Fazley RabbiParcels that come back
"We packed it, paid the courier, and the customer said they never ordered." Anyone selling online with cash on delivery in Bangladesh knows the pattern: orders placed with wrong numbers, prank orders, impulse orders followed by a change of mind, and parcels refused at the door. Each one costs a delivery charge, often a return charge, packing time, and stock that sits with the courier for days.
You cannot remove these entirely, and cash on delivery is what many customers trust. But a confirmation step before dispatch, mostly automatic, catches a good share of the problem orders while the parcel is still on your shelf.
The confirmation step
- The order comes in from your website, Facebook page or WhatsApp, and lands in your order list.
- An automatic confirmation request goes out. Within minutes, the customer gets an SMS, a WhatsApp message or an automated call summarising the order: items, total including delivery charge, and address. They reply or press a key to confirm.
- Confirmed orders move to packing.
- No reply after a set time triggers one reminder. If there is still no reply, a person calls.
- Unreachable or denied orders are held, not dispatched.
Keep the message polite and plain. Most customers are genuine, and the confirmation also catches honest mistakes in the address or size.
Simple risk checks alongside it
Alongside confirmation, flag orders that deserve a closer look:
- Incomplete or vague addresses, or a district that does not match the area named.
- Phone numbers that refused parcels before, according to your own records.
- Several orders from one number in a short time, or unusually large quantities.
- Mismatched names or obviously fake details.
Some couriers and services offer a way to look up a number's past delivery record. If you use one, go through permitted channels, and treat a poor record as a reason to call, not to accuse. AI can help read messy addresses and spot odd orders, but the decision to cancel an order or ask for advance payment is made by a person.
Decisions you need to make
- Your cut-off times. How long you wait for confirmation before calling, and the time by which orders must be confirmed to make today's courier pickup.
- Advance payment rules. For flagged orders, expensive items or distant districts, you may ask for the delivery charge or a part payment in advance through bKash or Nagad. Decide the rule once, apply it consistently, and explain it politely.
- Your own blocklist. Record numbers that refused without reason, and review the list from time to time so one bad day does not shut a customer out forever.
Mistakes and trade-offs
- Slow confirmation. If it takes hours, keen customers cool off. Send it right away.
- Treating every customer as a suspect. Harsh messages lose good buyers. Keep the tone friendly.
- Ignoring your own side. Late delivery, wrong items and misleading photos cause refusals too. Look at why parcels come back, not only who refused them.
- Messaging outside the rules. Use registered SMS providers and WhatsApp's official Business Platform, not tools that automate a personal account.
What you can do now, and where an expert helps
Calling every order before dispatch with a short script, and recording the outcome in a sheet, is something any team can start today. Automating the message, reply handling, reminders, risk flags and the link to your order list and courier, if your courier's system offers an API, is where I can help through AI and workflow automation. For capturing orders cleanly in the first place, see organising WhatsApp orders.
The first step
For the next two weeks, record every returned or refused parcel in a sheet: where the order came from, the district, whether it was confirmed before dispatch, and the reason given. That small record shows which checks would have helped, and it becomes the base of your blocklist. Get in touch when you want the confirmation to run on its own.