Countries
Read only
On-time delivery rate -- W*F?!?!?
First off, per the services agreement, Amazon needs to preannounce policy changes, and did not in this case (or many others). Also, apologies if the search function in the fora is so poor that this is effectively a duplicate of another thread ... the most germane thing I can find is a month ago, when a Mod reiterated old policy shortly before Amazon instituted a new one.
As of today (7/25), OTDR has a new definition, and this at-one-time info-only metric can now kill your account. In this change, Amazon is announcing that they recognize that sometimes stuff -- like hurricanes, riots, state-wide power outages, strikes, etc. -- can happen which will make even Amazon's automated estimate (over which we have no control) of delivery time wrong. When this happens, buyers will be notified, but according to the OTDR page, sellers will not be cut slack. "An OTDR below 90% may result in account deactivation" ... and this metric ("On-time delivery rate without promise extensions") is prior to any extensions. Effectively: if there's a natural disaster in your shipping lane, expect to have your account shuttered. Who comes up with this? Either the description of an unannounced, new-release feature is so poorly written as to be wrong in a way that will make long-time sellers think they'll lose their accounts (ooops! our bad!), or it's accurate and the idea is insane.
Other platforms I can name simply ignore metrics for orders affected by these unavoidable issues. [I bet this doesn't apply to FBA, which is just another anti-trust-worthy measure instituted by Amazon to illegally push people to that platform.]
(p.s. this forum software is also heinous ... making me reload to post, or logging me out mid-screed, and throwing away my work in the process simply doesn't happen in any other forum software I've ever used)
0 replies
Seller_GDHNUE0mJYvka
is there a petition that we can sign?
Seller_c7AY5UmbBC07I
This is hilariously bad of Amazon, CONSIDERING I HAVE THREE EXTREMELY DELAYED ORDERS FROM FBA.
How is this even fair for sellers?
"This may be the most insane part: we're going to take into account natural disasters, but not as far as your metrics go. If you are in an area that gets hit by a hurricane or earthquake, Amazon will note that while closing your account. "This policy does not apply to offers using the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) service " is simply extortion, pure and simple. Then to say "FBA is more reliable than FBM so we deserve the buy box" becomes a lie ... FBA now has less restrictive delivery requirements than FBM."
If i cant get deliveries out due to fallen trees and electric lines down, Amazon cannot. This is rubbish. I know because I get your order has been delayed.
These restrictions on sellers are not going to make people buy more on Amazon. People will still buy Temu, Shein and Instantcart.
A real good idea would be to reduce fee so sellers could bring prices down.
and again I have NEVER HOD ONE PERSON COMPLAIN ABOUT SHIPPING SPEED.
@SEAmod
Seller_bzHT6bQ9deVVk
only one amazon employ showed up in the whole conversation
no is here to answer or help
what a mess
Seller_Qbd0RsfZFEZBY
Couple answers to some questions:
OTDR is calcultated by the DATE, not the TIME.---Look on your report, the promise by date time is the last Hour/Minute/Second of the day
OTDR protection didnt start until July 25th, so any units shipped with Amazon Buy SHipping prior to that date will show on the report
OTDR is calculated in units, I know it says orders on the account health page, its an error, its being fixed.
OTDR is a rolling metric, it begins 7 days from the order date and goes out 14 days
Seller_byRHgx6lgMjDy
This metric is the last line for me. If they suspend our account due to the post office, then I won't fight to get it reinstated. Amazon is a side project for us, not a major factor of our business and I'm done jumping through hoops trying to prove to Amazon that our multi-million dollar company is worthy of their site.
Seller_UORGawgDnKHmL
Amazon can't even manage to deliver FBA items themselves on time, so trying to harass small business sellers is a literal slap in the face. I have included 4 photos of orders I have placed in the last 5 days that have all failed miserably to meet the shipping dates listed. Two were "overnight 7-10am" and haven't shipped 2-3 days later. One never shipped and was just refunded. The fourth hasn't shipped and has no update. Their delivery is so bad that I looked at the item, which was still being sold with "next day 7-10am delivery" options and simply ordered it again and it was delivered, albeit a day late, and the first order is the one that was cancelled and refunded with no input from me.
Even more comical is their constant need to email me trying to get me to use Amazon shipping to deliver my sales LOL. USPS has a better track record with all their failures. Amazon has gotten to big for their own britches. They are trying to tell us small business owners how to run our business and they can't even run their own.
Seller_Qbd0RsfZFEZBY
Please post a screenshot of your report. THis could be an error on the report, or we could be reading it incorrectly
Seller_Qbd0RsfZFEZBY
No it is in PDT, you will have to expand the cell but the threshold is the last hour/minute/second of the day in PDT
Seller_Qbd0RsfZFEZBY
The OTDR is calculated based on the delivery date, not the time. You will notice the time in PDT is the last hour, minute,second of the day. This enables and order with a promised delivery date of that day to count as long as it was delivered that day
Seller_qMgi7qxvEo7f1
Yeah, I got hit with a bunch of late shipments. I'm sorry, but I print and ship everything in 24 hours, if the USPS late, it's not my fault. I buy shipping through Amazon, so why I'm being punished for USPS speed, exactly? Also, if someone ordering a product and 5 mins later I want to print the First Class Mail Ground Package stamp, why is it not there? Is it it says it would be too slow and it's not protected? Ground shipping is 3-5 days? So, how is 8 days not enough to deliver it?
Seller_r9wMm8LrE5iKj
... and I guess your work is done here, because that's the only issue that any sellers have with this completely tardy "improvement." Would still like an explanation of why we're responsible for shipping time? Why not hold us responsible for how long it takes the customer to open their package? Makes just as much sense, and would push us onto FBA (or off the platform) just as quickly.
Your employer is sociopathic garbage.
Seller_bzHT6bQ9deVVk
we have more than 10 orders that were OTDR protected
is still in the report as late shipment
Seller_KJ6qXfPuGOtcG
this is absolutely broken now, we just went from 100% on time delivery (we've NEVER been below 99%) to 88%!!! why does Amazon takes things that aren't broken and break them just to make sellers look bad? f'ing ridiculous, the final straw in they're totally screwed up shipping systems for FBM sellers...I think they just want to get rid of FBM period....why else would they pull this crap?
update...they have deleted my forum name and associated data, I'm assuming due to my opinions on this subject? we are now down to 87% OTDR and it looks like after over 15 years on this platform (very successfully I might add) we are about to be kicked off the platform due to this 'new math' amazon is using...btw, we have 100% OTDR listed as "Delivered after the promised delivery date with a promise extension" (10 x's in that column on report out of 1400 shipments) so we ARE delivering all packages on time as far as the customer is concerned...
Seller_r9wMm8LrE5iKj
... and if the customer is really concerned, they can buy from a Prime seller or pay for faster shipping, and the fact they are not tells you how important this really is to our (FBM's) buyers.
Of course, Prime can easily take longer to arrive than FBM, with no repercussions to Amazon, even though the customer is paying for speed.
This just SCREAMS anti-trust.
KJ_Amazon
I see that sellers are still visiting this and other OTDR threads. This is a heads-up that next week there will be an Ask Amazon event covering this topic:
Ask questions about the OTDR policy updates at an Ask Amazon event on October 1st
Come ask questions about the On-Time Delivery Rate (OTDR) policy updates at an Ask Amazon event on October 1st, from 8 am to 5 pm PT!
Community Managers and the OTDR team will answer your questions posted in this thread. Feel free to leave your questions within this thread before the start of the event, however, please note that the partner team will not be available to review and respond to questions until the event date.
Seller_flXNiJRw0gh3z
I am getting hit for orders that I sent out on time but the carrier had a delay. If that person did an atoz claim, i would not lose so why do I get hit for it?
Similar Discussions
