I run a very small craft business and had a very loyal customer order $500+ worth of items from my online shop. The package was marked “delivered” 4 days ago by the USPS however the customer claims they never received it and now they’re freaking out.
I do have a policy on my site that clearly states that my business is not responsible for packages lost or stolen in transit and do offer insurance option at checkout, however the customer chose not to insure.
Aside from directing them to file a claim with their post office, as a the business owner, does anyone have advice for what next steps I should take to address the situation? Thank you.
Frequently, even if you have hostile terms and conditions labeling yourself as not responsible for shipment loss, you actually still are responsible for ensuring the customer receives the goods even if the a hippie company screws up. Particularly under credit card processing agreements. You might benefit from a tool like PirateShip where insurance comes from a private provider with much friendlier pricing than you get from the shipping firms themselves.
Filing a postal claim on an uninsured package does nothing generally speaking. What to do depends on your ethics and the value of this client and the cost of properly insuring future large shipments and what you envision the future of your firm to be.
Many people track the contact info and addresses of lost shipments so they can deny / ban a client that has too many or look for weird patterns.