Understand and act upon carrier returns

Introduction

Carrier returns are deliveries that the carrier sends back to the warehouse. This situation may occur occasionally in cases of an incorrect address, a parcel not collected from a pickup point, an unavailable recipient, or the recipient's refusal to accept the package.

This guide is your go-to resource for understanding and managing carrier returns.

Note that carrier returns are different from Customer Returns. Customer returns involve a product being returned by the customer due to dissatisfaction, defects, or other reasons after purchase.

Types of Carrier Returns

1. Carrier Return: Not Picked Up

When pickup carriers return a package after it has been “Available for pickup”, it's usually because the customer didn't pick it up on time, though occasionally the carrier may return it before the pickup window ends.

What to do

• Contact your customer (if they haven’t already) to refund or duplicate the order
• If the time at pickup did not comply with carrier commitments, contact us to open a carrier claim.

How long does the package stay at pick up?

2. Carrier Return: Refused by Recipient

The recipient refused the package because they weren’t expecting an order or did not want it for reasons we may not know.

What to do

• Check the parcel tracking history for more information

💡 Bigblue’s tracking modal is often more accurate than carrier tracking pages, learn more.

• Reach out to the customers who refused the delivery to understand their reasons.
• Based on the situation, offer a refund or duplicate the order

3. Carrier Return: Incorrect Address

The carrier was not able to deliver the parcel to the order address because it was incomplete or incorrect.

What to do

• Get in touch with the customer to discuss the incorrect address
• Based on the situation, offer a refund or duplicate the order with a modified address
• If you think the address is correct, please contact us so that we open a carrier claim
  • Note that when the carrier claims that they had incorrect delivery details, it’s often hard to get compensation from the carrier.

4. Carrier Return: Default

Carrier returns may occur for various other reasons, including:

• Multiple failed deliveries, and customer unavailability
• The destination was restricted or gated.

What to do

• Check the parcel tracking history for more information

💡 Bigblue’s tracking modal is often more accurate than carrier tracking pages, learn more.

• Get in touch with the customer to discuss the resolution: refund or duplicate the order
• If you think it’s an abusive return from the carrier, contact our support team to open a claim

In what cases can a claim be open in case of a carrier return?

A carrier return is considered abusive in the following cases:

• The carrier has not attempted any delivery: this can be checked in the order timeline.
• For Home Delivery, the carrier has attempted only one delivery (instead of 2) before the parcel is returned or falls back to a pickup point.
  • except for Colis Privé (only 1 delivery attempt).
  • except when the carrier is waiting for instructions from the recipient.
• The carrier did not respect the dwell time commitment.

A return is not considered as abusive if:

• Enough delivery attempts are visible in the order timeline.
• The carrier states that they had incorrect/missing delivery details.
• There has been a communication between the carrier and the recipient.

Find more about Bigblue's Compensation Policy.

Best practices

Carrier tracking pages can be confusing

Some carriers like Colissimo or Royal Mail do not display clearly on their tracking page that the package is being returned to our warehouse. Please note that “Delivered” in this case can mean “the package being returned was delivered to the warehouse”.

The Bigblue tracking modal helps you clarify the real status of the package.

How to reduce carrier returns

• If you haven’t, activate the tracking page and tracking emails so that customers
  • can self-edit incorrect addresses. It will decrease the carrier returns due to incorrect addresses
  • receive clear updates when there are failed attempts
  • are reminded when a package is waiting at the pickup point
• In your CMS, verify that everything is set up so that you require both the email and phone number. Complete customer credentials help ensure customers receive all updates from the carrier.
  • Email for tracking updates (from Bigblue, from the carrier)

  • Phone number can be used by the delivery person to call the recipient

    Find more information on the set up for Shopify brands

We hope this article helped you understand and find leverage to reduce carrier returns. Let’s mitigate these returns to increase profit margin and reduce the environmental footprint of carrier returns.