News flash: Money back waivers are not in effect during particular days of the year, especially during the holiday rush. I know you’re shipping out a lot more packages then, and didn’t probably look into your contract to see if the guarantee holds good. But it’s high time you did.
While it is true that the carriers ship a huge volume of packages and are prone to commit more errors during the holiday rush, they also fix extra surcharges on packages and hire a huge number of seasonal staff to handle the surge. Is not including the money back waiver in addition to all those surcharges a tad unfair?
As a retailer, this will be the season when you ship out a maximum number of packages. The prime reason money back guarantees are off is the fact that the shipping carriers themselves anticipate many delays and service errors. At LateShipment.com, after tracking over 11 million packages last holiday season we saw a huge percentage of difference in delays.
This makes it all the more important for you to ensure that all your shipments are carefully monitored.
Customers can be affected because of this, and the number of delays you encounter are more important than the refunds you miss out on. Keeping close tabs on your carrier, and using real time tracking tools like LateShipment.com can help you stay ahead of delivery exceptions even during the peak season.
For your reference, here are the money back exceptions announced by FedEx and UPS.
The FedEx money back waiver
For November 21, shipments that reach their destination within 90 minutes of the scheduled time can be waived from the guarantee.
As far as the following FedEx Express services are concerned, the guarantee will no longer be in effect from December 18 to 24, 2018. The guarantee can be used to file claims if the package hasn’t arrived on the entire day on which it was promised (no time specific claims as on normal working days).
- FedEx First Overnight®
- FedEx Priority Overnight®
- FedEx Standard Overnight®
- FedEx 2Day®
- FedEx 2Day® A.M.
- FedEx Express Saver®
- FedEx First Overnight® Freight
- FedEx 1Day® Freight
- FedEx 2Day® Freight
- FedEx 3Day® Freight
- FedEx International First®
- FedEx International Priority®
- FedEx International Economy®
- FedEx International Priority DirectDistribution®
- FedEx International Economy DirectDistributionSM
- FedEx International MailService®
- FedEx International Priority® Freight
- FedEx International Economy® Freight
The money-back guarantee for FedEx Ground and FedEx Home Delivery will be suspended temporarily for packages picked up on November 26, through December 24, 2018
If you’re shipping through freight, check AM delivery or close of business delivery options as these will have the money back guarantee. The AM delivery will cost an upcharge of $105, while close of business option will cost $89.
Otherwise, the guarantee will be suspended for shipments with delivery dates from December 17, 2018 to January 2, 2019. Normal pickup and delivery will continue as usual except on December 24-25 and January 1.
The FedEx Freight no-fee money-back guarantee will be suspended for shipments with required delivery dates of Monday, Dec. 17, 2018, through Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2019. During this time, FedEx Freight will continue to provide normal pickup and delivery, except on Dec. 24–25, 2018, and Jan. 1, 2019.
What’s UPS upto?
UPS tacks on additional holiday surcharges similar to FedEx across all services. And like FedEx, UPS Air and International Air packages within the US are eligible for the money back guarantee through the holiday season only with conditions applied. The commitment times for packages scheduled on November 23, December 17-22, December 24 and December 31 will be extended as follows:
- UPS Next Day Air Early and UPS Worldwide Express Plus services will be extended by 90 minutes.
- All other Air and International Air services will be extended to end-of-day.
The guarantee is suspended for all UPS Ground shipments, including shipments picked up or scheduled for delivery from November 26–December 24.
What can your business do?
Staying in control of your last mile seems all the more difficult with this money back waiver right? But you still can ensure that your customers get a good last mile experience.
Keeping in mind the following things can help you regain control.
- Choosing service types that do not waive the money back guarantee
- Monitoring all your shipments
For starters, you can focus on choosing service types that do not waive the money back guarantee, few though they may be. Adjust the delivery date you give customers to allow yourself a little flexibility. If the package arrives early, well and good. Even if it gets there a little late, it still fits into the window you set.
Secondly, monitoring your shipments ensures that you can proactively notify customers before a delivery exception hits. This will keep the blame off the retailer and maintain a good relationship despite the delay or error.
You can make use of tools like LateShipment.com to monitor all your shipments across multiple carriers and send out notifications to customers whenever a delivery exception is predicted. If you don’t want to go it for such tools, you can ensure that your support team is fully equipped to monitor shipments carefully using the tracking provided by the shipping carriers themselves.
Take control of your last mile this holiday season by tracking and monitoring every shipment that leaves your warehouse. The experience you offer your customer comes first, no matter if you get refunds for service failures or not.
If you would like a consolidated copy of the holiday deadlines for both FedEx and UPS, you can get it here.
Credits:
FedEx money back guarantee guide