For a few shipments lately, Amazon has made errors in receiving in small numbers (you sent one of this not two, etc.)
I dispute, they say nope we’re right, and I get over it. I literally take a photo of each shipment and can say “Look, here is the box with 25 things, not 24” and they do not care.
But now I’m getting close to their threshold and worrying, as I have an open dispute that will probably go against me, and another shipment with what they think are two missing units. I don’t send big inventory, I’m handmade, 25 units is a good week’s box:
When those two “lost” things get added to my stats, I’m gonna go past .46%. Any advice or know what I can expect? Am I going to be shut out of FBA for amazon’s errors?
if you exceed the acceptable problem rate, then Amazon may adjust your Coaching Level from Standard to Elevated.
If you remain at Elevated for over 21 days from the escalation, then Amazon may adjust your Coaching Level to Critical.
The goal would be to send another shipment within 21 days and hope that Billy at Amazon Warehouse scans all the items correctly. You will need another shipment to arrive in order for your performance to update.
Sorry that I do not have an official answer. We have never escalated to Elevated.
I manufacture my own products that I send in. Not to long ago I had a shipment that was short a unit.
So I sent the Invoice from my manufacturing department to my sales department showing the purchase of those 40 units. (which is how many I pack in a case of this particular product.)
I also made note that two of us counted the products before the box was sealed and that all the labels that were printed for that box were used.
Apparently they “found” the missing unit that must have been in transfer.
Now I rarely have a discrepancy and when there is one, it usually gets “found” before they close the shipment. (Had one not too long ago where they found a whole extra case worth though and then it vanished from inventory suddenly leaving me short and scrambling to send more in.) As far as I know, I’ve never gotten a wrist slap for what I send to Amazon. I only have two different products that go to FBA for the past year. One I send in a 40 count case and the other I send an 80 count case.
I have this happen from time to time, so I usually never worried about it, as the headache of a claim is not worth it for one item, especially when it usually gets resolved on its own.
But now that they have 3 units in a few months (one was my fault, one they straight up denied my dispute on the shipment - despite my photos…) and now I have one that I’m fighting from two weeks ago. Hence I saw the metrics, and if the other two that they also screwed up hit then I go into I guess Elevated status.
I ship weekly, so hopefully I won’t get locked out of shipping stuff in if I’m good going forward. Coincidentally, today my shipment is going to a different location. Let’s hope they are better!
I might just make a boatload of some good sellers, things that are quick to make, would be slight overstocks but not terrible… Gotta bring my average back up!
No, but you might get a “coaching call”. I’m not going to write 14 paragraphs about our scanning issue plus I think I have on here a few times so why bother.
I had a great “coaching” call with a lovely lady from Alabama. She agreed with us and closed the case and refunded the fines. Told me to just keep disputing because we are doing everything right.
So sure enough, we got tagged again less than 2 weeks after the call. Followed her lead, got totally rejected. She told me there was some sort of “Whitelisting” for shipment problems by ASIN that keep getting found in the sellers favor. Tried that, failed. Escalated that through SAS escalation - failed…
All of this was in writing from Amazon btw - didn’t matter.
Shipment problems are just another money grab / unbelievable incompetence at the DC / FC level. Anyone that’s anyone at Amazon has told me that the belt scanners suck but somehow that’s the sellers fault.
Bottom line is do the best you can. Make sure you get on the coaching call if they send you the email and hope for the best. Anything can and does happen on Amazon. Had it both ways.
We simply wait and do not open the shipment performance tab until after we have reviewed the inventory ledger and requested reimbursement for the missing unit. 99% of the time they misplace a unit in transfer after they initially receive the shipment at a “receive center”.
Once we get reimbursed, we then open the performance notification and tell them the inventory was lost and reimbursed with the transaction ID.
Honestly it would have to be a lot missing because its a 120 day window. We have 10 different notifications and simply ignore them as they are 1 unit out of every 1000+ so it will never hit a significant threshold IMO.
Therein lies my issue, as a small handmade seller, when they are 1/1000 that would mean 1 per year for me. But I ship more like 400 in 120 days, so 3 “errors” is significant enough to amazon.
We have reached “elevated” coaching without impact when we had made a big boo boo on an entire pallet. I would not get too worried. We saw no negative impact on our account or capabilities.
So far my utilization of the refund system has worked to resolve inbound shipping issues.
When they pull that BS of “counted and confirmed” I file a lost inventory request by opening a case, then show the transfer it was lost on after receipt by finding the negative transaction.
They do the refund then I submit the case showing reimbursement and get a message like this…
I’m gonna go this route in the future. The Inbound performance dispute is a mug’s game otherwise, they ignore the normal reimbursement documentation and just say “nope, we can count” and refuse to reopen.
Welp I just tried this on my most recent issue, as it had a -receipt after the original +receipt, but they refused the case and said I have to do it via the Shipment Problem workflow (the one they don’t reimburse, where they refuse on first case, despite me providing the docs that are typically required for a manufacturer for reimbursement).
And to top THAT off, I just had another bogus Negative Receipt - at a completely different FC, ie, not the one doing receiving - so my metrics are gonna start to suffer and I’m now getting worried…
Just push them to do it in the same case. We do it all the time when they say they did not lose it or “Have no record of receiving it”. Just keep posting the positive and negative receipt till you get one of the button pushing monkeys to push the right button. Eventually the case will get forwarded to someone that can’t just push the big “close case” button.
They (3 months later) finally received the missing unit. IE, found it, they had it all along.
Inventory ledger shows all events, all 23 units, albeit 22 in april, one in july
Contents page of the shipment shows all 23 units received, all units totals match the shipped totals
The “problem” report, however, remains. still acceptable, but it should be zero, because they actually did get them all.
Despite my desire to avoid useless frustration, I opened a case, to try to get them to clear the problem because…there isn’t one! Provided screen shots of the reporting, 23 of 23, etc.
Their answers, and I’ve reopened it twice:
the Inaccurate item quantity in box problem was identified in shipment. you only have one problem and you are under the issue rate so basically don’t worry
The problem reported does exist for this shipment and no changes have been made.
If you have any Inbound Performance problems, you will need to acknowledge or dispute them (I can’t, I already tried that before the magically found the problem child item)
I’m ready to give up, but it’s so unbelievable but also not remotely, that they are just sticking to script and not even looking…
You should give up. The workflow for shipment problems is Stone-Like.
The only way that the problem can be removed from your shipment performance widget is to have a successful dispute. Manual override is not an option by anyone at Amazon, short of Jeff or Andy. I’ve tried through SAS Escalation, something we pay a lot of $ for and failed.
I don’t think this is really a warranted @jeff email situation but I suppose you could try. And Yes, I know Jeff doesn’t see these emails…
I guess the lesson is to never use the Dispute button until/unless it shows on my metrics, and only after months have passed and if the units have appeared. They also don’t reimburse on these “nope, didn’t get it” and here’s a brick wall, is all I got.
The Negative Inventory Receipt paradigm - which largelyfootnote arose from the debacle of the COVID-19 Goods Prioritization Initiative which lingered through the last 3 Quarters of 2020 - has yet to be fully resolved on Amazon’s end*.
Still, as our friend VTR has pointed out many a time, it’s NOTirresolvable from one’s own end, provided that we jump through the correct one of the many dadgum-flaming hoops w/out catching our breeches britches on fire.
*
Methinks that’s a likely indicator that Amazon is satisfied with the raking in profit results of the status quo…
Footnote: but NOTentirely; the FBA Team(s) had been sending well-couched hints about the impending FBA Inbound Shipment Packing Slip Requirement Initiative for some time before that…even afore the earliest broadsides, in 2019, about the looming switch to Inventory Ledger-accounting Reconciliation…
Oh, how I HATE any embrace of the Silo Management Model of Bureaucratic Administration…
I actually have the opposite opinion. We dispute everything because these things are complete bull stuff. We win 75% of them.
Take a look at your percentage allowance vs. where you are now. I’m sure this is miniscule and nothing to worry about. In 120 days it will disappear and that will be that.
We have been dealing with these since Nov of 2021. We always have at least 1 issue showing on that stupid widget. I’ve learned to ignore it.
Problem is I’m a small volume handmade seller. I send in maybe 100 units per month - so one mistake is putting me at 0.29% when acceptable means keeping it below 0.46%. Two mistakes in a 120 period and I’d be in a less-than-ideal spot.
This one expires on the date of the rejected dispute - not the date of the receiving. So instead of April, it’s May.
Yes, it will roll off, but my volume means I don’t have much wiggle room, unfortunately.
