How to stop fake "customer not available" delivery attempts

In short: some failed deliveries are marked "customer not available" without a real attempt. You end up paying for a return you can't question. When every delivery call is made and logged through WhatsApp, you can see whether the rider really called, when, and for how long.

The status you can't check

A customer says nobody came. The delivery record says "customer not available." Who's right?

Most of the time, you can't tell. The rider may have called from their own phone, or not called at all. There's no record you can look at, so the return goes through and you pay for it.

This isn't about blaming riders. Most work hard under heavy targets. But when a busy route has 40 drops left and two hours of daylight, skipping a hard-to-find address is tempting, and nothing shows it happened.

Why fake delivery attempts are hard to catch

• Calls happen on personal phones, so there's no company record.
• Customers can't prove a negative. "Nobody called me" is their word against a status update.
• Disputes take time, and most teams give up because they have nothing to show.

Make every call count, and visible

When riders call customers through WhatsApp from your delivery app, every call leaves a record:

• When the call was made, linked to the order and the delivery attempt.
• Whether it connected, and how long it lasted.
• A recording, where you've chosen to record calls and told customers.

Now "customer not available" can be checked. If there was no call, or a two-second call at the wrong time, you know. If the rider called three times and the customer didn't answer, you know that too, and the rider is protected.

Fewer disputes to begin with

The best part is that most of these cases never happen. A WhatsApp call from your verified brand gets answered far more often than a call from an unknown number, so riders reach more customers on the first try. When riders know calls are logged, the honest effort shows, and the shortcuts stop.

Let the customer confirm in chat too

Add a WhatsApp message when the rider is on the way, asking the customer to confirm they're home or pick another slot. If they reply "after 6 PM," there's a written record, and an attempt marked "not available" at 2 PM can be questioned straight away. Chat and call records together give you the full story of every delivery.

How MsgKart helps

MsgKart builds WhatsApp calling into your delivery app, with call logs and recordings synced to your own systems. Your ops team can pull up the call history for any order in seconds. Delhivery is already live with MsgKart's WhatsApp calling for last-mile delivery.

Questions people ask

Do we have to record calls?
No. Logging time and duration alone settles most disputes. If you record, tell customers and follow privacy rules.

Will riders push back?
Most welcome it. A clear record protects them when a customer wrongly says no one called.

See every delivery call, on every order. Book a demo at www.msgkart.in.