Returns are painful for online sellers, but one company sees them as an opportunity. Delivery service DoorDash announced Package Pickup that caters to shoppers who can’t or don’t want to make a trip to the Post Office or UPS/FedEx to mail their returns back to the merchant.
DoorDash explained: “With Package Pickup, consumers can request a Dasher to pick up their prepaid packages from their home and drop them off at their local carrier, including UPS, FedEx, and USPS.”
There’s a fee of course: DoorDash charges $5 to pickup up to 5 packages, or $3 for DashPass members. That’s on top of the return-shipping cost – customers must attach a prepaid shipping label to the package.
Will people really pay a fee to avoid a trip to the Post Office or UPS or FedEx?
A better question for sellers: will making it easier to return an item benefit them, since they may get their returns back in a more timely manner? Or will it increase the number of returns buyers are willing to make?
You can find details about the new Package Pickup on DoorDash on the DoorDash website along with information about a special “One Free Package Pickup” offer that is valid through January 31, 2023.
This will just increase return abuse. Post Offices are everywhere within driving distances so there’s no excuse for buyers. The rightful policies of websites and sellers should always be: No Return = No Refund. Buyers should pay for these DoorDitch fees if they are too lazy to get to a PO.
You wrote: “Buyers should pay for these DoorDitch fees if they are too lazy to get to a PO”
Some people don’t have cars and are not on bus lines. Some people are not physically able to carry what may be large packages. Some people are housebound for medical reasons. These people and others may find this service helpful and none of them are necessarily “lazy” if they use this service.
I was curious about how Door Dash was going to handle liability for this program — in the event the Dasher failed to get the package to the carrier, or the carrier failed to scan it as received, etc. — so I read the fine print. There is a suggested cap of $100 value for anything returned through the program, and Door Dash will not accept liability for anything over that amount.
So proceed with caution.