Understanding Your Shipping Rates, Terms, and FeesUpdated 20 days ago

This article covers how shipping and carrier-related charges work at Nice Commerce, including base rates, surcharges, and adjustments. These charges apply to all shipments of your goods, and any charges from shipments made before an account closes still apply.

Rate Tables

We provide you with current rate tables showing the base rates for parcel shipping. You'll find these in your shared Google Drive folder, which you can access for as long as you're working with us. We update these tables as needed, and whenever a carrier changes its rates. We do our best to get updated tables to you ahead of time, or as soon as possible once a change takes effect.

Rate Tables Are Estimates, Not Quotes

Think of the rate tables as a guide for estimating costs, not a locked-in price. Actual rates can change and are affected by additional carrier surcharges, fees, and adjustments. The final cost of any given shipment may end up different from what's listed in the tables.

How We Choose Carriers

Unless you tell us in writing that you need a specific carrier or service level, we'll pick the option that best balances cost and delivery speed for each shipment. If you ask us to use a particular carrier or service, you're responsible for any added cost that comes with that choice.

Billing Based on Actual Charges

We bill each shipment based on what the carrier actually charges after the package ships. This can differ from any estimate you saw when the order was placed, because carriers make adjustments like reweighing packages, applying dimensional pricing, or correcting addresses. You'll be billed for the actual charges.

Accessorial Fees and Surcharges

On top of base shipping rates, carriers add their own fees and surcharges that can change independently of our rate tables. These are set by the carriers and passed straight through to you. They include things like fuel surcharges, dimensional (DIM) weight pricing, address correction fees, residential and delivery area surcharges, additional handling and oversize/large package surcharges, signature and adult signature fees, return and reroute charges, and peak or seasonal surcharges. 

See our Understanding Label Costs and Carrier Surcharges article for more details on when and why surcharges are applied. 

Carrier Reweighs and Post-Shipment Adjustments

Carriers regularly check the weight and dimensions of packages post-shipment and may send a billing adjustment afterward. Because of this, an adjustment can show up on a later invoice than the one for the original shipment. These retroactive adjustments are a normal part of how carrier billing works, and they remain your responsibility no matter which billing period they land in.

Transparency of Charges

We show all carrier charges, accessorial fees, and surcharges on your invoices exactly as they come through from the carriers, so you can always see where each charge came from and what it's for.

Disputes, Mitigation, and Negotiation Support

If a charge looks like it was applied incorrectly, we'll help you dispute it with the carrier — either at your request or on our own — and we'll work to prevent similar charges going forward. We also negotiate with carriers on your behalf to soften the impact of rate increases and accessorial fees. Keep in mind that carriers have the final say on any dispute or negotiation, so we can't guarantee the outcome, and these efforts don't change what you owe.

Your Responsibility for Carrier Charges

Even with our help disputing, mitigating, or negotiating charges, all carrier charges, fees, surcharges, and post-shipment adjustments are ultimately your responsibility and need to be paid according to your invoice and payment terms. A pending dispute doesn't pause your obligation to pay an invoiced charge on time. If any amount is later credited or recovered, it'll be reconciled then.

Carrier Liability and Declared Value

A carrier's responsibility for a lost or damaged shipment is limited to their own published terms and liability limits. If you want coverage beyond that (like declared value coverage or supplemental shipping insurance) it's available at your request and expense, and must be requested in writing to your account manager.