And so we have had it happen to us today … 4 labels USPS Ground Advantage (less 1lb) all show as delivered on Feb 3, Feb 4, Feb 5 and Feb 6.
Interestingly, all labels were delivered to MI, MD, NY and GA.
Labels were going to AZ, CA, TN and AZ.
We also know that our post office scanned them right in front of us. Our guess is that there is a big glitch between the USPS system and Amazon system.
All 4 packages show the scans that happened today on Amazon … time accepted and time departed from.
What they do not show on Amazon is the post office location … just date, time and status (action).
We would note that another one that shows as scanned accepted and departed from our post office today on USPS and before that the complete prior accepted and deliver date of Feb 11 (at MO). Amazon shows date, time and status (action) and no post office location like the other 4 labels.
At least we have Claims Protected and OTDR Protected on all of them.
Just bought a GA label through Buy Shipping for an order to FL, haven’t dropped it off at the post office yet, the USPS already showing it as Delivered, on 2/20 at WY. Guess the issue hasn’t fixed yet. But I still need to drop off the package with this problem label.
Reading the posts on both forums about this problem, sound like packages are going to the correct destinations and we could get some kind of printout from the post office with the tracking info reflect that.
So I’m just going to keep an eye on the delivery info on Amazon order page to make sure the order is delivered in a few days, and not goin to worry about what is showing on USPS tracking, unless the buyer contacts me about it. What a mass.
Our labels this morning are still reflecting the issue.
We created a case yesterday with seller support as KJ_Amazon suggested so the information could be presented to the “team”. The response back from seller support clearly showed that they either didn’t read or could understand the issue as they referred us to how to set up our shipping location. Clueless
One thing we did notice … if the recycled label had an issue like “address unknown”, then the recent scans will show up on USPS.com. Labels with prior “delivered” status will not get up dates on USPS.com.
Since we have a one person post office, we are going to see if we can get print outs after delivery. Just a FYI … not all postal clerks will have access in the system to be able to do a print out like this. The post master and/or a manager clerk will have access but some counter clerks probably will not.
Has anyone had this problem with a mail class other than Ground Advantage?
Our store had been on vacation for two weeks, and we had not shipped anything until Monday, two days ago. Our lone Ground Advantage label is displaying the issue. It is headed to San Francisco and shows delivered in Bakersfield, Calif., last month. It appears it will be delivered today, so we hope there is no complaint from the customer. We will not buy any more GA labels from Amazon until the issue is resolved. We don’t see any problems with our BPM labels.
Some customers will exploit this mess for their advantage. We once had an entire day’s orders incorrectly scanned as delivered in our own city. One customer, a woman in Utah, contacted us, I explained the situation and she still contacted Amazon and ended up with a free book that was delivered the day after she got her refund. Get ready for contacts from customers, because they are coming like sharks in the water.
Amazon should be out ahead of this issue, but of course they are ignoring it. It appears to be a problem with how Amazon interfaces with USPS. Fixing it should be a top priority for Amazon, but as usual it probably will be completely swept under the rug with third-party sellers holding the bag and bearing the financial loss.
I checked all the USPS Ground Advantage labels purchased through Amazon’s buy shipping on Monday, and all of them are showing this issue. Labels that I didn’t purchase through Amazon’s buy shipping are not showing this issue. Amazon shows the correct tracking info on their side, but USPS is still showing the old tracking info.
I haven’t had any complaints from customers yet, but I am wondering if it would be best to not use Amazon’s buy shipping until this issue is resolved. Would Amazon’s buy shipping protection cover any issues with the affected orders since USPS isn’t showing an acceptance scan for them?
It would be interesting to know what a customer sees on Amazon when they look at the tracking of an order (that was shipped USPS). If it shows what we see on seller central order page tracking, then we could direct inquiring customers to look at the tracking on the Amazon site and explain there is an known issue with the interface between Amazon and USPS. It might help ward off some potential problems with customers.
After seeing this, I’m not buying any USPS labels through Amazon’s buy shipping until I know this has been resolved. Seems riskier than chancing an INR.
Are USPS tracking numbers like UPS in the sense that several of the digits “available” are used to identify the shipper (Amazon account, your account, some other entity) and thus the actual quantity of tracking numbers “available” (per shipper) is fairly “small” (“tiny” for a behemoth like Amazon)?
If this were a true shortage of available numbers, we should expect to have seen a certain pattern of complaints.
We should have seen a few complaints that tracking numbers were getting re-used within 90 days, followed by a few more that they were getting re-used within 60 days. There should have been a gradual buildup.
But we have seen a sudden rush of sub-30 complaints.
This suggests to me that there is a change in policy behind this: not a real shortage of numbers, but a change in how those numbers are handled.
Yes, the number of digits available for variance is limited; Our well-missed friend @SawleMill made one of the best explanations I’ve seen in this 032723 SAS post in a related thread:
That being said, I have a high degree of confidence that this limitation is unlikely to be the source of the problem, and that it’s much more likely to be a programming error.
We would agree with this. Everything we shipped Monday was fine. Tuesday and today (Wednesday) the problem exists. It was like a switch was flipped.
All it would take is a little update batch that failed to contain some form of code to not use the unused tracking numbers unless they were 6 months old (inactive). USPS also recycles the numbers but only after 6 months from last scan with the exception of those numbers who customers have paid for longer access to the data (those numbers are protected as long as the paid service). Since USPS doesn’t clear their system of old associated tracking data until the 6 month period … if Amazon is not set up to mirror USPS, then we will see this issue.
We spoke with our post office today. They can see the current scans and the past activity (delivery) attached to the numbers. Our post office will give us a print out of each once they are delivered to our customers.
To be fair, that isn’t the first report I’ve seen of this paradigm occurring w/ Inbound Tracking - it was a trending topic soon after the Policy Revision announced in the 081922 News Headline “Additional return shipping options for seller-fulfilled returns” (link, new headline format URL), and it has intermittently surfaced as ‘trending’ a few times since then, in various discussion venues.
Still, I would assert that the fact that this improper recycling of tracking numbers continues to crop up - this is @ least the 5th instance of it being noticed on a widespread basis, for Outgoing Tracking, over the last 6-7 years - strongly suggests that there’s a fundamental problem which has gone unaddressed.
It just dawned on us … the minimum Order Capacity Setting was to go into effect on Monday 24, 2025. No one has seen (or at least commented on NSFE or here) that this setting has changed on their account. On the other hand, both forums have basically blown up with this shipping label issue.
Could it be that Amazon uploaded the wrong code batch? They uploaded an unfinished code batch for shipping rather than the code for the minimum Order Capacity Setting.
I could definitely see that as a possibility, given that the history of Amazon’s efficacy in preventing such mishaps isn’t particularly encouraging.
What might be encouraging, however, is that KJ has just called for information, in the ‘main’ NSFE discussion, from 3P Sellers who’ve already had (and, in @ least a few reported cases, already lost) A-to-z Claims filed due to this debacle, potentially in an effort to negate the Amabots’ renderings of blinkered judgement:
From what we read over on NSFE, the A to Z claims were happening this week right after the orders were shipped with the recycled labels.
Summary of an example read on NSFE:
An order shipped Monday 2/24/2025 and the customer looks up on USPS and sees the tracking showing already delivered and to a different state. Customer contacts seller and is not satisfied with the response that there is currently a glitch. Customer then contacts Amazon for A to Z for INR which is granted and charged to the seller on the same day as the item was shipped Monday 2/24/2025.
We would also note at this time that the only reason our Monday orders were not effected is because we just happen to print the labels for Monday 2/24/2025 on Saturday 2/22/2025. So for us, it was the luck of the draw that we did something a little ahead of normal which meant we didn’t experience it until Tuesday 2/25/2025.
We are pretty sure that the issue started Sunday PM / Monday AM transition time which lines up with the upgrade announced for the minimum Order Capacity Number.
I’m curious, considering the reports of problems. Is there an easy way to track your shipping for this, other than going one-by-one to check the tracking info on each order?
I did that for the last dozen or so, with no problems; but since I’m using BPM on most orders, possible that that block of numbers is not getting reused. But is there an easier way to keep track, in case those numbers get affected as well?
If you did a group of numbers and put them into USPS, then you could filter out the ones that are recycled to look up individual (if USPS doesn’t recognize any of the current scans).
Example … put this group into USPS and you will see the one that I can track with all of the non-recycled labels.
All of the ones that show delivered have to be tracked through Amazon. If you have some form of integration set up with Amazon for your orders, you should be able to pull the data and find it. If not, then you are stuck with looking up each order on the order detail page.
