Short answer: It usually means that either the shipment didn't meet all the carrier conditions, or the carrier charged you for any additional work they did - or costs they made - while processing your parcel. Surcharges are applied by the carriers.
Explanation: Anything that results in additional or manual processing time for the carrier can result in an unwanted surcharge. That's why it's so important to always carefully read and be aware of the shipping conditions for your chosen shipping method. Some common reasons for surcharges include:
- The shipment is too big, too heavy, or even too light
- The shipment required additional handling
- Cylinder shaped
- Label not on the largest side
- Barcode not readable
- etc.
- The outgoing shipment is being returned to sender
- Fuel surcharge
- Peak season surcharge during the busier times of the year
- You are shipping to a remote area or an area that's difficult to reach
If you receive a surcharge and you are not sure why, we advice to look up the surcharge article of the carrier in question and check if any of them apply to your shipment. You can find your carrier by opening our carriers page. If after reading the surcharge article you still believe that the surcharge is incorrect, you can try to dispute the surcharge by opening a support ticket from your Sendcloud account. Read this for more information.
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