Bhubaneswar, Nov. 26: Cash-on-delivery, a popular payment mode on online shopping sites, has become unreliable ever since demonetisation of high value currency notes came into force.

Although various online shopping giants enabled this option two days after the demonetisation move on November 8, some customers here complained that the items they had bought through this payment mode were not getting delivered.

Sukanya Mishra, 18, a Plus-II student from Rasulgarh, had ordered a high-end smart phone from an online shopping portal using the cash-on-delivery option on November 5. She is still waiting for the phone to be delivered.

"I had ordered a cell phone using cash-on-delivery on a well-known shopping portal. It's been weeks now, but, I am yet to get my phone. I am making do by using my friend's cell phone. Since I heard about demonetisation, I withdrew the new currency notes to make the payment, but I don't know what makes this delay now," said Sukanya.

Tirthabasi Patra, 28, an IT engineer based in Bhuban-eswar, has a similar story to tell. Patra had ordered a laptop earlier this month using the cash-on-delivery option. He, too, is still waiting for the laptop's delivery. Patra explained why he had used the cash-on-delivery option.

"I had once used my debit card and bought a 32GB pen drive making prior online payment. The money was deducted and I received a defunct product. It took me nearly a month to get a replacement of the pen drive," said Tirtha.

"Since then, I don't make hasty payments and always use the cash-on-delivery option. I believe the recent cash crunch has forced the e-retailers to disable this option, but now we have the cash and can make the payment. The product should have been delivered by now," he said.

After the scrapping of high value currency notes, many shopping portals had disabled their cash-on-delivery option while some others, who still provide the service, advised their customers to make the payment online or make it in the new currency notes at the time of the delivery.

Tapan Sahoo, a delivery boy working with a well-known e-retailer, said that earlier he used to deliver at least 20 to 25 products through the cash-on-delivery option out of a total average delivery of 30 a day, but the number of such deliveries now came down to almost zero.

"I had tried to deliver some products which had the cash-on-delivery payment option on November 9 and 10, but most of the payments were made in old currency notes," said Sahoo.

"I was asked by my boss not to accept the payment in the old Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 payment mode should pay in new currency notes. The delay in the delivery, however, would be because of transportation glitches. We always make sure that the products reach our customers on time. If there is any delay, the customer may register complaints," said Akash Singh, a person of the helpdesk of an e-retailer.