@Jameson_AmazonI have some follow up comments/questions to the responses received yesterday during the Q&A, but the thread is now locked. My questions are numbered.

1) My company has 3 UPS accounts with varying rates- we use all of them frequently. We are currently only able to attach one of these accounts to ABS. This change means that we will be paying more for shipping through ABS and will need to push those increased costs, across the board, to the customers. Please tell me how requiring ABS- when it's no different than purchasing through the carrier- benefits the consumer and not just Amazon?

Your Answer: Thanks for the feedback! Currently, Amazon Buy Shipping only supports linking of 1 UPS account per Seller account. However, we are working to enable linking a different UPS account by warehouse location. Stay tuned for updates on this!

Follow-Up: It's important to note that we have ONE warehouse and THREE UPS accounts. Please do not limit the linking of accounts by warehouse location.

2) I just looked up our current OTDR, which is 90.19%, and puts us in danger of being deactivated. Our late shipment rate is 0% for the last 10 days and 1.19% for the last 30 days. To me, this indicates that we are hitting Amazon's expectations to get packages out on time, but things outside of our control (everything that happens once the package leaves our facility) could mean that we are unable to sell on this platform. I don't understand why we would be penalized for this. Can you please help me understand?

Your Answer: Thanks for maintaining a high OTDR rate! We require Sellers to maintain a high OTDR of 90%+ to offer a great customer experience, and is aligned with our benchmark for shopping on Amazon. Additionally, this threshold allows 10% margin for carrier inefficiencies and Sellers operational issues.

Follow-Up: This answer is incredibly confusing. You call my OTDR rate high, but at the same time it is 0.19% away from having my listings deactivated. How is 90.19% high but 90.00% low? I noted that in the last 30 days we've had on-time shipments 98.81% of the time which was one shipment in thirty days. That means that my account is at risk for deactivation because Amazon is punishing me for factors outside of my control- I cannot control when USPS or UPS delivers my packages once they leave my facility. Perhaps 10% margin for carrier inefficiencies isn't enough. Or combine the two statistics- If your late delivery rate dips above 5% AND your OTDR rate is below 90%, you are at risk for deactivation.

3) I would like to ask Amazon, though, why three of the six shipments on my OTDR report show as OTDR Protected and still ended up on the report. I'm happy to provide Order ID numbers if needed.

Your Answer: "You will get OTDR protection from late deliveries on items shipped through standard shipping if you use all three tools as follows:

Shipping Settings Automation (SSA), which sets accurate delivery dates through automated transit time calculations of your preferred shipping services. You must choose one of the preferred ship methods in the SSA templates, which will mark the transit time on the shipping template as 'Managed by Amazon.'

Automated handling time, which sets accurate handling times per SKU based on how long it usually takes you to pass each SKU to carriers. You must ensure that automated handling time is enabled in your shipping settings.

Amazon Buy Shipping, sells 'OTDR protected' shipping labels that use highly-reliable ship methods.

You will only get OTDR protection if you use all 3 tools and it seems you used SSA and Amazon Buy Shipping, but didn't have AHT enabled on your account."

@Seller_xwzQL0khly72ereplied to your response to this downthread: It has been clearly stated in other forum discussions that a check mark is UNIVERSALLY understood by everyone as "this is in effect". It never means "see the dozens of complex reasons why you are NOT covered even though we have given you the GREEN symbol with a check mark". Apparently this was passed on to "a team", but it is still there and will cause endless confusion forever.

Follow-Up: Can you please respond to @Seller_xwzQL0khly72e comment as far as a status from the product team?

Thanks!