Claims Policy
This is the plain-English version of our Package & Product Protection coverage, plus what happens if we pick or pack an order wrong. It's a summary written to be read.
Reflects Terms & Conditions v2.0, effective .
This page is a summary, not the contract. The governing terms are Section 4 of our Terms & Conditions and your signed partnership agreement and/or Service Order. Where this page and those documents differ, the Terms & Conditions and your partnership agreement and/or Service Order control. If your agreement says something different from this page, your agreement wins. We honor the terms that were in effect when you signed. We keep this page current, but read Section 4 before you rely on anything here.
The short version. There is one question that decides everything: was your product in our building, or in a carrier's truck?
In our building, we pay. If your product is lost, stolen, or damaged while it's in our possession, we reimburse you at 100% of your replacement cost, with no per-package cap. That loss is ours, so we cover it.
In a carrier's hands, we pass through whatever the carrier pays. We are not an insurer and we don't cover carrier losses out of our own pocket. Where the service you shipped on offers a claims process, we file the claim for you and work it. If the carrier pays, that money goes to you. If the carrier pays nothing, you get nothing, and you should expect that outcome more often than not. Carrier claims are typically capped around $50 to $100 when they do pay, and some services carry no claims process at all. Coverage is domestic U.S. only and starts with a claim you file. It isn't automatic.
What "replacement cost" means
Replacement cost is what your manufacturer or supplier charges you to make the unit again. It is not retail price, not wholesale price, not what your customer paid, and not lost profit.
We pay 100% of that number on warehouse losses. You are made whole on the product, and the loss lands on us instead of you. It is tied to replacement cost rather than retail because the goal is to put the unit back on your shelf, not to turn our mistake into revenue for either of us.
Worth knowing what this replaces: most warehouses limit their liability by weight, often around fifty cents per pound, which on a two-pound package means a dollar no matter what was inside it. We don't do that. On product we were holding, you get the full recorded replacement cost.
Put your replacement cost in the system
Each SKU in our inventory management system has a replacement cost field. You own that number and we need it before a loss happens. This is how you declare what your product is worth, and it's the reason we can pay full replacement cost instead of a weight-based formula. If a SKU has no replacement cost recorded when something goes wrong, there's no objective way to value the product, and we can't settle a claim against a guess. Keeping the field current takes minutes and is the single best thing you can do to make a future claim fast.
What's covered
- In our possession. Product lost, stolen, or damaged after we've received and counted it at our facility and before we hand the package to a carrier, reimbursed at 100% of replacement cost, with no per-package cap unless your agreement sets one.
- In transit, domestically. If a carrier loses or damages a package after we tender it, then where the service offers a claims process, we file the claim for you on request and pass through what the carrier pays us. We don't add to it, and we don't cover it when the carrier declines. See how carrier claims actually work below.
How carrier claims actually work
This is the part of the policy most likely to disappoint someone at the wrong moment, so here it is without any softening.
We do not insure your packages in transit. Once we hand a package to a carrier, the package is in the carrier's control and the carrier's liability terms apply. We are a fulfillment and logistics company, not an insurance company. When a carrier loses your package, the money to replace it has to come from the carrier, from your own cargo insurance, or from you. It does not come from us.
What we do: where the service the shipment moved on offers a claims process, we file the claim for you, we document it, and we push it. If the carrier pays, the money goes to you.
What we don't do: pay you when the carrier doesn't pay us, or pay you more than the carrier paid.
Set your expectations low on carrier payouts. Carriers deny or decline the substantial majority of loss and damage claims. A filed claim more often than not ends with no money. When a carrier does pay, the payout is usually capped in the $50 to $100 range regardless of what was in the box, and some services carry no liability and no claims process at all, meaning there is nothing to file. That last part is not a loophole; it is priced in. Services with no recourse are cheap partly because there is no recourse.
We would rather tell you this now than have you learn it from a denial letter. If your product value makes this trade a bad one, tell us, and we'll build your shipping rules around services that carry a claims path, or point you toward third-party cargo insurance. That conversation is much better before your first shipment than after your first loss.
One thing we want to build and haven't yet: a self-serve claim submission that pushes straight to the carrier so you can file without waiting on us. It's on our roadmap, not in production. Today, filing goes through your Argo representative.
What's not covered
- Carrier loss and damage, beyond what the carrier pays. Covered above. Our obligation is to file and pass through, not to fund.
- Services with no claims process. Many economy, ground-economy, and postal-handoff services carry no carrier liability. There is no claim to file on those shipments, for anyone, at any value. We'll tell you which services these are before you ship on them if you ask.
- International shipments. We can't guarantee anything outside the United States. Coverage ends when a package leaves the U.S. or is tendered for export, and it doesn't apply to international carriers or freight forwarders. Insure international orders separately. We're glad to point you to options.
- Packages the carrier shows as delivered. If tracking, geolocation, and photo evidence show delivery to the correct address, we have to go off that data, including when your customer says the package never arrived. We'll submit an inquiry to the carrier on your behalf, but we can't promise it resolves, and the outcome doesn't create a payment obligation on our side.
- Returns. Inbound returns from your customers are handled under return handling terms, not this coverage.
- Lost profit and downstream costs. Replacement cost is the measure, not lost revenue, lost sales, lost campaign value, or goodwill.
If we pick or pack an order wrong
This is separate from the coverage above. Nothing was lost or damaged. We shipped the wrong thing, and that's a different kind of miss with a different remedy. The governing terms are Section 4(e) of our Terms & Conditions.
Our picking workflow verifies each SKU by barcode scan against the order before it leaves the aisle, which is what keeps mis-picks rare. Rare isn't never. When one gets through and we verify it was our error, we either re-ship the right item to your customer at our cost, or issue you a service credit against your Argo fees worth 100% of the product's replacement cost. We pick whichever fits the situation, and usually a re-ship is what you actually want.
That's the same measure we use when something is lost or damaged in our care. Getting the wrong thing is a miss, and we'd rather price it the same way as any other miss than argue about which category it falls in. One thing worth saying plainly: the credit option is a credit toward Argo services rather than a cash refund. The amount matches replacement cost, the form doesn't.
For context, the common industry practice here is a re-ship and nothing more. The credit alternative at full replacement cost is us going past that.
Replacement cost is what it costs you to replace the unit from your manufacturer or supplier, and it has to be on the SKU record in our system before the error happens, the same requirement as the coverage above. If it isn't recorded, there's no agreed value to calculate from; send us documentation and we'll work from that.
What counts as an Argo pick or pack error
- Wrong item. A SKU shipped that the order didn't call for.
- Wrong quantity. Short-shipped or over-shipped against the order.
- Missing item. An ordered line absent from the package.
- Damaged in packing. Product that left our floor damaged by how we packed it, as opposed to carrier damage in transit, which is covered above.
- Kit or bundle built wrong. A component missing, substituted, or duplicated in a kit we assembled.
What doesn't
- SKU data that was wrong before we picked it. If the barcode, description, or componentry on record doesn't match the physical product, the scan verifies against bad data and confirms the wrong unit. That's a data correction, not an Argo pick error. Tell us and we'll fix the record.
- Orders that arrived wrong from your channel. If the order we received specified the item we shipped, we picked it correctly.
- What we can't verify. Some reports can't be substantiated either way: no photo, product already discarded, nothing in the scan or packing record showing a miss. We'll look, and we'll tell you what we found. Where the record doesn't show an Argo error, there's no credit, and we'd rather say that plainly than let you expect one.
- Carrier loss, theft, or transit damage. Covered by Package & Product Protection above, not here.
How to report one
Contact your Argo representative, or email partners@argoshipping.com. Report within 60 days, same as any claim. Tell us the order number and what arrived versus what was ordered. A photo of what your customer received is the single most useful thing you can send, and it's usually what turns a report into a verified error quickly.
We check the report against the pick scan, the packing record, and the SKU data on file. If it was ours, we say so and apply the credit. If it wasn't, we tell you what the record shows.
Credit amounts. A re-ship at our cost, or 100% of replacement cost as a service credit, at our election, with no per-shipment cap unless your agreement sets one. The remedy, what counts as our error, and the process are in Section 4(e).
How to file
- Contact your Argo representative to start a claim review, or email partners@argoshipping.com if you're not sure who that is.
- Identify the affected order or shipment and the affected SKUs. File within 60 days of the loss, or, for in-transit claims, within 60 days of the carrier accepting the shipment.
- We'll acknowledge the claim and tell you what we decide. If we need documentation to verify replacement cost or weight, we'll say exactly what.
One claim per shipment, and settling it closes out that shipment. For warehouse losses, there's no cap to negotiate: we pay the recorded replacement cost. For in-transit losses, the ceiling isn't ours to raise, because it's the carrier's liability limit. If you ship high-value SKUs, the lever is service selection and third-party cargo insurance rather than a higher limit from us. Ask us and we'll walk you through both.
Watch the carrier's deadline, not just ours. Our 60-day window is the outer limit for telling us. Some carriers require a claim much sooner than that, and once their window closes there is no claim to file no matter how good the case is. Tell us the day you know something is wrong.
Recourse is part of what you're buying. When you pick a service level, you're picking a rate and a claims path at the same time, and the cheap rates are cheap partly because the claims path isn't there. Services that carry recourse cost more, and they're available to you on any order.
Most brands optimize for the rate. That's a legitimate choice and often the right one. We'd just rather you make it deliberately, with the trade in front of you, than discover it after a loss. Tell us where coverage matters more than cost, whether that's by order value, by SKU, or by lane, and we'll build it into your shipping rules. Where there's no carrier claim to file, we say so up front instead of letting you believe one is pending. Check the FAQ for step-by-step filing instructions.
Historical: letter to our Partners, September 2023
Superseded, kept for reference only. This letter describes coverage we no longer offer on the same terms, including reimbursement of postage and package contents on carrier losses without regard to whether the carrier paid. Where this letter and the policy above differ, the policy above and your partnership agreement and/or Service Order govern. If you signed with us while this letter was current and believe it describes your terms, contact us and we'll confirm what applies to your agreement.
