7 posts were merged into an existing topic: New “Amazon Listing Created” emails
Well it finally happened.
The whole reason we add the buffer in.
USPS didn’t pick up on Monday. Fortunately only about 5 orders were must ship by Monday.
Our gap is down to 0.8 days. I think as long as I don’t ship things the same day I can go back to using the buffer.but it really is annoying.
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This! I’ve been waiting in line to get all my orders scanned individually. Luckily it is slow and I only have 1/2 doz. daily so fine for now but this would not be sustainable during the holidays. Hopefully after 9/25, I’ll have my gap down and things will go back to normal.
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Once your handle time gap is in control as yours is, it would be safe to ship the day before the last ship by date.
Two day handle time
Ship by Monday PDT to Tuesday PDT
If you ship on Monday PDT (print the label), then your gap will be under 2.
Example … if you print the label at 6am PDT on Monday, then the gap for that order will be 1.75 days … if you print the label at 12:00pm PDT (noon) on Monday, then the gap for that order will be 1.5 days.
You would NOT want to print the label Sunday PDT night to ship out Monday as that would give you a gap over 2.0 days.
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We can never go back to “normal” as that is what created the gaps over 2.0. Best we can do is what we posted just above to Thelunatick.
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My actual handling time has climbed to 1.2 (was 0.4), but my gap is still 2.4 days. It has been at 2.4 for a while. Crossing my fingers that next week, it will drop below 2.
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Our gap was 2.5 with actual handle time at 0.5. We started August 1, 2024 not shipping until the last ship by date. It stayed at 2.5 until three days ago and then started dropping 2.4, 2.3 and 2.1 until today when we hit 1.9. The actual handle time today was 1.2. Our promised handle time hovers between 3.3 and 3.1 (if orders are better between Thursday to Saturday, the number is on the higher side).
Our actual handle time slowly went up also before the gap started to come down … and yes that was about a week after we first saw the actual handle time increase.
It would appear you are on the right path.
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Gap is 2.1 days today (from 2.4)! Promised handling time increased from 3.6 to 4.0, but actual handling time increased from 1.2 to 1.9.
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Actual handling time climbed once again (1.9 to 2.1). Promised handling time also climbed (4.0 to 4.2). Gap is still 2.1, but I’m sooo close.
Meanwhile, I feel bad for people who don’t know what’s going to hit them. Too bad I’m not posting on the forum or I’d warn him:
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That NSFE post is here:
S/he was indeed given a heads-up by both the OP of the discussion & SAS’ own NEVERLAST, as well as another seller (and Perny, to, sorta).
Still, because I’m familiar with that user’s NSFE Posting History (link, NSFE Profile) since they first appeared 021224, I’m aware that s/he is a self-admitted Consultant (and/or VA) [link, NSFE] - and as such, I’m not entirely convinced that one or another of the dozen+ clients indicated on that profile might not be in for a rude awakening re: AHT/SSA/OTDR…
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Meanwhile, the push to AHT is expanded to those distant players selling on dot com …
Changes to handling and transit time settings for orders shipped to the US
August 28, 2024
Changes to handling and transit time settings for orders shipped to the US
Fast and accurate delivery is essential for customers and often determines where they choose to shop. Over time, we’ve learned that the best way to ensure reliable on-time delivery for customers is to set accurate handling and transit times, and to choose reliable shipping services.
To ensure the accuracy of our promised delivery dates, we’re making the following changes:
- Transit time settings: Starting October 25, 2024, the transit time settings for shipping from China to the continental US (all states in the contiguous US, excluding Hawaii, Alaska, and US protectorates) will change. You’ll have more transit time ranges to choose from on your shipping templates, with options ranging from 2-4 days to 14-20 days.
The maximum transit time will be reduced from 28 days to 20 days. If you currently have 14-28 days as your manually set transit time, it will automatically be updated to 14-20 days as a part of this change.
- Handling time settings: Automated handling time will now automatically set a more accurate handling time for SKUs sold on Amazon.com and shipped from warehouses outside the US. Automated handling time sets a handling time for each SKU based on how long it has historically taken you to process orders and hand them to carriers. If you have no shipping history for a SKU, your manually set handling time will be used.
Starting October 25, to help improve accuracy, we’ll enable automated handling time if your manually configured handling time is two or more days slower than your actual handling time (known as a handling time gap). If automated handling time is enabled for this reason, you won’t be able to disable it.
If needed, you can request a manual handling time override for custom-made, media, and heavy and bulky SKUs. Any exempted SKU won’t receive on-time delivery rate (OTDR) protection from late deliveries.
To help you keep in good standing with other account health metrics related to handling time, your late shipment rate will be protected from late shipments if you have automated handling time enabled.
To review your current handling time, go to the Fulfillment Insight dashboard.
It will be interesting to see the fallout over this and whether or not it will reign in any of the players from the other side of the world.
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But this notice does not mention 90% on time delivery rate, may be 90% on time delivery rate does not apply to such sellers ?
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Double standards …
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For posterity, woohoo!
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Most of them have gone FBA.
They can afford to lose the inventory there if they lose the account because they just come in as another business hours later. If they even need to. Most already have mutiple accounts.
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Near the beginning …
Today
The difference in Handle Time Promised is simply the result of getting more orders Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday than getting on Thursday, Friday and Saturday (which lows it a tad).
The difference in Handle Time Actual is the result of waiting until the last ship by date on the order to ship.
The difference in the total Promise Gap is the result of setting up Shipping Settings Automation (SSA). We would expect the gap to lower even further.
The most interesting thing is the Actual Delivery Time. Notice that it remained the same even though we were waiting to ship the orders until the last ship by date. This would happen if the ratio of customers closer to us was higher than those who are further way during this period.
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Well, I got burned by this today. Since it was a long weekend, I had a LOT of books to ship out today. Packed them all up last night, to print labels this morning.
But the mail carrier-of-the-day came by and picked up before I was able to get them labeled; all of the eBay and other stuff got picked up, but I have to take a load of books to the PO myself.
If I wasn’t being forced to play games with Amazon, then these would have been labeled and ready to go last night; or actually, would have gone out on Tuesday, with worst case being if they didn’t get picked up, I could just wait till the next day; which of course is part of why I want 2 day handling in the first place!!
GRRRR!
(and to make things worse, I went to the PO to drop them off on the way to the grocery store, forgetting that the PO would be closed then for lunch. so have to go back. All because Amazon wants to make changes I don’t want).
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I know right! Meanwhile my Etsy, Ebay and Michael’s buyers getting delighted more by their orders mostly being shipped same or next day.
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Hi guys,
All these talks about AHT is really confusing the bejesus out of me. I was ok with the 1 day handling time but right when this new policy was introduced, I changed mine to 2 day handling. Reason for changing to 2 day handling was, most orders I get on weekends, I do not get USPS Ground option for Amazon buy shipping. I used shipstation to send those but after getting 2 INR’s, I didn’t want to send with shipstation anymore.
But now everything is ok, then this new AHT threat happens.
So my questions here, if anyone can please help.
1.) 1.7 handling time gap - is this good or will this make the AHT kick in?
2.) If AHT kicks in, is that going to be less than 1 day? If so, then to be safe, I should change it back to 1 day?
3.) Should I be worried about the business hour delivery rate?
4.) Rarely, I take Friday off and ship a day late. It was shipped out 1 day late but gets to destination on time. In this case, is OTDR will be fine?
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That’s good. As long as you are under 2.0, you should be safe (of course, it’s Amazon; they could change the rules at any time).
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