Multi-carrier labels and rates
Starshipit shipping automation
Strong hand-held onboarding onto Australian and NZ carriers, but almost every recent complaint comes from stores that have been on it a year or more — Shopify write-back and post-checkout order edits break, and escalation past the onboarding team stalls.
Should you install it?
Starshipit does the core job well: it takes Shopify orders, picks a courier by rule, and prints batch labels for Australian and NZ carriers, and reviewers consistently say the setup call and the named onboarding specialist are the best part of the purchase. The problem is that the praise and the complaints come from different kinds of store. Recent five-star reviews are almost all from merchants one to two months in thanking an onboarding rep; the eight negative reviews of the last twelve months are all from stores a year to four years deep, reporting that Shopify write-back and fulfilment sync break, that post-checkout edits and multi-location splits cause duplicate or double-shipped orders, and that once you are past onboarding you cannot get anyone on the phone. Two specific things should give you pause: a July 2026 long-term user says a Shopify platform change broke order-edit sync and manifest fulfilment and support's answer was no fix and no ETA, and three separate 2026 reviewers report billing errors — charged after uninstalling in trial, charged for a plan they did not select, quoted $50/month then told they needed $200. If you are a single-location AU or NZ store with a straightforward pack-and-ship flow, this is a reasonable buy; if you edit orders after checkout, split across locations, or need someone to answer the phone on Black Friday, test those exact workflows during the trial before you commit.
Fair evidence. The current-state read rests on only 8 negative reviews out of 18 in the last twelve months, so individual cases carry a lot of weight. Recent positives cluster at under two months of use and name onboarding staff, and one reviewer states they were asked for a 5-star review before setup was complete — so the lifetime 4.4 is not a reliable guide to daily use at scale. Evidence is also geographically narrow (179 of 209 reviews from Australia; UK is 5 reviews and the US is 1), and reviews say nothing usable about returns handling or exact plan prices beyond the disputed $30/$50/$200 figures.
Right for
- Australian and NZ stores printing batch labels for Australia Post eParcel/MyPost Business, StarTrack, Fastway, DHL, Sendle or Direct Freight instead of typing addresses into carrier portals ([2427], [4182], [1258], [1877])
- Single-location stores with a simple 'pack it and ship it' flow and few post-purchase changes — one reviewer who found it unusable at multiple locations still said it 'may work well for single-location stores with minimal post-purchase changes' ([7541])
- Stores that want rule-based courier selection across several carriers on their own negotiated accounts ([5951], [4182], [0263], [0831])
- Stores replacing manual carrier-portal entry who value a setup call: many reviewers were onboarded by a named specialist over Zoom or phone ([4798], [8623], [4490], [6396], [3450])
- Stores wanting live carrier checkout rates fed from their own Australia Post account ([1430], [3130], [6151], [0559])
- Merchants also selling on Etsy, or importing CSV order lists (one store used it for Kickstarter reward fulfilment) ([9774], [6159], [2427])
Wrong for
- High-volume stores that edit, split or re-address orders after checkout — reviewers report orders appearing at two locations and being shipped twice, and deleting/re-importing orders as the only workaround ([7265], [7541])
- Stores that need order changes in Shopify to flow through to labels automatically: as of July 2026 a long-term user reports this and manifest-to-line-item fulfilment both stopped working with no fix and no ETA ([1600])
- Anyone who needs phone support during a dispatch outage — reviewers say the published number goes unanswered and that phone access got worse over time ([7265], [4864], [1490])
- Stores that lean on it through Black Friday and Christmas peaks without a fallback: repeated reports of write-back backlogs and outages in peak weeks ([3588], [9674], [6159], [1490])
- Warehouses wanting barcode-scan order lookup or full product detail (size, colour) on the pick screen — one 1,000-orders-a-month store left over this ([7265])
- Mac, tablet and mobile-first packing setups ([4306], [7031], [7265])
- Price-sensitive small stores: several reviewers call it expensive, and one long-term user reports two sizeable price rises in about two years ([4949], [4306], [6159], [3674])
- US stores — there is one US review in 209 and it is a 1★ sync failure, so there is no basis in these reviews to judge US fit ([8138])
What will annoy you
Escalation support stalls once past onboarding: slow or no email replies, template responses, no phone line: 20 reviews, rising, last seen 2026-07.
How the developer behaves when it breaks
Replies to 83% of negative reviews (34% overall) and the tone is consistent: apologise, state the team has reached out, invite a call. Resolution is genuinely mixed. Some cases close: [4479] edited their review after the import problem was fixed ('this has now been resolved - im happy with the app'), [4864] the developer says the payment was resolved, [8081] and [2949] both show follow-through. Others stay open — the reply to [1600] is the merchant quoting support saying there is 'no fix, no ETA on a fix', and replies to [3238] and [7265] are acknowledgements rather than fixes. Two habits worth knowing: replies often push blame back to the merchant's configuration or a third party ([3238], [7541], [9649], [5146], [2357]), and a batch of replies was clearly backfilled long after the fact — a 2021 review answered in 2024 ([0005], 'we know it's been a while since you left this review'), a 2018 review answered in 2024 ([0825]), a March 2025 review answered in January 2026 ([9649]), and several January 2025 reviews answered in June 2026 ([5824]). So a reply is not evidence anyone acted at the time.
What goes wrong 8 recurring themes
- Shopify write-back / fulfilment sync fails — orders don't fulfil, don't write back, or duplicate, leaving manual work 11 reviews rising, last seen 2026-07
“Since the latest Shopify update (six weeks ago), two key functions don't work anymore.” review 1600
- Post-checkout edits and Shopify order splits across multiple locations cause duplicate or double-shipped orders 3 reviews rising, last seen 2026-06
“In that window it shows in both, and we have ended up shipping several orders twice, once from each location.” review 7265
- Wrong rates or wrong data sent to the carrier — silent overcharging of customers or the store 4 reviews rising, last seen 2026-07
“their recommended setup caused our international shipping rates to systematically overcharge for over two full years” review 3238
- Escalation support stalls once past onboarding: slow or no email replies, template responses, no phone line 20 reviews rising, last seen 2026-07
“i cant even get a hold of anyone to get them to sort it out. The staff also use AI to send generic responses when i am seeking help” review 0169
- Billing surprises — wrong plan charged, charges after uninstalling in trial, quoted plan not the plan needed 6 reviews rising, last seen 2026-07
“Uninstalled app in trial, never used it and was still charged for it.” review 3763
- Price rises and cost relative to competitors 6 reviews steady, last seen 2026-04
“prices have gone up twice and not exactly little jumps” review 4949
- Outages and slowdowns during peak trading, blocking packing 5 reviews fading, last seen 2024-02
“seems to have a meltdown every Xmas with the volumes and breaks down” review 9674
- Mac, tablet and mobile use is unreliable — logouts, direct print failures, truncated labels 3 reviews steady, last seen 2026-06
“app is buggy on Mac. I need to use online portal. - direct print does not work for mac” review 4306
What it does well 6 themes
- Hands-on onboarding by a named specialist, usually a call or Zoom, often configuring the account for you 95 reviews
“The onboarding process was smooth and straightforward, and Adam was incredibly helpful throughout the entire setup.” review 4798
- Batch label printing replaces manual entry into carrier portals; large reported time savings 70 reviews
“This app saved our business 100's of hours during Black Friday 2024.” review 1963
- Rules that auto-assign courier and service across multiple carriers on your own accounts 30 reviews
“Having the ability to set up auto rules and connect multiple carriers has been a game changer.” review 5951
- Automated tracking notifications and branded tracking pages cutting 'where is my order' enquiries 8 reviews
“the app automatically provides tracking numbers to customers & corrects addresses which saves me so many hours” review 1441
- Live checkout rates pulled from the merchant's own Australia Post account 7 reviews
“Works well to give accurate shipping costs on our website which are taken directly from our Aus Post account” review 1430
- Local (AU/NZ) support in business hours, contrasted favourably with overseas competitors 12 reviews
“You honestly cannot put a price on having local, responsive customer service” review 7622
Red flags
- Charged after uninstalling during the trial, and charged for a higher plan than the one selected — both in 2026, and an older reviewer says uninstalling does not stop the debits at all 3763 1131 0825
- Onboarding advice itself caused two years of silent overcharging on international rates (customers quoted ~$90 instead of ~$34), and the store says the company deflected responsibility back onto its Shopify settings 3238
- Labels created and charged without consent on pre-order items, marking them shipped to customers; support reportedly denied the double charge until shown proof 4864
- Silent breakage after a Shopify platform change, with support acknowledging the problem but offering no fix and no ETA — the merchant is paying for automation and doing it manually 1600
- Double-shipped orders caused by slow location handoff — a real money loss that the merchant only discovers after the fact 7265
- Support silence during peak: 500+ orders undispatchable over Black Friday and Christmas with emails unanswered for days; 900 orders not writing back in another Christmas 3588 9674
- Plan quoted at $50/month turned out to require $200/month after signup 0169
- A reviewer was asked for a 5-star review before setup was complete 1697
- Developer's June 2025 reply claims a dedicated mobile app fixed tablet use, yet a June 2026 reviewer still reports being logged out on every packing-slip print 7031 7265
Trend
The last 12 months look materially worse than the app's history, and the split is by tenure rather than by star rating. Volume has dropped to 18 reviews (from 40 the prior 12 months, ~1.5/month), and 8 of those 18 are 1–2★ — a 44% negative share against 14% lifetime. Of the 10 positives in that window, nearly all are stores 1–2 months in praising an onboarding specialist ([4798] is the exception at almost five years). Every one of the 8 negatives comes from a store with 10 months to almost 4 years of use: [1600] (almost 4 years), [7265] (over 2 years, 1,000+ orders/month), [3238] (over 1 year), [0169] (10 months), [7541] (3 months but after extended effort). The themes also shifted. Older complaints were about peak-season outages and slowness (last reported February 2024, [6159]) — call that fading rather than fixed, since only about 30 reviews have landed since. Current complaints are structural: Shopify write-back breaking after platform changes, multi-location splits, and billing. Billing is the newest cluster, with three separate 2026 incidents ([3763], [1131], [0169]) where earlier years had roughly one every couple of years.
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