Does anyone here do FBM LTL products? I need some advice before I take the risk.
Feel free to PM me or discuss openly here.
I could be mistaken, but it’s my understanding that both our friends @Tvoi & @RiverRetail may have some experience with this…
Yes, we do FBM LTL, but we drop ship with our manufacturer (all above board…lol). What is your question?
Sorry, not us. We’ve used LTL but not directly to the consumer. Most of our products are under 8 pounds :).
What is your experience with INR and returns when Amazon does their Amazon stuff and incompetent buyers doing stupid things when using LTL as a delivery method?
We never get INR’s but have had unable to accept delivery (because they do not understand it’s freight and not Fedex or UPS). We take the hit for those, because it costs more to have it reconsigned to us then to just refund.
For returns, that’s sketchy sometimes. We have Amazon provide the RMA for returns, some get prepaid labels and some do not. If the item is returned without damage,we will refund and now have it to sell in our brick and mortar. If something is damaged, we can either replace under warranty with the manufacturer to the buyer or to us if we refund the buyer.
I am concerned about INR claims even though there would be a signed BOL. Amazon loves giving away stuff to make their customers happy. This would be commercial ag equipment like a sprayer tank and a seed tank but I am worried about INR and the stupid 30 days “I rolled my tractor off a cliff and therefore your tank is defective claim” BS.
As you know, it comes with the territory. We do commercial furniture, anywhere from chairs to large lateral filing.
Side note-we also were “invited” to use the heavy bulk freight template back when we started.
I have used the heavy bulk freight template but that was years ago before we bought a part of this company. The seed tank weighs about 550lbs so I need to do calculations from OK, NE and GA to the rest of the country.
Most farmers are cool and don’t play games like what I am concerned with, but then again 9+ percent of the country is a convicted felon… so I know there will be some BS.
I ship FBM LTL only rarely, so my experience may not be meaningful.
I have never had INR on a LTL delivery.
These things won’t just be left at the door like an Amazon package, the buyer has to be there or make arrangements for someone else to be there to accept it. The delivery driver gets a signature, and then has to use a pallet jack to move the item into the building or job site. These items are not delivered to the wrong address, and nobody’s packages are being stolen by porch pirates or feral cats.
To even consider filing INR on LTL deliveries, someone would have to be intimately familiar with the way Amazon works to know that the seller can’t have bought Amazon shipping and therefore won’t have the full INR protections, and they would have to know how to file the right claim to get through the cracks. The average “I want stuff for free, who cares if I steal from the anonymous internet” people won’t be pulling this.
As far as returns go, sending it back is the buyer’s problem. If the item is defective or damaged, we process it as a warranty, not a return. How this works varies by manufacturer.
The LTL products I sell are not normal retail products (I don’t sell furniture or anything like that) and mostly they are not even for residential buildings. This, and the fact that they have to go through a whole process to set up the delivery in the first place, may also contribute to these orders going smoothly in the post-delivery realm.
I will say we had a Walmart buyer say he didn’t get a desk (these are often in large boxes or on pallets), so when I told him that it was delivered and that I can provide a signed POD, he said go ahead. Walmart did refund him, but I provided proof to him and Walmart (he never responded-lol), but Walmart did give us credit for the refund.
We do LTL shipping directly from our facilities almost daily for FBM Amazon orders.
Firstly, if you have not already, request access to the freight delivery templates via the page below. This prompts the customer to provide a valid phone number for the carrier during checkout instead of the temporary Amazon number.
You asked about INR claims. We’ve only lost one or two in our entire time with Amazon, and those were only due to the carrier not getting a signature and instead taking a photo of the delivery. If your carrier collects signatures, you’re much better off. Just like any other delivery.
For returns, make sure you exempt them from prepaid labels. The irritating part about this is that instead of normally providing you a return request you can approve yourself it often results in the customer getting an unpaid mailing label. They then contact you furious about paying for a return. But this is better than being charged insane amounts by UPS or having it returned practically destroyed.