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)
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)
254 odpowiedzi
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_bzHT6bQ9deVVk
just ridiculous
#FIGTH_FIGTH_FIGTH
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
KJ_Amazon
Ok - I guess I am totally confused now. I thought they were only showing times in GMT but now that I downloaded a report I see it shows it in both time zones, with GMT for my area being the next day at 6:59 am.
Hello @Seller_xouAbPXPlUfbu @Seller_Qbd0RsfZFEZBY provided you with accurate information
You are correct that the OTDR report did originally show information based on GMT. That date/time display caused some confusion, and we worked with our partner team to make that information clearer to sellers by displaying the relevant PDT time zone.
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.
