got an email this morning – and I wanna say Leave me the F alone!
I know you’ll see my address…not that you can’t find it anyways…
But does this mean they’re gonna mess with my settings and I have “no choice”?
2 Likes
It sounds like those are the services protected under the program, not that you are forced to use them. However, I can’t see the entire email so I’m sorta guessing.
1 Like
@Roxy is the Goddess of all things shipping.
2 Likes
The wording we see does sound like you have no choice. But you could probably change it back.
Do you currently allow any sort of automation (either on templates or handling time) ?
Have you created and named your own templates are are you using the Amazon created templates “migrated…”?
1 Like
Hello Selling Partner,
An important part of a delightful online shopping experience is for customers to know when they will receive their purchases. The promise of a shorter and more precise delivery date may be just as relevant to customers as finding the right product and price. To do that, you need to accurately calculate the transit time of different shipping methods across many different regions, which can be difficult to do manually.
Shipping Settings Automation (SSA) helps solve this problem. SSA is an enhanced shipping template that automatically calculates the delivery date that customers will receive your product based on your warehouse location, your customers’ location, and up-to-date performance of the shipping methods you use. When SSA is enabled, you no longer need to manually estimate transit times to deliver products; SSA handles this for you by setting more accurate and automated transit times that are closer to your actual delivery speed. Additionally, with SSA enabled you are protected from carrier performance issues.
On 03/14/2023 we will be upgrading your shipping templates to enable SSA based on following shipping preferences:
Ship from location(s):
Doily Boutique, 1214 Kingston Garden Rd, Prattville, AL, 36067, US
Shipping Service:
USPS First-Class Mail®
USPS Priority Mail®
Shipping Template:
Default Amazon Template
The above shipping preferences were set based on your actual delivery performance and tracking information entered during ship confirmation for past orders, including carrier, shipping service, and tracking IDs. While you don’t need to do anything to take advantage of SSA, you can review and update above-listed shipping preferences or opt-out of this template upgrade (which will require you to manually estimate transit times) by clicking here and following the instructions in Seller Central → Shipping Settings.
Questions? Click here to learn more about Shipping Settings Automation.
The Amazon Services team
3 Likes
Sorry – I should have simply included the whole email, I know better.
Hang on, let me see if I can find the answer to the other questions.
Iris
2 Likes
It does have language for opt out (did you try the Click ‘here’) ?
2 Likes
I use Amazon’s Default templates.
I don’t do anything “special” so to speak. Like if it’s the state next door, that’s one day, and California, that’s 5 days…just default.
My sales are all that I can handle, so I don’t do anything special …
2 Likes
2 Likes
I clicked through, changed nothing, so we shall see.
2 Likes
When I clicked on the “here” link above it took me to my default shipping template.
The header there encourages me to use SSA but no change to the template.
It sounds to me like you will have to wait for Amazon to sabotage your account on March 14 (assuming they do what they say when they say) and then you can undo it.
You would not need to use the link, just go to your shipping template page.
At one time I was semi-convinced that Amazon was less likely to tinker with your templates if you created and named your own templates and deleted all the Amazon-created templates.
I am less convinced of this than I once was after having had Amazon tinker with my own templates more than once.
Edited to add: I recommend you take screenshots, or make notes about how all your templates look now. This will help you restore them.
4 Likes
I am not convinced of this at all, especially since they started changing our default handling times when they feel like it.
I have handling time listed individually for every SKU, and I check my templates regularly just to ensure nothing changed.
This could go either way, either they are updating your templates to force SSA or updating them to offer SSA. Either way, I suggest you check then once a day from March 13th till March 20th just to make sure, and to switch if back off if they do force enable it.
3 Likes
I don’t use SSA anyway, but my shipping template area looks like @bookwormapril’s.
2 Likes
I think we would all be well advised to check those templates every few days in March.
We too could be scheduled to Delight Amazon Buyers with the ridiculously expensive shipping options forced upon us to meet the artificially created deadlines.
5 Likes
Maybe a banner message on the 15th warning users to check their templates because of potential Amazon template-abuse.
4 Likes
Wonder why they missed the “ides of March” ? Too obvious maybe.
2 Likes
Very few of the Amazon decisions show a high degree of literate backgrounds.
3 Likes
It’s a lie…
It’s all a lie…
The shipping automation does NOT do anything better than you can do yourself, and most of the time, it does things worse. 
If you have a sense of how long your packages take to reach their destinations (Amazon does not), then set your templates manually, and ignore Amazon’s bullying um… persuasion. 
The key part of that message is this:
or opt-out of this template upgrade (which will require you to manually estimate transit times)
You should 100 percent opt-the-bleep out. Amazon will screw everything up. 
@bookwormapril is correct.
It sounds to me like you will have to wait for Amazon to sabotage your account on March 14 (assuming they do what they say when they say) and then you can undo it.
Wait for Amazon to do its (bad) thing, then quickly undo it.
While you’re at it, you might want to adjust your manual settings. Amazon’s default settings aren’t the best, either. Do you track your shipped packages, to see how long actual delivery takes? Because that’s what should guide your template set-up. That, and whether you want to be able to use Buy Shipping to buy first-class labels. Those are the two biggest factors that determine what settings you should use in your shipping templates.
5 Likes
I will be checking a lot.
I’m a one person shop and can’t afford to mess up the balance.
2 Likes
I will be checking a lot.
You ship by first-class mail a lot, right? And are handmade, so have a longer handling time?
Do you buy your shipping through Amazon, and ever have trouble with getting a first-class label through Buy Shipping?
I’m guessing you could probably shorten your delivery promises a bit, if you wanted to, but then again, in handmade, there’s really no reason to. If people want what you offer, they’ll have to wait however long you say. It’s not like listings with multiple sellers, where a shorter delivery promise might win you the sale. If you don’t have trouble with Buy Shipping and FC labels, just leave things as they are.
Interestingly, when Amazon started offering shorter delivery times to in-state buyers, that’s the opposite of what they should have done. I can get a package to the east coast faster than I can get it to another part of Oregon. Everything Amazon does with shipping settings seems based on the false assumption that we all ship with UPS or FedEx.
5 Likes