HI all, I have a perplexing problem that I was hoping someone here might be able to shed some light on (or is also experiencing and knows why?). I am a bookseller of over 25 years, and I have done some FBA on and off during that time, though primarily I’ve been FBM. I’m returning to FBA again, and so far this week have sent out 5 shipments, at a total of approx. 10 cartons. I use UPS’s Amazon partnered rate, and all of my shipments have gone to Florida. 3 went to PBI3 (Port St.Lucie), and the other two went to TMB8, Homestead.
Four of the shipments were to be delivered today, one yesterday. All are now showing delayed. They seem reach UPS’s Jacksonville facility and fall off the map. Anyone know what might be happening? Is there a UPS problem in Florida/Jacksonville? Is it on Amazon’s end? I’d think the odds of that would be better if they were all going to the same place, but I suppose both warehouses could be trouble spots. I’m pulling my hair out right now, I’m quite desperate to get this merchandise where its going and up for sale ASAP. I’m doing this as a last ditch effort to keep my business alive, as the FBM side has all but died. The last thing I wanted was for none of my shipments to be able to get where they need to be. Talk about a worst case scenario! I’d be greatly appreciative for any info anyone has. Maybe you’ve had trouble with UPS/Amazon in this region?
PBI3 & TMB8 are both p/o the ‘IXD-tweaking Initiative’ (link, SAS); there have been MANY complaints re: receiving times, improper counts, etc. for more than a year now - in the NSFE & in related seller discussion venues alike.
Let’s just say that there’s a reason why the SHC (“Seller Help Content”) page “Alternate UPS shipping addresses for new launch fulfillment centers” (link) exists, and for why so many are confused by the poorly-worded explanations of such alternate address in the FBA Inbound STA (“Send to Amazon”) workflow.
That’s a level of confusion which can’t help but be increased when the ‘alternate addresses’ are as nonsensical as those for PBI3 & TMP8:
PBI3 =
21 Jump Street, Jacksonville FL 32206
TMB8 =
8675309 Jenny Lane, Miami Gardens, FL 33055
When I first archived that SHC page more than a year ago (080224), there were 12 FCs listed; on 030125, when I next revisited it, there were 13; when I checked again two weeks ago on 072725, that number hadn’t changed - but as of today, there are 32.
Thanks for the info. That page certainly explains what’s going on. These problems didn’t exist the last time I got into FBA so I guesss I have some learning to do. I complete all of my FBA shipments within Scanlister, and this is the first I’m hearing of alternate addresses. I don’t know how to even change the address. I’m confused as to why incorrect addresses are allowed to even exist in the workflow. That’s a lie, as a seller of 22 years I know well why that’s allowed to happen and isn’t corrected. Just like every other problem Amazon allows to persist without care or correction.
To be fair, the alternate delivery addresses aren’t actually incorrect, despite the fact that they aren’t actually Postal Addresses; they’re simply the addresses chosen to direct deliveries into the designed “capacity overflow” process that Amazon and UPS are using to route FBA Inbound Shipments to “holding” warehouses - facilities that are usually, but not necessarily always, physically close to either an Amazon FC/RC/DC/SC/IXD complex, or to a UPS Distribution Center hub.
The goods sent to such alternate delivery addresses will eventually make their way into & through the Inbound process; many - but not all - of the horror stories I referenced in the earlier reply are simply complaints about the interminable amount of time that frequently occurs w/ shipments to these locations.
Most of the remaining posts are focused upon having to jump though the hoops presented by Amazon’s fervent embrace of the Defective By Design Model For Provisioning Customer Support - aka “sludge” - resulting in nonsensical and/or off-topic Case Log replies from the lower echelons of what Amazon laughingly calls a support infrastructure - but in all but a few of those reports I’ve seen, I suspect there’s some degree of impatience there, as well (although an inability to craft a short, succinct, on-target Support Case might play a role in some of them…) - as an early adopter of the FBA Program, I’ve learned over the years that while Amazon’s accounting processes are abominably slow, things generally do come out right in the end.
The goods sent to such alternate delivery addresses will eventually make their way into & through the Inbound process; many - but not all - of the horror stories I referenced in the earlier reply are simply complaints about the interminable amount of time that frequently occurs w/ shipments to these locations.
Well that’s good news. My bill collector’s would eventually like to be paid.
So basically my shipments are delayed and who knows when they’ll be received and checked in. Could be 5 days or 5 weeks.
When I first started, I would wait until FBA inventory was low before shipping. Since it took so long to finally become sellable, I would sit on pins and needles biting my nails. Now, I restock anything with 90 days of inventory left. If it takes months to get checked in, I’m still good. Since I have to stock 5 fulfillment centers, chances are that some boxes will be checked in even if not all of them are checked in.
All I want to do is put my inventory in front of the public and sell it to them. Don’t care if it’s via FBA or FBM. Can’t make enough through FBM to pay the bills, can’t even get my inventory in front of people through FBA.
I’ve always tried to ignore the drama and BS. Selling on Amazon will always be viable I’d tell myself. It may take some pivoting now and then to keep up with the changes, but as long as I can pivot when needed I’ll always be able to continue on. I literally don’t know the way forward right now. What a trainwreck Amazon has become. I’d love to go back to the days when my biggest problem was finding the amount of inventory I needed to make the amount I wanted to make.
Yes, there are delays but the delays should be measured in days, not weeks or months. We ship to FBA every week, in every way (UPS Partnered) / (LTL Amazon Freight & Partnered Carriers).
It’s not the way it used to be a few years ago but it’s not that bad.
Sometimes stuff gets in shockingly fast, sometimes it doesn’t. As you go through the motions of getting back into FBA, you will get a feel for it, and plan for it.
ETA - FL does indeed suck. We never used to get sent there from NY but it’s happening more and more the last few months. They did a double receipt on a pallet that we were never able to get fixed. It’s weird though bc the double count (12K vs. 6K Units), never actually showed up in our inventory or was listed as “Prime Eligible”. The amount we actually sent was in Prime Eligible and that’s what went in our inventory. That was Holmestead btw.
These are encouraging words, but it has already been 4 days and no sign of when these shipments might resurface. I’ll grant you that I’m being impatient. I’ve made exactly 0 dollars and 0 cents this week. So I’d say my impatience is for good reason. I understood that I might have a couple of days of no sales during the transition from FBM to FBA. I was not accounting for a further delay of undeterminable length due to this joke of a shipping setup that Amazon has put together.
Thankfully the shipments going to TMB8 were delivered today! Of course, those are the most recent shipments that had spent the LEAST time off the radar. For the rest its now another day of no movement.
It just gets stranger by the day. The good news is three of six shipments have now been received by Amazon. But I started seeing pending sales before they even had received the first box! I’m not complaining, mind you. I’ll take it. I just don’t know how that works. Now today Amazon has begun receiving a shipment, yet UPS’s tracking does not show delivery!
Amazon will sometimes put FBA items for sale if they have incoming inventory, even if they haven’t received it yet.
This is outside your control and doesn’t really impact you, which is why I just ignore it. I also ignore Amazon when they complain that they made sales for items they haven’t received yet and demand I send in more inventory ASAP, as though it was my fault that Amazon listed and sold items they didn’t have.
When it was originally rolled out as ‘pilot program’ back in Q2 of 2019, participation was optional, but by the next year Amazon had decided to set the default to opted-in for all SoA (‘Amazonese’ for “Selling on Amazon” aka 3P Seller aka Seller Central) Accounts.
We ourselves immediately opted-in right from the get-go, but it’s still possible to “pause” participation via the functionality presented by the In-Stock Head Start Dashboard (link, Seller Central) itself, because there do exist certain situations where a 3P Seller mightneed to opt-out, temporarily or permanently.
Another issue, at least for books, is that Amazon will often transfer them to another FC before it can actually be fulfilled. IMO, this presents possible poor customer service, as a customer may see my book and order it, not seeing that the ‘Delivery Date’ is 3-4 weeks out. (Such as my “Family Hikes in Maine” that Amazon decided should be put in the Henderson NV FC)
To fight this, I price my books a couple of bucks high, so that they at least won’t get the BB; then when they become actually available, I adjust the price to the proper level.
Although frankly, FBA has gotten so difficult and rarely shows extra profit, I’m close to totally giving up on it.
Since you mention it, I’ve actually seen this happen already. There have been at least 3 transfers so far (as of the last time I checked), one to Virginia and two to Jersey. And since I’m in Maryland that means they are basically being sent back to the region they came from. Whatever floats their boat.
When I do FBA, it’s basically give them 3 months’ supply - send it and forget it. It will eventually get there. I used to wait on pins and needles for my stuff to get there, but no more. I do FBA and FBM now to get around that problem.
