Agree. I just sent an email begging the forwarder to see if there is anything they could do/help…
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Thanks for sharing the process. Glad to know that I’ll have a chance to talk to a US based person (instead of oversea call centers that only read from the scripts). I think I have a decent performance, only 4 defects (see below). Is this decent?
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I wonder what would happen if I cancel those 5 incoming shipments. My guess it that FBA would refuse to receive the 5 shipments. No receipts, no defects, right???
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No… They will reopen them. That’s a thing.
Don’t do that, you’ll make things worse.
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dont cancel unless you can actually stop the shipments from getting there. Your labels are on the boxes and they’ll figure it out.
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Thank you.
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Thank you
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I hate leaving anything performance related up to chance.
Yes there’s a CHANCE he gets a good reasonable rep and the problem gets taken care of. There’s also a chance he gets someone who doesn’t understand what’s going on and a suspension gets issued. This is also a safety violation, your issue was some BS with them not being able to scan your barcodes. Big difference.
Whenever it comes to performance issues you have to prepare for the worst as well.
Another thing to remember for the future as well is no side of a box can be larger than 24" (Amazon rule is 25", so your rule needs to be 24). Exceeding size is as bad as exceeding weight
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I hear you. It is what it is.
The OP is kinda handcuffed here by this and what’s inbound so let’s hope for the best.
It’s 3lbs over, not 30. Of course Amazon probably doesn’t care
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This doesn’t matter at all, it could be an ounce over, it’s still the same violation.
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If your freight forwarder can’t do this, it’s time to find another one. The only way I see this being an issue is if you used Amazon logistics and the end destination for the entire container is Amazon. Otherwise this container is likely going to be opened and cross docked in a warehouse after it clears customs. It should be easy enough for them to send your goods to another warehouse that will do the repacking services that you require if the original cross dock warehouse doesn’t offer those services. I’ve had to do things like this many times in the past. It’s not cheap, but cheaper than being suspended from FBA permanently.
No one can really say what the punishment will be, but as others have said, they don’t take this lightly. I would push the issue with your freight forwarder. They might not like the extra work of doing this but so be it.
At the very least you should be able to reroute your shipment to another location. What I suggest is looking for an organization that works with disabled people somewhere near your intended delivery location. In the smaller city where I live we have 3-4 organizations that do things like this. I like using them because their workers enjoy doing different kinds of work for a little variety. It helps those folks become productive members of society and gives them a job that they might not otherwise have. It might take them a little longer to complete a job but that is an acceptable trade off for me. Get what I need done and help out some folks that could use it? Absolutely.
Good Luck,
TJB
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Thanks for this info. I remember asking them years ago about this and they couldn’t do it. Not sure if things have changed. Currently it’s holiday in China. So I guess the email that I sent to the forwarder would be opened tomorrow.
Interesting. Around the year 2020, I stored my inventory at the warehouse that hired mostly disabled people. Frankly it made me feel good being a part to help disable people. Too bad, they kicked all small clients out to accept one large client. So I had to move the inventory out… How do you search for this kind of facility? Google “disabled employee warehouse”?
Totally agree with that.
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Talking about dilution the percentage score. I wonder if Amazon uses the number of units shipped to them or the number of shipments.
- If they use the number of units, I would focus on sending in couple thousands of small units (to reduce the storage cost).
- If they use the number of shipments, I would focus on creating many small shipments.
What do you guys think?
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I think the factor is variable depending on the violation. For us, it was barcode BS as @GGX mentioned upthread. That was on units. Logically, you would think the % you are dealing with would be on shipment or shipper qty.
You should be able to do the math on your “Shipment Problem” dashboard to figure out which it is and go from there.
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Yes, Google something like disabled warehouse packaging services or similar with a city that is close to your destination to find those kinds of services.
I don’t know what tracking (if any) your freight forwarder shares with you but that container will have to be split out and reshipped to all the individual customers. You pay a premium over FCL (full container load) cost for this service. Maybe the warehouse it goes to doesn’t do secondary services like repacking but they certainly are able to send your shipment anywhere you want it to go. Let’s say the container comes into LA and the contents go to all different locations in the US. They will open and split that container at a warehouse in LA. Maybe they send via truck from there, maybe they reload another container that will go to Chicago for another warehouse to open and split. Rail transport is much cheaper than a truck so they do this all the time.
Good Luck,
TJB
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Thanks for the explanation. I just received a replied email from the freight forwarder. The container is never split. This forwarder is large enough to have enough goods to send to Amazon warehouses in a full container. I didn’t pay for FCL. If I were to pay for FCL, it would be easy because the whole container was mine. However I only paid for the space in the container that was shared among other sellers. For example if the destination is ONT8. This forwarders have enough customers to fill a full container in China to go straight to ONT8. 
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I would press the issue and ask them to remove your pallets from the container once it arrives in the states and offer to pay whatever reasonable or unreasonable fee they ask for to do so.
I don’t know what your FBA business is worth to you, but I would easily pay 1 full FCL container shipping cost (which is typically around 3 - 4K for a 40’ container) if that meant I could intercept my part of the shipment and avoid having to roll the dice on how Amazon might penalize you for this.
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Totally agree. I would rather pay $3K-$4K now to stop this shipment than rolling the dice on Amazon penalty. Too bad, the ship already sailed. I asked the Chinese forwarder again and she would try to check with the US team to see what they can do. So I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
I remember when I used to do FCL years ago. It was much nicer and more flexible. That was the past. With decreasing volume and split destinations that Amazon forced on us. I could no longer do FCL. Sigh… the good old days.
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I would still push your freight forwarder. There is no reason they can’t send that container to a warehouse, unload and take your goods off. The seal has nothing to do with anything, the warehouse can put a new seal on the container.
If you’ve never had a customs inspection done, that is exactly what happens. The container gets sent directly to a bonded warehouse prior to customs clearance. That warehouse unloads the goods for customs to inspect, then reloads and reseals the container after customs clears it. The cost to do this is usually $3-5k depending how long the broker takes to make it happen (there are daily fees at the port and the warehouse). I would expect costs to be significantly lower for this as there shouldn’t be any dwell fees at the port or the warehouse.
Your freight forwarder might not want to do it but it certainly is within their ability to do it.
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I think you will just get a bump in your coaching level and you will have to listen to one of thier speeches where your input is useless and you have to admit guilt.
We had barcodes printed on a glossy can, and not on a “label” making the surface “reflective”. After only one of 8 different FC’s claimed 24 out of 2000 were not scannable they put us into coaching after a few shipments.
We pointed out the rules about printing on package, we pointed out there were no reflectivity requirements printed anywhere, and on and on. The rep would not hear any of it. She stated “you will need to contact seller support if you want to discuss those issues”, so my reply was “Here is the owner, please finish your speech” and handed the phone to a new hire forklift driver, and told him to just say “uh-huh” every few minutes or when prompted, then hang up when done.
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