By Imani Moise
Lost deliveries, shipping delays and theft on the front porch have become such growing problems that companies are making consumers pay for package protection.
Tens of thousands of online retailers now offer the service for a few dollars per order. The fees go to young companies—Route and Corso, to name two—that promise to make customers whole without charging the merchant if a delivery doesn’t arrive.
Consumers are finding that retailers either ask them to pay for package protection or draw a harder line when it comes to replacing a missing item. Some retailers are making the fees mandatory, spreading the burden of package theft among all customers.
To know whether you are paying the fee, review your order before you press purchase. Sometimes it is named after the company offering protection, and sometimes it is called shipping insurance or package protection.
Skincare brand Topicals began using Corso two years ago after seeing that 30% of its packages were regularly marked delivered but not received, according to customer insights manager Deja Jefferson. By requiring protection, which Topicals discloses on its shipping page, the company doesn’t have to worry about convincing customers to opt in.
“We actually don’t get any complaints on it whatsoever,” she said.
The buyers
Whether the package protection fees are easy to find or not depends largely on the retailer. Some brands automatically add optional coverage to orders. Customers have complained the fees are disclosed in small fonts, made to appear mandatory when they are not or are displayed late in the online checkout process.
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