ÉLÉVATIONE review for Route Protection and Tracking
Feb. 6, 2021
Everything about their business model is broken. First off, they pitch you that Route is free to merchants. That's not true. They tack on their "protection-product" at checkout, and you pay merchant fees + Shopify commission on their plans. Secondly, the customer experience is awful. Put yourself in your customer's shoes, they order from you, and their package never arrives, despite the carrier saying they delivered it. First thing they do is contact you "hey where's my package?" You send them to route to file a claim, who then says "ok, it's probably stolen, go file a police report and upload it." Ok, when is the last time you filed a police report? Yeah, I didn't think so. So the customer is left frustrated, and harassing you. In the 5 months I used route, they approved a grand total of one claim, while making anywhere between $5k-$9k from us. Instead, move towards self-insuring. Call it package protection, offer it to your customers, and keep the money for a couple times a month you'll need to reship. Route is well funded, with an aggressive sales team, but in the end, their business model makes zero sense. If you'll think about it, you'll know I'm right. Worst of all, I'm pretty sure these guys have been paying off app developers who make competing products. A really well-built app shut down overnight and is now "recommending" route. *caugh *caugh.
Hi there, Thanks so much for your candid feedback. We are always looking to improve our practices and greatly appreciate you sharing these details. Our sincerest apologies that your experience fell short of expectations, both with platform fees and Route protection policies. In accordance with our policies, Route Package Protection is free for merchants and available for purchase to customers on the cart page. However, please note that if you use any 3rd party platforms such as Shopify or PayPal, they may incur their own separate fees. We were able to look into your customer claims, and it appears that - out of those unapproved - the majority were filed either out of coverage timeframe or the customer was unresponsive after the request was sent to post a police report. Per Route policy, we do require short waiting periods for delivered (but not received) or stuck-in-transit items to ensure they weren't prematurely marked as delivered or temporarily held up en route. Additionally, we require police reports for high-priced orders delivered but not received to help us and local authorities track trends and ensure reorders arrive safely. I hope this helps clarify your customer claim resolutions, but we are so sorry for any confusion caused regarding our package protection coverage and police report requirements. For a more detailed outline of our policies, please see: https://help.route.com/hc/en-us/articles/360041131194-Route-Package-Protection-Policies. Our specialists are trained to give step-by-step instructions on how to file a report, and we are so sorry if any information remained unclear for you and your customers. We have flagged this feedback to our team and are reviewing police report filing instructions to ensure they're as clear as possible. We do currently offer features for merchants to customize their coverage to better fit their business practices and build a more seamless customer service flow. Should you be interested in exploring those options in the future, feel free to reach out to us at [email protected]. Again, we greatly appreciate you sharing your experience, but we are truly sorry for any frustration or misunderstandings caused regarding platform fees or protection policies. Please let us know if you have further feedback or questions, and we'd be happy to assist. All the best, Jordan, Customer Service
Shipping Insurance & Immersive Order Tracking | Route App