KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 7 — Under fire from customers for not receiving ordered items, celeb-founded e-commerce platform Mdada based in Singapore has apologised to them.

The platform, founded by celebrity hairstylist Addy Lee, host Pornsak and actress Michelle Chia, said all overdue orders would reach customers by February 15.

The company added that all food items that can no longer be consumed will be refunded, while customers will receive a weekly update on their orders’ delivery status, Mothership reported.

The issue came to light after local daily Shin Min Daily News (SMDN) published a report detailing the experiences of two customers who waited two months for their orders to arrive.

One of them, a saleswoman named Huang, had ordered a wallet for S$535 (RM1,655), and a top for S$128 (RM396) on October 31.

While Mdada initially told her that shipping would be delayed, they later informed the customer that her purchase might not have been made from the store and that they would place an order for her.

She eventually requested a refund after the e-commerce platform was unable to confirm whether her wallet had been ordered.

The refund was granted.

However, at the time of SMDN’s article, the customer was unsure about the status of her top.

The second customer had ordered a pair of S$108 (RM334) shoes for Christmas but did not receive it in time.

Her request for a refund was then declined.

Lee then held a livestream to address complaints raised by their customers

He explained that they had run into logistical issues caused by the pandemic, which resulted in delayed goods.

"I’ve not made any money at all from the entire [Europe] trip. But viewership is important, that’s how I earn. When we have high viewership, the advertisers will come knocking. [...] Shoppers, I have not profited a single cent from your buys.”

In fact, Lee said that they have been making a loss from not calculating the administration fee and GST, totalling to 12 per cent, for some customers.

Overall, the trip has also been a loss for them.

During the session, the hairstylist reiterated their policy of having a delivery timeline of 40 working days.

Pornsak, who also joined the livestream, apologised to customers and added that the team was now entirely focused on shipping out orders.

The host added that they had not scrimped on shipping partners at all, and promised to do better in the future.