We’re a city obsessed with home deliveries.

Dubai has a thriving e-commerce market, we’re lucky to be able to get anything delivered right to the door, a convenience we take advantage of most days, but with so many options we come to expect the service to be followed through at a reasonable standard.

Recently, residents have taken to Reddit and Twitter to vent their frustrations regarding some of the region’s most popular eCommerce sites. And judging from the response; noon, Souq AND Ikea are all on the receiving end of unwanted attention…

Experiences like this one cause people to take the matter public

Hi @souq, it’s really bad manners to confirm to a client (twice, in writing) about a pick up on Sunday and then not show up.

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— Abdulkarim Samaan (@AKSamaan) September 17, 2018

There are plenty of similar recent tweets

@souq my order got canceled without my knowledge. Order ID #1019062996501.. I tried to register complaint on the same, but register a complaint option also disabled.. What’s happening??

— gokul ganesan (@GokulGanesann) September 18, 2018

Souq DO respond to a lot of tweet queries

Hello Bernard,

The shipment has been delivered successfully.

— Souq.com UAE (@souq) September 17, 2018

This one got the biggest reaction

A public request to @souq: Want to retain customers? Sort out your courier provider PLEASE. Delivery times not met, customers have to do the chasing, ridiculous excuses like “Sorry we couldn’t deliver on your promised date due to high volume of shipments.”
c/c @roughs0ul @amazon

— ✍️ Rachel McArthur (@raychdigitalink) September 15, 2018

Ikea are guilty too…

Same as @IKEAUAE. A week and I’ve still not received my order. No answer on the phone either ????

— Krysia McKechnie (@KrysiaJ) September 15, 2018

And many agree

By far @IKEAUAE is the worst as there is no way to even get in touch and follow up!

— Lama (@LamaABarr) September 15, 2018

They used to be so good on SM, wonder what’s happened? ????

— Krysia McKechnie (@KrysiaJ) September 15, 2018

Souq got involved, and promised to take the feedback on board

Hello, we sincerely apologize for the trouble and inconvenience you have experienced with our courier services. Rest assured that your feedback will be communicated to our management in order to avoid the same issue in the future and to improve our services

— Souq.com UAE (@souq) September 15, 2018

There’s even a Reddit post titled ‘noon crappiness’ –

With some users quoting similar situations

Great to see noon are on Reddit and on the ball with a quick response

It’s down to personal experience

Personally, I’ve ordered from Souq a handful of times, and never had a delivery issue (minus an irritation at the amount of packaging) however the delivery experience needs to be the same across the board.

And while mistakes can be made, this recent assault online against the region’s top online retailers shows some companies should take this criticism on board and up their game.