It seems this feature was in the test phase in December and is going full implementation now–good! See @audio_depot’s topic here:

Here’s a glimpse at how it appears, from @my_family_biz:

I wonder if they will make sellers disregarding the recommendation and sending without signature a reason to hold the seller responsible for the refund cost on lost INR A-Zs.

You guys ever had customer complaint about they have to go pick up a package ad post office or UPS access point?

So I assume that if there is a signature recommendation and you don’t get it there is no Buy Shipping INR coverage, right?

We used to go above and beyond for customers before the fee changes for fulfillment and MCF - now its way too expensive to do so - so the flow chart entirely re-directs to amazon customer service as designed for FBA sellers. The End.

I think @ASV_Vites said it first - the inventory limits are behind us and the future ahead is ramping up and accumulating inventory - all other aspects of selling not withstanding.

I just have to wonder how they will then deal with the scammers that discover the electronic signature they can submit online with the couriers including USPS. I believe it’s a liability waiver, but wonder if Amazon’s A-Z staff will when the scammers file with the INR due to electronic signature.

That is an assumption and well a very good one but delivery address
is ambiguous in that it does not define whether it is a “neighborhood”,
general area or just an individual.

We are seeing a growing push back on certain failed policies as people
are horrified and suffering as a result of them.

We would tend to think that the policy is being put into place
to combat something that occurs on a large scale… sometimes
concentrated in certain areas so it may be more broadly applied
than just an individuals address based upon the data.

Who isn’t?
It’s really lost its meaning and has almost no impact.

Alright let me re-word this via the Amazon transparency translator:

Amazon wants to cut costs for INR with purchased BUY SHIPPING services. They don’t want to upset customers themselves by banning frequent INR offenders or requiring their items be delivered to a different location so they decide, why not create a new “feature” that will pass the burden for these previously agreed to liabilities to our sellers?

What this will do is:

A.) Allow Amazon to reject liability for all INR to these addresses (yes even with signature.)

B.) If you purchased via Buy Shipping AND purchased signature, you get to appeal this rejection, and HOPE the poorly trained employee that was hired last week grants your appeal.

C.) If the signature doesn’t match the customer’s name, says COVID, or isn’t readable, expect your appeal to be rejected. This doesn’t happen now but after this new “feature” it will happen more and more, even with the signature selected.

D.) Because of this change to SELECT addresses, expect Amazon’s A-to-Z staff to start making us cover many INR claims on non-flagged addresses because they get confused.

Dear Amazon, if you want to help us so much, just start banning or dealing with trouble customers yourself. If you want to have these addresses sign for their packages, then YOU CAN eat the cost of the fee when we use BUY SHIPPING.

Amazon repeatedly tells us these are their customers, which is fine but if those customers have a history of issues, then Amazon needs to be the own fronting the cost.

And if signature services were selected, automatically lock it from being our responsibility in the A-to-Z claims. Don’t require us to waste everyone’s labor for appeals.

I did not read all the posts, so, maybe these issues were addressed before.

1. Amazon is aware that 35% of INR could be avoided.
2. We think that purchasing labels via amazon provides 100% protection, in fact, it provides only some protection.
3. We don’t know what percentage of orders will this recommendation affect.
4. Isn’t it sellers responsibility to add another layer of protection?
5. From my experience, so far none of my buyers complained about the signature requirement.
6. What is the value of a signature ? not much…a scammer can sign whatever he wants, and then claim, this is not his signature…

1. Here again, Amazon goes the wrong way trying to make sellers pay for a signature confirmation, when Amazon already knows the buyer has a serious problem and will do nothing about it. If Amazon would simply knock off these scammers one at a time, the loss would not put a dent in the millions of buyers.

2. Additional fees:
   The recommendation service is offered to sellers at no cost. However, carriers charge an additional fee, as signature confirmation is a separate carrier service.

• How about that, another free service from Amazon… That you have to pay for.
  If the person who wrote that text worked for me, I’d fire them on the spot. The Peter Principle at its best.

3. And we all know why this is happening. INR claims are taking a beating on Amazon, Amazon just won’t admit it.