Every time Amazon says something is optional, like shipping automation for example, I know that sooner or later it will stop being optional. This naturally leads me to get more and more angry at how poorly planned and implemented many of these features are, and how they invariably are designed to make Amazon look better at the expense of sellers who are then held to standards Amazon themselves cannot meet.
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Have most of you seen your Default Handling Time change to 1 day? It is now 11/10 and my DHT still shows 2 days… not sure what to think. What about those of you who are also used book sellers?
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Still showing default of 2 days. Still getting full 2 days on my shipping requirements. And also buying MM and BPM with no problems; many people seem to be having issues with that.
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Remember that Amazon does AB (or maybe sometimes ABC or even more) testing on EVERYTHING, so don’t expect other sellers’ experiences to match yours.
Been using ShipStation for everything where Buy Shipping doesn’t have the cheaper USPS option. Hit a roadblock today, since ShipStation was recommending a whole different city in the address. I didn’t want to gamble on the package not getting there and losing the cost of the item and Priority Mail (it was expedited), so I used Buy Shipping USPS Priority Cubic. I wanted to use Buy Shipping USPS Priority flat rate padded envelope, but that option was not available. Costed me an extra $3.
This actually happens fairly frequently as cities and towns absorb smaller adjacent towns and townships.
I had one that had been ‘merged’ in for years and one buyer in particular refused to use the ‘new, improved name’ that the PO had changed it to (properly since the older village no longer ‘existed’).
I would copy in the address as provided, Endicia changed it to the PO requirement, and, I shipped it out. Never had an issue with delivery but the buyer eventually owned every book in the genre that I sold.
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Which would be fine EXCEPT that they sent the email on 11/1 sayng “This change will take place between tomorrow, Nov 2, and Nov 6. If you currently have a 2-day Default Handling Time, your Default Handling Time will remain 2 days until Nov 6.” and I STILL have 2 day shipping here on 11/10.
Amazon couldn’t find its left hand if it was holding hands with itself…
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Same here
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Same here. I still have my capacity set low but even with that I had over 35 orders to go out today and I’m already over that 10 number tonight. People don’t pay all that much attention to those dates that Amazon shows them.
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Yup! And I wish we could set the Order limit to Unit limit instead.
When someone comes along and wants multiple pairs of my fancier made-to-order earrings, it’s just one order, but it can take hours!
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Don’t know if this was the cause of you didn’t have the option, but Priority flat rate padded envelope does have a size limit, it need to be less than 240 cubic inch (even it was able to close and seal) in order for it to show up as an option in Buying Shipping.
If you have a pretty stuffed envelope, make sure you tape down all the extra bit, so you can get as small a package measurement as you can, than enter that in Buying shipping to see if the option shows up.
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Can’t you just put in whatever measurements to get it to show up? The post office shouldn’t be auditing dimensions on flat rate packaging anyway.
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In theory, yes.
If that’s the case then why Buy shipping has the size limit on it.
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Amazon imposing a limit doesn’t mean the carrier will do so as well. As far as I know with flat rate packaging “if it fits it ships” (up to 70 lbs)
It’s even trademarked
I have crammed things into a non-padded envelope (which is clearly designed for letters) and it was not an issue.
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Thanks. That wasn’t the issue, since my items are small. Plus, I was able to ship it Priority Flat Rate Padded Envelope via ShipStation with the same dimensions.
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Just seeing this…but can you control how many a person buys by using this box?
To me this means if I make say 5 available, and I put a smaller number in the Max Order Quantity of say 2…then one customer is limited to ordering 2 of the same item and they can’t buy all 5 at one time.
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Right but if they pick 7 different things in my shop, that’s one order.
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Totally agree – and that’s also scary for me for truly handmade as well.
Not sure how to fix or control that part besides only offering 1 at a time AND having 1 pre-made.
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Last winter I had a customer who placed an order every 4-5 days for 7-12 pieces of jewelry. This went for 2 full months. If I got other orders on those days — yowch, no breathing time. Each order, no matter how many items, counted as ONE order. Thankfully no super-complicated pieces, or I couldn’t have done it.
I’ve been checking my shipping settings every single day to make sure it doesn’t switch to one day, no matter how much amabots “think” I can do it. Yes, most orders are in the mail within 24 hours — but even on a slow day, I don’t want that pressure.
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