Kogan.com appears to have a problem with suppliers taking his money and not supplying goods according to documents filed in a US Court. Also exposed is the Kogan ordering system which failed to pick up problems that could now cost the online retailer tens of thousands.
The online retailer who reported a fall in ‘Platform based sales’ of 5.6% to $446.6M up until December 2023 and a 9.8% decline in overall revenue has apparently been duded by one Harish “Harry” Chatlani who runs a global footwear and apparel export operation from his home in Beverly Hills, California sand who suddenly cannot be found to serve notice on of Kogan’s claim.
The Australian online retailer who delivered a gross profit of $89M in the quarter is according to the Australian pursuing Chatlani for hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of merchandise that never turned up.
It isn’t the first time Kogan.com has been allegedly fleeced by an overseas supplier.
Last year The Australian reported that a businessman called Dov Zaetz was paid as much as $1.5m by Kogan.com to supply sneakers that never arrived.
Unlike Chatlani this guy operated from a dodgy apartment in Crown Heights Brooklyn, New York.
According to Kogan the latest bizarre series of events started to unfold as COVID was delivering massive traffic to online retailers who were desperate for stock, from anyone who could deliver.
In 2020, Kogan contacted Harish “Harry” Chatlani and an initial order was placed and paid for upfront.
When the order did not arrive and with no refund in sight Kogan.com kept on booking and paying tens of thousands of dollars for even more shipments.
The business has failed to explain why.
Not only did Kogan keep paying upfront, continued to order goods at least eight times despite each shipment missing items or not arriving at all.
At one stage Chatlani cancelled an order worth $US50,000 ($76,500) before it was shipped, after being paid by Kogan.com, and then refused a refund.
Mega rich owner Ruslan Kogan then stepped into the fray in an effort to recover $230K.
But this proved futile as Chatlani dodged is calls and his whereabouts are today unknown.
At this stage it’s not known whether these extremely generous terms are extended to other Kogan.com suppliers especially Australian suppliers.
Kogan.com is suing Mr Chatlani’ s Pacific Link Traders, claiming the US supplier has been “unjustly enriched at Kogan’s expense.”
It’s also been revealed that when a process server turned up at Mr Chatlani’ s residence in Beverly Hills a woman answered the door and said Mr Chatlani “was out of town and would not return for four weeks”.
Then came a letter from his lawyers claiming that Mr Chatlani was “going to be travelling for approximately two months” and would respond to the matter “in due time.”
According to the Australian the saga began in December 2020 when Kogan.com paid Pacific Link Traders $US27,375 for merchandise. When the shipment arrived, $US3439 worth of goods were missing. No refund was provided.
A glutton for punishment Kogan management then paid an additional $US176,120 for purchases, but Pacific Link Traders failed to deliver $US10,971 worth of goods.
In November 2021, Kogan.com paid $US65,591 and $US65,082 for two invoices.
Two months later, Kogan.com inadvertently made two more payments on the invoices of $US67,126 and $US66,541.
“Despite the obvious error, Pacific Link Traders accepted the payments and made no offer to refund Kogan,” the court documents said.
The saga then gets messier, in the middle of COVID in 2022 when Kogan was price gouging consumers, and struggling to house stock, the Company placed yet another order, paying $US109,923, but $US7391 worth of merchandise was missing from the shipment.
Not put off by this, Kogan.com paid $US49,715 upfront for goods but this time Pacific Link Traders cancelled the order and refused to pay a refund. In August 2022 Kogan.com paid $US60,440 but $US12,302 worth of merchandise missing from the shipment.
In December 2022, Kogan paid $US111,731 but $US1207 worth of merchandise was missing. In March 2021 there was an order from Kogan.com for €694,008 ($1.145m) of goods but €12,628 worth of goods were missing.
In total Kogan.com paid $232,262.32 for goods that were not shipped by Pacific Link Traders or received by Kogan.com.
