ShipMonk | Order Fulfillment

A deceptive, unethical, incompetent and extortionately priced 3PL. TLDR (Too Long Don't Read Summary): Stay far away. They almost took out our small new business. Absolutely NOT a solution for small businesses, ESPECIALLY those with many SKUs. 1. Incompetent: Lost inventory and refused to compensate (their contract DOES state they are not liable for loss or theft!!) 2 Deceptive: Sales sent a shipping rate card but actual shipping costs were 2-3 times the rate card in many cases due to them claiming 'volumetric weight'. They also refused to quote special project charges until AFTER the job is done! The OPPPOSITE to what is stated on their website! 3. Extortionate: All of our SKUs (tshirts) were placed in XL bins instead of bins actually suitable for their size. This meant actual storage fees more than doubled. It also cost us hundreds of dollars in pick fees to close our account and get out. 4. Unethical: Their sales team flat out lied regarding storage fees and shipping fees, even though we stressed we wanted maximum value as a new business in a cutthroat marketplace. Detailed critique: Shipmonk have been by far the absolute worst business to business experience EVER. And we have seen a lot in 40 years.
We only lasted 2 months with them and sustained thousands of dollars in losses. Do not be fooled by their glittering website and their plethora of awards. What we are about to say is fully documented by invoices and business email communications. In fairness to Shipmonk, we didnt experience any picking errors and their customer support was well meaning, however the negatives far outweigh these as you will soon find out. The sales team painted a rosy picture of shipmonk regarding value and efficiency, that turned out to be a blatant and complete lie. The first issue was storage. Sales mentioned the different bin sizes $1, $2 , $3 and $4 and that every SKU needs a seperate bin. We had 55 SKUs of flat tshirts, and calculated that they would fit in small, medium and a few large bins costing about $120 a month. We got our first invoice, and was shocked to find that ALL our SKUs were placed in 75 XL $4 bins, costing $300 a month!! When we confronted shipmonk, they said its because all your SKUs are SLOW MOVING, AND SLOW MOVING SKUS go in XL bins by default. Only fast moving SKUs go in small and medium bins. We were also charged for 75 bins instead of 55 bins because the supplier incorrectly packed the shipment, so around 10 bins had only 1 tshirt in each! This was NOT explained clearly by sales, and it is NOT MENTIONED in their contract, and the consequence of their deception is we were faced with storage charges 2.5 times more than budgeted. So we asked for a special project to consolidate our shipment into suitable bins to save cost, and I asked for a quote, but they flat out refused to give one - saying we only bill you after the job is done! To say we were shocked by this unethical and downright inconceivable behaviour is an understatement. Since when in business does a client not have an absolute clue what they will pay until the job is done? And that is in contrary to their website that clearly states 'contact us for any special projects needs so we can provide a quote'. Another issue that we had multiple arguments over were shipping fees. They were NOT what was stated on our rate card. We paid double to triple in fees due to them adding volumetric weight. We repeatedly said we only have flat tshirts, volumetric weight should not be an issue to double or triple the shipping cost, but they refused to budge. A third issue was lost inventory. They lost 7 of our tshirts just in the receiving process and refused to compensate. Granted, their contract clause does state non liability for loss, so be very very careful- there are MANY alternative 3PLs that insure up to $10k or more as a result of loss or theft. Finally, getting out was costly. Sales clearly said that you can 'cancel without penalty', another expertly and deceptively crafted statement. What actually happened was we were faced with picking fees to remove all our 1200 tshirts costing hundreds of dollars. Hundreds of dollars for a 2-3 hour job. That's Shipmonk looking after themselves and their sanctified bottom line, absolutely NOT a collaborative partner at all. In summary, this is an honest and scathing review of a deceptive and unethical 3PL hiding behind a glittery and well-designed website. A perfect example of a catastrophe for small businesses with limited budgets.

On the Inventory distribution side of things, Shipmonk has made it really easy to send inventory and determine its levels. Its' platform if very user friendly as it provides useful metrics such as stockout days and low inventory levels. The happiness engineers are awesome at providing help and clarification on any of our company's requests.

Antonio is great! He really understands what we need to be done. He takes the extra mile to ensure we are getting the best service.