OK, this is funny / sad / bordering on illegal IMHO.
Was just creating an LTL plan for a small pallet (1000 units / 30" / 280lbs).
This new program, that we were somehow auto-enrolled in is trying to split the pallet into 3 pallets that are less than a foot tall with a total freight cost of over $300.
The amazing savings we would realize from this program, for this pallet is $90.00.
So let me get something straight… I spent $200 more to save $90? RIGHT!
Someone is on drugs over at Amazon. This is insanity and if I was just some guy doing my thing, managing someone else’s account, I would hit yup - go for it…
Sounds like trickery too but IDK how much $ Amazon actually pockets from partnered LTL.
Sigh - didn’t need this today. Let’s see how long it takes to opt out of this horseshit.
EDIT TO ADD!!! It would be cheaper to send the 83 individual case packs via SPD. 83 boxes!
Ya, shame there is not another popular forum commentator who has been warning about this issue since the Send to Amazon program was forced upon us. You do know you can make a pallet in the packaging details now right? Drop down for Template Type.
I do. Thought about trying to see if that would block the split. Does it? Opened a case to opt out but IDK how long that’s going to take…
This has nothing to do with STA. It has to do with this (which I stupidly ignored):
Hello,
You’ve been selected to participate in the FBA Multiple Destinations program and get discounts on your fulfillment fees. You’ll be enrolled automatically on January 19, 2023.
Shoppers love fast and free shipping. By placing your products closer to customers, we can deliver them even faster, which in turn helps to grow your sales.
To place your products closer to customers, we’ll begin asking you to send your eligible, standard-size SKUs to up to three designated receive centers as you create your US shipping plans. Your designated receive centers will be selected based on the geographic region that you’re shipping from for each shipping plan.
The program has the additional benefit of offering you fulfillment fee discounts. These discounts will be implemented starting March 31 as follows:
Fulfillment fee discount per unit starting March 31, 2023
Unit dimensions
Small standard size: $0.05
Large standard size: $0.09
If you prefer not to participate in Multiple Destinations and receive these discounts, you can opt out at any time by sending an email to [email protected]. Please include your merchant token in the body of the email and state that you want to opt out of Multiple Destinations.
They recently fixed a glitch that was helpful. We can now send both SPD with UPS Partner Carrier and Amazon Freight LTL within the same Send to Amazon Shipment.
My shipment today became 1 pallet on Shipment #1, 1 Box on shipment #2, and 5 pallets on shipment #3.
I do believe this program may help cut down on internal FC transfers.
It came with STA, when they removed max case quantity creation based on weight and dimensions when we could make cases into pallets.
Note we have had this issue since STA inception because…
"In this program, we ask that you send your eligible, standard-size SKUs to up to three designated receive centers when you create your US shipping plans. "
Meaning, for many sellers, this has been happening to oversize item/mixed shipments since STA was forced, so yes it is an STA problem.
It has to us. Our oversize shipments are normally split into 2 or 3 shipments. Occasionally, 1 shipment.
Unfortunately, we do not receive the “Discount on FBA per unit Pick & Pack fee:” on Oversize items.
Nope, nor is there an opt-out, and everyone was forced to bundle items into sets when they got rid of the multiple items per shipment fee discount years ago. This means one has to have multiple skus/asins for the same item affecting IPI scores.
I did not understand or read this correctly. Probably due to a lack of coffee.
I do have a SKU for FBA and a SKU for FBM(MFN) for each item but not multiple ASINs for the same item.
I would have liked to have multiple ASINs on different shipping templates to see which preforms better.
But, to my knowledge, it is a policy violation to have multiples ASINs for the same item.
I so could have worded that better. Back in the day there was no need to make 2 packs, 4 packs, etc for a listing as Amazon made it more profitable when buyers made multi unit buys of the same item. Now that Amazon fees are per item and not per order, it is in the sellers best interest to capture that margin by making sku’s/asins of multi packs. Unfortunately that makes more skus/asins causing varying sell through rates and potentially lower IPI/inventory scores.
I’ll take your word for it of course. We only do standard size and I probably created 250 shipments since STA was launched and not once did we have this problem. Seller Support removed the program from our account overnight and low and behold, we are able to create single destination pallets the way we always have this morning using standard case packs as the UOM in the template.
I looked at this program when it was announced and quickly decided that I wanted nothing to do with it.
If Amazon ever force-migrates me, I will be… displeased.
Awesome point and at the worst possible time when we were trying to get shipments out immediately post limit increase to get ahead of the crowd. Specifically stayed up till 3AM EST when the change happened to create our plans / get our freight pick up dates secured.
This is 100% my fault though. I got that email in Jan when we weren’t shipping much and I KNEW it was going to be a problem but choose to ignore it for some reason and it bit me in the ■■■.
We created a few shipments since Jan and they were SPD and split as they always have been in full shipper amounts so it didn’t matter. So I just assumed and made an ■■■ out myself by thinking nothing changed until Amazon split a 30" pallet into 3 pallets.
The crazy part is each of those 3 were well below the weight min for LTL so Amazon really needs to fix that algorithm, among others. Makes no sense.
Based on the fact that it was March 1st, something makes me think the process didn’t really start until yesterday as the discounts aren’t effective until the end of march.
Yea, I get that but it’s half the price to go LTL in this case.
The hilarious part is going SPD and actually sending the 83 cases with 83 UPS labels would have been cheaper than the 3 pallet split. That’s the crazy thing.
How Amazon allows this all to happen is beyond me. It’s a slap in the face for them to offer an option that more than negates the savings of this “special” program that proports to help the seller when all it does is help Amazon.
Yup and sadly not much has changed. Yes, we are elated that my FIL is still holding on and comfortable but it’s not easy to take care of a bedbound 96 year old that has no physical strength left. He can feed himself, change the channel on the TV with the remote and operate a mouse to trade his stocks but that’s about it.
We only have 20 hours of help from Hospice a week and are completely on our own on the weekends.
He’s now been home 29 days and has been in a hospital bed for 38 days. It’s too late to try and get him out of the bed. We had our chance a couple weeks ago but the day we were going to get him up he was extremely weak, had a temp, and low O2 levels.
He’s been very good for the last 8 days but he doesn’t want to try anymore.
Anyway, between that and a number of other personal / business factors, I’m stressed to the max.
