No longer able to disable automated handling time

[Lost_My_Marbles]

@Jenga244

Just trying to determine when I need to have any new shipping policies/methods tested and in place by…

August 25, 2024 is when Amazon is changing Standard shipping from 5-8 days to 3-5 days. We started monitoring our shipments to see if they were meeting the 5 days now to ensure we could maintain our current OTDR after Amazon does this first change.

Since the policy for OTDR starts September 25, 2024, our thought was to ensure we were at that level before it happened just in case Amazon was to use the results from the pre 9/25 shipments.

Amazon gave basically a 2 month shot across the bow before it goes into effect. Why do that if it wasn’t going to be in effect on the 25th from the data that already exists?

[Dreamscape-Studio]

@Jenga244

does that mean it starts with ORDERS PLACED on the 24th…or does it start with whatever the lookback period on September 24 (which would likely be orders from September 4-17) will be?

Here is what Help info said (highlight by me):
To calculate OTDR without promise extensions, we’ll consider a 14-day window of time. We’ll pull data from shipments that had a promised delivery date in the last 21 days, and exclude the most recent 7 days as the shipments from last 7 days may still be in the process of being delivered.

So I think on Sept 25 (not Sept 24), the system will check all the orders that had a “Promised delivery” date during 9/5- 9/18 to see if any of them were not delivered by the “Promised” date, not orders placed during those dates.

[Jenga244]

Precisely my point….we don’t really know what dates Amazon is going to use. We are left to again guess.

I am sure they will screw up the changing of delivery dates starting August 25 and we basically will have one real week to actually determine what they really are doing before the look back period actually starts to count ( that is, if they indeed will count starting September 5).

[dwat0870]

@Jenga244

they will screw up the changing of delivery dates starting August 25

Anything that Amazon ‘screws up’ will be intentional and designed to cause the most pain and discomfort to the most sellers possible.

It’s the Amazon business plan in action.

[Jenga244]

Oh for sure……that’s why I want to see how this plays out.

I agree I’d bet they are starting this with orders from September 5 but you never know….

[Lost_My_Marbles]

From NSFE thread

For Customizable, heavy bulky, or BMVD SKUs, there will be an exemption for AHT.

But to get the exemption, you have to have AHT turned on.

---

Look at this process to get the exemption. Open a case with Seller Support and provide them with an excel sheet containing the SKU, the handle time you want for that SKU and the Product Category AND you have to have AHT already turned on.

Doesn’t mean you will get the exception. Amazon already knows our items are customized, their category and the handle time associated with them … yet to get the exemption you have to provide them with the info. And then wait … meanwhile during that decision time, orders will come in with whatever Handle Time that Amazon decides is your handle time.

Because you have to have AHT turned on before submitting, you will not have a choice of turning it off later … so, if Amazon doesn’t grant the exception, you are stuck (screwed).

Amazon is also wanting the order handling capacity set. Amazon wants to know how many orders you can reliably ship in a day. It sounds simple except orders come in at different times. Any order before 6pm (our time) usually makes it out the next day (1 day HT). But an order at 11:50pm might not make it out the next day … it would go out on the day after that ( 2 day). It wouldn’t matter if it was the only order for the day … it’s about the timing of the order and our USPS cut off times to get it out on any one given day.

If you have a 2 or 3 day handle time right now, you should only be shipping on the very last day. In doing so, you will be training the bot. That may be your only defensive move right now. It is very clear that AHT is here to stay and will be the way.

Your volume will play a role also. If we remember correctly, the trigger is over 20 orders in 14 day period could mean AHT. That is important for those who do not do custom items and where the order handling capacity becomes important to set to maintain some form of control on your handle time.

In addition, single items (like you have only one copy of a book etc) will not have a track record for the bot to go on. When this happens, the bot is to use the Handle Time on the SKU at item level. If you do not set the handle time at item level, then the bot would use the shipping template handle time. If that is not set, then the bot would use the general handle time. If you sell items that have only one copy offers, then make sure you are setting handle time at item level to be safe.

Mark your calendar … September 25, 2024 … the day that NSFE explodes on a new level and seller support collapses under the pressure.

[wadeorcas]

Instead of just providing an automatic exemption for customized skus, just like the “customize” button removes the “return item” button in the buyer’s orders, it sounds like we will have to go to exemption battle with support on every new customized listing created. SMH

[Amazon_Seller]

@Lost_My_Marbles

If you have a 2 or 3 day handle time right now, you should only be shipping on the very last day. In doing so, you will be training the bot. That may be your only defensive move right now. It is very clear that AHT is here to stay and will be the way.

I have 3-day handling and I buy shipping in the afternoon of Day 2. Is that okay? It would be sooo stressful to have to wait until Day 3.

[Lost_My_Marbles]

@Amazon_Seller

I have 3-day handling and I buy shipping in the afternoon of Day 2.

We won’t buy it before 12:00pm PDT (noon Pacific Time - 3pm Eastern Time) on Day 2 of a 3 Day Handle Time (the last ship by date on the order). That should give you a Handle Time Gap of 1.5 days or under. If you have a Handle Time Gap over 2.0 days right now, then print the label as late as you can to help lower the gap between now and September 25, 2024.

[Thelunatick]

I am up to 1.9 days of handling time. with an average of 3.1 promise time.

I am fortunately now within the safe-T- Range

Sucks for the customers. I used to ship the same day if the orders came in early enough, Now, So sorry we have to wait 2 days to ship,

[Amazon_Seller]

My gap is 2.7 days as of today. If they only average stuff between August 5 and beyond, I think I’m good. Since August 5, I’ve had a 3-day handling time and I’ve been buying after noon (PDT) on Day 2.

[Lost_My_Marbles]

@Amazon_Seller

My gap is 2.7 days as of today.

This will slowly reduce with what you are doing. Just remember that the average is a 30 day rolling average which is about 12 days behind the current date. Your 30 day gap with Aug 5 thru Sept 5 will show up in the report around Sept 17 (about a week before the Sept 25 AHT start date).

[Diane]

@Lost_My_Marbles

…print the label as late as you can…

But how do we know which “ship-by” date is the real one?

I see there are different dates in different places. On the “new” Manage Orders page that they’ve been tinkering with can be seen two different dates (I don’t see this revamped page all the time - just sporadically).

I also had an order where I had correspondence with the buyer, and the Messages page showed a different ship-by date as well.

(If this has been discussed, please point me to it as I may have missed it.)

[Lost_My_Marbles]

@Diane

But how do we know which “ship-by” date is the real one?

Manage order page

Order detail page

In these examples, it shows the last day to ship as Friday August 23, 2024 (we have 2 day handle time)

[Diane]

Here’s one example of what I’ve seen.

I shipped these two books today (8/21), but I’m wondering I could have waited until tomorrow.

Maybe there’s something in the wording - “to avoid late shipment” - that explains this? Are they saying I had to ship by the 21st, but had to confirm (if postage purchased elsewhere) by the 22nd?

If so, that doesn’t make sense to me.

[booknut7]

Man the inconsistency on that platform is crazy. On my page, those dates always match.

[Picks_by_Nisha]

@booknut7

Man the inconsistency on that platform is crazy. On my page, those dates always match.

And on mine, I see only the “Ship by” date; no “Confirm” date, in fact, nothing under the red “Unshipped” box.

[Diane]

@Picks_by_Nisha

…I see only the “Ship by” date; no “Confirm” date…

I meant to note that that screen shot is from the newly-designed Manage Orders page - the one I see only sporadically.

I never know when I’m going to see it (has no one here seen it?). It doesn’t seem to be browser-related.

The way the page is designed, it now takes two (count them, two) clicks to print a Packing Slip, instead of the previous one.

[dwat0870]

@Diane

Maybe there’s something in the wording - “to avoid late shipment” - that explains this?

The “confirm as shipped” only shows up on the LAST DAY of the shipping window from what I have seen.

This morning I had some that I had been sitting on to avoid the ‘2’ penalty. Tonight the orders that have to ship tomorrow do NOT have the warning.

Sometime tonight (if I am up at 2am CDT) the warning will show up for these.

The ‘confirm by’ just means that Amazon gives you a little leeway for entering the tracking number.

It gets us back into parsing the meaning of “by” that had a lengthy discussion on a post months ago.

Amazon and ‘parsing’ puts them in a league of their own.

[Amazon_Seller]

@Diane

Here’s one example of what I’ve seen.

I never see what you see under “Unshipped.” It’s blank for me.

I read what you got as you must ship by August 21. If you buy shipping somewhere else, you must ship by August 21, and you must go on Amazon by August 22 to confirm that it was shipped by August 21, so I don’t see a conflict.