Amazon is still issuing “first class” labels, and the majority of the FBM shipments go out that way. There is the occasional Priority Mail label (one presumes to assure timely delivery) and I do not argue with that choice.
But First Class Mail labels properly weighs the shipment at 11 oz, while Priority Mail labels shows “1.3 lbs”. I don’t get it, as there is only ONE place to input the weight of the packaged product for shipping.
Confused. Bemused. Misused. Bruised.
But First Class Mail labels properly weighs the shipment at 11 oz, while Priority Mail labels shows “1.3 lbs”.
I’ve never seen this. 
Can you share an example? How are you entering the size and weight? Are you going to Buy Shipping, then manually typing the dimensions, and weight, in pounds and ounces, in the boxes?
Where are you seeing the 1.3 lbs? Are you talking about what’s printed on the physical label, or what you see here when you look at the ‘shipped’ order, or ???
I can’t think of a likely scenario where you would enter 11 ounces and the system would decide you meant 1.3 lbs. Are you sure it wasn’t user error? 
Oh wait, I have one idea. Buy Shipping ‘remembers’ the weight and dimensions you entered last time, when you ship the same identical item again, and pre-fills them in for you.
If you normally ship an item by first-class, but then get an expedited order for that item, and ship it priority mail, Buy Shipping will remember that you bought PM postage last time, and automatically select it for you again the next time, until you change the size and weight back again. Is that what might have happened?
It could also happen if someone orders x pieces of item A, which normally weighs 11 ounces for a purchase of one, but if someone buys 2, then it’s over a pound and you have to buy PM. The next time, the system may pre-fill the choices as if you’re shipping 2, even if the next buyer only bought one.
Here are two labels from the last week (redacted to protect the guilty)
Nothing is being modified or typed in by hand, and “buy bulk shipping” is what it clicked to produce a set of dozens of labels at a time, all (one assumes) based upon the specs associated with the ASIN under “weight”, which is set to 11oz.
In both cases the product and packaging are the same
But this is INSANE!!! This means that one has to scroll though the long list of orders, and pick out the Priority Mail orders, and manually correct the weight… I’ve got a HIGH SCHOOL KID doing this, not a veteran user of the Bloomberg Terminal for stock trading!
Here;s a Bloomberg Terminal primer:
all (one assumes) based upon the specs associated with the ASIN under “weight”, which is set to 11oz.
One AS S-U-MES? 
Surely, you realize that what you assume Amazon should do is not likely to be what Amazon thinks it should do. 
Nothing is being modified or typed in by hand, and “buy bulk shipping” is what it clicked to produce a set of dozens of labels at a time,
When I responded before, I didn’t realize you were buying shipping in bulk. Sorry… my mistake. I do my labels one-by-one and it never dawns on me that the rest of you do them in bulk. Ignore what I said about Buy Shipping ‘remembering’ what you did last time.
When I bring up bulk shipping, I see this -
Each package has it’s own criteria and while Buy Shipping might/probably does remember the weights you entered last time to pre-fill your values for this time, it would/should (hopefully) pre-fill them all in the same way. I can’t fathom it assigning 11 ounces to one package but 1+ pounds to another for the exact same item(s) purchased. Are you absolutely sure the PM package wasn’t for an order of 2 or 3 pieces? It was just 1 item weighing 11 ounces?
The person buying the labels should at least scan down the column to make sure all the entries are correct, before confirming the purchase. Isn’t that something your high school kid can do? I imagine it depends on your volume, and how familiar he/she is with your product.
When Amazon does this to me on an individual label, I catch it right away, because I know that my widget only weighs 4 ounces, so if the system suggests a PM label (based on a previous expedited order), I know to change it back.
Do you have any other process that could double-check the weights to catch wrong shipping labels before they go out? Do the packages physically get weighed when they get packed?
Also we have seen this issue when someone places two orders for two items. We will combine the shipping (yes I know the risk.) We set one to master and one to slave, the master may be 1.8 pounds, where the two items are half that each normally.
Then the next time we ship the system enters 1.8 pounds. Since it is smarter than we are. /s
Yes, we are certainly doing that going forward - we did not expect the tool to get “stuck” on a weight value from a prior shipment for “Priority Mail” choices, we expected it to calculate (# units * weight each) every darn time… but Amazon cannot add or multiply.
You are not the only person who buys labels one at a time. I do, too. In fact, I don’t even know what it means to buy in bulk. Does that mean we buy shipping for all our orders for the day with one click? How does the system know what each package weighs or measures? (I guess that was the problem posed in this thread?)
Its all a single SKU, so one buys one, two, or three, and the math is done by the system, EXCEPT for the case pointed out by the lovely Roxy (who may be related to Tinkerbell, just sayin…) where:
a) Someone orders 2 units, and they go priority mail
b) Subsequently, most folks order 1 unit, and they all go First class (or Ground Disadvantage)
c) Then someone orders 1, and Amazon decides that THIS single unit needs to go Priority Mail
d) The “last used weight” for a Priority Mail package was for 2 units, not one, and somehow the order for one unit does not reset the weight back to the weight for one unit. Where I come from, we call this a bug.
So, one must look carefully to make sure, as somehow, the whole system of expecting the weight of the item to matter in amazon’s “Buy Shipping” scheme seems more than a tad ad hoc.
I gave lectures in advanced concepts in Math when I was a post-doc, but this stuff makes my head swim.
I don’t even know what it means to buy in bulk.
You can check it out without completing the process. Just check 2 or more orders to select them and choose the ‘Buy Shipping in Bulk’ button. You’ll get a screen that looks something like this -
The product name, description, and SKU is on the left side of the list. You scan the list, either accept the pre-filled selections Buy Shipping sets, or make adjustments as needed, then once satisfied, click a button at the bottom to purchase all the labels and they print out all at once.
How does the system know what each package weighs or measures?
It does know - it just ‘suggests’, the same as when you buy them one by one. If you’ve previously shipped an identical order, the system fills in the values you used last time. Whether you do them one by one, or in bulk, you still need to decide if what the system suggests is the correct value to use.
@packetfire, you’re giving Amazon’s processes too much credit. They don’t do the calculation you suggested - number of units ordered times weight per unit - they simply use the value you entered last time for shipping that same item.
and the math is done by the system
I don’t think there’s any math involved at all. I think it’s a simple matching a value (taking what was entered last time and plunking it into the box for this time).
I haven’t seen Amazon’s code, of course, but this is what seems to be going on, from my observations.
When you buy a label for Product X, the system looks to see if you’ve ever shipped Product X before. If so, it looks at the most recent values entered when you bought the shipping label, and copies the previously-used weight and dimensions into the entry for the current label. The system, we must assume, believes this is ‘helpful’.
The code would be much more complex if it had to look at both the product and the quantity that was ordered. Amazon code seems written at the baby language level, and they often can’t even get that right. If you’re expecting them to be an advanced technological company with highly skilled programmers, you’re aiming way too high.
I gave lectures in advanced concepts in Math when I was a post-doc, but this stuff makes my head swim.
Sadly, that’s because you’re looking at it through an advanced technological and higher thinking lense. You need to look at Amazon through a child’s lense, maybe a toddler’s. The platform isn’t build with the level of advanced capabilities you expect.
I will offer a different speculative explanation.
Assuming there are other sellers on the listing and detail page control and the buy box change, if the different sellers have entered different weights for the item, the shipping weight will change when the detail page control changes.
There was a period of time when some sellers who used FBA were changing the shipping weights to be higher or lower than reality to sabotage FBM sellers. It surfaced on one of the predecessors to the NSFE, years ago.
Amazon knows the weight of an item based on what is put into the item’s listing. Amazon also knows the shipping weight based on what is put into the item’s listing. So Amazon knows what to suggest when one item is ordered. When two items are ordered of the same item, Amazon will request for you to put in the weight of the shipment because, at that point, Amazon does not know the if the packaging weight is the same for one item as it is for two items.
We see this all of the time. Customer orders one and Amazon knows it is 3oz for the shipment. Customer orders two and we have to provide the shipping weight of 4oz. Amazon does not assume/know the package weight of 2oz will be the same for one item and for two items when dealing with our products (and thus Amazon requests for us to provide the input).
Amazon knows the weight of an item based on what is put into the item’s listing. Amazon also knows the shipping weight based on what is put into the item’s listing.
This may be true. But…
What happens - in my observation - is that if I haven’t shipped a particular item before, the system will prompt me to enter the weight and dimensions. If I have shipped that item before, the system will remember what I entered last time.
I have not observed that Buy Shipping uses any information from the product listing in any part of its process.
It also wouldn’t make sense for it to do so, as the ‘shipping weight’ could vary between sellers, if one ships in an envelope and another in a box.
We see this all of the time. Customer orders one and Amazon knows it is 3oz for the shipment. Customer orders two and we have to provide the shipping weight of 4oz.
I think you’re mistaken about the reasons for what you are seeing. Although maybe, if/since you created your own product pages (I don’t - I resell other brands’ products) it might work differently.
But what I’ve observed is that if I have an order for one item, Buy Shipping pre-fills the choice as 3 ounces, then if the next order is for two pieces, the 3-ounce selection will still be there. But if I change the weight to 5 ounces for the 2-piece order, if the next order after that comes in for one piece again, the 5-ounce selection will still be pre-filled in. That supports my assertion that the system remembers what was used the last time for that item, regardless of quantity purchased.
And there in lies the difference of what we each experience. Yes, we create the listings, sell and ship so therefore Amazon can base our orders from our listings and past shipping as the product is our own product and service.
For us, the weight is always 3oz for one and, for any quantity above one, the weight will have to be filled in. So we see only 3oz or blank with the requirement to give a weight on anything more than one. We never see 4oz prefilled in after we have shipped using 4oz.
So once again we have established that the variables one sees will vary with the variables of ones business when dealing with Amazon. What you experience makes sense but it is not what we experience.
I make and sell my own stuff, and I buy shipping each time (not in bulk). I have the same experience as you. The size for shipping the same product often changes because I reuse the bubble mailers from Amazon, and they are different weights and dimensions. It always remembers the last size.
And that’s why so many of us in our Seller Community (mainly those of us enrolled to SAS membership, methinks) value the collaboration between you two on the BSS/MSS front.
Please tell me what that stands for.
BSS is ‘Amazonese’ for “Buy Shipping Service”
MSS is ‘Amazonese’ for “Merchant Shipping Service”
Both of these acronyms refer to the same functionality, but the latter has in recent years appeared to be more favored by this and that Amazon Team.
I’ve ‘said’ it before, and @ this point it seems quite-likely that I’ll be ‘saying’ it again:
Inconsistency, Thy Name Be Amazon.
