Local customer orders UPS or FedEx 2-Day

Do you refund difference?

[sun818]

Hi, I occassionally have local customers order UPS or FedEx 2-Day for a service area that will arrive next day or two day via Ground service.

1) Do you ship using the shipping method the customer paid for?
2) Do you calculate the difference and refund it?
3) Or do you ship Ground and keep the difference as profit?

[philbish]

3) ship Ground and keep the difference as profit

[Slique]

i may be misunderstanding the question, so i qualify my answer.

from a customer perspective, if i asked for upgraded shipping, and paid for upgraded shipping, i expect upgraded shipping. customers may ask and pay for odd things but are most satisfied when their expectations are met/exceeded.

you can handle this situation by:
1) messaging on your shipping pages your shipping policy/practice in these cases (i.e. you choose to ship ground to certain zones regardless of what shipping method was payed for/selected)
2) satisfy the customer need/want in the manner you feel makes the most business sense

[Rugles]

We manually clear credit cards, so we make the adjustment on the order and give the customer a nice surprise.

I think it is a good way to get positive word of mouth and repeat customers.

[Rachel]

As long as it's not around the holidays, we ship Ground, and refund the difference. If it's holiday time, I use the option they paid for since USP/FedEx guarantee the delivery date.

[corbing]

If it's holiday time, I use the option they paid for since USP/FedEx guarantee the delivery date.

UPS has had a guarantee on their ground service for several years now.

We always adjust the shipping price/method for customers. It just seems like the right thing to do.

[Rachel]

corbing, I know that's what they say on their site, but in almost 6 years, I've never been able to get them to pay when a ground delivery is late.

[bostonte]

I have some very strange customers that live in a 1-day delivery zone for USPS Priority (which is free on my site), but consistantly order $14 worth of product and pay $14 for FedEx 2-day.

I don't understand it.

I hold the order as long as I can without delaying it (i.e. until the absolute latest pickup) and try my best to get in touch with the customer.

50% of them are thrilled to have a credit and take the free shipping. The other 50% just say thank you for asking, but no -- I would prefer FedEx.

I don't argue with them -- if they want to pay more, fine. But I like to think confirming it with the customer is the best thing to do, rather than just shipping it FedEx or refunding and shipping Priority.

Some people just prefer FedEx. One lady chooses FedEx because the FedEx guy can get in the door and leave it on her desk at work. If I ship USPS to work, it goes through the mail room and everyone knows she's getting personal mail at work.

Ya never know their motives, I think it pays in customer-service to politely offer them the choice.

[hfwd]

Manually crediting orders gets progressively harder to do once your operation scales up.

I think it's better to explain it clearly online when your customer is making the shipping choice. Say that customers in these areas may save more money by choosing UPS Ground vs. Express, etc.