Customer Service Question- Missing Packages
 

Let's say you order from an online vendor. The product is shipped and delivered to the shipping address provided.

FedEx Ground takes a picture of the delivery (like Amazon Prime) that clearly shows the product was delivered correctly.

The box is not there when you go to retrieve it.

Do you expect the company to reship the product at their cost even though it was delivered to the right address?

Now let's say there were two packages shipped from the same company, one is delivered in the early afternoon, and the other is delivered six hours later. There are pictures of both deliveries, and both boxes are missing. Do you expect the company to reship both at their cost?

Is your outlook different if you are the company that shipped the product versus the customer?

In my area we've had problems with "Porch Pirates" following delivery vehicles around. Did the customer request "no signature required"?

THat's a tough one, especially these days.

I would not expect vendor to replace stolen packages.

After the first theft, I would take precautions at my end to prevent further loss.

If it's Amazon, I would have the packages delivered to a local locker instead of my house.

Amazon order, so no option for "no signature required"requests from the customer, but we've seen issues with direct and indirect signature packages. I've even had to deal with customers claiming they didn't receive the shipment on LTL Home Deliveries where we require a direct phone number, delivery appointment, and get the signed BOL and Delivery Receipt from the carrier.

Once the packages were delivered to the proper address they have completed their end of the agreement IMO. Now it becomes a police matter and perhaps insurance will cover the loss.

Sounds like you're the vendor. Does Amazon have any recourse for this stuff or is theft just considered part of the "privilege" to sell on their platform?

I know with Costco, to be a vendor you have to honor an 18 month "no questions asked" return policy.

We are the seller and Amazon has no recourse for sellers. The customer is always right. The customer can file an A to Z Claim if we don't reship it and say they never received it. In 99.9% of those cases, Amazon will side with the customer and it will be deducted from our payout. If it is a Prime delivery issue Amazon eats the cost.

It has changed a little now that FedEx has started its program of photographing deliveries. That at least allows us to verify it is not a delivery issue to the wrong address. We typically reship or refund, depending on the customer.s response when we ask. We do take into account a certain % for theft and, as much as I dislike it, reshipping prevents negative reviews.

This case is different in that the order was for two of the same item, shipped in two boxes, delivered on the same day hours apart and BOTH are missing. Both were photographed by FedEx. The first box is not visible in the picture for the second delivery, so it had been collected by the customer or stolen by that time. The door and house from the FedEx pic match the Google street view for the address.

Wow, that's pretty tough on vendors, IMO.
I would think with the photo proof of delivery the customer has to take some responsibility of securing the packages once delivered in today's environment of porch thievery.
We have packages delivered all the time and I'm glad we are home most of the time when they are delivered.
Were these 'big ticket' items?

Just to mix things up a little, wasn't there a situation where the camera at the home video's the delivery service taking the picture and then picking the box back up and taking it with them? How do you handle that???

Scott- It can be rough, but the reach on Amazon is huge. Our items are $50-$250. The one with the two packages referenced is $338 in total.

Joe - we have had some customers say that nothing was delivered even though FedEx or UPS said otherwise and offered up Ring footage as proof. We also will ask customers to check with neighbors or household members to see if a package was mis-delivered or moved and I'd say maybe 15-20% of the time the package is located.

I got to play scavenger hunt today.

We had a drive fail in a Dell storage array last Friday. If things work like they're supposed to, they would send us a drive Friday and we would install it Monday, but that didn't happen.

I called them Monday to chew them out, and they "sent" a drive via UPS Logistics. Not the same as UPS, this is a separate unit that finds a contractor to deliver the part. Often we will get it the same day.

I checked yesterday, and UPS Logistics decided to send the drive via FedEx. The problem is, they never dropped the drive off to be shipped. This drive was coming from De Pere, WI, near Green Bay, the other side of the state.

Called Dell again Tuesday, they went to UPS Logistics again, this drive coming from Des Moines IA. The courier never picked it up Tuesday. It was snowing, maybe they didn't want to drive that far in a storm.

This morning Dell tried again, sending a drive from near Chicago. That didn't get picked up until around 11:00 this morning.

Meanwhile, the FedEx shipped drive was out for delivery by 10:30. 10:30 came and went, no drive, now tracking showed "end of day". By this time the Des Moines drive was also on the way. Got a "delivered" email around 11:30 for the FedEx drive, but I can't find it. Looked on the table by the front door where stuff was usually left. Somebody's Jimmy John's sandwich was there, but no drive. Nothing by the loading dock either. The picture attached to the delivery doesn't even look like our building. Great. I walked over to our main building, realized all the door frames on that building are a light green, so it's not there either. There's two other buildings on this campus, one is a block or so away, and the other we're leasing space from the building owner. I called the front desk at the building where we're leasing space, and yes, she did have a box from Dell. Never mind their address is completely different from ours, way different number, different street. But I suppose the delivery guy saw our company name on that building's sign, and there's only a small sign in front of the building I work in, and he missed it. About 2:00 the Des Moines drive showed up. Checked at 4:30, still no drive from Chicago. Maybe it will be there tomorrow. Maybe someone will steal it.

As a vendor I assume once it’s proven delivered the contract of carriage is over.

So any package I don’t want to pay for when stolen is sent signature required. Yes it’s a huge PITA for all of us, ..but I’m not willing to pay for the consumer not taking any responsibility over that amount.

I had a guy clipaiming that 3 orders we sent him weren’t delivered despite his signature on two of them.