My most recent grocery delivery came with an unfortunate surprise: a jar of salsa broke in transit, and ruined several other items that were in the same bag. The delivery person saw the issue right away, and told me that they would issue a credit for the damaged items.

That’s all fine and good, but what if I wanted a new set of identical items to replace them with? Apparently, that wasn’t an option. To process an exchange, I would have to accept the refund and then place a new order, complete with yet another delivery fee. That’s rather ridiculous, seeing as how the original issue was totally outside my control.

In situations like this, a little bit of common sense goes a long way. For instance, if a customer places a delivery order and some of the items arrive damaged, the logical thing to do is offer them a refund or an exchange of those items. And if the customer wants an exchange, you shouldn’t penalize them by charging another set of delivery fees, fuel surcharges, and so on.

Receiving broken products is frustrating enough. Waiving the delivery fee for the replacement items is a must if you want to salvage the situation and help restore the customer’s trust in your services.