Hi everyone (maybe I should change my username to “TheWrongBarcodeGuy”),
I am trying to figure out what might be the consequences of sending 720 units (out of 720) without the Amazon Barcode, despite our shipment plan specifying that we should label the units. Additionally, we have two manufacturer barcodes on each unit that need to be covered.
This ASIN has not been sent to FBA for over a year. In the past, we’ve had a few “barcode cannot be scanned” and “barcode missing” issues, but they were very small quantities compared to this shipment and involved a different ASIN.
Our current defect rate is 0%, while the acceptable rate for “Amazon Barcode Missing” is 0.88%.
Having sent 14,352 units in the last 120 days, including these 720, we should get to a 5% defect rate.
I don’t understand what happens next. I see that if the defect rate stays above the limit for more than 21 days, the coaching level changes, but I am unclear on the consequences of this. To get below the threshold, we would need to send in roughly 67,000 more units, which far exceeds our sales volume.
Could someone kindly advise on what to expect?
Although I am mostly concerned about the performance/suspension side of this matter, I am also curious whether we would be charged for two labels on each unit. Does anyone have experience with that?
You will be charged a fee to label the units. You will likely have to get on the phone to be “coached” by Amazon. You will be way over the limit but will not be suspended or lose the ability to use FBA. Just be very careful moving forward until the problem rate drops down.
Because this massive spike is related to a single shipment plan, it won’t be as bad as you fear IMO.
They will make it seem like your “shipment defect rate” is the biggest issue in the world for the next 120 days. Its not, ignore that. Send in more of that same ASIN, and the percentage of “defect” will go down.
I had Amazon claim that SOME of my UPC barcodes, printed on the label of product were “un-scannable”. But how could 18 of a case of 48 in a shipment of dozens of cartons be unscannable? So, I asked them for photos of the “unscannable” bottles. They sent photos. The PHOTOS could be scanned, so why couldn’t the bottles be scanned? Silly Amazon, they would never admit that it was their equipment that was the problem, as all the failures were at ONE FC, and after the bottles had been initially received, counted, scanned and confirmed at the intital receiving FC, and then transferred to the FC with the bum scanner.
They did not charge me for a re-label, but they left the black mark on my otherwise perfect stats, and they continued to bug me periodically, despite my clicking on “temporarily hide this card”. The status remains “dispute rejected”, and at least they did not lose the inventory.
I really appreciate the insight, gents! I believe we’ll go ahead and ship the units as they are, hoping for the best. I’ll update this thread as soon as I know the outcome.
Thank you! but we are not able to do so. In my opinion we should have canceled the shipment but for a combination of factors it seems like we are late for that too.
That said, we must address the underlying situation we have with our inventory/barcodes, between the units designated for Amazon and those for retail.
We are guilty of this 100%
I am super confused… You had the opportunity to cancel the shipment, eat the freight to avoid potential long lasting problems (120 days), and you are shipping it anyway???
That’s a good question! The short answer is that I am not the ultimate decision-maker for the account, so I am also wondering WHY we shipped anyway, despite I suggested cancelling.
I think the main reason is a willingness to take risks and the need to quickly have some stock for this ASIN in FBA, even though it wasn’t essential imo.
(Plus, we are going to eat the costs for labeling as well, so that’s another reason we should have canceled)
This is going to cost us more than just money. That’s for sure
We ultimately decided to ship to Amazon the mislabeled units anyway. I’ve been checking the “Problems” section of the shipment daily, and so far, it says “No defects to resolve.”
The shipment is set to close in a couple of weeks, so there’s still a possibility that issues might arise. However, we have already sold 450 out of the 720 units, with almost 200 already shipped out to customers. It seems that nobody at Amazon has had any issues picking the units so far. (how come?)
To recap, we shipped units with a EAN code plus a ASIN printed on each package (yes, ASIN), yet Amazon hasn’t flagged any problems even though the shipment was supposed to contain units labeled with Amazon barcodes only.
Amazon usually does not ding you till the shipment is closed for stuff like that. Remember one key thing, that sometimes Amazons incompetence works in your favor and you may not get dinged.