FedEx guarantees the on-time delivery of your all Ground and Express packages, but not every shipment is on time. But, if FedEx delivers your package just 60 seconds late, you are entitled to a 100 percent refund of the shipping charges. Let’s look at FedEx Money Back Guarantee Waivers. Including where to find them in your agreement and why is FedEx doing this.

FedEx Money-Back Guarantee Waiver

We have seen an increase in companies waiving the right to late delivery refunds.  These FedEx Money-Back Guarantee Waivers or GSR Waivers are added to the agreement in exchange for extra incentives or additional discounts. We discourage these late delivery refund waivers since these incentives can usually be obtained without a waiver.  For the most part, these additional discounts and incentives will never be realized.  

If it were advantageous for a shipper to waive the right to claim money back for late deliveries, the carriers would NOT be pushing for this!

Regularly, FedEx shippers are misled into thinking they are required to sign a Money-Back Guarantee Waiver. The carrier presents these as essential provisions to achieve deeper discounts on shipping rates. Or simply to be in good graces with the carrier. This is not the case.

Should I sign the FedEx Money-Back Guarantee Waiver?

What is accountability? Accountability is the obligation of an individual or organization to account for its activities and accept responsibility.

Without the ability to get a refund for late delivery, you cannot hold FedEx accountable to the commitments outlined in your carrier agreement.

Working with Refund Retriever ensures accountability by securing qualified refunds on late deliveries. Similarly ensuring on-time delivery to your customers. The true cost of transportation impacts businesses in everyday operations.

How do I find the FedEx Money-Back Guarantee Waiver in my contract?

FedEx almost always includes a money-back guarantee language in fine print. Look at your FedEx Contract under “MONEY BACK GUARANTEE AND OTHER PROVISIONS.” Do you see:

• “Customer is entitled to request refunds under the Money-Back Guarantee Policy provisions of the FedEx Service Guide for all FedEx Ground services.”
• “Customer is entitled to request refunds pursuant to the Money-Back Guarantee Policy provisions of the FedEx Service Guide for all FedEx Express services.”

If you see the above wording, you DO NOT have a waiver. Therefore you are able to request refunds for late packages.  But, if you see the wording below, you cannot get any refunds.

• “Customer waives the right to request refunds under the FedEx Money-Back Guarantee as specified in the FedEx Service Guide.”

Additional discounts are never realized

FedEx will sometimes offer additional incentives for waiving the right to claim late delivery refunds.  This can be in the form of:

• 1-2% package rate discount on a certain service or
• A small discount on an accessorial fee for a certain amount of time

However, this discount is overshadowed by other fees causing you to never realize the benefits.  To give you an idea, let’s say someone shipping a majority of lightweight packages receives a 30% discount on Ground rates. Including an additional 2% discount for a late refund waiver means they should see a 32% discount on all packages.

Shipping a 3-pound Ground package to Zone 5, the standard list rate cost is $10.12.

• First, let’s apply the 32% discount ($3.24 discount)
• The shipper should only pay ($10.12 – $3.24) $6.88 for that package.
• Consequently, there is a minimum package charge. Automatically, your agreement stipulates the lowest amount to pay is a Zone 2 one-pound package. In 2018 this is $7.25.
• Therefore, there is $.37 worth of discounts that you are not realizing, including your additional 2% waiver benefits.
• To summarize, the true discount for this package is only 28%.

In addition, say you get a discount on an accessorial fee. These accessorial fee discounts have an expiration date, but the waiver does not.  Therefore, after 12 months, you are again paying full price, AND the waiver is still in effect!

Why is FedEx requesting a waiver?

Professional auditing companies do much more than just late delivery refunds.  We can find other mistakes in your invoices.

• duplicate billings
• missing discount rates
• erroneous Saturday fees
• dimensional weight errors
• packages manifested but never shipped (UPS voids)
• as well as other errors.

FedEx knows we rely on credits from late refunds to provide reports and analytics. Without refund credits, identification of other mistakes is now all in your hands.

Refund Retriever can also help:

• Analyze your shipping spend
• Show inefficiencies in your shipping
• Help understand where your shipping dollars are actually going
• Shipping data and performance in your hands can cost the FedEx and UPS millions of dollars a year

Have your FedEx representative provide an impact summary. Learn how many packages will receive this “additional discount.”  Similarly, how much will this save your company each month? Your FedEx rep can provide analytics.

Do not agree to a FedEx Money Back Guarantee Waiver

• Proper negotiation and data analysis can produce additional incentives.
• Maintain the right to hold FedEx accountable for delivery failures.
• In summary, do not sacrifice service for a price. In the end, it is your customer who suffers from service failures.

If you have any questions or concerns regarding the FedEx Money-Back Guarantee waiver, we are here to help. Similarly, contact us for information about contract negotiating services.