malaman na natin yung mga ganiyang incidents so we can provide safeguards… [and prevent] this [from] happening in the future,” she said.

(It’s good that we know these incidents now so we can provide safeguards.)

The DTI said it continues to create policies and provisions that would be part of the proposed Internet Transactions Act, or House Bill 6122.

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