They bought expedited shipping. Since Amazon is docking us for shipping early, I shipped the first day Amazon allowed. Of course, it arrived “late” (not really; it arrived October 26 – promise date was the 25-29).
Can I refund only the cost of the product, not the cost of their expedited shipping? Their reason for the refund was it did not arrive on time.
First, while I completely understand and to a large degree agree with your decision to ship items later than the earliest possible opportunity to protect your handling time metrics, I would still ship expedited orders as quickly as possible. The buyer paid to get the order faster, and expedited orders should be few enough that they will not push up your shipping times that much.
In regard to this specific order, your order shipped before the promised ship date and was delivered before the promised delivery deadline. You met your obligations which were clearly stated.
We all know that customer return reasons usually mean nothing, and that buyers will often choose seller faulted reasons to avoid responsibility for return shipping. I would not put too much stock in the buyer’s return reason, especially since your order was delivered in the middle of your promised delivery window.
I would not refund the expedited shipping cost for this order. If the buyer messages you about it, you can decide then whether or not to reconsider.
However, I do have two levels of expedited shipping - 1) includes handling time and 2) 2-day shipping from the order date. Option #2 would be shipped same day and is significantly more expensive. They chose option 1. For that reason (and because of Amazon), I shipped with the included handling time.
When someone gets expedited shipping, it means they took an extra step (since default is standard shipping) and paid more to get it faster. This means they’re highly likely to raise a problem the later they get it. If I ordered something expedited (which I almost never do) and didn’t see the item as shipped very soon I would probably get anxious and order somewhere else as a backup if this was something I absolutely needed ASAP. In the future I would process all expedited orders prior to any regular orders and send it out ASAP.
Since you technically met the delivery window you might be able to win a dispute, so then the question is, is it worth it to squabble over the shipping cost? If they file an A-Z over it you get the ODR hit and you have to spend time responding to it, and you may or may not win
But if there are two options for expedited shipping, the expected arrival date is clearly shown. They know when it will arrive by, no? They know there is an option to get it in 2 days.
When I order and there are multiple arrival dates, I can clearly see what I am getting by paying extra. I should know that if I don’t pay the 2-day option, I’m not getting it in 2 days.
My volume is low enough (Handmade) and I do get enough expedited orders for the hit to my metrics to make a difference.
To be clear, I’m not suggesting you did anything wrong, or that you didn’t meet your responsibilities as promised. Just as a matter of best practices and SOP, I would recommend shipping expedited orders asap, even if there is a faster expedited shipping option the buyer did not choose. The impact to your shipping time metric should be negligible. Obviously, this advice is just that, and may not meet the needs of your specific business.
In any event, none of this changes my advice regarding this specific order. You shipped when you said you would, the item was delivered when you said it would be, this return is buyer discretionary, and you should not be responsible for the shipping cost, regardless of the buyer’s stated return reason.
Did you use Amazon Buy Shipping? If you did … you shipped on time and the order was delivered within the promised estimated delivery, we would have referred the customer to Amazon for an A to Z claim. If Amazon granted the claim and covered it, then you are done. If Amazon granted the claim and charges you, then you would file the appeal as you did everything that was expected.
When we do expedited shipping, we move the order to the front of the line for processing and ship as soon as we can (usually the 1st ship by date) and ship using Priority Mail Flat Rate envelope. We have never had someone say they didn’t get it in time.
Since your order was delivered within the promised estimated time window, we would tend to think this customer is looking for the freebie and would refer them to Amazon A to Z process.
I did use Buy Shipping. I shipped on time.
I have a huge order today with expedited shipping. I make everything myself by hand, so even if I tried, I can only get it shipped by the ship-by date and not any earlier. It is the top of my to-do list, for sure.
Regardless, when someone pays for expedited shipping and the seller takes 2 days to actually ship the order, most people wouldn’t be too happy about that.
Just because you followed policy and shipped it on time and it technically arrived on time doesn’t mean the buyer will be happy with it. And they might be thinking they’ll get it at the front of the delivery window because they got it “expedited.” Don’t count on customer intelligence.
While this may be a “customer faulted” problem, at the end of the day it’s always the seller’s problem. If there’s a way to reduce those problems I would take it. If you actually need the handling time to put an order together, by all means you take it, but I would not intentionally sit on an expedited order to game the handling time metrics. When I did FBM I disabled expedited shipping because I know those customers tend to cause more problems than average.
I would not refer the buyer to AtoZ.
This is not an INR claim, it is a standard return. The OP is required to accept the return within the return window, and to refund the cost of the item according to the standard return policies. If this item goes to AtoZ before or during the return process, OP is likely screwed. If this order goes to AtoZ after the item is refunded over the non refunded expedited shipping costs, OP will likely lose.
The only sort of claim that would work here would be a SAFE-T claim, but that can only be filed after Amazon refunds the order which means not refunded and waiting for Amazon to auto refund, which opens the OP up to “where is my refund?” AtoZ claims which they will lose since they got the item back and are delaying a return.
I strongly recommend against directing the buyer to AtoZ and not to attempt to utilize SAFE-T claims for this order. Refund as normal for discretionary returns.
Guess we didn’t read that into
We took it that the customer emailed requesting a refund … not a return.
They filed for a return. This is FBM.
So you are saying I have to refund the expedited shipping cost? That was my question. I just want to know what Amazon policy is and I will follow that.
No. As I said earlier, you do not have to refund the expedited shipping. Since the item was delivered on time, their complaint that the order was too late is clearly discretionary and you are therefore not liable for the outgoing shipping. The only reason to refund the outgoing shipping would be as a customer service/business decision.
However, when it comes to AtoZ claims, you never know for sure, and there is no reason to send the buyer to file one for this order. There would be nothing to gain and something to lose, so just don’t.
Thank you.
To be quite honest, I as a buyer never check to see how much was refunded. I see a message that I was refunded and that’s all that matters. Maybe I should check more carefully, but I wonder if others are like me.
Most buyers are like you.
On the other hand, Amazon is so refund happy that they can afford to be.