Route Protection and Tracking

5/12/2020

Update: I am updating our review to 4 stars based on Routes follow-up on the issues in our first review.

Part of our issue is that we didn't spend enough time getting to understand the claims process. Customers can file their own claim using the link in the Route confirmation email. Our customer encountered an error in this process. The screen on his mobile device froze and he could not process the claim. We were unaware that we can also process a claim on their behalf using the Route dashboard in Shopify Apps. As is the case with most unhappy customer experiences our anxiety about getting them taken care of quickly created a tense situation. If we had been more aware of our ability to assist in filing the claim we may not have been as frustrated with Routes initial slow response to the issue. Route did respond within a couple business days which I felt was unacceptable and is one of two things they need to fix. The second being the customer experience with filing a claim on their mobile device. I did ask to be made aware of what created this issue and that it has been resolved. I have not heard back.

Overall the Route App is solid. I don't agree with other reviews about the difficulty installing the code. It was easy for us and Route helped to get it completed in a timely basis.

The service itself is very popular. We sell high ticket goods and nearly all customers opt in to Route.

Route quickly paid the claim and initiated an order through Shopify on the customers behalf. They used a credit card on the system so FGI and the customer were made whole.

I would also like to know more about what is required in making a claim. And what Route does with the carrier in return. What happens to the damaged goods? Who pays to ship them back? How does a carrier receive feedback about damaged shipments so they can improve their ship service? But these are not high priority questions.

If Route continues to improve and the service continues to be popular we'll be along term happy customer.

Kevin Sullivan
CEO
Forever Green Indoors

5/2/2020

UPDATE: After escalating the claim to a number of people I received communication from a Route Executive and another individual who were both helpful and apologetic about the delayed responses to our customer. He offered the customer an option for a refund, or a replacement. The customer elected for a replacement and Route purchased the product on his behalf to settle the claim. This was our first experience with a claim, and although not ideal, it seems to have satisfied our customer so we are satisfied as well at this time. I moved the review up to 3 stars. And I will move it up again if we continue to experience positive improvement with the Route team. I now recommend Route again, with the caveat that it would be a good idea to discuss expectations of claim communication. I'm unsure if the issue our customer faced with the mobile app for making claims has been fixed. We'll do what we can to look in to that. It would have likely avoided much of this review.

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5/1/2020

Very disappointed with Route. I had high hopes with the service. Our customers were nearly unanimously selecting to pay for the extra coverage. Our first claim involved an unhappy customer who received a badly damaged product shipped by UPS. The customer was unable to file a claim with route. Repeated attempts to contact sales failed. Unsure if the people who sold us this are even working there now. Had some success with technical support connecting us with a product support person who sent a curt email that Route was experiencing "high volumes of claims due to Covid 19". I am really disappointed in Route and we've disabled it in our cart. If the matter is resolved I'll change this review. At this point I'd give it fewer than one star for the money they collected versus the service they have provided. Avoid this app.

The app was installed okay and works. Customers are just not using the service. https://www.kinkytoy.store/

We have been using this service for a couple of months now. Almost every customer selects it at check out. BUT route denies every claim. So disappointing. This was supposed to help customers feel more secure about packages being protected but this app is such a letdown. We will be going back to our old insurance app.

I have never written a review but I felt like I had to in order to WARN YOU of route's FRAUDULENT business model.
They do not honor anything they claim to protect. They just say, this claim did not fit our protection policy. they make money off of you and PISS your customers OFF!

We are currently self insuring our packaging, we are very happy and immediately send a replacement in case of a loss or damage and we are in control of our customers happiness and the money WE KEEP kind of evens out WITH THE MONEY OF LOSS. SO, if route is legitimate, how can they make profit and satisfy your customers?

THE ANSWER IS THEY DON'T, THEY ONLY MAKE MONEY AND LEAVE YOU AND YOUR CUSTOMER PISSED.

UTTER DISRESPECT.

There have been more customers buy this than I expected. Seems like customers (and us) see a lot of value in the insurance since it is so cheap to get. Excited to keep using this for our business!

App is just okay. I'm not sure it's worth the money with the issues you get. They withdrawal their money automatically weekly and my biggest issue is when I ship a package, it doesn't not update the tracking number. We have to enter it in. My customer are asking me all the time what is unfulfilled on there order and it always Route. It's some what of a pain.

Customer service is unresponsive and promises a 2-5 day wait for fee installations, but delays extend beyond 2 weeks. The chat option is manned by a bot, not a person, leading to prolonged response times via email. Ultimately unhelpful, I uninstalled the app and suggest exploring alternatives. As a business owner, this level of customer service is unacceptable.

Initial experience was great! The service was exceptional and helped us tremendously through the 2019 Holiday season. Our connection broke sometime in early 2020 and we didn't notice until May (we didn't have any shipping issues). I was surprised no one from Route reached out to us regarding the disconnect from our website. We recently had our first claim in months and it has been a nightmare. ZERO communication from Route. The dashboard doesn't work (well, maybe if you let it load for 15 MINUTES!). Hearing back from customer service took almost a full week.

I can not say that I recommend this service. I used it for more than six months and during all this time I had THREE cases related to delivery problems. And only ONCE did Route cover the cost of the lost item. The last time I received an alarm notification from the post office about a parcel. Track number did not work. I wrote Rout's support and was told they couldn't help with it. Hundreds of dollars for six months to pay for the "service" is nowhere. Just weird.

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.