FBA Receiving Times... I am so Ripped

Selling on Amazon
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I just posted this on the NSFE, since my partner onboarded me :angry: I just could not take it any more. Rather than waste a good soap box speech I post it here for enjoyment or to help new sellers learn what it is really like. “Sellers Helping Sellers”

@Dominic_Amazon We have seen a number of posts recently related to FBA Receiving times and wanted to provide the following information…

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Thank you for the information. However, from the seller side, it does not look at all like this. I would be happy to review this with a product manager, or appropriate person at Amazon in detail.

For us here is the problem that exists today, August 9th 2024. We have been selling FBA and FBus (FBM) for over 10 years. You are killing us. First Amazon announces an upcoming change, along with all the others in the past year that slap us down.

What I am referring to is auto inclusion into automatic ship time numbers. This does NOT work for us.

We Ship based on what the trade, our business does.

We have items that can ship same day.

We have items that we can ship to FBA. (None have arrived for shipment since the recent Prime Day.)

We have items that ship in 2 days, we manufacture on demand.

We have items that ship in 3 days that are customized items. These items are in the Amazon Custom Program.

We have handmade items that ship 5-30 days depending on the craftmanship that goes into the item. These items are in the Amazon Handmade Program.

But back to the point of your Post, FBA Receiving Times;

To deal with the issues above, we invested in sending items to FBA. At least we will not get fined… However, we sent the items to FBA during Prime Day. It has been like ordering an item in the Chinese New Year. It never arrives.

Yet we pay three times what we used to due to new fees. Amazon has NO transparency on these shipments. Items sent in the “Prime Day” time are HELD at UPS centers. I can imagine, the conversation. “Don’t deliver that trailer” we will not accept it, you do not have a slot. Full disclosure, we are sending little boxes by UPS, yet we have experience with warehouse receiving and how it works.

For those items, Amazon shows the product is enroute, not yet arrived. Wrong, you lie, you told UPS to hold the trailer. Admit it.

Other items arrive and are in “FC Transfer” since Prime Day. No further information is available. Not received, but delivered. We have items with 365 days of stock, yet here we are making more units to send, since we have no transparency on what is happening in the Amazon Fulfillment Center System.

Many other items show “Out of Stock” yet XX are inbound.

We understand the Just in Time stocking, and that Amazon is not a warehouse but a set of 100+ distributions centers. I wish Amazon could understand just in time manufacturing.

Again, you are killing us. Every day you do not check our items in we must ship FBM (FBus) dozens of items will go out today, even though you have them in YOUR hands. Even the items that show checked in show availability on August 27th!

How is that? When you (Amazon) recently took over our manufacturing and shipment program from allowing us our own handling time to forcing your own 1-2 days on us.

It takes me back to my younger years, “You can’t even run your own life, I will be dammed if you will run mine!”

Give me a call anytime, I am sure you have my phone number. I would be happy to help.

ETA for SAS readers, listen to the song in the link above, you will NOT believe how it relates to Amazon. We sold our soul to the company store, oh wait that is another song.

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All of this is true. None of it is exaggerated.

But none of it can be “fixed” by anyone you can ever communicate with.

So, don’t waste your time on anger, accept Amazon’s changing conditions as you would accept Tropical Storm Debby closing highways, and making delays in deliveries. If people continue to buy on the Amazon platform, they will also accept the delays, as the slower deliveries of what customers order is obvious to the customers.

So, a truckload is stuck and won’t get unloaded? Where’s your own FBM inventory to fulfill those orders until Amazon has inventory? Amazon wants to impose faster handling times based upon “actuals”? Make the “actuals” slower - “Work To Rule”, and get those items scanned by the post office or UPS based upon your stated handling times, no faster. Don’t let Amazon take advantage of and profit from YOUR extra effort - save all that effort for the orders that come in directly from customers using YOUR website.

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And print the labels as close to the time you will be dropping off (since Amazon is using the label print time and not scan time for Handle Time calculations). If you print the night before, you loose that handle time difference with the scan time.

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Really? Amazon told me that it was the time at which the packages were received by the USPS, UPS, whatever, and NOT the label print time.

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For A2Z, Amazon is using scan acceptance time.

For the Handle Time calculation (concerning this new push for Automated Handle Time), Amazon is using the label print time.

What Amazon is reporting as our “actual handle time” could only be true if they were using the label print time. We were printing labels the night before which translated into a handle time of 0.6 to 0.7 days (custom made same day but after USPS closed thus labels printed for next day USPS shipping). Those packages would be scanned 12 to 14 hours later which, if the clock ended there, would mean our handle time would be 1.1 to 1.2 days.

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Thank you for such well-informed data!

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I’m also less than thrilled with the recent uptick in FBA receive times. In the past you could more or less expect things to be received in a reasonable timeframe. A week delay would be the upper end of it.

Doing FBM for something you were expecting to use FBA for is also a terrible solution and not what Amazon sells FBA as (“make your life easier by having Amazon handle most aspects of the order flow”).

Having recently done FBM for a product (due to issues that made it so I couldn’t do it through FBA), it’s a terrible experience all around. It’s significantly more work, since I have to coordinate with a 3PL company, follow up with them on any issues, and having to deal with buyer complaints related to shipping (granted, I stopped reading buyer messages and just full refund everyone who complains about anything so that cut down on the work load, but it’s still busy work that needs to be done on a daily basis). And the biggest thing is the 3PL fees + shipping costs are much higher than what FBA charges. And I haven’t been forced into any automated handling time since I haven’t done FBM that long. That sounds like another pleasure to have to deal with if it’s being forced upon you.

If they’re trying to force everyone into FBA they should at least make the process work properly. Month+ delays on SPD shipments are completely unacceptable

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I recently held off on a shipment to roll the dice on getting a different FC, I was lucky and it worked, but yes, some FC’s are way way slow, and some are still efficient. But even after receiving, the transfer nonsense takes at least 2 weeks, so items that are received and active still show better delivery times if I flip them to FBM for a week…

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I sent out a shipment of 5 pkgs on Thursday, 4 of the pkgs were assigned to distribution centers I never had before: IAH3 (Houston, TX), MEM1 (Memphis, TN), SWF2 (Hopewell Junction, NY), RMN3 (Fredericksburg, VA).

The pkgs are all still in transit. Anybody know how well are those 4 center at receiving shipment? Just want to be forewarn if one or more of them are undesirable ones.

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How did they do @Dreamscape-Studio ?

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This is critical info.

  • A2Z = carrier first scan (not ship confirmation)
  • handling time = label print time (not date of label)
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“SMF3” delivered, and checked-in & receving the next day, and everything transfer out in 2 days, nomistake, so far.

“SWF2” delivered and receiving in the same day, all units transfered to to LGA9 the next day, and all received and shipment closed in 2 more day. No problems at all. :grinning:

“RMN3” delivered and receving after 3 days, and still in the process of transfering to other FCs.

“MEM1” delivered & receiving in the same day, all units transfered to JAX2, not received at JAX2 yet.

“IAH3”, delivered but hasn’t checked-in after 5 days.

Well, all in all not bad, just hope “IAH3” would check-in soon, and no other issues with the transfers

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Get this…Sent a package to Port-St-Lucie - yay! 90 mins away, est. gets there tomorrow.

Reader…it did not get there tomorrow.

Instead of going 90 mins, first it went 3 hours, then another 3 hours, in the wrong direction. Over 2 days.
Then it left the 6-hour away place, and didn’t update for 3 more days.

On Day 6, it arrived…in the 6-hour away place. I have no idea where exactly, UPS only says the town name. I assume it ended up an an Amazon FC, and that “Josh” who signed for it is the Amazon employee?

But I have no idea at this point, and won’t until it gets checked in.

I could have walked it to the first place in a couple of days…

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Keep an eye on this one. It was diverted. Not normally an issue for SPD shipments but a nightmare for LTL shipments. Those sit, sometimes forever…

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Yeah I plan to, just a small UPS box of 10 items, most of which I re-sent in this week’s shipment figuring I was in for issues… If it gets in before Black Friday I’ll be happy…

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