Damaged or lost
The two scenarios sellers worry about most: a parcel arrives damaged at the buyer’s door, or a parcel cannot be located after dispatch. Both are rare, both have a defined process, both end with the merchant whole. 12+ years of UAE logistics has refined the audit trail enough that most damage and loss cases close inside the same business week, often the same day.
Damaged in transit
Section titled “Damaged in transit”Damage caught at the buyer’s door triggers an immediate flow.
- Driver POD photo flags the damage. When the driver captures the door-step photo, visible damage shows in the photo and the driver tags the order with a damage note.
- Merchant notified in your SamVertex account immediately. The damage flag and photo surface on the order detail view; if you watch the dashboard live you see it within minutes.
- Buyer interaction at the door. The buyer can refuse the damaged parcel (most do for visible damage) or accept it for refund/replacement processing. Driver follows the buyer’s choice; outcome captured on the order.
- Resolution path. Merchant decides: dispatch a replacement (same SKU, free reshipment if damage was on us), process a refund through the original channel, or trigger an insurance claim if cargo insurance was on the shipment.
- Damaged stock returns to our warehouse with the rest of the day’s returns and routes through the standard returns process for inspection and disposal.
Damage caught later (buyer accepted at door but reports damage on opening) follows the same flow with the buyer’s photos as the trigger; we cross-check against the door-step POD photo to confirm the damage was not buyer-side.
Lost shipments
Section titled “Lost shipments”Rare. A shipment is considered lost when the scan trail breaks (no driver scan after Out for delivery, no return scan at warehouse) or when the driver cannot account for the parcel at end of shift.
- Investigation kicks off immediately. Operations lead is paged before the shift closes.
- Trace the last successful scan. Where was the parcel last seen, which driver, which route, what time.
- Review CCTV at relevant facilities. Receiving dock, dispatch dock, warehouse perimeter.
- Driver-side reconciliation. Driver re-walks the route mentally with the operations lead; many “lost” parcels turn up at the bottom of a route bin or were inadvertently delivered to the wrong nearby address.
- Communicate timeline to the merchant. Initial update inside the same business day; resolution timeline shared with the merchant as the investigation progresses.
Most lost cases resolve inside 48 hours with the parcel located, the buyer reached, and either delivery completed or the parcel returned to warehouse. A small minority remain genuinely unresolved and trigger the insurance and liability path below.
Liability and insurance
Section titled “Liability and insurance”Two layers cover damage and loss.
- Standard liability. Our standard liability cap per shipment is documented in the SLA policy and liability policy. The cap covers most retail SKUs for retail-AOV orders without additional cover.
- Cargo insurance. Available on request for higher coverage, especially on freight loads (sea or air from China) or high-value retail shipments where the SKU value exceeds the standard liability cap. CIF-based pricing on cargo insurance, quoted per shipment so you can decide insurance line by line for higher-value cargoes.
For sellers in categories where damage is structurally likely (glass, ceramics, premium electronics), we recommend cargo insurance on every freight inbound and on retail shipments above a per-order threshold you set with your account manager.
Filing a claim
Section titled “Filing a claim”One channel, one format.
- Email: info@samvertex.com
- Subject line: order ID + brief description
- Body: what happened, when, and any context
- Attachments: photos of the damage if available; for loss claims, the last buyer-side communication (SMS, email) confirming the parcel did not arrive
We respond inside the same business day with the per-order audit trail (driver scans, POD photos, route history, CCTV reference if applicable) and the resolution path. Insurance claims add a step: we file with the cargo insurer and the timeline depends on the insurer’s process, but we keep the merchant in the loop weekly until resolution.