Q&A BY AMAZON VTR = POINTLESS AND CONFUSING OUTCOME.
Hi All,
The Amazon Q&A has caused more confusion than clarification from mods Spencer and Ezra. If I understand correctly, all untracked BPL, RM24-48, and stamped large letters (not sure about parcels) will no longer be accepted or validated behind the scenes, regardless of whether purchased via Amazon or Royal Mail's site.
Unless sellers use an expensive signed-for or tracked service, they risk account suspension, or certain category ones. This change could affect many sellers from February 25th.
I'm open to corrections, but it seems like thousands of sellers might lose their selling privileges on Amazon. I'm just trying to avoid wasting money on stock that won't sell, and give fellow sellers "stop and think" moment.
Any insights or advice would be helpful! I hope I'm wrong, fingers crossed.
Q&A BY AMAZON VTR = POINTLESS AND CONFUSING OUTCOME.
Hi All,
The Amazon Q&A has caused more confusion than clarification from mods Spencer and Ezra. If I understand correctly, all untracked BPL, RM24-48, and stamped large letters (not sure about parcels) will no longer be accepted or validated behind the scenes, regardless of whether purchased via Amazon or Royal Mail's site.
Unless sellers use an expensive signed-for or tracked service, they risk account suspension, or certain category ones. This change could affect many sellers from February 25th.
I'm open to corrections, but it seems like thousands of sellers might lose their selling privileges on Amazon. I'm just trying to avoid wasting money on stock that won't sell, and give fellow sellers "stop and think" moment.
Any insights or advice would be helpful! I hope I'm wrong, fingers crossed.
139 replies
Seller_RTJNdLRVf9Zbe
Hi All,
I am trying not to replicate other replies, so hopefully my personal uncertainty is real and not imagined.
I am confused / concerned with regard to Large Letter outcomes. It is often mentioned that there is variable delivery confirmation if purchased through RM Click & Drop and if purchased through Amazon Buy Shipping this will not impact VTR.
So, if I use RM Click & Drop
- it is cheaper than Amazon Buy Shipping
- and produces tracking information which passes through to Amazon and the customer
- and is not recognised as a valid tracking number by Amazon
- and will impact my VTR.
If I use Amazon Buy Shipping
- it is more expensive than RM Click & Drop
- and no tracking information is generated
- and I cannot claim for lost items etc
- and will not impact my VTR.
Am I missing something?
Alison
Seller_kfh8b3MRlQTps
I would like to know how my customers are benefiting from these changes as they cannot currently purchase my items as I have put holiday setting on until someone from Amazon can provide a definitive PLAIN ENGLISH answer to the following two perfectly reasonable questions? I have been using my Click & Drop account to print & pay for postage with second class parcels & large letters using BPL without being penalised. Up until now Amazon has validated tracking numbers obtained from my Click & Drop account regardless of any delivery scan, will this still be the case? If I have to switch to Buy Shipping then I would have to increase my prices to cover the extra cost while the level of tracking information available to my customers would remain the same. In what way would that help them?
Many other sellers have asked similar questions without a clear reply. The inability or unwillingness of Amazon staff to provide straight answers to simple questions regarding an issue that affects thousands of sellers & helps nobody is beyond belief, even for here. I can only assume that this latest bright idea has been cooked up by AI bots with a collective IQ of 27 who see no need to explain the system to the human staff members at Amazon.
Seller_ZJhFeE3tNKzfh
Just had this regarding Royal Mail 24/48
Hello @thirtythreeandathird,
We received additional answers from our partner team:
You can continue to purchase Royal Mail 24/48 through click and drop.
- For tracked services where we receive a scan it is counted towards valid VTR.
- For untracked services/ services with only a delivery scan confirmation (ie, RM 24/48) the volume is exempted only if purchased through Buy Shipping as this would help us validate you are indeed using an untracked service.
You can directly link your Royal Mail account to Amazon to avail the same rates and services.
Regards, Spencer
So bascially - that says to me you use Royal Mail 24/48 at your own risk given the policy on validation of unscanned items is no longer present.
Seller_HwaQlgFnhSuGS
Well, it’s official.
Untracked post now has to be via Buy Shipping, or else. Apparently to ‘verify’ our use of untracked service.
Looks like an incoming sledgehammer in our account and frankly I am done. Not much wind left in these sails for Amazon.
(edit) To be clear, we will not be going over to Buy Shipping. I refuse point blank to pay Amazon the same as I pay Royal Mail for a service that we cannot claim from for in the event of a loss, whilst at the same time Amazon will be paying Royal Mail less, and profiting even more from the shipping price difference. We will upgrade all of our low cost items to use RM48 when we are suspended from selling in relevant categories. The result will be that most cases the shipping will cost the customer more than the product itself. So we will get less sales, Amazon will get less fee's and the customer experience and availability of the lower cost items will decline.
So the new VTR policy that enables a customer to be updated regarding tracking information (on a non tracked service...) will be pretty much irrelevant as we will see little to no sales of these low priced items.
On the bright side, as we compete with Amazon for these items on Gogole Ads, we will hopefully see a percentage of them purchase direct from us.
Julia_Amzn
Hello Sellers,
I'm returning to this thread to address all questions regarding the VTR policy change that weren't covered during the VTR Ask Amazon session.
Based on your feedback, we recognize that further clarification is needed. I would appreciate your cooperation in helping us create a clear FAQ on this topic.
I will tag sellers who have actively commented on the VTR policy change for visibility, but we welcome all sellers to participate in this collaboration.
@Seller_ZJhFeE3tNKzfh@Seller_ZVAz3d5lZuGid@Seller_RAXEWLxQ2dbmN@Seller_d8YGbIjNqwFxn@Seller_40ozsHlGqPuEL@Seller_RTJNdLRVf9Zbe@Seller_Vf10jieAEG9f1
Thank you for your cooperation,
Julia.
Julia_Amzn
@Seller_ZJhFeE3tNKzfh, no, it is not possible to validate if Royal Mail 24/48 parcels are not purchased through Buy Shipping and do not receive a door step scan and therefore, will impact VTR. If there is a delivery scan, then we will be able to validate it in the backend.
Please confirm if this repsonse is clear enough. Thank you
Seller_ZJhFeE3tNKzfh
No. Still not clear. Not 100%, though what you have said there is true.
The difference is PREVIOUSLY amazon would validate that any unscanned labels itself was an actual label that was genuine. The VTR policy page use to state the below
You may receive a VTR warning as a result of low scan rate. However, we will validate ‘unscanned’ tracking or parcel IDs with the integrated delivery service provider prior to suspending your offers in the affected category. Your offers will not be suspended if you have provided valid IDs, including for all parcels that have not been scanned by the carrier.
The above statement has as of last month been removed from the policy page (without any due notice I would add). So sellers want an answer - if you don't buy Royal Mail 24/48 through Buy Shipping - are you still validating unscanned tracking or parcel IDs with Royal Mail prior to suspension of an affected category?
In short - is the above bold and italicised statement true.
Seller_d8YGbIjNqwFxn
This is main point of concern for most of us sellers. We want to know if unscanned Royal Mail 24/48 brought outside of buy shipping which do not have a scan are validated and do not lead to a category suspension
I take it as the policy has been in place for a while and there have been no report of suspensions that the validation of unscanned items is still taking place.
As @Seller_ZJhFeE3tNKzfh said the following line was in policy previously, we just need to confirm this is still the case.
You may receive a VTR warning as a result of low scan rate. However, we will validate ‘unscanned’ tracking or parcel IDs with the integrated delivery service provider prior to suspending your offers in the affected category. Your offers will not be suspended if you have provided valid IDs, including for all parcels that have not been scanned by the carrier.
Julia_Amzn
Checking @Seller_ZJhFeE3tNKzfh and @Seller_d8YGbIjNqwFxn! I will work on this until we agree it's clear for you and other sellers. Thank you for your response!
Julia_Amzn
@Seller_d8YGbIjNqwFxn, please refer to the information below and let me know if we need further clarification
Fully untracked Letter or stamps services do not receive a delivery confirmation scan and will only be exempted if purchased through Buy Shipping. Other services that offer a delivery confirmation scan or full tracking may be purchased via Royal Mail or via Buy Shipping, however if a delivery confirmation scan is not provided this order will only be exempted if the shipping label was purchased through Buy Shipping hence maybe impacting your VTR.
Julia_Amzn
@Seller_xEpd0hQkG8wol,
If you buy shipping labels through Royal Mail's Click & Drop:Amazon cannot verify deliveries without a delivery scan. This may affect your VTR metrics. We suggest linking your Royal Mail account to Amazon's Buy Shipping and purchasing your labels through Buy Shipping instead. This will protect your VTR metrics, even if delivery scans are unreliable.
Please reach out if you have additional questions.
Julia_Amzn
@Seller_RTJNdLRVf9Zbe,
Thank you for the summary and feedback you have shared.
You can link your Royal Mail Online Business Account (OBA) to Seller Central to receive your personalized rates. Here's how:
1. Go to Settings
2. Select Account Info
3. Click Shipping and Returns Information
4. Choose Buy Delivery Preferences
5. Select Manage your carrier accounts
6. Click Europe
7. Select Link account.
When using your carrier account through Buy Shipping, you'll receive all associated Buy Shipping benefits while continuing to manage invoicing, payments, and claims through your Royal Mail OBA as usual.
Julia_Amzn
@Seller_7WttAIiaCR7Ty, please review the responses I have provided to questions posted by other sellers and let me know if they clarify your concerns.
Seller_7WttAIiaCR7Ty
But we can’t link our Royal Mail account to Amazon if it is BPL code( ie 1st & 2nd Class) as Amazon don’t allows us to link it!!!
Seller_ZVAz3d5lZuGid
Am trying to follow this thread, but the nested replies are making it SO difficult to keep track of new replies.
@Julia_Amazon - I know this is probably your main issue at the moment, but hopefully the next project can be getting rid of the awful nested replies.
Seller_40ozsHlGqPuEL
Hi @Julia_Amazon,
Some questions? Regarding VTR transition or such;
If sellers lose category rights due to low Valid Tracking Rate (VTR), can they regain them by switching to Amazon Buy Shipping?
Will sellers with Fulfilled by Merchant (FBM) restrictions still be allowed to transition to Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA)?
Is there a grace period for merchants to switch to Amazon Buy Shipping or FBA before cat. restrictions are enforced?
When will accounts with a VTR below 95% be removed, closed, or restricted? Could you provide a specific date for this enforcement?
Since VTR is calculated on a rolling basis, how will this impact sellers during the transition?
In that some could "switch over" quickly but still lose their rights to sell forever, or even a few weeks for their VTR to improve? On a rolling basis.
Thank you, could you please provide clarification on these points? Thank you!
@Julia_Amazon @Spencer_Amazon @Ezra_Amazon
Seller_7jwrjtU66gmxk
It should be a very straightforward YES or NO
- is this very important part of the old VTR policy still applicable ?
You may receive a VTR warning as a result of low scan rate. However, we will validate ‘unscanned’ tracking or parcel IDs with the integrated delivery service provider prior to suspending your offers in the affected category. Your offers will not be suspended if you have provided valid IDs, including for all parcels that have not been scanned by the carrier.
Has it been removed from the new policy in error or has it been removed as its no longer applicable
Seller_7jwrjtU66gmxk
So I take it you are putting a hold on any category suspensions until after you have done this ?
Seller_nJIsCxkWkBGlh
This is yet another potentially useful thread that has been rendered into unintelligible garbage by the godawful nested replies. Please sort it out Amazon!
