FedEx would like their customers to believe a package can be late – twice. Here’s how that excuse doesn’t cut it and why you should always get a refund.
We covered in our earlier blog why late delivery is no small matter for businesses. Customers want their goods more quickly than ever before, and there are plenty of competing companies ready to satisfy them. A big part of a business’s reputation depends on its carrier delivering packages on time.
Unfortunately, FedEx is a company where late-delivery lightning can strike twice. What’s worse is they’ll expect your business to lose out on a refund because of it.
How can the same thing happen to the same package twice?
According to FedEx, the first strike against a package is when it reaches their dispatch station. What is it late for? The courier, of course. The package arrived after the courier was dispatched, so it just missed getting picked up. Now it needs to wait until the next pickup and delivery run.
This (like the “damaged/unreadable label” excuse) sounds reasonable enough until businesses realize they just lost money, and quite possibly good standing with their customers, because the package got there later than agreed upon. Strike two.
How this FedEx excuse costs sellers more than money
FedEx is the second-largest shipping company in the world, which means it is extremely busy. With so much to deliver, many companies using them to ship packages may accept occasional late delivery as par for the course. A little further thought, however, should make businesses less lenient.
Late-delivery means a disappointed customer who may avoid shopping with the seller again. That’s a loss of future profit. Compound this with a bad online review and the business just lost more buyers. There's no telling how much that could cost a company in the long run, but there is a way to calculate how much FedEx owes as a late-delivery refund.
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FedEx didn’t step up, so it has to pay up
FedEx signed a carrier agreement with the seller that guarantees a refund if they’re even a minute late with delivery. They’ve tried to sneak in money-back guarantee waivers in the past that have given businesses a nasty surprise. It’s something you shouldn’t stand for. Your package arriving “too late” to be picked up by a courier is just another way for FedEx to shift the late-delivery blame away from themselves.
They committed to a time window. Whatever made them fail to make good simply isn’t the shipper’s problem. It’s up to FedEx to come through or provide a full refund of the shipping costs if they don’t.
How to deal with FedEx in this situation
You can take time to contact FedEx and let them know that missing the courier is not an acceptable excuse, nor is it a good reason to deny you the 100 percent shipping refund you’re entitled to. It’s not on the shipper’s shoulders to control or magically predict the FedEx courier schedule; you played your part by paying them to get the job done.
71lbs makes it our business to track down refunds for this or any other reason. If you’d like to make sure you get a full late-shipping refund credited directly into your account, connect with us and we’ll deal with FedEx while you get on with business.
At 71lbs, we uncomplicate the shipping process for our customers, making it easier and faster for them to access refunds and reduce their expenses. Our automated platform gathers all your shipping information into one easy-to-use custom analytics dashboard. Drop by the contact page to get in touch.
