When we were able to set our own handling and shipping settings, our OTDR and LSR were always perfect for many years. Orders were all shipped on time, and customers always received items before the estimated delivery date and were happy and appreciative.
Last year, when we were all forced to enable AHT and SSA, our (LSR) Late Shipment Rate began to drop.
We ship both non custom as well as customized items. Custom orders generally take a little longer to prepare and ship.
In Sept, 2024, we requested an exemption from AHT for the custom items and were granted 3 days. This immediately solved the Late Shipment Issue, but then the OTDR, On Time Delivery Rate began to plummet, and we can’t seem to get it back up no matter how hard we try, or how fast we ship, or what method of shipment we use.
Here’s the current and ongoing dilemma. Because the OTDR remains sub-par, we’ve tried to get things processed and shipped out faster and faster, currently at just over 1 day. We cannot turn off AHT altogether because we have a promise gap of just over 2 days, so Amazon now forces you to have AHT turned on if the promise gap is greater than 2 days.
If we could close the promise gap to under 2 days and request to turn off the custom item exemption from AHT, all custom orders would automatically default to a 1-day handling time. This would likely solve the OTDR issue, but our LSR will go right back up. While we get most shipments out in a day, we can’t get all of them out in a day, so the few that go out in 2 days would get marked as late shipments and make the LSR sub-par.
The thought process now, is to change packaging for all custom orders from boxes or tubes to flat mailers in hopes for faster processing through the mail system. If that does the trick and magically raises the OTDR rates while simultaneously shortening the delivery promise gap to under 2 days, then, we will need to begin sandbagging custom orders from processing and shipping, which currently is just over 1 day, to 3 days, and see what happens over time.
Hopefully, if that keeps our promise gap under 2 days, raises OTDR and doesn’t collapse our LSR simultaneously, then and only then, can we finally request the AHT exemption to be turned off.
All of this has to be carefully juggled, while dealing with the overwhelming, constant looming threat that our account is in imminent jeopardy.
This is absolutely ridiculous that we have to play these silly games to please the AI algorithm to fix something that wasn’t even broken in the first place. I can say with certainty, from my experience, there are many more upset customers now than ever before.
It’s always better to underpromise and overdeliver, than to overpromise and underdeliver.
Amazon, please rethink this horrible policy, it’s not working for sellers and you’re upsetting many loyal customers in the process.
