This whole thing certainly appears to be a bigger mess than I anticipated which actually doesn’t surprise me.
I still think there are some bugs in this untested system that may be causing some of these irregularities reported, at least I hope.
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How dare you use this word in a conversation about Amazon reimbursements 
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I said this exact thing yesterday and certain others were so quick to “jump me” to tell its actually not that bad… so on so forth… and what a privilege it is to use FBA…
Yes this is SUPER BAD and a potential GAME CHANGER
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Well “that bad” is in the eye of the beholder. The fees are not pleasant but still FAR cheaper than self fulfillment for the same performance.
Nobody “jumped you” they challenged your assertions. Kindly know the difference in civil discourse. If you just want to rant and not have a discussion about the economics of it all, simply put “rant” in a title of your own thread. I still stand behind every statement made as well as the likes given to those who pointed out the economics of the situation “jumpers”.
I don’t like getting a colonoscopy, but the alternative is worse and the option not to get one exists for one to exercise. I am not going to assume people are “jumping” me by telling me what the odds of getting cancer are, simply because I don’t want to read about it.
Being my proctologist is the only one I want to do the colonoscopy, does not make them a monopoly, I just don’t want my dentist to do it.
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When the actual cost of shipping a box goes from $12 to $40 that is a problem period. Id be happy to have a discussion about it but to keep minimizing the potential impact such a drastic change has on existing businesses, seems unfair and very dismissive.
Everything I stated was fact and far from a “rant”. Seems to depend on which post of yours, if you want to say its bad or actually it is not that bad…
It is bad.
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The assertions made that you didn’t like, were not about the cost burden, but about the value of service compared to other options available, and your assertion of monopolies. Kindly understand the difference.
A fact for you is not a fact for the rest of the world.
Only to the self centered where everything is only about their burden or point of view in a PUBLIC discussion encompassing others impact.
Sorry you feel that way, but if you cannot handle having someone challenge your assertions, you might need to have more private conversations with “yes” people. I replied to each of your questions with a rational polite response which you have yet to rebuke in any way.
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I don’t call a 20 - 30 cent increase in per unit costs a “game changer.”
That might crush businesses who have thin margins and zero pricing power, but that’s not such a bad thing. It might kill off some of these race to the bottom sellers for good, though there’s almost always someone new willing to race to the bottom.
I would just avoid products that have thin margins in highly competitive arenas.
Also, almost everything you stated so far has been an opinion
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You can’t say such a dismissive thing…
Well, maybe I should’ve phrased it as “in my opinion.”
It can wind up being a significant cost for some products, but in those cases the cost has to be passed on the form of a price increase, which all companies routinely do.
ALL sellers are facing some amount of increase in fees, after a few months I would expect to see prices adjust because of increased costs here and there. At this point not all sellers have created a new shipment, and it may take a while for some dimmer sellers to actually realize that costs have increased.
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Well, I was never given any of those rebates, even when I used the recommended shipping method, which were more expensive for going all the way across the country.
But you are right, last year or so because Amazon was having us shipping everything in one package to one FC instead of require us to split the units and ship them so 2-3 FCs, I was paying less in shipping cost for each FBA shipment, compare to the previous years. So, now it’s basically back to what was before covid (?).
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I didn’t get a rebate on all shipments, but on some non-rebate shipments the partnered carrier costs were really damn cheap, and I mean REALLY cheap. So there was obviously some kind of hidden rebate in there. And the fact they were for the most part assigning a very local FC for most shipments really kept costs down.
None of these things were going to stick around forever.
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This is the exact type of statements that I am refering to.
Who are you to decide what business should be viable or allowed to thrive on Amazon?
I personally dont think watching “any business getting crushed” is a good thing.
This whole conversation reaks of entitlement which I just dont understand.
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I decide nothing, that’s just an opinion. I dislike sellers who come on a listing and bid down the price to where only pennies can be made.
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As do we hate the rush to the bottom but that is not what you said. What you said was :
So we have small margins, zero pricing power and are in competitive fields. Would it not be “such a bad thing” if we get “crushed” by new fees?
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Well, the reason why your margins are thin is likely because the area you’re in likely has a race to the bottom issue. Think of this as an opportunity to outplay your competitors by either pulling back/optimizing logistics/some other strategy and wait for some of them to go bust, which may create an opening for hiking prices/expanding and gaining economies of scale.
This may not be possible if other people decide to keep prices low and maybe even operate at a loss for a long time, in which case selling those products on Amazon’s just not viable.
Instead of viewing the negatives of a change, I try to adapt my business to the new realities. As I’ve said before, I sell NONE of the same products I did the first few years selling as all of them are not viable for one reason or another.
You can either view the negative impacts of the change, or view it as an opportunity to outplay the weaker sellers in the field.
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Might want to do some testing now. In fact everyone, should pull up their last shipment and upload so they can compare apples to apples.
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For my product, per the schedule, the placement fee range is 21¢ to 30¢.
When I ran my test of 960 units (which I sent on Feb 28th for 0¢ placement)
East cost - I was charged 21¢
central - I was charged 26¢
West - I was charged 30¢
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Please @GGX, you are making a FOOL of yourself to assume this (above) and quite frankly most of your assertions that smaller sellers “should have absolutely zero complaints”
I get it, from what I READ
- You might be larger seller than most here with more flexiblity to manipulate the rates.
- You might be a seller that ships from China (or you are a Chinese seller) that is not being charged this placement fee (see link above)
- You might have a product that sells in bulk - pallet loads of single items, that can easily be separated into 5+ pallets.
- or you might just have a product that falls into the sweet spot that always occur with a change in fees.
But (I believe) from what I am reading (and my own test rates), that this is a MAJOR additional cost for those not in your situation.
FYI, most of my items sell for under $10. So 20 or 30 cents (off my net) is MAJOR
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Just for clarity, I said “small item sellers.”
The changes are FAR more punishing for large item sellers, for small item sellers I think the overall FBA fees (inflation adjusted) will be cheaper this year. (Im accounting for increased shipment costs from the 5 way split, but assuming that the placement fees and low inventory fees can be avoided).
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We fall into your 1, 3, and 4 categories and I am very concerned.
This is a big deal. How much of a big deal depends on what we experience which is yet to be seen.
I don’t even want to try a test shipment until we need to actually create one. I don’t want to know.
The difference would be slight if we just had to deal with the splits (additional freight). The 2 combined is going to hurt if we don’t have a split choice regularly.
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