Hello,
My first day and my first question. When I first started Amazon, I posted about 2 questions and answered 1 back in the old seller forum. But when they started the new one, I only read and do not post anything. Then I found this and am so glad I found it!
So my first question, I’ve been keeping an eye on this and it seems like on weekends, the USPS ground Advantage is not available for states that are far from me. Any orders that I get on weekdays, no problem.
I also use Shipstation and Pirate ship for other uses so I didn’t mind…until I started getting INR’s. Now I can’t send them to A to Z, I am stuck with refunding them. I only got a handful now but I can see more coming.
I read similar posts on the Amazon seller forum, other sellers are suggesting to extend the days on the shipping setting. I don’t agree with that. I don’t want my expected delivery days to display longer than my competitors.
Bottom line is, I don’t want to change my shipping template. So, is the weekend thing something that I just have to deal with? Or is there something going on with Amazon that hopefully they are aware and will fix?
My second questions is about my high account level reserve but once I get through this first question, I’ll create a separate post for that.
Thanks for reading and hope someone can give me a little more info!
Some various thoughts.
This weekend is wacko, Amazon doesn’t recognize Monday as a holiday.
Weekends often have odd buy-shipping moments.
Avoid allowing any sort of automation, either for handling time or in your templates.
This may or may not apply for your problem (assuming that it’s all weekends, not just holiday ones), but in the past, there were times where I had problems purchasing Media Mail on the weekend; but if I changed the “Ship Date” to Monday (or Tuesday in case of a holiday), then suddenly the option would appear.
I’ve not seen that happen for a couple of years, so I think that Amazon has fixed the problem, but perhaps it has come back. Try selecting Tuesday as your ship date, and see if anything changes.
Thanks for your input!
It’s actually not just weekends with holidays, it’s been every weekend, going back months. It was only a handful of orders when it first started so I didn’t mind back then. but it’s been the past 2 weekends where all states far from me, I don’t get an option for USPS ground. Even for states that I don’t even consider far. Louisiana is actually pretty close to Texas but I still don’t get an option for that state either.
I can’t even count how many times I checked and made sure I don’t have any automation turned on and the handling time.
But even if I had them turned on, what gets me is that it only happens on weekends. Never on weekdays.
Thanks for your input!
When you say change it to Tuesday, are you referring to this week because of Memorial day?
Normally on weekends, all orders I receive after 11AM, I ship them out on the next business day. So, if it wasn’t for Memorial day, I would’ve selected Monday to ship.
But if you mean, select even a later date? I can give that a shot on the next order that comes in and see if I see anything different.
What is your production time set to? Is it set at the SKU level?
I use GA exclusively. My templates are set for 3-5 days on lower 48. I have 2 day production time set at SKU level but always ship on same or next day. I never have a late scan with the extra day production time even when the arrival scan does not happen until it reaches a DC and this has kept me from losing A-Zs. I have Automated shipping turned OFF. I never have the issue of GA not showing as an option unless it is an address not being verified in which case I am forced to use UPS. I create Monday’s labels on Sunday or Monday morning with no problems.
Unfortunately … this 
Is solved by this
We do the exact same thing as @wadeorcas and never have an issue with USPS Ground Advantage not being available in Amazon Buy Shipping.
What is the cause of the up tick in INR’s? … If you can determine why the up tick in INR’s and solve that, then using Shipstation and Pirateship are not a problem.
Will have a direct effect on your
The two issues are interlinked.
And Welcome to SAS!
Yes. Change it to the next date that USPS is open; normally Monday, but I said Tuesday just because of the holiday.
You can select a later date, but that may end up causing other problems, as Amazon will think there is less transit time available, so not offer the cheapest services.
Let us know if this helped. As I said, it worked on the rare occasion I needed it for MM a couple of years ago, so not exactly the same.
Hello @justalamb and welcome to SellersAskSellers! Please keep us updated, with whichever trick you try. Amazon + Ground Advantage has been problem after problem, unfortunately.
Yes, this has been happening for the last month. I posted about this back then. Basically, Amazon screwed with the delivery times for all sellers and added a few days onto the delivery times for Ground Advantage (this was written by an Amazon mod maybe 2 weeks ago on another post on the NSFE).
This only seems to be an issue on weekend orders.
It’s a PIA…
It’s funny how they emailed all the sellers months ago about how they should adjust their handling times to be more accurate with our actual delivery timeframes (as they said our orders were basically getting there like 2 days BEFORE the EDD). They wanted us to cut our handling days from 2 to 1. Yet, now Ground Advantage supposedly won’t get somewhere in a week? We ship hundreds of packages per week via Ground Advantage and they all get there quick.
I think Amazon personally is just trying to charge sellers more money because (surprise!) they get a bigger cut since you have to use their shipping to have protection from INR, etc.
Promise Extensions - aka ‘Shipping Date padding/Ship padding’ in some circles - has long been the bane of many a 3P Seller’s existence.
I’m no fortune-teller, by any means - but I do expect that Amazon will continue to trod along this path, because I do suspect that its bean-counters (rightly, or wrongly, as the case may turn out to be) have already set their caps firmly on sanctioning this course.
Actually, my settings show they do. My orders don’t have to ship until Wednesday since I have stuff set to two day shipping –
Ditto … 
Just did 7 labels … all USPS Ground Advantage under 15.99oz … to go out tomorrow (Tuesday).
The only thing we would note is that all Zone 5, 6 and 7 shipments showed 3 or 4 day estimated delivery times while the Zone 4 showed estimated delivery date at 7 days … go figure. To translate … anything over 1000+ miles is only 3 to 4 days while 557 miles is 7 days.
If we didn’t have 2 day handle time with 3 - 5 day shipping transit times, this Zone 4 would not have been available to ship by USPS Ground Advantage through Amazon Buy Shipping. This is a perfect example of why we do the 2 day handle time with 3 - 5 day shipping transit time.
Yes – somewhere approaching the holiday the system did recognize it.
But I was not alone in having earlier orders with a ship-by date of Monday.
Thanks for your input!
My templates have different settings on different sections of the states. I’m in Texas so the closer states, I have set to earliest possible days and the latest would be 3-5 days. So with this setting, my latest ship by date would be the next day. I always ship the same day and the next day would be my latest.
Thanks your input!
Not an up tick, but I get them at least 1–2 a week and no reason really. Tracking says delivered but buyers says INR. I get it, sometimes it is true…but in my opinion, 9 out of 10 are scammers. When I send them to A to Z, they don’t file for it. That tells me they were just trying to scam but I didn’t cave in.
I guess I just have to deal with the high account level reserve then… T. T
I’ve been selling for a little over 3 years and INR’s are just a part of doing business on Amazon. They keep trying and trying…I hear they learn it from tiktok.
Yes, that’s what I actually do when I get orders on weekends. I set the shipping day to the next working business day.
Thanks!
So, I’ve been dealing with this issue for some time but now that I finally found this forum and posted, it did not happen this weekend… LOL
I’m happy but I’m still gonna have to keep an eye on it.
Thanks your input!
It didn’t happen this weekend so hope it is actually fixed!