Forum Moderators: buckworks
We clearly state on our website that orders normally take 1-2 days to ship depending on volume both in our shipping infomation page as well as during the checkout process. We also reiterate this in all order confirmation e-mails. So we basically tell the customer this two time directly with each transaction and a third indirectly(on the shipping info page).
Yet I still get people sending us disgruntled e-mails because an order doesn't arrive the second day after they place the order if the select the 2nd day shipping or better yet, I will get an e-mail from someone the next evening after they place an order with 1 business day shipping because they are disgruntled that it has not been delivered yet.
If this was happening occasionally, I wouldn't sweat it, but this happens 2-3 a week.
How do you folks handle this type of thing and what ways have you found to get it accross to people that the shipping method is the time in transit when it departs your location and not the amount of time between when they place the order and when the order is on there doorstep?
If a non-stock item is ordered (the item clearly states "usually ships in 2-3 days") and expedited shipping is requested, we email that person, and explain the timing. Typically, they will either cancel the order (because they really do need it right away, and simply mis-read the availibility), or switch to Ground shipping.
In your case, you mention it takes 1-2 days to ship an order:
a) Can you make a special case for "expedited shipping" orders, get them shipped the same day, and recover your extra costs thru a handling fee?
b) if these orders must take 1-2 days to process (perhaps you're drop-shipping, or you need to do a stock transfer), perhaps you are better off not offering expedited shipping as an option.
In general, I see the customers' point-of-view. Why offer expedited shipping but not expedited order processing?
It's a fair assumption that someone who is paying big bucks for expedited shipping really needs the items Now, and probably wouldn't have placed an order knowing the extra cost was wasted.
Shipping
========
Standard
2nd Day Air
Overnight
No matter how much text you put elsewhere, a certain percentage of customers are going to assume "2nd day" really means "2nd day."
An alternative is to use terms that don't specifically have timeframes in their names. e.g.
Shipping
=========
Standard (4-7 business days)
Expedited (2-3 business days)
Priority Express (1-2 business days)
Because the shipping names themselves don't imply timeframes, customers are forced to read the information in the parens.
