Per the email:
On September 25, 2024, your handling time gap will be measured, and if it remains above two days as per our policy for on-time delivery, you will be auto-enrolled into having automated handling time enabled and will no longer be able to disable automated handling time. To learn more about how your handling time gap is calculated, go to Fulfillment Insight dashboard.
Sh*t, Amazon!
And now there is this! Forgive me if this has already been part of the discussion but I just got the email today.
Amazon hates accountability…for themselves. And because they are now being held accountable for their own intentional assholery, they are maliciously complying with “accountability” (really punishment) for FBM sellers* with this.
*This statement is by no means meant to imply that FBA sellers are not also “accountable to” (punished by) Amazon with different “initiatives”.
Yes, first day back from vacation and I got this email too. Uggh.
Any guesses if their auto-enroll will apply at a SKU level or account wide? We have some products that we’ll have to pull from the platform as they truly have a longer turnaround time.
Whatever hurts more? 
It’s a good question.
Sadly, Amazon customers will not be delighted by fewer available products.
I’m reading this part to mean it will be at the SKU level. But it’s Amazon, so who knows for sure.
When automated handling time is enabled, your ship-by date will be automatically adjusted for every SKU based on the actual time it has historically taken you to pack and ship confirmed orders of that SKU.
Historically we ship same day or next day but recently we have been waiting until the next day to ship all orders. Apparently that is still too fast. Having the ability to set our own handling time is crucial for small sellers like us with only one person handling everything Amazon related.
Going to have to spend some time thinking about this one.
Amazon: 6
My blood pressure: 0
Uhhhh. That’s not good.
When my wife had the crash with the drunk hers dropped to 40 over whatever and she was almost dead.
Amazon seems to be affecting me more lately. Maybe it’s just because I’m older and crabbier in general now.
Back on the old forums, in Handmade, this is the kind of thing we’d have a chance to get help from our mods to exclude us from this nonsense.
It’s one thing to always ship on day 0-1 when you get 1-5 orders. But when someone orders 12 of your listings, and they are made to order, that extra day of handling time is a huge relief.
er… Was… I guess.
Your account has a gap of two days or more between your set handling time and your actual handling time. You can choose to close this gap by manually setting an accurate handling time on your account and SKUs or by enabling automated handling time.
On September 25, 2024, your handling time gap will be measured, and if it remains above two days as per our policy for on-time delivery, you will be auto-enrolled into having automated handling time enabled and will no longer be able to disable automated handling time. To learn more about how your handling time gap is calculated, go to Fulfillment Insight dashboard.
Automated handling time will set accurate handling times for each of your seller-fulfilled offers.
When automated handling time is enabled, your ship-by date will be automatically adjusted for every SKU based on the actual time it has historically taken you to pack and ship confirmed orders of that SKU. With this upgrade your offers will have an accurate delivery date, which is normally shorter and more appealing to buyers, typically resulting in more sales.
For more information, see Introduction to automated handling time.
As Amazon will manage your handling time when automated handling time is enabled, your seller-fulfilled listings will not be deactivated if your late shipment rate (LSR) does not meet the LSR policy requirement.
In addition, you have the ability to set your order handling capacity when automated handling time is enabled. This feature sets a limit for how many orders you can handle in a day. Once this limit is reached, you get an additional day of handling time for every subsequent order. For more information, see Modify order handling capacity.
The Amazon Services team
We have gone to shipping every other day. So some items take the full 2 days others get shipped the same day. Guess they don’t like under promise and over deliver
WTF is Amazon going to do when we end up with late shipments because we were forced into their auto handling time?
Yup.
Yeah, when I only have 1 order I don’t need the whole time. When I have many orders at once I will need the whole time.
Lately, I’ve only had 1 order at a time, but I am not “rushing” to get it finished. I’m taking the whole time so that later, when I have lots of orders at Christmas, I’m not having to produce at the middle of summer slow time rate.
It is very frustrating that Amazon “knows best”…
sorry no you don’t Mother Gothel.
What — did Amazon not get enough suckers to voluntarily sign up for automatic shipping??? Maybe our lack of enthusiasm should’ve been a clue as to how bad this idea is. Just in time for Q4, too.
Of course, this means that fewer of our orders will be eligible for the Amazon shipping guarantee, because fewer orders will be able to purchase Amazon shipping in the first place, unless we want to send everything overnight.
I added a new event to my calendar for September 25 — CHANGE AMAZON SHIPPING. Even though automatic shipping is that body encased in cement, I’ll do what I can to avoid being at the bottom of the river: 1. move to the earliest cut-off time, instead of the current 2pm; and 2. change from my current quantity of 10 orders per day, down to 1 — which (especially during Q4, the only time I can expect more than a handful of daily orders) means that customers will see a LONGER delivery time, which I’m sure will delight everyone.
FUQU Amazon.
What this effectively says is that Amazon is trying to get rid of Handle Time set at item level. Remember that item level handle time was the way to over ride Handle Time set in the General Shipping tab. However, the email (which Amazon sent out with the link to your page showing your Handle Time gap) shows a measurement based as an average of all of your SKUs.
So the question to be answered would be … when you have an order that contains an item with a long gap and an item with a short gap, what would the gap time be based on (long or short or averaged)?
Will Sku Level Handling time still take priority over the automatic setting after this date?
as of now my
AHT is OFF
and my
Default is at 2 days.
I believe they are threatening to remove your FBM offers if you fall under 90 for your OTDR
Unclear but I wouldn’t bet on it.
I think the line about us no longer able to disable AHT speaks for itself.
So when a storm is approaching or even an extra day for a Holiday, we usually add a few days in case of power outages n’ such. At least this keeps the items still available for purchase. If there is no way to override then I guess Vacation Mode maybe the only option for such events. They are aholes.
Sadly, I find myself constrained to agree with our friend SUNDANCE’s take on these latest initiatives…
Sadder still, I’m constrained to agree with the rapidly-forming & widely-spreading consensus in the Amazon Seller Community that these latest initiatives are likely to be a response to this year’s earlier FBA-oriented initiatives obviously having been responsible for long-time FBA sellers once again embracing FBM models - and as a result, Amazon’s analysis revealing that this and that concurrent avoidance of newly-imposed fees wasn’t what Seattle’s TPTB was hoping for in their never-ending attempt to prop up the bottom line, long-term sustainability be damned.
Sigh.
Been in business for 23 years.
For the last 5 I have been hanging on by a shoe string.
I might make 25 but I have a feeling I won’t make it much beyond.
