Unplanned services

When you comply with Fulfilment by Amazon’s Packaging and prep requirements and Shipping and routing requirements and ensure that your carriers and suppliers also follow them, it enables efficient and accurate receipt and storage of your inventory at the fulfilment centre.

When there are problems receiving inventory at the fulfilment centre, we perform unplanned services to successfully process products into your sellable inventory. This may cause costly delays and affect your ability to sell products quickly.

See Inbound performance summary for further details on problems with deliveries received in Amazon fulfilment centres and the action to take to avoid these issues in the future.

Inbound performance coaching levels

Additional coaching or product prep requires resources. For repeated instances of the same problem group, Amazon escalates your coaching level (Standard, Elevated, Critical).

How to see your coaching level escalations

Follow the steps below to see your current coaching level and escalation criteria.

1. In Seller Central, go to the Shipping Queue page and click Track delivery to the right of the delivery with problems
2. On the Delivery summary page, go to the Problems tab and click View Details and scroll to Coaching Details
3. Check your Problem Rate and the Maximum Permitted Problem Rate for the particular problem group
4. Amazon calculates the problem rates below over a four-month period:
   • Problem rate (delivery-level): Number of deliveries with problems / total number of deliveries sent
   • Problem rate (item-level): Number of items with problems / total number of units
5. If your problem rate exceeds the maximum permitted problem rate, we escalate you to the next coaching level for that problem group.

Example of coaching level escalation and de-escalation

The following table provides an example of coaching level escalation and de-escalation for problem group Unplanned Prep – Bagging. The maximum problem rate permitted for this problem group is 0.36%.

Problem date	Your problem rate	Coaching level	Problem quantity	Notes
14 April	0.01%	Standard	2	First instance for this problem group
				There is a 21-day grace period where we do not escalate you further for this group.
20 April	0.40%	Standard	6	No escalation
				You are still within the 21-day grace period (beginning 14 April)
10-may	0.50%	Elevated	5	Coaching level escalated
				Problem rate exceeds the maximum permitted problem rate (0.50% > 0.36%)
				Outside the 21-day grace period (beginning 14 April)
20 June	0.50%	Critical	10	Coaching Level escalated
				Problem rate exceeds the maximum permitted problem rate (0.50% > 0.36%)
				Outside the 21-day grace period (beginning 10 May)
25-oct	0.20%	Elevated	5	Coaching level de-escalated
				Problem rate below the maximum permitted problem rate (0.20% < 0.36%) for the last four months (20 June to 20 Oct)

How to de-escalate your coaching level

If your problem rate remains below the maximum permitted problem rate for a four-month period from the first date of escalation (20 June in the example above), we lower your coaching level by one.

View unplanned service fees for a delivery

You can view all of your unplanned service fees in the following four locations:

• On your Inbound Performance report, see the fees column
• On your Shipping Queue page, click Track delivery to the right of the delivery with problems. On the Delivery summary page, go to the Problems tab
• On the Manage Your Payments page, go to the Transaction view tab, filter view for Service Fees, and then find Unplanned Service fees in the Product Details column.
• For an overview of all receipt-related problems, see the Inbound performance summary page.

Disputing Unplanned Service fees

You may submit an investigation request if you believe we charged you an unplanned service fee in error. If you do so, we will verify the current prep guidance against your specific product or the issue reported at the fulfilment centre.

For more information, see the Submit an investigation request section of Inbound performance alerts and feedback.

Note: We will only consider investigation requests that you submit within 30 days of the problem report date.

View disputed unplanned service charge reimbursements

You can see your service fee reimbursements in the following Seller Central locations.

• The Fees column of your Inbound Performance report. Fee reimbursements appear as a negative fee adjustment.
• The Reason column of your Reimbursements report

You should receive your reimbursement on the next scheduled Amazon payment. If you do not, view the status of the dispute in your Case Log . Search for the relevant case and click View or Respond.