Route Protection and Tracking

Our relationship with Route was over before it began - a relentless and extremely presumptuous (borderline rude, to be honest) sales and onboarding strategy reflect poorly on your brand. Aside from your incredibly irritating sales team, the app itself really doesn't seem automated or useful enough to be worth it.

We removed it because it was difficult for our customers to get in contact with their customer service and then they only offer refunds up to 15 days after an order is delivered. In the end it caused us more issues in customer service than before. Their setup on the site was pretty good and they helped us customize it, so giving them 2 stars instead of 1.

We heard about Route through ShineOn during a FB live session or zoom or something like that. We were made to understand that there was no cost to merchants and 1% of the cart value to be paid by the customer which seemed like a bargain based on what the big-boy carriers charge for "insurance" and how cumbersome their claim processes are. We couldn't see a downside. So we pulled the trigger. We got very good onboarding assistance but then had to do a ton of manual work when we had some shopify updates to our store. It took a lot of time and frustration to finally get Route operational on the store. Once it was there, we had about 50% take rate on customers leaving the switch on upon checkout. After several months, we have had a single customer claim and it was handled beautifully. Based on that, we decided to go the extra step and add route at no cost to the customer for every item in our store. It was a customer service and loyalty based strategic decision -- it took only 2 emails to Route and it was all done on their side. I had no additional work to do to our store. Simple, stupid, easy, breezy. When we received the first invoice after the switch, I was disappointed to find that our charge wasn't 1% of the cart as had been represented on the ShineOn session we'd attended but "up to 2%" of the cart and we're definitely being charged "up to 2%". Yes, when I looked today to read all the fine print, there is a statement regarding "cart value up to 2" but that wasn't what had been represented at the initial presentation. Logic would seem to say that when Route is assured of a steady stream of revenue from an e-commerce store having chosen to provide their product/service on every sale that the rate would be at the low end, not even at the middle and certainly not on the high end. Sort of similar to how credit card processing fees, tiered volume/quantity discount pricing or wholesale vs. resale pricing works. Instead it feels kind of like being an established cable or cell phone customer and not getting the best deals like a new customer gets. Long story short for Route: it's a customer satisfier, it takes a layer of customer service work away from my day to day and it's relatively simple to get functional on a Shopify store. I just wish their "best" pricing applied to shops who gave them the vote of confidence by putting their protection on every order. So room for that elusive 5th star if they get their pricing in order...

This company gives a good sales pitch, but doesn't follow through. The experience for both the customer and on the admin side is sub par. Don't let this company represent your brand's customer service. It's especially not sufficient for perishable companies even though they claim that "we insure all kinds of perishable companies." We wasted a bunch of time on this. Don't waste yours.

Waste of time. The insurance option never appeared on the checkout and continuous efforts to get support never yielded any results. The app is a great idea and Shopify desperately needs a working app for shipping insurance but unfortunately this app is note ready for prime time :(

I had to uninstall this app. It feels scammy. They would not credit me for purchases that were cancelled. There is no way to reconcile the charges. The customer service is non-existent.

Stay away.

Terrible app. I have barely had this app for a month and it is terrible. I received several emails to update my billing (which does not even make sense as there have been NO changes with my billing), I try to login in to see what the issue is and I get an error stating there is no account associated with my email. HUH? HOW? I went through my list of emails and nothing. I send in a support request (mind you, it took 5 days to get any sort of response from customer support) and they say the only email they have on file is THE ONE I HAD TYPED IN 5 TIMES. Absolutely ridiculous and frustrating and now I have tons of orders with no package coverage because of this terrible app.

We finally got a lovely person (Katie) to provide us some support and help regarding the appin the end. But by that point there had just been too many issues to make it worthwhile. First, setup is not easy or smooth. Secondly, they modified some things in our checkout process that we didn't want and we had to have them resolve it. Next, we see clients adding it (or having it default and them not deselecting it) so ok....But we never saw or got notice of when a new order was needed to be shipped to a client. It was not a painless, smooth or easy process that they lead you to believe when making their sales pitch AT ALL. It also required you to log on over to their site and see and track things there. Sorry, I don't see that making life any easier. Then I guess we had 1 maybe 2 orders with issues and they reached out to us and said that we were having too many issues and had to raise rates/change the setup as it wasn't working for them. What?!?! In the end, it didn't save us any time, energy or ease of frustration with order issues. Spent awhile looking around at other apps and we'll move on to one of them. If we are going to have the headaches anyways, then why are we giving them the money? Would give it a 1 star were it not for the help Katie was kind enough to provide in the end.

It's a good idea and I guess it gives customers confidence. Although I'm not sure how the claim process works since my customers didn't have to make a claim. My problem with Route is that they claim that the service is free, while it's not. The way it works is the customer adds to cart "Route package protection" as an insurance and basically adds that cost to the order. Then, Route charges me for that same cost, the merchant is just the middle man, in theory. But in reality, they don't take into account fees associated with the sale (shopify fee, paypal fee etc...). Which is a few cents per order. It might not seem a lot for 1 order but on thousands of orders it starts to add up. Moreover, it's not free as they advertise it, and they know it. When confronting support about it they tried to circumvent the problem saying it's "paypal's fault, contact paypal, it's your store's fault etc..." But it's not, it's the way the app works. At one point after all the evidence I brought and when they couldn't deny anymore, they just stopped responding, I deleted the app. The concept is good, but shady practices and poor customer service doesn't make me want to continue with them. Moreover after reading the last reviews, I'm happy I don't have to deal with them anymore. You shouldn't either.

A company that will pay for all your customers' lost, stolen and damaged packages at no cost to you? If it sounds too good to be true, it might be. Over six weeks, Route paid five claims for lost and stolen packages. But our first damage claim—and more importantly, the company's handling of it—caused us to deactivate the app.

We sell luxury baby gear, so the safety and integrity of our products is of the utmost importance. A customer contacted Route when her $1,400 product arrived with a 3-foot gash and numerous holes in the box, which resulted in scratches and dents. Route tersely informed her that she was not eligible for a replacement or refund because the damages were "only cosmetic," not functional. Route instead offered a $150 refund, which would not come close to covering the cost of replacement parts. The customer was outraged and is planning to file a chargeback against us, which would quickly erase the financial gains we made with Route.

Route's website makes no mention to customers or retailers that claims may be only partially covered. Prior to implementation, the sales rep assured us repeatedly that Route does not meddle in the details of claims—he said their goal is to make these claims easy for both us and the customer. In reality, they are asking customers to file police reports for any lost item over $100, and their team is arguing with customers about the value of damaged products. Plus, our account manager on multiple occasions threatened to raise our rate from 1% to 3% because we had five claims in six weeks. Route will work for you some of the time or hopefully, even most of the time. But for us, the benefits did not outweigh the risk to our customer satisfaction and company reputation.