Failed deliveries and return to sender
A parcel that cannot be delivered is retried, held at a point and sent back, and each step costs time and money. Clean addresses at the label, the right service and an early alert prevent most of it.
A failed delivery is paid for more than once. It is carried twice, often stored, frequently returned, and the customer who wanted it has to be told something. Most of them are caused before the parcel leaves.
The carrier sequence
Each network has its own sequence, set out in the terms you accepted. A typical one is one to three attempts on following working days, a card or a message to the recipient, then delivery to a nearby pickup point where the parcel waits for a fixed number of days. If nobody collects it, the parcel goes back to the sender. Where the address itself is wrong, the network either corrects it, for a fee, or returns the parcel straight away.
The cost of a failure
A return to sender is charged under the carrier's terms: often the outbound price again, sometimes a fixed fee, plus any correction charge. Then comes the cost no carrier invoices: the customer service time, the second shipment, the refund or the lost sale. On our rates, what a carrier charges for an undeliverable or returned-to-sender parcel follows the terms you accepted and is passed through at cost, on its own line, like any other transport charge.
The cheapest failed delivery is the one that never leaves with a bad address on it.
Causes of failure
Failures start at the address (a missing house number, a flat number in the wrong field, a postcode that does not match the town, a business address with no company name), at the choice of service (home delivery to a shopper who is out all day, when a pickup point or a locker would have worked first time) and at the timing (a customer who does not know the parcel is arriving that day).
Prevention
Address validation runs at label creation and is included in every plan, so an address that cannot be delivered is caught at the bench rather than at the door. The rule that picks the carrier can send parcels to a pickup-point or locker service where the shopper chose one, and the delivery options guide covers which to offer where. Delays, failed attempts and carrier exceptions surface in your account as they happen, named against the item and the order, so your team can contact the customer before the parcel starts back. And the bulk notify action on the Tracking page sends one message per customer when a batch is affected.
Customer messages
Many failed attempts happen to customers who did not know the parcel was arriving that day. A tracking page on your own domain, with the status in one set of words whichever network carries the parcel, and a message when the parcel is out for delivery, give the customer the chance to be in, to choose a neighbour or to redirect it to a point.
Returned parcels
A parcel returned to sender is received against the identity its outbound label created, so the warehouse knows the item before the box is opened and the stock figure follows. Whether to reship, refund or contact the customer is your decision, made with the order, the address and the carrier's events in front of you.
Questions we get asked.
How many delivery attempts does a carrier make?
It depends on the network and the service, commonly one to three, before the parcel goes to a pickup point or back to the sender. The terms you accepted for that service set the sequence.
Who pays for a parcel returned to sender?
The shipper, under the carrier's terms. On our rates the charge is passed through at cost as its own line.
Can I redirect a parcel after a failed attempt?
Many networks allow the recipient to choose another day or a pickup point from the carrier's message. Contacting the customer when the first attempt fails gives them that chance.
Does address validation cost extra?
No. It runs at label creation on every plan.
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