Shipping

A piece can travel by parcel anywhere in the US, wherever it is set to ship. The renter picks how fast at checkout and pays for both legs. The lender prints a label, packs the piece and drops it off by her ship-by date. The renter prints the prepaid return label and drops it off when she is done.

Whether a piece ships

It is the lender's choice, set on each piece, or on every piece at once from her closet policy, which switches shipping on only for pieces that have a parcel size. Where a piece does not ship, its page says so in one line. A closet can be anywhere in the US, and so can you: shipping reaches all 50 states and DC.

Nothing worth over $10,000 is shipped. A piece with a higher replacement value travels by courier or handoff where those reach you, or not at all.

The carrier is UPS or USPS (Jelly prices both and each leg goes with whichever is lower at the speed you pick), and it is named on the label and on the order.

Choosing a speed

At checkout you pick one of four:

• Ground: Best value
• 2-Day
• Standard Overnight
• Priority Overnight: Fastest

Each shows its price and the day it arrives. A speed that cannot reach you by your start date is shown but cannot be picked, and if none can, shipping is refused with the reason on the screen. Pick a later start, or a courier if you are in New York City. A speed the carrier does not run on your route is left off.

The prices are the carrier's own for that parcel, that route and that speed. Jelly adds nothing to them and takes no commission on a delivery leg.

A price needs your street address. Until Jelly has it, the piece page says "Ships anywhere in the US · priced at checkout", or gives a from price for your zip.

What the renter pays

• The way there, at the speed you picked.
• The way back, at Ground, charged at checkout with everything else, so the return label is already paid for when you print it.
• Transit coverage, where it applies, as its own line. See Transit coverage below.

The receipt names the service ("Shipping · USPS Ground Advantage", "Shipping · UPS 2nd Day Air"), and every line is on the screen before your card is charged.

The dates

Your start date is the day the piece reaches you. The days in transit are not part of your rental.

Build in a day. A parcel does not arrive at a time you choose. If the piece is for a particular evening, have it arrive the day before.

The lender has a ship-by date, worked out from your speed and the distance. You can both see it on the order.

The return is due at the carrier by the next business day after your end date. Print the return label on or before your end date (that is what books the return) and drop the parcel off by the next business day.

If the carrier is slow once it has the parcel, that is not a late return, and no late fee applies to it. See Late returns.

The label only offers speeds that arrive in time. When you make a label, Jelly checks each speed against the day the piece is needed: the renter's start date on the way out; on the way back, the day the lender was told to expect it, or sooner if someone else has booked it next. Only the speeds that get there by then are offered. If none of them can, only the fastest is offered, and Jelly is told. On time, the speed that was paid for is included. Late (past your ship-by or drop-off-by date), a faster speed can be the only one that still makes it: the difference comes out of the lender's earnings on the way out, and goes on the renter's card on the way back (founders, 27 Sep 2026). If a carrier simply got slower while you were on time, Jelly covers the difference.

If you are the lender

1. Film the piece first, as with every method. See Condition reports on your piece.
2. Make the label from the order. It can be made up to seven days before your ship-by date.
3. Need more time? Before you make the label you can upgrade the speed. The difference comes out of your earnings, and the renter pays nothing more.
4. Pack it in the size on the listing, or smaller, in any packaging you have that fits. See Parcel sizes below. Before the label is made, the order asks whether it fits; if it doesn't, pick a bigger size there and the difference is shown before you choose. Pick the size it really ships in: a bigger parcel can add carrier costs, and they're deducted from your earnings. Pack it as you would want it back: whatever it travels in is what the renter sends it back in.
5. Print the label and drop the parcel off with the carrier by your ship-by date. On a USPS label the order also shows a QR code: show it at any Post Office counter and they print the label for you. No printer on a UPS label? Most UPS Store locations can print it for you. A UPS parcel with transit coverage may have to go over a counter. See Handing over a UPS parcel with coverage below.

Ship on time. A piece that arrives too late to wear is refunded to the renter in full, both legs included. Where the lateness was yours (it went out after the ship-by date), you are not paid for that rental. Where the carrier caused it, you are. See Refunds and cancellations from your side.

You are reminded the day before your ship-by date and on it, if the parcel has not gone yet.

If you are the renter

Film it within 12 hours of it arriving, the same as every method. Without that capture you cannot open an issue, a fit refund or a claim on the rental. See Condition reports.

Keep the mailer or box it came in. The return goes back in it, and its prepaid label is priced on that size. Sending it back: film it again, get the prepaid return label from the order, pack it in that same packaging, and drop it off with the carrier named on the label (or, where the order says so, over a counter, as below). If the packaging is lost or torn, use packaging no bigger than it was; you can buy some at the drop-off. You say which before the label is made. A carrier's charge for a bigger or heavier return parcel goes on your card. You are reminded the day before it is due. To change how a shipped return travels, write to Jelly on the order's support line. See Returning a piece.

Names and addresses on a label

A label carries a first name, a last initial and an address, because a carrier cannot deliver without them. The label the lender prints has yours on it; the return label you print has hers. That is the only place either of you ever sees the other's address. It is inside the label file, which only the person shipping that leg can open, and it is nowhere on the order, in a message or on a profile. Checkout tells you this before you book a shipped order.

The sender on every label is Jelly Shop. Your phone number and email are never printed on one.

On a USPS label there is a QR code too. Show it at any Post Office counter and they print the label, so you don't need a printer. A UPS label is a file you print.

Handing over a UPS parcel with coverage

Some UPS parcels with transit coverage do not go in a drop box. When yours is one, the order says so, on both legs (the lender's on the way out, the renter's on the way back):

• Hand it over at a UPS Store or UPS Customer Center counter and ask for a receipt; or
• for a piece of $1,000 or more, at a UPS Customer Center counter (not a drop box or a UPS Store) and ask them to sign a high-value shipment summary as your receipt. A UPS driver collecting a pickup from your door can sign it too.

Nothing changes on a USPS label: any Post Office takes it.

Pickup from your door

Rather not go out? Schedule a pickup. Once the label is printed, the order can book the carrier to collect the parcel from your door on a business day before your deadline. USPS picks up for free. A UPS pickup has a fee (UPS charges for it), and it is paid by whoever is shipping: out of the lender's earnings on the way out, on the renter's card on the way back. Leave the parcel where the driver can reach it with the label on, unless the order asks you to hand a UPS parcel to the driver yourself for a signed high-value shipment summary. Your own phone number goes to the carrier for the driver, and to nobody else.

Parcel sizes

Shipping is priced and labelled for the parcel size on the listing, one of the four below. It goes by size, not weight. Pick the size the piece really ships in. A bigger parcel can add carrier costs you don't need, and they're deducted from your earnings. Each size is a maximum, and any packaging that fits it is fine. There's no special box to buy:

| Size | Packaging | Up to | Under | For | |---|---|---|---|---| | Small | a soft mailer or bag | 12 × 10 × 2 in | 1 lb | Light dresses, tops, skirts, small accessories | | Medium | a soft mailer, bag or box | 14 × 12 × 3 in | 2 lb | Bulky dresses, denim, sweaters, light jackets | | Large | any box | 18 × 13 × 4 in | 3 lb | Coats and heavy jackets, handbags, boots | | XL | any box | 12 × 11 × 11 in | 5 lb | Snow gear, large and bulky items |

Use what you have. Jelly doesn't send out packaging.

• Small and Medium: a poly mailer, a padded mailer, a shop's shipping bag you kept, or a garment bag folded flat.
• Large and XL: any box that fits. One you already have is fine.

Measure it packed and sealed: a Small measures up to 12 × 10 × 2 in and weighs under 1 lb with the piece inside. Fold the piece flat and close the parcel snugly; a parcel that bulges past its size is measured as a bigger one. When you list a piece, the size usual for that kind of piece is marked "Suggested based on your listing". You still choose. When you make the label, the order tells you how to pack that kind of piece.

Whoever ships a leg packs it in that size or smaller, and ticks a box saying so before the label is made. Carriers measure parcels and bill the difference when one is bigger or heavier than its label. That extra charge is the shipper's, in full (out of the lender's earnings on the way out, on the renter's card on file on the way back), and the order shows what the carrier measured beside what the label was for.

Too big for the listing's size? Pick the bigger size when you make the label; the difference comes out of your earnings, like a faster speed. You can also change the listing's size from there, so the next renter is quoted on the size it really ships in. A bigger size you choose costs you both ways (the outbound's difference and the return's), because the renter paid for the size on the listing.

The return goes back in the packaging it came in, at the same size. If the renter reused your packaging and the carrier had already measured it bigger on the way out, the return's extra charge is yours, not hers.

Pictures. The condition photo or video of the piece is taken with the camera on the order (never picked from your photos) after the rental is booked: the lender before it goes out, the renter before it goes back. Once the label is printed you can also add a photo of the sealed parcel with the label on. That one is optional, it's your proof if the carrier says the parcel was bigger, and only you and Jelly see it, because the label shows both addresses.

Addresses. A parcel goes only to an address the post office can confirm. When you save an address we check it; if the post office formats it differently, the address shows its version with Use this. An address the post office can't confirm still works for courier and handoff, but nothing can ship to it until it's fixed.

If you think a carrier's charge is wrong, open the order and press Ask Jelly to dispute it. Jelly takes it up with the carrier. The charge stands while they look at it; if the carrier reverses it, the money comes back to you the way you paid it. A charge the carrier made for another reason (a different drop-off area, an address correction) is the shipper's in the same way.

Shipping can pause. If three of your parcels in a year are measured bigger or heavier than their labels, shipping pauses on your account while Jelly takes a look. Orders you've already booked still ship, and courier and handoff work as usual, and Jelly Support is there if you'd like to talk it through.

Transit coverage

A piece with a replacement value of $1,000 or more travels with transit coverage on both legs (coverage Jelly buys for the parcel; Jelly is not an insurer and you are not the insured), unless the lender has waived it for her closet, in which case she carries the risk of loss or damage in transit herself. Under $1,000, a lender can add it anyway, from its listing.

The price is the label provider's, at cost, for the value declared (the carrier's own cover on a UPS label, the label provider's parcel insurance on a USPS one), and it is one line on the renter's total, "Transit coverage · declared $1,250", never folded into the speed.

A parcel only goes with a carrier that can cover its whole value, at every speed. If no carrier Jelly ships with can cover a piece's value, it is not shipped. The checkout says so, and courier or handoff are still there where they reach you.

It does not change how anything is settled. What happens when a piece is damaged or lost is one sentence: Jelly reviews both sides' condition captures, mediates, and charges whoever is responsible. See If something goes wrong.

Cancelling a shipped order

The piece's own cancellation terms apply, counted to the ship-by date instead of the start date:

• Within 2 hours of booking: full refund.
• Up to the lender's window before the ship-by date: full refund. On Jelly's default that is 2 days: with a ship-by date of Wed 14 Oct, until the end of Mon 12 Oct, New York time.
• After that: the share of the rental price in the piece's terms, or nothing. Delivery is not refunded.
• Once the carrier has scanned the parcel: nothing comes back. The piece is moving.

A label that has been made but not scanned is cancelled with the order. See Cancelling.

Tracking

You can both follow the parcel on the order, both ways, each scan with its city and state. The carrier's scans move the order along; nobody marks a parcel sent or delivered by hand.

If a parcel goes wrong

Raise it on the order. A parcel that has stalled, one marked delivered that is not there, one returned to the sender: all of it is worked by a person, and none of it is yours to chase with the carrier. See When a delivery goes wrong.

Keep it on Jelly. Do not buy your own label or use your own carrier. Jelly cannot mediate or collect on a parcel it never sent.