OTDR and promise gaps. This makes absolutely 0 sense whatsoever. Help?
I have 2 degrees. One in electrical engineering and the other in IT management. I say this purely because I want to emphasize that I'm above average when it comes to maths and problem solving. This stuff makes no logical sense at all.
My handling time for all SKU's is 7 days.
My transit time is 2-4 days.
Support is telling me the following :
Handling time automation: As of September 25, 2024, to improve handling time accuracy, automated handling time was enabled for sellers who have a handling time gap of two days or more between their set handling time and their actual handling time. To help you keep in good standing with other account health metrics related to handling time, if you have automated handling time enabled, your seller-fulfilled listings will not be deactivated if your late shipment rate (LSR) does not meet the LSR policy requirement. To see your handling time gap, review your Fulfillment Insight dashboard.
Handling Time Gap shows more than 2 two days.
Handling time gap
You handed off packages to carriers on average 4.8 calendar days before your promised handling time.
Promised Handling Time: Actual Handling Time:
10.4 calendar days 5.6 calendar days
Can someone, PLEASE, explain to me what is going on here? They sound as though they WANT me to hand off packages LATER than I regularly do in order to close the gap. How does any of this make sense? My OTDR is 95.2% and with promise extensions it's 98.6%. Yet they want to remove my ability to control my own handling times and use AHT which will cause a lot of inaccurate dates which will lead to countless A to Z claims. MAKE IT MAKE SENSE PLEASE
OTDR and promise gaps. This makes absolutely 0 sense whatsoever. Help?
I have 2 degrees. One in electrical engineering and the other in IT management. I say this purely because I want to emphasize that I'm above average when it comes to maths and problem solving. This stuff makes no logical sense at all.
My handling time for all SKU's is 7 days.
My transit time is 2-4 days.
Support is telling me the following :
Handling time automation: As of September 25, 2024, to improve handling time accuracy, automated handling time was enabled for sellers who have a handling time gap of two days or more between their set handling time and their actual handling time. To help you keep in good standing with other account health metrics related to handling time, if you have automated handling time enabled, your seller-fulfilled listings will not be deactivated if your late shipment rate (LSR) does not meet the LSR policy requirement. To see your handling time gap, review your Fulfillment Insight dashboard.
Handling Time Gap shows more than 2 two days.
Handling time gap
You handed off packages to carriers on average 4.8 calendar days before your promised handling time.
Promised Handling Time: Actual Handling Time:
10.4 calendar days 5.6 calendar days
Can someone, PLEASE, explain to me what is going on here? They sound as though they WANT me to hand off packages LATER than I regularly do in order to close the gap. How does any of this make sense? My OTDR is 95.2% and with promise extensions it's 98.6%. Yet they want to remove my ability to control my own handling times and use AHT which will cause a lot of inaccurate dates which will lead to countless A to Z claims. MAKE IT MAKE SENSE PLEASE
21 odpowiedzi
KJ_Amazon
Hello @Seller_Kn7PE9rhSYXk9 Thanks for checking in with the forums about your Handling Time Gap.
Help Page: What is the Fulfillment Insight dashboard?
As you were informed by seller support, beginning this past September, automated handling time was enabled for sellers that have a manually configured handling time that is two or more days slower than their actual handling time.
Reducing the handling time gap provides customers faster delivery promises, which can potentially increase sales.
Please note that weekends are added to handling time calculations. For example, if your Handling Time is set as 2 days and you have weekend operations disabled, if you receive an order on a Friday and you ship it on Tuesday: this order would be considered as 4 calender days of Promised Handling Time and 4 calendar days of Actual Handling Time.
With seven days of manually set handling times, the promised handling times will always have one, and sometimes two weekends included.
Seller_Kn7PE9rhSYXk9
@KJ_AmazonNone of what you said is of any help at all.
Please explain, if my handling time is set to 7 days. My handling time average is 5.6 days. WHY is support telling me that I have a 4.8 day gap between the promised handling time and actual handling time and therefore my account must be switched to AHT? Does this mean they want me to take LONGER to handle deliveries to ''close the gap''?
KJ_Amazon
Your Handling Time settings is based on your days of operations. However, the calculation shown is based on calendar days, including weekends. As an example: a seller has handling time of two days and weekend operations disabled. If they receive an order on a Friday and ship it on Tuesday, the order would be considered as four calendar days of Promised Handling Time and four calendar days of Actual Handling Time.
In your case, with seven days handling time, your orders will always include one and often two sets of weekend days included in those calculations, which is why your Promised Handling Time is greater than 7.
You can continue to take the same amount of time to ship orders as you are currently using.
If you have a handling time gap of two days or more between your set handling time and your actual handling time, automated handling time will be enabled to improve handling time accuracy so that it more closely matches that time.
Seller_Kn7PE9rhSYXk9
@KJ_Amazon "If you have a handling time gap of two days or more between your set handling time and your actual handling time, automated handling time will be enabled to improve handling time accuracy"
See? This is the issue. You're telling me something that is 100% contradictory to what I've been told by the other support agent. What YOU are telling me makes perfect sense. My actual handling time and the handling time I've set has a 1.4 day difference.
What the other support agent is telling me is that this is wrong. There's a 4.8 day gap between my actual handling time and the PROMISED handling time. This is greater than 2, therefore my account will be set to AHT.
Here is the case ID : 16831721981 - please take a look.
Due to this being automatically changed, now my LSR is above 4% and my account is at risk of deactivation due to absolutely no error from my side. The two order ID's that have gone through under AHT and pushed my LSR above 4% are 112-2467506-9901040 & 114-1811646-5473846
Please excuse my tone, I'm not angry at you. What you have said makes perfect logical sense and it's how a normal person would interpret this. However, the support agents in charge of blowing up people's accounts don't seem to understand how things work so it's a little infuriating.
KJ_Amazon
Hello @Seller_Kn7PE9rhSYXk9 I reviewed the support information and see that you were provided accurate information.
If you have not already done so, I recommend the explanation posted by @Seller_EkbLZUYSpmJEy
My actual handling time and the handling time I've set has a 1.4 day difference.
What the other support agent is telling me is that this is wrong. There's a 4.8 day gap between my actual handling time and the PROMISED handling time. This is greater than 2, therefore my account will be set to AHT.
To summarize: you have set handling time of 7 business days of operation.
As you do not operate on weekends, this has led to Promised Handling Time of greater than 7 calendar days.
Seller_Kn7PE9rhSYXk9
Hello @KJ_Amazon
I've been handling things the same way, and as of today Amazon has switched my account to AHT and I cannot change it back. Here are my latest metrics
Some of my SKU's have been changed to have only 1 day handling time. This is going to result in a lot of my orders being late and can potentially blow up my account. All my items have a ~7 day handling time.
The reason some items ( sizes of the same shirt ) have a 1-2 day handling time is that those sizes were sold several months ago when I had a different setup on my account and now amazon is reading them as having low handling times based on performance from way back then. I really need help before this destroys my account and I don't know what to do now.
KJ_Amazon
Hello @Seller_Kn7PE9rhSYXk9 Thank you for following up about your handling time.
Beginning this past September, automated handling time was enabled for sellers that have a manually configured handling time that is two or more days slower than their actual handling time.
Your best next step is to contact seller support to request individual, SKU-level updates to the Automated Handling Times set for selected items. I recommend clarifying whether your items have seven days business or calendar handling times to avoid potential gaps.
KJ_Amazon
Seller_roNdLQpqbVoOH
This was discussed, in depth, here on the forums back when this "threat" was announced by Amazon. Suggestions on how to deal with it have also been shared.
Just search the forums for more details.
Or, we could try paging @Seller_EkbLZUYSpmJEy, the Master. 😎
Seller_EkbLZUYSpmJEy
Handle Time set at 7 days.
- Starts at the time the order is placed.
- 1st day is the next day and 7th day is 7 days after the order is placed if your store is set as open 7 days a week. If you have your store set as open Monday thru Friday, then 7th day is 9 days after the order is placed. If there is a holiday during that week, then the 7th day is 10 days after the order is placed.
- Orders placed on Friday will have 2 weekends involved and so the 7th day will be 11 days after the order.
- The Promised Handle Time will be an average of your orders and will range between 7+ days and 11 days with a Handle Time setting of 7 days.
- The Actual Handle Time is calculated from the time the order is placed up to the time you purchase your shipping label thru Amazon Buy Shipping or enter the tracking from a outside shipping service.
- Your Handle Time Gap is 4.8 days and means you are purchasing your label or entering in the tracking on an average of 4.8 days sooner than your set 7 day handle time.
Automated Handle Time
- If you enable Automated Handle Time, Amazon will track your handle time by ASIN and will calculate your average per each ASIN.
- The Automated Handle Time for an order will be this calculated Handle Time per ASIN.
- If you ship a day early or ship a day late from the Automated Handle Time calculated for the order, Amazon will use this in future Automated Handle Times for that ASIN.
- Automated Handle Time works best when you are consistent with your Handle Time per ASIN shipment (in other words ... be consistent in your processing of orders).
Transit Time of 2 - 4 days
- A Transit Time of 2 - 4 days will be added to the Handle Time of 7 days to calculate the estimated delivery time given to the customer on an order.
- With a Transit Time of 2- 4 day and Handle Time of 7 days, the estimated delivery time (Promised Delivery Time) will be 3 days up to 15 days depending on the day of week the order was placed and the days of operation for your store.
Shipping Settings Automation
- With SSA, Amazon calculates the transit time based upon the shipping service selected.
- For SSA to work well, your shipping template needs to be set up to be used with SSA.
- If you use SSA, we suggest only using Standard Shipping with ONE shipping service (which is the one that you consider your base way of shipping ... example USPS Ground Advantage). You will still have other shipping service options but will get a more consistent Promised Delivery Time to work with.
Notes:
With AHT enable, you will not have to worry about LSR as Amazon will not count against you with AHT enable. However, INR coverage would still be effected by a late shipment. Your trade off here is that as you train Amazon using AHT and if you are consistent, then your handle time will be within your normal processing of an order.
With SSA enable, Amazon is estimating the delivery time and therefore doesn't count a late delivery against you.
If you use Amazon Buy Shipping, AHT and SSA (with Standard Shipping settings only), you will gain OTDR protection.
Hopefully this will help you.
@Seller_roNdLQpqbVoOH ... appreciate the compliment.
Seller_EkbLZUYSpmJEy
KJ_Amazon explained that in a response above ...
Your Handling Time settings is based on your days of operations. However, the calculation shown is based on calendar days, including weekends. As an example: a seller has handling time of two days and weekend operations disabled. If they receive an order on a Friday and ship it on Tuesday, the order would be considered as four calendar days of Promised Handling Time and four calendar days of Actual Handling Time.
In your case, with seven days handling time, your orders will always include one and often two sets of weekend days included in those calculations, which is why your Promised Handling Time is greater than 7.
Which is the same as we stated but in a different way ...
- 1st day is the next day and 7th day is 7 days after the order is placed if your store is set as open 7 days a week. If you have your store set as open Monday thru Friday, then 7th day is 9 days after the order is placed. If there is a holiday during that week, then the 7th day is 10 days after the order is placed.
- Orders placed on Friday will have 2 weekends involved and so the 7th day will be 11 days after the order.
- The Promised Handle Time will be an average of your orders and will range between 7+ days and 11 days with a Handle Time setting of 7 days.
So your Promised Handle Time of 10.4 minus your Actual Handle Time of 5.6 is a Handle Time Gap of 4.8
The variable that you are not taking into account is your store setting for the days that you have set in Amazon as your days of operation. From the numbers that you have, we can tell that you have your days of operation set as Monday thru Friday.
EXAMPLE: If you get an order on Monday with 7 day handle time then
- Monday order starts handle time
- Tuesday is day 1 handle time
- Wednesday is day 2 handle time
- Thursday is day 3 handle time
- Friday is day 4 handle time
- Saturday is not counted as a handle time day but does count in over all processing time.
- Sunday is not counted as a handle time day but does count in over all processing time.
- Monday is day 5 handle time
- Tuesday is day 6 handle time
- Wednesday is day 7 handle time
With a 7 day handle time, the total Promised Handle Time for the order will be 9 days. If you shipped this order on Friday day 4 of the handle time, then your gap for this order would be 5 days because it did not need to be shipped until the following Wednesday.
Seller_r9wMm8LrE5iKj
This is not true at all. Doing so will push this seller to AHT, which is an intrinsically flawed metric: it sets handling time based on averages, then punishes the seller for not meeting that fake metric in the long tail. And I've repeatedly demonstrated that the projected calculation is wrong, with AHT being much longer or shorter than average (and certainly 90th percentile) handling times for the product.
You also haven't answered the question about how this makes sense. As with every non-sensical Amazon decision, all that mods will do is parrot the non-sensical written policy, and never admit their employer acts in a way that's either stupid or evil, depending on your biases.
Seller_r9wMm8LrE5iKj
This is the bugbear in the ointment. Different businesses function in different ways, and the only way for this seller (and to some degree our business) to be consistent is to hold packages until the handling time is off by less than 2 days. This entirely defeats the stated purpose of this metric: "provides customers faster delivery promises".
