Amazon VTR is a Shambles
Royal Mail C&D integration with Amazon.
RM48 tracking numbers automatically uploaded.
Just received this threatening email
Hello ***,
We attempted to reach you by phone to discuss the status of your account.
Recently, there have been some problems with your valid tracking rate. Our policy requires you to
maintain a Valid Tracking Rate greater than 95%. Your orders are lower than or at risk of falling
below the goal of 95%We recommend that you look at your tracking for your orders and make a plan to get back on track. To learn more about order valid tracking rate, search for “Seller Performance Measurement” in Seller Central Help. If this problem continues, we may not allow you to sell on Amazon.co.uk.
You can see the health of your account in the Performance section of Seller Central: (https://sellercentral-europe.amazon.com/performance/dashboard?ref=ah_em_op)
You can view your account performance at (https://sellercentral-europe.amazon.com/performance/dashboard?ref=ah_em_op) or select Account Health on the home screen of the Amazon Seller app on your iOS or Android device. Your Account Health shows how well your account is performing against the performance metrics and policies required to sell on Amazon.
Do they not read their own policies?
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. This includes delivery confirmation only delivery methods (for example, RM 24 / 48 or 1st Class 2nd Class). As mentioned in FAQ 3, postage stamps and other untracked services are not taken into account when measuring your Valid Tracking Rate.
Amazon VTR is a Shambles
Royal Mail C&D integration with Amazon.
RM48 tracking numbers automatically uploaded.
Just received this threatening email
Hello ***,
We attempted to reach you by phone to discuss the status of your account.
Recently, there have been some problems with your valid tracking rate. Our policy requires you to
maintain a Valid Tracking Rate greater than 95%. Your orders are lower than or at risk of falling
below the goal of 95%We recommend that you look at your tracking for your orders and make a plan to get back on track. To learn more about order valid tracking rate, search for “Seller Performance Measurement” in Seller Central Help. If this problem continues, we may not allow you to sell on Amazon.co.uk.
You can see the health of your account in the Performance section of Seller Central: (https://sellercentral-europe.amazon.com/performance/dashboard?ref=ah_em_op)
You can view your account performance at (https://sellercentral-europe.amazon.com/performance/dashboard?ref=ah_em_op) or select Account Health on the home screen of the Amazon Seller app on your iOS or Android device. Your Account Health shows how well your account is performing against the performance metrics and policies required to sell on Amazon.
Do they not read their own policies?
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. This includes delivery confirmation only delivery methods (for example, RM 24 / 48 or 1st Class 2nd Class). As mentioned in FAQ 3, postage stamps and other untracked services are not taken into account when measuring your Valid Tracking Rate.
Seller_qs0SIvVwguCY5
No. Royal Mail have their faults, but not this one.
VTR is Valid Tracking Rate for orders sent with tracking.
RM48 is not a tracked service. Amazon have decided for themselves that it is, despite Royal Mail making it crystal clear that it isn’t. It is NOT for Amazon to decide for other businesses exactly what their service should be classified as.
It does not have tracking. Delivery confirmation, rightly or wrongly, is not guaranteed either. It is essentially an aspiration. Approx 20% of scans not provided, along with no compensation eligibility, in return for average weight and volume discounts.
If they wanted to include delivery confirmation only delivery methods in this metric, it should not be called Valid Tracking Rate.
Amazon know they have messed this up, by agreeing to validate unscanned RM24/48 delivery confirmation codes as tracking numbers. Something they only added into the policy long after they introduced it (when they realised what a mess they had made of it).
61 replies
Seller_SITNVuZK87zGK
But the line right before that quote from the policy is
You may receive a Valid Tracking Rate warning as a result of low scan rate
We still get the warning emails as well.
Seller_SITNVuZK87zGK
Suppose it could be them A/B testing their VTR emails. Does more a stick approach get more to sign up to Buy Shipping? Not saying I agree with that if its the case!
Seller_0r6bJteOu2fjh
We had been having the same issue with RM48. VTR around 90%, no higher since Dec last year. Occasional calls and emails from Amazon so we were concerned about being cut off. We’ve just switched to Evri. Slightly cheaper rate than RM48 (extremely competitive), but a fully tracked and insured, 24-hour service. VTR is up at 92.6% after two weeks and we expect it to hopefully be at 100% in the next 14 days.
We’ve had about one breakage and one box go missing and have sent over 500 orders. I highly recommend anyone who’s concerned, and on RM24/48, to consider Evri. Despite the bad press, Hermes actually have a really good TrustPilot rating. I don’t know how, but they do. And they’re currently eating Royal Mail’s lunch. Deservedly.
Seller_LVJaidBR9PT5Z
There system and idea is a shambles, I was suspended from a certain category after a VTR rate of 88% checked every single order and all had a valid tracking number and i double confirmed this, sent in about that i was suspended by accident multiple times with the only response that it wasn’t a valid plan of action to get reinstated!
Seller_rGtEcZnu0JTRD
We get these all the time, we also have so far had 3 phone calls, but no issues with the account. Obvioulsy it is not Amazon’s fault that Royal Mail do not scan the parcels, with the result being that your VTR falls below what is expected.
To be fair to Amazon though, in cases like this where the defects are caused by Royal Mail, they simply run a through of the affected items through a manual check, and providing the number is valid, they will not take any action.
If you get a phone call, they do expect you to be taking action to improve - so you simply tell them that you are regularly speaking to Royal Mail, and pushing them to scan more of the parcels, this is all they need to hear, and then will leave you alone for a while before repeating the process.
Everybody slates Amazon on this issue, but at the end of the day the fault lies with Royal Mail unfortunately, and I dont believe that they have any intention of doing anything about this either.
Seller_E5g7NVvIisYd4
The stupid part of the VTR issue is that Amazon say if you link your Royal Mail Click and Drop account on Amazon and then buy postage through Amazon using the same RM24/48 option that your VTR will be 100% - but buying on Click and Drop with Click and Drop updating Amazon with the tracking reference means that the same data has a failure rate for VTR. I have asked Amazon Support why since in both cases they must know that it is Click and Drop who updates the dispatch information.
There is no logic. My VTR rate fluctuates around 20% to 25%
I have complained to Royal Mail that a 25% failure rate to mark RM24/48 as delivered even when signed for is not acceptable and their reply is that it is not a guaranteed service that it will be marked as delivered and that there is still no compensation if not marked as delivered and the Buyer claims it is not delivered so the system is open to abuse by Buyers
Seller_KCUNm7MJ3hX7h
Hi, I too have the same issue. My VTR is under 6% atm and has been falling steadily all year. I use a combo of either click and drop or buy amazon RM 1st class labels directly from them and post everything first class.
I spoke to someone in handmade yesterday who was very sympathetic and said it sounds like a glitch between RM and Amazon integrations not passing over the right info… but it wasn’t her speciality and would refer the case to the delivery tech team… then i got the usual reply, must enter a valid tracking number, fix it or we’ll end you etc etc.
Very frustrating, i don’t have time to spend ages telephoning and emailing them back and fourth.
Having read some of your message though, i do wonder if i would be better sending as something else though (RM48?) ?
hope this gets sorted… i hate when ‘smart’ systems don’t work (not so smart actually) and no one acknowledges the problem…
Seller_9IvuuFQ77Ry4J
Same here, we send all our goods 1st Class and 2nd Class unsigned for. There’s no signing on these services but Amazon have put a whole load of our goods on stop due to low VTR rates, even though we don’t delivery on signed/ tracked delivery services.
We our still waiting for Amazon to resolve are issue, their phone agents are totally useless.
Seller_ts7ZiR2hey2ZO
I’ve had countless VTR emails and a couple of phone calls. Every order has a valid barcode. My rating is 84%. Almost all the non-validated are large letter where the postie doesn’t scan the barcode before putting through the letterbox. I tried explaining to Amazon Seller Support that we have a 0% defect rating on 1850 orders in last 60 days, so the orders are getting there…not interested. They tried to tell me to use another service or mark as “other courier”. Royal Mail are also disinterested, my account manager can’t be bothered to reply back about it.
Modern life is rubbish!
Seller_b5LDA3tnfaBEG
Amazon are hard work I fully agree with all you say, to be at 100% we do not use click and drop for Amazon we use the buy shipping, you get charged the same, we do not have as many orders as some admittedly being stung and hung out to dry on several occasions we decided to cut our inventory down on Amazon and only have items that are worth it lol! Buy shipping through Amazon that way it stays at 100% VTR without any issues with the non scanning posties that are out there! Good luck
