My 3PL keeps shipping the wrong items: what's normal, what to ask for and when to switch

A wrong shipment now and then is normal. A pattern of them is not. Measure your real error rate from your own support tickets rather than the 3PL's dashboard, ask in writing for the pick records behind the disputed orders and a dated plan to fix the cause, and start planning an exit if they miss that plan, won't show you the records or won't pay to correct their own mistakes.

First, rule out your own setup

Some "mispicks" start on the brand's side, and a 3PL will often only say so after you ask. Before you measure anything, check these in your store and your inventory records:

• Two products that share a barcode, or a barcode reused after a product was discontinued. The picker scans a valid code and ships the wrong thing.
• Look-alike variants (sizes, colors, scents) that carry the same UPC because the supplier only printed one.
• Bundles and kits that exist in your store but not in the warehouse system, so the warehouse ships the parent SKU or a single component.
• SKU mapping that broke after a catalog change, a platform migration or a renamed variant.
• Inbound stock that arrived mislabelled, so the right bin holds the wrong product.

A quick test: pull your last ten wrong-item tickets. If the same two or three products keep swapping with each other, suspect barcodes, variants or kits. If the errors are scattered across unrelated SKUs, the picking process itself is the likelier cause.

Measure the error rate from your own data

Pick a fixed window, the last 90 days or the last 1,000 orders, and count every order that produced a support ticket, a re-ship or a return with a reason of wrong item, wrong quantity or missing item. Divide by the orders shipped in that window. That is your customer-facing error rate, and it is the number that matters, because it is what your customers experienced.

Then compare it with the figure the 3PL reports. The two rarely match, and the gap is usually a definition problem rather than dishonesty: the 3PL may count only the errors its own packing audit catches, measure by line rather than by order, or use a different window. Our order accuracy guide walks through the formula and worked examples if you want to reconcile the two numbers properly.

What counts as normal

There is no single industry standard. A neat tier table (excellent above 99.9%, serious below 99%) is someone's working target, not an industry rule. Two widely quoted figures measure different things:

• ShipBob's order accuracy guide says most direct-to-consumer brands land between 96% and 98%, and that 95% or below is a competitive disadvantage. That is an order-level figure as customers experience it.
• KSP Fulfillment's warehouse KPI guide reports that the median distribution center got 99.20% of orders right in WERC's 2022 survey. That is a self-reported warehouse figure, not a customer-reported one.

So a 3PL quoting 99% is not automatically better than one quoting 97%, and 98% is not automatically fine. What matters is the definition behind the number: counted by order or by line, over what window, and whether errors your customers report are included or only the ones the warehouse caught itself. Ask for the definition before you argue about the digits.

What to ask for, in writing

Use email rather than a call so there is a record. Ask for:

• The pick record, label timestamp and carrier scan history for each disputed order. M&M Quality Solutions' piece on 3PL accountability boils it down to one question: can you produce a pick record for a disputed order? A warehouse that can't has a process problem, whoever caused the mispick.
• Their written definition of order accuracy and the window it covers. One 3PL's published sample clause counts an order as correct when the SKUs, quantities and ship-to address are all right, measures by calendar month, includes errors the brand's customers report within 30 days of delivery as well as the warehouse's own audits, excludes orders the brand edited after release, and requires a written root-cause report and corrective plan for any missed month. You don't need that exact wording, but it shows what a real accuracy term looks like.
• A root-cause report with a corrective plan and a date by which you should see the rate change.
• Who pays the return postage and the re-fulfillment when the error is theirs. Many agreements are silent on this, so ask rather than assume; the answer tells you quickly whether the 3PL stands behind its own work.

When it's time to switch

Treat this as a judgment call, not a threshold. Reasonable grounds to start an exit:

• You gave them a documented fix window and they missed it.
• They won't produce pick records for disputed orders.
• They won't cover the cost of errors that were clearly theirs.
• The rate after their fix is still higher than your margin and your reviews can absorb.

If the error rate is the only problem and they are visibly fixing it, switching is often the bigger risk. A move means a notice period, an inventory transfer and a few weeks of disruption, and a new warehouse starts with its own learning curve on your catalog.

How to leave without making it worse

Read your contract before you say anything. The notice period, the renewal date and the terms for releasing your inventory decide when you can actually leave, and a 3PL that is careless with your orders can also be slow with your stock. Keep orders flowing to the old warehouse until the cutover date; a short, planned handover beats running two providers with split inventory. The step-by-step switching guide covers notice, data export, the inventory move and the cutover day.

How Simpl handles it

Simpl picks and packs orders at 99.99% accuracy, and when we ship an order wrong, Simpl pays the return shipping and re-ships the correct order at its own cost. That applies when the order was picked or packed wrong at our Austin warehouse; a package lost or damaged in transit is a carrier problem, and Simpl files the carrier claim. The promise is written on our guarantees page, and the wrong-item answer shows how a Simpl client reports one. Every client has a dedicated account manager reachable by email, with same-day responses, so a disputed order is one email. Onboarding takes 5 to 7 days, and Simpl's contracts run as a 3-month auto-renewing term with 60 days' written notice, so read those terms the same way you would read any other 3PL's.