A brand decides to move providers. The notice period is three months, retrieval is charged per pallet, counting and loading is quoted at a figure nobody anticipated, and the new provider cannot receive stock until a date that does not align with any of it.
They stay another year. Not because they wanted to, but because leaving cost more than staying.
The checklist
Read these before signing, not before leaving.
1. The notice period
Stated in months, and when it can be served. A long notice on a rolling contract is how brands become stuck.
2. When notice can be given
Whether there is an anniversary date, a window or whether it can be served at any time. Brands discover they have missed a window by a fortnight.
3. Any minimum term
Beyond the notice, and what happens if the brand leaves inside it. It is the second trap and it compounds the first.
4. What retrieval costs
Picking, packing, palletising, counting and loading. It is real work and it should be priced transparently rather than discovered at the moment of departure.
5. Who arranges transport
The brand, the outgoing provider or the incoming one, and who bears the cost. Frequently unclear and frequently expensive.
6. How stock is counted out
Whether a joint count happens, who attends, how discrepancies are resolved and whether the new provider's count is reconciled, which is the ground in inventory visibility questions from brands choosing a 3PL adjacent territory.
7. What happens to stock in transit
Orders picked but not despatched, returns in progress and anything mid process when the transfer happens.
8. Whether stock can be held
Any provision allowing the provider to retain goods over an unpaid balance, and what triggers it. It is the clause that matters most and the one nobody reads.
9. What data the brand receives
Stock records, order history, customer data and reporting, in what format and how quickly. A brand leaving without its own data is leaving something valuable behind.
10. Whether a phased transfer is possible
Moving part of the stock first, running both for a fortnight and switching cleanly. It is how a transfer avoids a gap and it should be permitted.
11. What happens to returns after departure
Where customers send them, for how long and what the outgoing provider does with them. It runs for weeks after the move and nobody plans it.
12. What happens to unsold or obsolete stock
Disposal, donation or return, who decides and what it costs. Brands leave with less than they think.
13. Publish fair terms and say so
Short notice, transparent retrieval pricing and a documented process. It is a competitive advantage with any brand that has been trapped once, which is the pattern in warehousing enquiries from growing online brands.
13b. Say what happens on the last day
A transfer that ends cleanly needs a final reconciliation, a closing invoice and an agreed position on anything outstanding. Publishing what the final statement contains, when it arrives and how a dispute over it is handled means a brand leaves on good terms and frequently recommends you afterwards.
14. Answer contract questions at enquiry
Because sophisticated brands ask before signing, and the answers decide the appointment, alongside multi channel order questions for fulfilment providers and the customer facing side in how chatbots answer is this in stock instantly.
Getting started
Publish your notice period, retrieval pricing and transfer process, then answer contract questions at any hour. SpideyChat for logistics providers answers from your published pages, plans are on the pricing page, and the chatbot ROI calculator works through the numbers.