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Extended Delivery Window Being Shown to Buyers
I just got off the phone with Seller Support who informed me that effective October 1 Amazon extended delivery windows being shown to buyers for non-Prime merchant fulfilled orders. We noticed a massive drop in sales (even worse than they have already been). I was reviewing listings to try and get to the bottom of this latest issue and noticed 2 week delivery dates being shown to customers. The 2 weeks is if I were shipping to my own state.
We have AHT set at 2 days and delivery to our own state set to 2-3 day delivery. We had SSA in place, even after I disable SSA to play around with shipping times and templates Amazon then started displaying a 1 week minimum up to 2 weeks for delivery, again to our own state.
This is clearly deterring buyers from making FBM purchases thus negatively impacting business. I was told by the Seller Support agent that I could explain to potential buyers on the listing that we actually deliver faster than Amazon is advertising (this is against Amazon policy). I was also told that I could reach out to buyers who have completed purchases to explain to them that they will be receiving their packages much faster than the estimated delivery window Amazon provided them.
It is clear to me that Amazon wants to do away with 3rd party merchants who do not use their FBA services or force us into using FBA especially considering the high costs associated with improperly handled inventory counts, long receiving times, having to battle with Amazon every step of the way to correct an Amazon caused mistake, the list goes on.
87 replies
Seller_dpDBDWKiDHK0r
experiencing the exact same problem!
My On Time Delivery metric is completely fine too, its only adding 0.2 days
But I'm seeing 4-5 days added to ALL my inventory
Seller_cmtN2vx56Q3ov
Are you having the same issue as described in this post? feel free to add your issue to this thread. Maybe this way Amazon mods will pay attention to us faster.
Seller_Zw8LsZUQSH440
Prime Day is coming, so Amazon is trying to push FBA.
Seller_8HBeojhszSviQ
Normally I would agree with that thought but this issue is not being applied universally to merchant fulfilled non-Prime offerings for all sellers, only some sellers are being impacted.
Seller_S9GHoSdpBtbtq
We are dealing with the same ridiculous BS as well!!!
We're typically 2 days handling, 1-3 days transit so its suppose to reach the buyer latest 5 days later. Yet, we're being extended by another 2-4 weekdays!! ... This is extremely unfair..
What else did seller support share with you??
Seller_4L3GdkdZ2UHrz
What is your On Time Delivery Rate percentage at? If its below 96% then Amazon will most likely add delivery time to your listings
Seller_ocWXA2GEIlt38
Hello TCS952,
We are having the same issue. From what I was told they did this due to the storm that we had come through the East Coast. If that is the case then they waited until after the storm had passed and caused all of its issue before they added this Extended Delivery Window which makes little sense.
The real kicker, at least for me is that Amazon is telling customers that if they order from us that it will take at least 14 days to receive their orders, however when the order is placed, Amazon is telling us that we have to deliver this order in 2-4 days, so this Extended Delivery Window does not help sellers in anyway. I mean first they tell your customers that it will take at least two weeks to get their item, this is at the very least, so that customer is going to pass on that item. Then if they do decide to place the order they are not giving you the seller two weeks to get it to them, they are going to hit your OTDR when you do not deliver it in under a week.
Our SSA is setup to have USPS Ground as our shipping method for Amazon to estimate delivery times and they have packages going from the East coast to the West coast with a delivery estimate of 2 days on some packages. I asked my Postmaster and she just laughed and said there was no way.
Amazon just pushed every seller into this SSA, automated Handling time deal which they claimed would give customers a more accurate delivery estimate and increase our orders, but now they have done this without any notice from what I can tell and we are doing the work and dealing with the extra stress created by this new policy that they forced onto us, but getting nothing in return.
Honestly most of these issues would not be half as bad if they put something on the home page or a banner at the top in seller central letting us know these things and how long they are going to last.
I am not sure about anyone else viewing this post but for us this is in addition to them throwing every penny of every sale into "Deferred Transactions" without any notice and they are not responding to anyone who is asking about this. We are not a new seller, we've been with Amazon for over a decade, we have perfect metrics and OTDR. No issues.
So they sign you up for this automated idea, added delivery extensions so long that customers do not want to buy and then hold all of your money and do not bother with answering the sellers who are their customers when they ask about this.
I just feel that they should lead by example. They want us to treat our customers so great (which we should) and give them any and everything, most of the time for free. However we are their customers in this and what do we get and how are we treated when there is an issue? One example is Amazon is always saying that if you know there is going to be a delay, reach out to your customers and inform them. Okay, I agree. Now, is Amazon reaching out to us? Are they informing us?
“Don't do as I do, but as I say”
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