Filing Claims

We realize that in the world of shipping, damages and losses happen. It is an inevitable part of doing business with large shipping carriers. Our Customer Support team is here to help you navigate the unfortunate instances and improve your post purchase experience.

Ship Essential has partnered with Shipsurance to provide you with discounted insurance rates for parcel and freight. While many carriers offer their own form of declared value coverage, they charge inordinate fees and have tiresome claims processes. Our partnership with Shipsurance will lower your coverage costs, speed up the claims process, and improve your customers’ post-purchase experience. For information regarding insuring through Shipsurance, please click here.

To improve the post purchase experience for your customers, we have partnered with Route. Route’s Protection service eliminates the need for a lengthy claims process with carriers by providing automated approvals and instant issue resolution.

Route offers eco-friendly package protection for lost, damaged, or stolen purchases at no cost to you. You can turn negative experiences into positive ones by empowering customers to self-resolve issues in seconds.

Please reach out to support@shipessential.com to learn more about offering Route Protection and to review exclusive pricing options. We highly recommend offering this service to your customers.

If the situation meets our requirements, Ship Essential will file a claim with UPS. Unfortunately, we are unable to file claims with USPS. We recommend that the recipient file a claim with USPS using this website. Because the local postal service acts as a final mile carrier, we are unable to file claims for packages sent using UPS Mail Innovations.

Unlike Route Protection and Shipsurance, the claims process with UPS can take several weeks, so we ask for your patience. If Ship Essential files a claim, we ask that the end customer not file one themselves. This can cause delays in processing, and in some cases, cause the carrier to deny a claim. If you are shipping orders with a value of $100 or greater, we strongly recommend purchasing additional insurance through the carrier. UPS cannot provide refunds for values over $100 if the order is NOT insured.

We will file claims for shipments that meet one or more of these requirements:

• Shipments that are insured through Shipsurance

• Shipments that have been shipped using a service that provides end-to-end tracking (ex: UPS Ground, 2nd Day, Next Day Air)

• Shipment arrived to customer damaged (external damage to box or mailer)

• Shipment was delivered to an address other than the one printed on the label

• Package is apparently lost in transit

We are unable to file claims in these cases:

• Shipments marked as Delivered or that have a final scan

• Shipments that have been stolen after the final scan

• International or domestic shipments sent via UPS Mail Innovations or APC

• Shipments with tracking information that says Arrival in Destination Country

• Shipments older than 90 days

• The loss or damage to goods is not apparent (concealed), at the time of delivery

Tracking and documentation requirements for UPS:

Important Notes:

• We do not cover the shipping or reshipment costs for the lost/damaged items.

• If the Insurance Value is over $300, we recommend requiring a signature. Signature required charges will be applied to your invoice.

• APO/FPO/DPO addresses are considered international by the carriers and are held to the 30-day tracking requirement before moving forward with a lost in transit claim.

• You can create a reshipment in the system by manually creating a new order in ShipHero.

How to File a Claim

To request that we file a claim with Shipsurance or UPS, please send the following information to support@shipessential.com:

• Order number

• Tracking number

• Retail invoice (ex: a pdf of the order page from Shopify)

• A brief summary of the situation

We ask for a retail invoice because UPS requires proof of payment and item value to proceed with claims. Including this in the claim request will speed up the process. Once we’ve reviewed your request and filed a claim, our customer support team will be in touch to update you on the status of your submission.

Once a claim has been submitted, UPS will review it. This review can take up to 8 business days. If UPS deems appropriate, they will issue a claim and reach out to us for payment documents. Issuing a claim means that they will conduct an investigation into the lost or damaged package. Investigations usually take 1 to 3 weeks. Payment documents are proof of the value of the items contained in the shipment (ie. retail invoice from shopify). Ship Essential will submit the payment documents to the UPS claims department.

If UPS finds that they were at fault, they will pay out the claim. An email notification is sent to Ship Essential support notifying us that a check will be sent. At this time, we will update you on the status of the claim. Checks typically take 5 to 7 business days to arrive. Once we have received the check, we will credit your account for the check amount. We are unable to credit your account until we have received the check from UPS. Note: for uninsured packages, UPS will pay out up to $100, regardless of the value. For orders with values greater than $100, you may purchase insurance through UPS.

Claim Issued: UPS has agreed to open an investigation and paperwork has been sent to the shipper of record.

Shipment Inspection Scheduled: UPS has scheduled an inspection of the damaged package. Updates to the inspection status will be on your dashboard as they become available.

Claim Reported – Supporting Document(s) Received: Your submitted documents or photos have been successfully uploaded to your claim.

Claim Review in Progress: Your claim is being reviewed by our claims department.

Claim Review Complete: Your claim investigation has been completed, and the results of the investigation are forthcoming.

Claim Not Approved – Insufficient Merchandise Description: UPS needs a detailed merchandise description to complete the investigation. You will see an icon in the dashboard alerting you to further action needed.

Claim Not Approved – Unable to Contact Receiver: UPS needs accurate receiver contact information to complete the investigation. You will see an icon in the dashboard alerting you that further action is needed.

Payment has been processed for your claim: Payment details are available on the dashboard to the authenticated shipper or shipper’s appointed representative.

In some cases, UPS will deny liability for lost or damaged packages. This can be a very frustrating outcome for everyone. If you would like to appeal a claim, let us know and we will escalate the claim to UPS management and ask for an appeal. We can not guarantee that UPS will agree to reopen the claim, nor can we guarantee that escalating will result in a pay out of the claim. Once a claim has been appealed, it will be reopened and investigated over the course of an additional 1 to 3 weeks.

If the appeal is denied, there is unfortunately nothing further we can do. Ship Essential is not liable for the cost of items that are lost, damaged, or stolen after they have left our facility.