I see, delivered in this case is not actually delivered.
I get this with SPD all the time too, they have the “Pickup shipments accepted” line, and then numerous “carrier delay has occurred” after that. This makes sense as it’s being stored on someone else’s property and they’re incurring the expense of doing so.
Its on the lot, so in the carriers eyes, it is delivered.
90 days is the optimal amount to keep as your min. You should build to 120 for the future.
It seems Amazon knows that the limits they had in place, for no good reason, hurt them as much as it hurt us.
Hope it gets checked in TODAY!!
Good Luck
Steve
You are correct, but their lot is a different story. Carriers often have to drop instead of live unload. Amazon will move the dropped trailer to a dock and unload at some point but it can take more than a month.
I would bet the OP goods are sitting in a trailer somewhere on the lot and it’s just kind of been lost until the carrier asks for their trailer back. I’ve had exactly this happen to me a few times in the past.
What you can do is get contact the carrier and ask for proof of delivery and the container number. Ask them if that container number is back in service or still sitting at Amazon which will give you a good idea what is going on.
If the container is still sitting in Amazons yard, open a case with seller support to look into it. You’ll get the automated answer from them, but send them proof from the carrier of delivery with container number. Just keep explaining the situation politely with facts only. As long as you keep your cool, you will probably find someone that understands and cares.
Good Luck,
TJB
Hey Steve, thanks a lot for the advice! Yep, we certainly mismanaged this one.
We sent out the 90 days’ worth, but the rest is history…
I’ll definitely take into account your suggestion for the 120 days. Seems like a good call, especially with the low inventory fee coming up. Thank you again!
This is precisely what I have read somewhere not long ago
And this is another good tip from this topic! Thank you TJB!
Maybe he can slip someone at the carrier a hundo to get them to expedite getting that particular trailer back if this is the case.
I’m half serious with this btw, if you offer to pay the carrier they might be willing to raise the issue about that trailer. That would force Amazon to unload it and is more likely to make something happen than useless seller support.
Unfortunately, the carriers don’t have much pull with Amazon. Carriers have complained about thousands of their trailers essentially out of service at Amazon facilities for years. Amazon just moves their freight to another carrier that doesn’t complain.
TJB
Its an older article but makes the point.
The whole freight situation reminds me of something a logistics company manager once told me. They had ordered a bunch of trailers that were supposed to be theirs during a period of time where there was a big shortage, and instead of getting them delivered, the company that manufactured the trailers sold them to someone else. Normally you would think someone outbid them for the trailers, but this was not the case. They got sold to Amazon for less money, because Amazon demanded that they deliver the trailers to them or they would get no future business.
Must be nice to have the power to bully other companies like that.
It always comes full circle. Now that YRC has crumped, Amazon will either have to rapidly expand their internal capacity or cave to the LTL carriers. Amazon is still hurting to get LTL service outside of major metro areas, because nobody bids the threshold in their silly bid system, making Amazon LTL freight more expensive than the common carriers outside of major cities.
Uncle Jeb does not feel like sitting for two hours in the cold waiting for his dock appointment to clear, when he can make full day intermodal runs from train hubs or ports with a bigger paycheck.
I have noticed that the gap between SPD and LTL shipping costs have been narrowing, and in some cases LTL is more expensive if it’s being split in a stupid way (the pricing of course, is regional as well and can vary a lot depending on where you’re shipping from).
For me, our products are packed in a way to be optimized for SPD, building pallets is more work, plus SPD items get received before LTL items in general, and have less chance of a significant delay. And right now it’s winter, but if it were summer I would also be concerned about having food sitting in a trailer for a month. It’s enough of a headache to do inventory planning as it is without needing to account for a potential month or two delay from LTL.
Quick update: Amazon started receiving our units 48 days after they were marked as ‘Delivered.’
At this time, we’ve decided not to enquire about the trailer. But if this happens again, we will.
Our product isn’t super-shelf stable, so we’ll be in for some sleepless nights if this occurs during the hot months.
Thanks!
They don’t care as long as the shipment status is still open. They will simply tell you to wait as there is no guarantee of receiving timeframes.
Reminds me of this 
Something tells me that this is what happened to your shipment too…
Exaclty. We don’t have a SAS and it shows 
Curious to see how often we’ll get involved in similar scenarios
I am pretty sure you are right on this!
Well this was a first for us since 2019 and hopefully the last for at least 5 years…
It could have been months before our stuff was found but good to see that it didn’t take months (less than 2) for Amazon to get to it on their own.
I should have surfaced the issue with SAS long before I actually did. I had no idea that something could actually be done about it. The only reason why something got done about it is because my SAS manager worked in the DC’s before he moved to SAS.
I didn’t want to get switched out of our last SAS manager with the rotation they do over there but now I am glad that we did.
They seem to switch you to a different manager right when you get into a groove with the one you were assigned. We are on our 3rd manager in just over a year.
It’s either that or they scream “Uncle” and move on from us because I can be an aggressive PITA with these people because I want to get my monies worth…
Sadly, I speak with the experience of over 100, 60-90+ day shipments sitting in lots over the years.