Lost, damaged or late parcels

When a parcel is lost, damaged or late, the carrier pays, under the terms you accepted when you switched that service on. We are not the carrier and we do not insure the goods, so we do not settle the claim ourselves; we file it in your name with the evidence already attached, and the carrier decides under its own terms. Where that lands short of the value of the goods, the gap is yours to cover, so decide on cover before anything goes missing.

The carrier contract

Your transport contract is with the carrier. When you activate a carrier service in your account you accept that carrier's terms electronically, and from then on you are the shipper and the principal on every label it produces; we are responsible for the software. Loss, damage, delay and a parcel left at the wrong door sit with the carrier under the transport contract, which is why a claim runs under its terms.

Those terms set the standard of proof, the deadline for reporting damage and the amount the carrier pays once it accepts. So we keep a register of every carrier terms version you accepted, with the date and an acceptance reference, time-stamped and archived for ten years, and hand it to you on first request.

Our part in a claim

Most of the time in a claim goes on finding the label, the scans, the proof of delivery and the invoice line, and getting them into one file the carrier will accept. Your account already holds all of that, because it issued the label and it read the invoice.

Where we administer the carrier account, which is the case on our negotiated rates in France and the United Kingdom, we file the claim in your name with the label, the declaration, the scans and the invoice line attached. On a carrier account you hold yourself, the claim goes to your carrier under your own contract, and we prepare the file in the same way, because an account you bring gets the same labels, tracking and invoice audit as ours.

Filing does not move the liability. We put the claim in front of the carrier, and the carrier remains the party that pays.

The carrier pays, we do the filing, and any cover above its terms is yours to decide on before anything goes missing.

The evidence

A claim stands on the label, the declaration, the scans and the invoice line. The label proves the parcel existed with this content at this weight and size, the scans show where it was last seen even when it changed networks halfway, and the invoice line proves the service was bought and paid for. All of that is in your account before you ask for it.

The rest of the evidence comes from you. For damage, the recipient's photos of the box and of its contents, taken before anything goes in the bin and sent promptly, because the carrier's terms set a deadline for reporting damage and a photo taken once the packaging is gone does not help you. For loss, the date your customer first told you it had not arrived.

Your declaration

You declare the weight, the dimensions and the nature of each shipment when the label is created, and accurate data is your responsibility under the contract. A claim is argued against those figures. If the box was heavier than the label said, or the contents differed from the declaration, that is where the carrier pushes back, so declare them as they are and keep the sales invoice, because the sales invoice proves the value of the goods.

The carrier's payment for a lost or damaged parcel is set in its terms, and it can be less than the goods are worth. If the service you bought takes a declared value, give the real one, and the terms set the carrier's payment against that figure.

Declaring a value does not insure the goods. We provide no transport insurance, and nothing entered on a label changes that. Cover beyond the carrier's terms is your decision and your policy, and the same evidence file serves that claim. Any option you choose at label creation shows in your account as a line at the carrier price, like every other charge.

Late or lost

A late parcel is a claim under the carrier's terms like the other two, and whether it earns a credit depends on whether the service you bought carries a delivery commitment. The terms you accepted say which services do.

Before a delay can be a claim it has to be a delay and not a loss. The consolidated status in your account answers that, including when the parcel moved to a second network mid-journey and the first tracking number went quiet. A late parcel scanned yesterday is a delay; one with no scan since pick-up is treated as lost and the claim is filed as a loss.

A late delivery does not give you the value of the goods, because they arrived. If the carrier credits the service under its terms, that credit is yours, because transport money passes through us at cost.

Up to the limit in the carrier's terms, the goods are paid for by the carrier once the claim is accepted, and above that by you or your insurer. The replacement parcel is a new label and counts against your plan allowance like any other. Our part is the software, the evidence and the filing, and on our rates every charge and option is a line you can read in your account.