Default Handling Time Changed
Amazon changed my default handling time from 2 days to 1 day and they no longer allow you to set your default handling time to 2 days. I've had it this way for about 10 years now and it worked well.
Is this just more pure stupidity? Forcing me to change the sku level handling time to 2 on all my listings?
9 replies
Seller_DdmPiA1p1S2Wu
Yep, that's what Amazon is doing to sellers these days. You have to set it at the SKU level, and they might come along every once in a while and change that so you have to change it back again like has happened to me.
Seller_Hi7wbO2Kbo6bl
Know that regaining control of handling time is a two part process. You must disable the automated handling (even though you may not be able to regain the two day default).
You must also set handling at the SKU level.
But you also want to check periodically that Amazon doesn't sneak back in with the automation. When you allow it, then it overrides your SKU set handling time.
Seller_nRFmxiQg4EGrw
Yep, you've been "rewarded" by Amazon for shipping quickly much of the time; now you are obligated to do so ALL of the time.
Give it a few hours; I suspect a mod will chime in to tell you how lucky you are that Amazon is doing this great thing for you, and how wonderful it is that Amazon is deciding how you should run your business, and how everyone loves the changes (despite there being probably over 100 threads like this complaining about it).
Yeah, it sux.
Seller_uf4dbtieBCxcX
We normally ship same day and apparently the "algorithm" sees your good performance and then adjusts automatically the handling time. We had always set it at 2 days in order to exceed expectations and give ourselves a little wiggle room.
Monday was a crazy day for us and we were not able to ship clean as usual. We checked all of the "ship by" dates on remaining orders to make sure we were good and then raced off to some meetings.
We came in the next morning to see that all of those orders were showing late. Apparently, we were unknowingly enrolled in this automation program. The ship by date before it goes late now is indicative of the stroke of midnight. Meaning, it showed that we had to ship by 5/7 in order to not be late, but what it really meant was that 1 second after midnight it would show late.
I called in and spoke with an agent and they told me that for the first 90 days they won't ding your account health when they automate your handling time.
It doesn't help the nerves to see the message "your account is at risk of deactivation" on the main dashboard because we have exceeded the 4% level. Historically, we usually are late on 1 order in a thousand but now we are on the bubble.
At this point, can we just start to educate customers to measure their expectations a little? Do we have to keep promising them the moon? All it seems to be doing is setting us up for failure and enraging them more than they already are.
And yes, we'll be back tomorrow like Oliver asking "Can I have some more please"?
Seller_oDXVaydIpi3Hi
As amazon seller support isnt smart enough to tell you how to fix their latest screw up (at least dozens of their employees werent able to when they changed ours) in doing this other than manually editing each listing, this is how you do it:
CATALOG > ADD PRODUCTS VIA UPLOAD > DOWNLOAD SPREADSHEET > GET PRICE AND QTY TEMPLATE.
There is a field on the template for latency/handling time. You can just copy and paste your "manage inventory" data right into the template.
Goodluck
Seller_yYmMTCwJZOpvV
Just you wait we are a small family owned book store.
Amazon did this to us last year from 2 to 1 day
This year amazon then put us same day shipping.... we opted out now our handling time is screwed up but its anywhere from 2 day to a month bc we kept the max per orders set up to protect us.
Amazon way to reward good sellers is to see how far till they get banned.
As a amazon manager over a warehouse here told me they try and get rid of workers in 1-3 years thats the best peak performance then need to be pushed out by never ending new expectations till they cant do it anymore.
They just doing the same thing with small sellers
Seller_r9wMm8LrE5iKj
Also changed without announcement: How weekend orders are treated for longer lead times (and probably 2 day as well). A Sunday order with 4 day lead used to be treated like a Monday order (since Sunday is a day off), due Friday. Now due Thursday. That means that due Tuesday is a 2 day lead, and due Monday is a 1 day lead, which is the same as 0 day (same-day) lead, making Sunday no longer a day of rest. F'n math-impaired heathens!
