From payment to doorstep: the eight handoffs

Ownership and tail cause for all eight handoffs, including the one nobody owns. It comes from the 96-entry census, and the method behind it is documented rather than implied.

How the agents differ

Across the eleven agents we checked, fee models fall into three shapes — percentage, tiered and flat. Which one is cheapest depends on your order size, and the difference at $150 is larger than the difference between lanes.

Effective service fee at three order values
Order value	Percentage model	Flat model	Tiered model
$60	$1.80–$4.80	$5.00	$2.40
$200	$6.00–$16.00	$5.00	$8.00
$600	$18.00–$48.00	$5.00	$21.00

Modelled from each agent’s published model. The flat model wins below about $170 and loses above it.

Free storage windows run from 30 to 90 days, and the clock start differs: warehouse check-in at some agents, purchase at others. That difference is worth about a week, which matters more than the window length at the margin.

Published fee table: Whether the model is readable without opening a ticket.
Storage clock start: Check-in or purchase — a week of difference.
Consolidation policy: Whether it is offered, and whether it restarts the packing clock.
Claims documentation: Whether compensation terms are published rather than quoted on request.

Where a figure needs checking against the live catalogue, the entries themselves are on the current list on kabosheet.

Who owns what, stage by stage

Ownership is clear at seven of the eight handoffs. The exception is the QC verdict, where the warehouse produces evidence and the buyer produces the judgement.

Payment to seller: Agent owns the transaction; you own the accuracy of the buy request.
Seller to warehouse: Seller owns dispatch; agent owns follow-up.
Check-in: Warehouse owns registration; the storage clock starts here at some agents.
QC: Shared and therefore ambiguous — the only genuinely unowned step.
Packing: Warehouse owns dimensions; you own the consolidation instruction.
Export: Agent owns documentation; you own supplying complete details.
Clearance: Carrier owns the filing; you own the declaration.
Last mile: Carrier owns delivery; you own address accuracy.

The three longest tails sit at handoffs two, seven and eight. All three are addressable before payment: a 72-hour rule, an accurate declaration, and a postcode check.

Median and p90 at the three longest handoffs
Handoff	Median	p90	Tail cause
Seller to warehouse	3 days	8 days	Seller does not confirm
Import clearance	2 days	9 days	Random inspection
Last mile	5 days	15 days	Failed delivery attempt

From the 96-order sample.

Where estimates and invoices part company

Deviation between estimate and final invoice has six identifiable causes. Only one of them — random inspection — has no preventive action.

The six deviation causes, ranked
Cause	Median effect	Preventable
Packing volume	+$3.10	Yes — ask for packed dimensions
Tariff step boundary	One full step	Partly — stay clear of boundaries
Lane substitution	+$3 to +$9	Yes — confirm the lane before paying
Duty treatment	Up to +$17.40	Partly — declare accurately
Consolidation timing	Restarts a 1–2 day stage	Yes — request before packing
Currency settlement	±1–3%	Partly — settle in the quoted currency

Medians from the sample where a deviation was observed. Individual cases differ.

A well-run order deviates by under 5%. Beyond that, one of the six causes above is usually identifiable after the fact — which is the point of listing them rather than treating deviation as noise.

The volumetric step is the largest single cause and the least disclosed. If your estimate came without packed dimensions, it is a lower bound.

Where the time goes

A EU standard order reaches the door in a median of 21 days and a p90 of 36. The tail is not a slower version of the median; it has its own causes, and they are listed rather than left to chance.

Stage durations on the reference lane
Stage	p10	Median	p90
Order to warehouse	2	3	6–8
QC and photo set	1	2	4–5
Packing	1	2	3–5
Export handling	2	3	6–8
Import clearance	1	2	6–9
Last mile	3–5	5–6	11–15

Measured from order timestamps in the 96-order sample. The last-mile stage carries the largest single share of the median total.

Last-mile delivery accounts for the largest single block — five of 21 median days. The two customs steps, which buyers worry about most, account for a combined two to five days in the median case.

Holiday closures: The warehouse closes but the seller clock keeps running, which adds two to three days at the front.
Battery or liquid declaration: A different export route, adding two to four days.
Address failure: A failed delivery attempt adds two days and sometimes a redelivery fee.
Peak season priority loss: The economy lane loses queue position from late October.

Lane choice by category mix

The category mix determines which billing method wins, and that determination happens before any lane is chosen.

Billing driver and risk by category
Category	Driver	Risk
Jackets	Volumetric	High — packing changes the band
Hoodies/Sweaters	Mixed	Medium — crosses over around two items
Pants/Shorts	Mixed	Medium — denim compresses poorly
Shoes	Actual	Low — dense and predictable
Accessories	Actual	Low
T-shirts	Actual	Low
Headwear	Actual	Low
Other-stuff	Mixed	High — widest spread in the sample

Driver assignment from category baselines; risk is the observed band movement in the sample.

Thresholds help: below 40% bulky items by weight, packing is the lever; between 40% and 70%, consolidation is; above 70%, lane selection is the only variable left.

Below 40% bulky by weight: compress before considering a lane change.
40–70%: consolidate, and watch the handling tier boundary.
Above 70%: choose the lane on cost and transit; packing has little effect.

Who is responsible at each stage

Eight handoffs separate payment from delivery. Most disputes come from one of them — the QC verdict — where ownership is genuinely shared and therefore genuinely ambiguous.

Handoff, duration and failure mode
Handoff	Median	What goes wrong
Payment to seller	< 1 day	Seller does not confirm
Seller to warehouse	3 days	Shipped late or to the wrong address
Check-in to QC	2 days	Queue during holidays
QC to packing	1 day	Consolidation request restarts the clock
Packing to export	2 days	Invoice detail missing
Export to import	3 days	Battery or liquid declaration
Import clearance	2 days	Random inspection
Last mile	5 days	Failed delivery attempt

Medians from the 96-order sample.

Designing around the sequence is mostly about the two ends. Confirm the seller ships within 72 hours, and confirm the delivery address before paying freight rather than after.

Set a 72-hour rule at the seller handoff and act on it.
Write the QC verdict down before looking at the next photo set.
Submit consolidation before packing, not after.
Confirm the destination address before paying freight.

The evidence behind this reading

Three source labels apply across this site, and each figure states which. Nothing is presented without a sample size, because a range without one is an opinion.

Sources by figure type
Figure type	Source label	Sample
Item value	Published	96 listings
Transit stages	Measured	96 orders
Freight ranges	Published tariffs	4 lanes × 5 bands
Duty ranges	Published thresholds	4 destination regions
Fee ranges	Published fee pages	11 agents
Weight bands	Derived from category baselines	96 entries

The weight band assignment is the largest known source of error and is systematic rather than random.

Known biases are stated rather than hidden: bands are assigned rather than weighed, prices were read once, and duty is modelled rather than assessed. Each of those is a real limitation and each is labelled wherever it appears.

Corrections are logged publicly on the errata page, with the date and what changed.

Where the money actually goes

Six segments make up the landed cost, and only the first is the item itself. For a other/stuff order in our sample the average item value is $34.83, against $7.50 to $74.40 of everything else. That ratio is the single most useful number in this reading.

The six segments, with their sample ranges
Segment	Range	What moves it
Item value	$12.52–$168.48	Catalogue mix
Domestic delivery	$0.40–$3.10	Weight band
Service fee	$1.20–$9.80	Fee model, order value
International freight	$5.90–$9.40 at light (< 0.8 kg)	Billed weight, lane
Duty	$0.00–$17.40	Declared value, destination
Insurance	$0.00–$2.60	Declared value; optional

Item value is a published figure read from the source listings. The other five are modelled ranges and are labelled as such wherever they appear.

Read the table by column, not by row: the segments with the widest ranges are the ones worth spending attention on, and the widest by a factor of three is international freight.

Comparing all four published lanes

Lane choice looks like a speed decision and is really a step-function decision. For a light (< 0.8 kg) parcel, EU standard sits at $7.10–$11.90 at 1.5 kg, against $5.90–$9.40 on US economy.

Lane cost and transit at 1.5 kg
Lane	Freight at 1.5 kg	Median days	p90 days
US economy	$5.90–$9.40	19	31
US express	$11.40–$17.20	11	21
UK standard	$6.40–$10.80	16	28
EU standard	$7.10–$11.90	21	36

Freight modelled from published tariffs; transit measured from stage timestamps in the sample.

Between 1.5 kg and 8 kg the express premium roughly doubles while the transit advantage shrinks by a day. If you are paying for speed, pay for it on a light parcel; above 5 kg you are mostly paying for a label.

EU standard: $7.10–$62.30 across the full weight range, median 21 days.
Under 3 kg, express is usually worth it; above 5 kg it rarely is.
Above 9–10 kg the question becomes parcel count rather than lane.