Automated refund process

• US 20060111930A1
• Filed: 12/01/2005
• Published: 05/25/2006
• Est. Priority Date: 10/15/2004
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Rearden Commerce Inc
• Original Assignee: Rearden Commerce Inc
• Inventors: Handel, Sean, Ayer, Narayan
• Application Number:
  US11/292,849
• Publication Number:
  US 20060111930A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 705/9
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/08 Logistics, e.g. warehousing, loading or distribution; Inventory or stock management
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/0833 Tracking
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 10/087 Inventory or stock management, e.g. order filling, procurement or balancing against orders
• CPC Class Codes: G06Q 99/00 Subject matter not provided for in other groups of this subclass

Abstract

A method and system to provide aggregate transit time. In one embodiment, the method, which may be performed by a system, comprises receiving information identifying a shipping destination; and in response to the information, providing data related to on-time performance for one or more shipping vendors providing shipping services to the destination. In one embodiment, a method, which may be performed by a system, is provided to track missed delivery deadlines, and may initiate an automatic or semi-automatic refund request in such cases.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

automatically identifying one or more occasions when a shipping vendor has missed a delivery time, by which the shipping vendor had agreed to provide shipment; and

automatically initiating a request for one of a price adjustment and at least partial refund from the shipping vendor.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the automatically identifying is to be performed one of daily, weekly, or monthly.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the automatically identifying further comprises automatically identifying, for multiple shipping vendors, instances of missed delivery times, by which respective shipping vendors had agreed to provide shipment.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising sorting, by the multiple vendors, data identifying missed delivery times.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the automatically initiating the request for one of a price adjustment and at least partial refund, further comprises automatically initiating the request for one of a price adjustment and at least partial refund from multiple shipping vendors.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the automatically initiating the request further comprises submission of a refund request, to a respective shipping vendor, by email.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the automatically initiating the request further comprises emailing a notification to a call center to have the call center contact the respective shipping vendor to request one of the price adjustment and at least partial refund.

8. The method of claim 5, wherein the automatically initiating the request further comprises initiating a message be sent to an employee, requesting or instructing the employee to request one of the price adjustment and at least partial refund.

9. A machine-readable medium having stored thereon a set of instructions which when executed, perform a method comprising:

automatically identifying one or more occasions when a shipping vendor has missed a delivery time, by which the shipping vendor had agreed to provide shipment; and

automatically initiating a request for one of a price adjustment and at least partial refund from the shipping vendor.

10. The method of claim 9, wherein the automatically identifying is to be performed one of daily, weekly, or monthly.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein the automatically identifying further comprises automatically identifying, for multiple shipping vendors, instances of missed delivery times, by which respective shipping vendors had agreed to provide shipment.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising sorting, by the multiple vendors, data identifying missed delivery times.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the automatically initiating the request for one of a price adjustment and at least partial refund, further comprises automatically initiating the request for one of a price adjustment and at least partial refund from multiple shipping vendors.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the automatically initiating the request further comprises submission of a refund request, to a respective shipping vendor, by email.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the automatically initiating the request further comprises emailing a notification to a call center to have the call center contact the respective shipping vendor to request one of the price adjustment and at least partial refund.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the automatically initiating the request further comprises initiating a message be sent to an employee, requesting or instructing the employee to request one of the price adjustment and at least partial refund.

17. A system comprising:

a means for automatically identifying one or more occasions when a shipping vendor has missed a delivery time, by which the shipping vendor had agreed to provide shipment; and

a means for automatically initiating a request for one of a price adjustment and at least partial refund from the shipping vendor.

18. The system of claim 17, wherein the means for automatically identifying is to perform the identifying at least one of daily, weekly, or monthly.

19. The system of claim 17, wherein the means for automatically identifying further comprises means for automatically identifying, for multiple shipping vendors, instances of missed delivery times, by which respective shipping vendors had agreed to provide shipment.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising a means for sorting, by the multiple vendors, data identifying missed delivery times.