Strolleria review for Route: Post‑Purchase Platform

Nov. 5, 2019

A company that will pay for all your customers' lost, stolen and damaged packages at no cost to you? If it sounds too good to be true, it might be. Over six weeks, Route paid five claims for lost and stolen packages. But our first damage claim—and more importantly, the company's handling of it—caused us to deactivate the app. We sell luxury baby gear, so the safety and integrity of our products is of the utmost importance. A customer contacted Route when her $1,400 product arrived with a 3-foot gash and numerous holes in the box, which resulted in scratches and dents. Route tersely informed her that she was not eligible for a replacement or refund because the damages were "only cosmetic," not functional. Route instead offered a $150 refund, which would not come close to covering the cost of replacement parts. The customer was outraged and is planning to file a chargeback against us, which would quickly erase the financial gains we made with Route. Route's website makes no mention to customers or retailers that claims may be only partially covered. Prior to implementation, the sales rep assured us repeatedly that Route does not meddle in the details of claims—he said their goal is to make these claims easy for both us and the customer. In reality, they are asking customers to file police reports for any lost item over $100, and their team is arguing with customers about the value of damaged products. Plus, our account manager on multiple occasions threatened to raise our rate from 1% to 3% because we had five claims in six weeks. Route will work for you some of the time or hopefully, even most of the time. But for us, the benefits did not outweigh the risk to our customer satisfaction and company reputation.