Shipping Protection Policy

Shipping Protection covers lost, stolen, and damaged items that fit the following criteria. Review the policies to understand what lost, stolen, and damaged items shipping protection will cover.

Lost Items Policies:

Packages presumed to be lost

  • Order issues for packages presumed to be lost by the carrier (where the status is not "delivered") must be filed no sooner than 7 days after the last tracking update for United States domestic shipments and within 30 days from the last checkpoint.
     

Estimated Delivery Date

  • After 48 hours has passed from an estimated delivery date given from the carrier, and no delivery or update has been made, shipping protection will consider the order to be "lost" and assist with next steps. 

Invalid address or delivery barriers

  • Sometimes carriers cannot deliver the customer’s package due to an invalid address or other unexpected delivery barriers. At this point, the carrier might return the package to the sender/retailer. The customer’s package is not actually lost, thus shipping protection does not cover this. In instances where the item is being returned to the sender and is reusable, customers will be referred to the retailer.

Only part of the order delivered

  • If the customer ordered several items in one package but only part of the order arrived and there is no evidence of tampering, shipping protection does not cover the order issue. The customer will be referred to the retailer. 

  • If a single order is being shipped in multiple packages and one package does not arrive, shipping protection will cover the order issue and reorder or refund the value of the undelivered package.

  • If the retailer forgets to ship an item from the customer’s order, the customer needs to reach out to the retailer to have the missing items fulfilled.

Packages labeled "return to sender"

  • Shipping protection does not cover packages labeled return to sender because the order has been sent back to the retailer. Items are returned to sender when a customer provides an invalid or undeliverable address or refuses a delivery. 
  • At our discretion, we may cover the order issue if the returned item is perishable or if the retailer is unable to reuse it.*
  • Shipping protection covers the customer's order if the the package gets lost in-transit back to the sender, if the package was returned to sender due to a carrier error.*

*Please note: Shipping Protection timeframes for filing apply.

Order stuck in customs

  • Shipping protection cannot cover when a customer’s order is stuck in international borders/customs.
  • The customer’s next step is to pay the customs fees in order to receive the package.
  • If shipping protection replaces something the customer has already paid customs on, under Route’s discretion, shipping protection can approve and pay customs the second time.

Order marked as unfulfilled or unshipped

  • If the customer’s order is marked as unfulfilled or unshipped, the order hasn’t been fulfilled yet by the retailer (retailer could be low on inventory of the items, internal delays with the fulfillment center, etc.).
  • Shipping protection does not control how quickly the retailer ships the customer’s order. Shipping Protection is not yet in action because the order has not shipped.

Order issue filed too soon

  • If the customer is filing an order issue the same day that the package was marked as delivered, at our discretion shipping protection may ask you to wait 5 days. Carriers (FedEx, USPS, UPS, DHL, etc.) sometimes prematurely mark the package as delivered when it’s still in transit.

Stolen Items Policies:

Delivered but Missing Package
  • Order issues for packages marked "delivered" yet not received are considered stolen, and must be filed 5 days after “delivery date” but no longer than 30 days to ensure it was not mis-delivered or easily found around the premises.

Filing an Online Notarized Incident Statement

  • At our discretion, shipping protection may require an online notarized statement when the customer’s package is marked as delivered. If requested, the customer will be given clear steps to complete this requirement via the claims filing process.

Delivered to wrong address

  • If the customer input the correct address at checkout and the package was delivered to the wrong address, shipping protection considers this as stolen and we will replace the order on behalf of the customer.

Damaged Items Policies:

Damaged Item Arrived
  • Order Issues for damaged orders must be filed within 30 days of the delivery date. 

Broken items

  • If the customer received a broken item and needs to dispose of it (i.e. shattered glass), the customer needs to check their city ordinances and dispose of it properly.
  • The customer does not need to ship it back to the retailer (unless the retailer indicates otherwise).

Damaged items

  • A damaged item is considered to be a broken product that is unusable.
  • Shipping protection requires further evidence of the customer’s damaged item (i.e. more photos, videos, etc.).

Subscription items

  • For existing subscriptions where your customers have purchased shipping Protection, if any of your customer's items in the subscription were lost, stolen, or damaged in transit and can be purchased individually, shipping protection will reorder them. If the items cannot be purchased, then shipping protection will refund the items.

  • Shipping protection cannot reorder and create an entirely new subscription because shipping protection would be paying for the customer's monthly subscription.

Customized items

  • Shipping protection cannot reorder customized items for the customer because of the additional liability of ordering the customer’s custom item incorrectly. Shipping protection can offer a refund instead.

Out of stock

  • Shipping protection does not have visibility to the retailer’s inventory, or details into when the retailer will have the customer’s item back in stock.
  • Shipping protection can offer the customer a refund for the item that is out of stock. The customer can always use that refund to order the item when it’s back in stock.

General Policies:

Input wrong address

  • If the customer entered the wrong address at the time of order, shipping protection does not cover this.
  • The customer needs to reach out to the retailer to remedy the incorrect address.

Quality control

  • If the customer is unsatisfied with their product, shipping protection is not a product replacement plan and the order issue cannot be approved.
  • The customer needs to reach out to the retailer. This request may be covered under the retailer’s return policy.

 Too late to file
  • Shipping protection can action an order issue that is filed within the bounds of our domestic/international timeline policy. If an order issue is filed outside of this timeline, shipping protection will deny the order issue according to these policies:
  • Order issues for packages marked "delivered" yet not received and where there is no evidence of “porch piracy” must be made 5 days after “delivery date” but no longer than 30 days to ensure it was not mis-delivered or easily found around the premises."
  • Order issues for packages presumed to be lost by the carrier (where the status is not "delivered") must be filed no sooner than 7 days after the scheduled delivery date for United States domestic shipments (20 days for international shipments, including Canada unless a Canadian merchant is shipping within Canada in which case the 7 day domestic shipment timeline applies) and within 30 days from the last checkpoint.

Expedited shipping hasn't arrived 

  • If the customer’s package is delayed for whatever reason, shipping protection will not cover it.

  • Carriers update their website with expected delays due to inclement weather or other barriers to expected delivery.
  • If the customer paid for expedited shipping but the package arrives outside of the expected window, shipping protection will not cover it.

Payment installment companies

  • For payment installments (Sezzle, Afterpay, etc.), it is the customer’s responsibility to pay the payment installment company directly.
  • Once shipping protection refunds the customer for their order, the customer must pay their installments to the payment installment company directly.

No tracking information

  • Shipping protection reserves the right to deny order issues where no tracking number/information is available. In these instances, shipping protection will reach out to the retailer to see if one can be provided.

Package in Pre-Shipment

  • Shipping protection reserves the right to deny order issues where package tracking is marked as "pre-shipment".

    Closed order issues

    • If a customer does not respond within 5 days, shipping protection will automatically close the order issues. Customers can open the order issues back up by responding to the original thread.

    Didn't want Route

    • If the customer’s package has not shipped, shipping protection can refund the protection premium.
    • If the item has shipped, shipping protection is already protecting the package and cannot refund the customer.

    Checkout requires ID verification

    • Shipping protection doesn’t upload our employee’s proof of ID to replace the customer’s order.

    • If the customer ordered from a store that requires the extra ID verification step, shipping protection can offer the customer a refund instead to protect each party’s identity.