For the past year and half, all my FBA shipments have been to told to sent to SMF3 or SCK4, both are receiving/transfer centers in Stockton, CA. Everything has been pretty much received and transferred in a timely manner and correctly.
But today I was really surprised to see my shipment was told to sent to CLT2, Charlotte, NC. I seems to remember to read somewhere sellers were having problems with CLT2, but don’t remember the details. I canceled the shipment workflow I was working on today, and am going to try it tomorrow to see if the system will change it’s mind and let me sent it to Stockton, CA again.
But I want to check here to see if anybody have sent recent shipments to CLT2, and what were your experience, just in case I’m stuck with CLT2.
Ditto VTR we get SCK most often for LTL and its busy - the recommended option should receive quicker. What I would do is then send in the next load in a week or two (earlier than restock forecast) to recommended FC so that it slowly trickles into inventory after 3 weeks or so - it may or may not affect your IPI but if your capacity manager allows it; it shouldn’t matter after prime day - the inventory forecast is monthly so it’ll change.
But you know your run rate more than anyone so replenish at your descretion.
I will say too, is I am a bit confused because it seems to suggest you get some sort of rebate if you choose one of the further carriers to ship too, but I can’t figure out how that money goes back to me? Both times the ‘rebate’ was more then it was to ship the inventory. So I kind of thought I was getting free inbound shipping? I’m not so sure that’s how it works now because I don’t see any sort of rebate or refunds.
I’m probably not sure I would do it again. I shipped two packages to NJ thinking it would be free and quicker, but it doesn’t seem to be the case so far?
Thanks for showing the screenshot of the “Options”. I was so use to everything always goes to SMF3 I wasn’t really paying attention to all those “Option” boxes. Didn’t realize they are there. Is it always there, or something newish?
I did tried another shipment workflow, and CLT2 was the “Recommended shipment option”, and “Standard shipment option” was for SMF3, which is “Experiencing significant delay in receiving”.
Have anybody shipped package to SMF3 recently? How many days from delivered to check-in and receiving? Wonder how long is the delay at SMF3 for receiving?
Because ship a package with UPS ground from OR to NC is 7 days from drop off to delivery, that’s 5 days more than ship it to CA. So if the delay is about 5 extra days on top of the usual wait for check-in at SMF3, than maybe I should just ship the package to SMF3?
Since my selection box didn’t state any savings or rebates, neither in your box shown above, I assume there isn’t any savings/rebates for us to use the Recommended shipping option, just quicker receiving time.
@ModernSwitch , I’d assume you didn’t get any savings/rebates either.
It appears in the box in green font. I wish I took a screen shot, but I found a similar screen shot here after trying to figure out where the “money” is. Amazon Offers Fulfillment Fee Rebate To Alleviate Backlog In Western Region Now for some reason in their screen shot it shows like $2000 in rebate fulfillment fees.
Now for mine I had done 2 shipments and one of the rebate fees was like $10 and the other rebate fee was like $8. The cost to ship my boxes was $7.48 and $8.12 to TEB9. Typically when I ship my box to SMF3 its $4.38. Now I didn’t understand what fullfillment rebate meant so I thought I was going to get money back or something. I’m actually still not sure what fulfillment rebate means, so maybe I think I pay reduced fees when the items in those boxes sell? I still don’t know if it was the right decision to ship to TEB9 or if I should have chose SMF3. I wish now that I sent one to each to really test it because I rarely ship out two boxes.
I just set up a shipment plan for 10 pallets since I would like my stuff to get to recommended FC before prime day (ideally) and then I’ll simply send another shipment to local FC in advance just so receiving matches receiving backlog.
Thanks everybody for your answers and I learned something new of the shipment workflow.
Finished my shipment this morning, the Recommended option is still CLT2, so I’m going with that, finger crossed. At least if everything goes well with receiving at CLT2, the transfer to other FCs should take shorter time compare to SMF3.
CLT2 is fine, for what they do. Just they are a receiving-only facility, so they send your items on to actual Full FC’s after receiving. IE, up to 2 weeks before your inventory gets normal delivery times. Sometimes shorter, depending on how much gets routed to the west coast.
Aside from that, their accuracy is pretty good. And they do checkin-receive usually in 1-3 business days from shipment delivery.
TEB9 was a disaster when it opened and for 6+ months after it opened. Now, in our experience, it’s a well-oiled machine with quick receipts and accurate counts.
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