Your account is at risk of deactivation due to MCF late ship out
Need advice on our current issue.
Today, 06/10/2023, we received a warning from Amazon. Your account is at risk of deactivation: Your Late Shipment Rate is 7.69%, while the target is 4%.
Here is the situation: we have an FBM listing, and we received 8 orders on the same day, 06/05/2023. However, there was a shortage, so we created an MCF on the same day 06/05/2023 to fulfill these orders using our same SKU, which had FBA stock. Today, we received this warning from Amazon, stating that our late shipment rate is too high. After investigating, we found out that 3 out of the 8 orders were shipped out late by Amazon MCF. They were shipped out on 06/06-06/07, causing this late shipment rate warning to appear. With all been say that is not our fault the order ship out late..it was Amazon MCF delayed.
Has anyone encountered a similar issue with MCF shipping out late? How did you guys appeal the warning from Amazon?
Thank you!
Your account is at risk of deactivation due to MCF late ship out
Need advice on our current issue.
Today, 06/10/2023, we received a warning from Amazon. Your account is at risk of deactivation: Your Late Shipment Rate is 7.69%, while the target is 4%.
Here is the situation: we have an FBM listing, and we received 8 orders on the same day, 06/05/2023. However, there was a shortage, so we created an MCF on the same day 06/05/2023 to fulfill these orders using our same SKU, which had FBA stock. Today, we received this warning from Amazon, stating that our late shipment rate is too high. After investigating, we found out that 3 out of the 8 orders were shipped out late by Amazon MCF. They were shipped out on 06/06-06/07, causing this late shipment rate warning to appear. With all been say that is not our fault the order ship out late..it was Amazon MCF delayed.
Has anyone encountered a similar issue with MCF shipping out late? How did you guys appeal the warning from Amazon?
Thank you!
10 replies
Seller_aV1Bh32hE0KND
Right now, this is just a warning; there is nothing to appeal. Amazon is giving you a heads-up that there may be an issue with your shipping process so you can correct it before it gets worse.
I doubt this will cause your account to be deactivated; if for some reason it is, then you can appeal, but again the odds of that happening are very slim.
Continue to ship on time, and the rate will come down fairly quickly; the more you ship, the quicker the % will drop. If there are no more issues, the 'At Risk' should disappear in 10 days.
The Late Shipment Rate (LSR) is all orders with a ship confirmation that is completed after the expected ship date as a percentage of total orders over both a 10-day or 30-day period. LSR only applies to seller-fulfilled orders.
In the quick order form, if you select Place order, you'll create a ship order that will plan and ship within 2 business days for Standard speed and next business day for Expedited and Priority speeds.
If you select Create hold order, an order will be planned and placed on hold, reserving your inventory. These hold orders must be activated on the MCF order details page to initiate the shipment. The order will only meet the expected delivery date if activated before the expected ship date. If not, the expected delivery date will not update and the order will deliver at a later date.
Here is Amazon's → Multi-Channel Fulfillment policy page to review.
Seller_JELEnXFOrnw4L
MCF provides few different shipping options.
"Sellers can select Standard (3-5 business days), Expedited (2 business days) and Priority (1 business day) delivery speeds."
Which one did you choose?
Seller_kIukTwdhvntAp
I was running multiple distribution channels for a long time and only had inventory problems after my business grew far enough that I couldn't keep up with tracking items.
It sounds like it's PAST time for you to invest in a system that is able to track inventory. Either your own or find a good one that can handle multiple channels. I don't get paid for this, but I use a company called Ordoro and it's about $300 a month but worth every penny.
It tracks sales across Amazon. eBay, and, another site I sell on. It can even be customized for FBM and FBA inventory and transfers. If my own websites got busy enough I could have them integrate the software to track them as well (for a fee of course).
Seller_xOl9BuQiOqQJf
yes, they will not suspend you if it’s not a frequently happening thing. Your store will suffer and sales will be so slow but it will recover.
It is your fault because you offer FBM and you didn’t have enough inventory. Either only offer FBA or update FBM quantities.
Worst case scenario, confirm the shipment before the ship by date. You can always update the tracking information. If the package will be late, just give an update to the customer. If the customer is willing to wait, it is ok. If not, just refund the money. Because you will lose both the product and the sales in the end if they open an A to Z claim.
Good luck.
Robbie_Amazon
Hello @Gigastone_Direct,
we created an MCF on the same day 06/05/2023 to fulfill these orders using our same SKU, which had FBA stock. Today, we received this warning from Amazon, stating that our late shipment rate is too high.
I understand that you used multi-channel fulfillment (MCF) to send the orders out as soon as possible. Merchant-fulfilled orders still need to be shipped and confirmed in our systems within your handling time. It is great that you got the orders out as soon as you could. Since you picked the standard 3-5 business day option, by the time the orders were confirmed the handling time had passed.
However, there was a shortage
You want to make sure you are taking preventive steps to ensure this will not happen in the future. To do this, you need to think about what the true root cause is. Use the questions below to figure out what the exact root cause is:
- Why are there items in your inventory that do not correctly reflect the amount you can immediately send out through fulfillment by merchant?
- If you had the correct inventory for sale, would you have needed to create the MCF order?
- What caused this shortage?
Your late shipment rate is based on a 10-day and 30-day rolling time window. If your metric is over 4% during this time, then we may contact you and require you to take specific steps. To learn more about our late shipment rate policy, visit this help page.
All the best,
Robbie
