Customer ordered 2nd day shipping. We shipped on time, and the package should have arrived 3/12/2025 but it did not, will likely be delivered today, 1 day late.
Amazon Buy Shipping, using recommended carrier/class, shipped and scanned as shipped on-time.
Customer is asking for a refund of the expedited shipping they paid for.
Order has “Claims Protected” badge. Would this cover shipping refunds for late deliveries? Am I playing with fire asking the customer to submit an A-Z claim?
I go through great effort to follow SSA and AHT, would like to squeeze every promised benefit out of it.
Yes if shipped on time using a shipping service that was covered and through Amazon Buy Shipping.
Just be polite and explain to the customer that you apologize that the shipping company didn’t perform as expected and that this type of incident is cover by Amazon Policy through the A to Z Guarantee Claim process.
Just know that Claims Protection is still available with using Expedited, Economy, and 2 Day but, when it comes to OTDR Protection, ONLY Standard Shipping is covered and not the other shipping services.
What makes me mad is UPS used to guarantee 2nd day air before covid (good luck on an adjustment with Amazon buy shipping). I always thought they should at least refund the difference between 2DA and Ground when they failed but I don’t think they ever do that. With USPS now, you are basically paying $5 extra for most Priority configurations only to get free shipping supplies.
You have no obligation to refund the shipping. If you chose to do so as a business practice to keep your customers happy, that is not an unreasonable price to pay, but this is a determination you make for your business.
I would strongly caution against telling the buyer to open a claim. Amazon does not have a claims process for buyers to request shipping refunds like this. An AtoZ claim is only and always for the full value of the order, and the claim should be denied as you did everything right, so the buyer would end up with nothing, and get even more upset at you.
I agree with @HobbesIsMyTiger. We do not have a blanket company policy to cover this situation, but we have refunded and have not refunded 2Day shipping rates. We decide case by case depending on a few factors.
Refunds of Buy Shipping fees [link] mentions, “If you ship a package, and confirm the shipment on time, but the carrier delivers it late, you are not obligated to issue a shipping refund to the buyer. Instead, direct the buyer to contact the carrier and request a refund based on the carrier’s on-time delivery guarantee.”
