Kapruka, an online shopping and delivery service in Sri Lanka, has come under severe criticism from a number of clients on social media for overcharging customers and for repeatedly failing to meet delivery deadlines.

Kapruka made its services available to clients after the government declared an islandwide curfew in the wake of COVID19 outbreak in Sri Lanka. The company said the service would enable clients to place orders for essential items during the time of curfew and the deliveries would be made within 24 hours.

Raha Jayawardena, an enraged client of Kapruka posted on Facebook, "You cannot display an estimated delivery date of 24th (24 hours) before placing the order and adjust it to 29th after placing the order because we rely on your delivery to feed the family. Not at this time!" Though we noticed some of the items sold by Kapruka were grossly over priced (For example, 1 KG of potatoes was priced LKR 534) we still made the choice to purchase with the promise of delivery by 24th of March. So, no complains here!

"Just to give an example, with one order, the total price to be paid was LKR 4343.00 for the shopping cart + another LKR 650 for the delivery totaling to LKR 4993.00 We made the payment through a local credit card with a local billing address. But when we received the Order Confirmation I received a USD 38.75 charge notification on my credit card. This is an equivalent of LKR 7246.00 at the prevailing exchange rate. To add to the injury, the order status page of Kapruka suddenly started showing a new delivery estimate of 29th March," he also said.

Another Kapruka client also shared her experience on Twitter; "As for my Kapruka orders, I don't know whether to live in hope or give up the ghost." Many other people shared similar views expressing doubts about the responsibility and professionalism of the country in the midst of a national crisis.