Required to Purchase UPS 2nd Day Air Shipping Even When Not in SSA Template
@Jameson_Amazon
Case ID #16496554811
I use SSA and AHT. My shipping template is set up for UPS and USPS ground options only. All air and expedited options are deselected.
Today, a buyer placed a second-day order that showed that USPS Priority Mail was used to deliver the promise of delivery by Saturday, October 19th.
Minutes later, we attempted to fulfill the order. The only options with claims protection were expensive air services. We had to pay $53+ for UPS 2nd Day Air. UPS Ground would have been $21, but Buy Shipping flagged it and Priority Mail as not receiving claims and ODTR protections.
Seller Support says that when the buyer placed the order, ground options that would meet the delivery deadline were available. But they were no longer available when the order appeared in our account. The agent said this happens sometimes, and it's the seller's responsibility to absorb the cost. To be fair, he seemed embarrassed to have to defend such an egregious policy.
What's the point of SSA and AHT? Amazon claims to manage the delivery promise, but they offload the cost of glitches to sellers.
How should I handle this if it happens again?
Required to Purchase UPS 2nd Day Air Shipping Even When Not in SSA Template
@Jameson_Amazon
Case ID #16496554811
I use SSA and AHT. My shipping template is set up for UPS and USPS ground options only. All air and expedited options are deselected.
Today, a buyer placed a second-day order that showed that USPS Priority Mail was used to deliver the promise of delivery by Saturday, October 19th.
Minutes later, we attempted to fulfill the order. The only options with claims protection were expensive air services. We had to pay $53+ for UPS 2nd Day Air. UPS Ground would have been $21, but Buy Shipping flagged it and Priority Mail as not receiving claims and ODTR protections.
Seller Support says that when the buyer placed the order, ground options that would meet the delivery deadline were available. But they were no longer available when the order appeared in our account. The agent said this happens sometimes, and it's the seller's responsibility to absorb the cost. To be fair, he seemed embarrassed to have to defend such an egregious policy.
What's the point of SSA and AHT? Amazon claims to manage the delivery promise, but they offload the cost of glitches to sellers.
How should I handle this if it happens again?
27 replies
KJ_Amazon
Hello @Seller_QjYfjZwWH8D0l
Thanks for the Case ID and details about your recent Buy Shipping issues. I reviewed that Case and see that you received accurate information.
Our product teams are taking a deep dive into this issue based on cases raised by sellers reporting rare discrepancies between the shipping service used to calculate the delivery promise and the services available as Claims Protected.
I will continue to work with those teams and follow up when I have updates to share here.
Seller_DmpA5Opgyzwu2
I have the same problem on Mondays. When customers order on Friday night with STANDARD ground shipping option selected.
When i go to buy shipping i can only use UPS 2nd Day Air or UPS 3 Day Select.
How can we avoid this as we have our business days and shipping settings correct and this hasn't happened in the past 5 years.
Thanks
KJ_Amazon
We regularly share feedback from sellers with our partners on the SSA team. They recommended reviewing these help pages for further details on SSA and how preferences work for orders/shipments.
Shipping preferences for seller-fulfilled orders
"Product-level shipping preferences consist of the shipping package weight, dimensions, and preferred shipping service you’ve previously used to ship a product in your catalog. For each product, a variation of your preference is saved for each ship-from warehouse location and for each customer location and shipping zone (see shipping zone definitions below)."
Please note the message: "For products you previously shipped: Your delivery promise will be automatically calculated based on the shipping services you previously used..."
For products you previously shipped, your delivery promise will be automatically calculated based on the shipping services you previously used for a SKU to a specific shipping zone. In this case it seems you had previously used UPS to ship this SKU to the zone it was ordered from, as a result, UPS is being used to calculate future delivery dates of that SKU to that zone. If the next time you receive an order you choose a different shipping service, it will update which shipping services is used for future orders."
Seller_b22sYvsTSzGO7
cancel the order if it is not profitable enough, and explain to the buyer what is going on
Seller_Sram36TnVt73c
I cancel orders that limit me to outrageously expensive shipping options.
Amazon should give the buyers timing based on the services we offer, instead of promising an unrealistic transit time and then forcing us to meet it.
Honestly don't see how this increases sales, etc., unless Amazon is promoting to buyers that they will now have an even better chance at the Amazon casino, winning free items from sellers, when this, that, or the other 'i' isn't dotted or 't' isn't crossed.
Seller_znqw4n02gkaBY
Unbelievable. These new shipping requirements are absolutely ridiculous. Yeah "absorb" a $50 loss. Come on, Amazon, this is just not right.
Seller_qMgi7qxvEo7f1
Tell me about it. I sell $3-10 products, yet sometimes Amazon telling meg to buy $9.50 shipping+fees. I mean wow, no customer would pay that much for shipping, for a non-urgent low cost product. And if I receive a net 2.50 revenue, how could I pay $10+ for shipping and fees? It makes no sense. Because of this, my ODR got hit. I'm not happy with this nonsense. :-/
Seller_CVFHhedDuSeYu
I recently had one of these... We processed the order within minutes of it confirming. The promised delivery range was over 6 days away for a customer just a few hundred miles away. The cheapest shipping option was UPS 2nd day Air.
I shipped it USPS using an alternate shipping tool.
Seller_jtQ9zCCqMX76T
This is a frustration for me as well. I have been reviewing all my shipping settings and cannot figure out when Amazon will offer a standard USPS Ground shipping and when they will try to force me to upgrade shipping. I also use Pirate Ship in these cases to purchase the shipping the customer paid for. I will not eat this cost, Amazon needs to fix the issue.
