Serious damage to brand and business. Not recommended.
We worked with ShipRelay as our 3PL for about 18 months. Inventory was sent to their warehouse in clean, sellable condition. Over time, we started receiving customer complaints (along with supporting photos and videos) about orders arriving dirty or damaged. When our own test orders repeatedly showed up in the same condition, we made the decision to end the relationship and bring fulfillment back in-house.
One of the most concerning parts of this circumstance is that we were never proactively told that our packaging or inventory was being compromised. In internal communication, ShipRelay described some of our bags looking like they had been shredded “by Wolverine claws,” yet orders continued to be sent to our customers in that condition without our knowledge.
ShipRelay offered several, changing explanations for the damaged condition of our packaging and inventory, first stating that our inventory/bags did not arrive damaged, then claiming that they had arrived damaged, then blaming the type of eco-friendly packaging we used (which has not become damaged in our own facility, and which ShipRelay did not state would be problematic until we began communicating concerns).
The main inventory transfer process then took over a month, leaving a large portion of our inventory unavailable during the 2025 holiday season. When inventory was returned, we found differences between packing slips and what actually arrived, along with numerous items that were damaged or unsellable, all of which we documented during unpacking.
We also experienced billing issues during the exit process, including newly introduced charges that had not previously been invoiced and others we couldn’t reconcile despite multiple requests for clarification.
We made repeated good-faith efforts to resolve these issues and shared extensive documentation. As of this date, ShipRelay is still holding a portion of our inventory, despite our repeated requests for its return and offers to pay any relevant/associated charges. They have repeatedly stated that they don’t acknowledge responsibility for damage to our inventory, despite the aforementioned documentation and their own written acknowledgement of the good condition in which they received the merchandise. As a founder who will go to great lengths to do right by my customers, this has been a surprising and disappointing response.
Working with ShipRelay has been deeply damaging to our business. Based on our internal calculations, we estimate that the direct and indirect costs in additional shipping, order condition issues, warehouse changes, staff time and labor, damaged and outstanding inventory, and etc. to be in the ballpark of $100,000. At this point, the best outcome we can hope for is to ensure that other hard-working founders don’t experience what we did.
We’re happy to share documentation with any founders who want a clearer picture as they evaluate potential 3PL partnerships.