The slow response and chaos with FBA have made selling on Amazon increasingly difficult.
I have clearly noticed that since Amazon started charging for inbound inventory fees, the efficiency of FBA has significantly declined. I am more than willing to pay extra to increase the speed of processing and shipping my shipments through FBA, but the current inefficiency is making it very challenging to sell through FBA.
1. Longer Time from Product Receipt to Listing:
Most of my products are small standard-sized items, not exceeding 4 ounces. Even so, it now takes about a week for products to be received at Amazon's warehouse at best, and the time to make them sellable has also increased. Additionally, I have experienced a situation where I continued to ship products for a month, but due to the products being reserved, Amazon charged me low inventory fees.
2. Long Waiting and Query Times:
If products are not being received, I, as a seller, have no recourse but to wait. I can only proceed once Amazon allows me to investigate my shipments, but this waiting period is too long and can potentially cause me to miss the sales cycle for those products.
3. Unexpected Changes in Inventory:
I have two products that previously had available inventory, but recently, I have inexplicably lost track of my stock. One product’s inventory of zero became unsellable, and another product’s stock mysteriously decreased by over 100 units. At this point, all I can do is wait for Amazon’s investigation.
4. Increasingly Slow FBA Order Fulfillment:
Many returns are due to "Missed Fulfillment Promise." I do not mind the refunds, but I am concerned about negative feedback or review, which I have no control over.
I can hardly imagine how Black Friday will be under these conditions. I sincerely urge Amazon to resolve these issues as soon as possible.
The slow response and chaos with FBA have made selling on Amazon increasingly difficult.
I have clearly noticed that since Amazon started charging for inbound inventory fees, the efficiency of FBA has significantly declined. I am more than willing to pay extra to increase the speed of processing and shipping my shipments through FBA, but the current inefficiency is making it very challenging to sell through FBA.
1. Longer Time from Product Receipt to Listing:
Most of my products are small standard-sized items, not exceeding 4 ounces. Even so, it now takes about a week for products to be received at Amazon's warehouse at best, and the time to make them sellable has also increased. Additionally, I have experienced a situation where I continued to ship products for a month, but due to the products being reserved, Amazon charged me low inventory fees.
2. Long Waiting and Query Times:
If products are not being received, I, as a seller, have no recourse but to wait. I can only proceed once Amazon allows me to investigate my shipments, but this waiting period is too long and can potentially cause me to miss the sales cycle for those products.
3. Unexpected Changes in Inventory:
I have two products that previously had available inventory, but recently, I have inexplicably lost track of my stock. One product’s inventory of zero became unsellable, and another product’s stock mysteriously decreased by over 100 units. At this point, all I can do is wait for Amazon’s investigation.
4. Increasingly Slow FBA Order Fulfillment:
Many returns are due to "Missed Fulfillment Promise." I do not mind the refunds, but I am concerned about negative feedback or review, which I have no control over.
I can hardly imagine how Black Friday will be under these conditions. I sincerely urge Amazon to resolve these issues as soon as possible.
26 replies
Seller_ouStTWe79rRUY
I could not agree more. Sales have plummeted as I have no inventory when my merchandise sits in a warehouse for weeks on end. Once it is finally opened, it goes into the Amazon abyss. FC processing for weeks and weeks or my items get lost due to the constant moving around. FBA is a gamble. I think many are like myself and considering other options.
Seller_aUbEyzlSSnsDJ
[Moderator Edit: Inappropriate Commentary}
Seller_oDXVaydIpi3Hi
Yet they are forcing MF sellers to remove latency (which can change from week to week or day to day for most sellers) to <2 days AND make sure things arrive through their partner carriers within 5 days (used to be up to 8 days). If they had not changed the account wide latency settings sellers could easily adjust that but they expect everyone to change it at the SKU level which for large accounts is impossible.
Seller_zONeO5hiTh1px
We have noticed extremely long hold times where shipments sit in the "Delivered" state for weeks and I have also noticed items in "FC Transfer" way beyond an acceptable time frame. Our business is now moving to the MF model for the rest of the month and through Q4. We noticed the slow down in processing when Amazon sent out the "Send us your Q4 Inventory" news. We attribute the slow down in processing to the sheer amount of FBA merchandise being sent in for Q4.
Seller_XSyBr3oL0vVmh
I totally agree- it is getting harder and harder for small businesses to survive on Amazon.
Seller_nJaoTv36URd2M
I have noticed the same. But #1 is the only real issue. I would break it down into two issues:
A) The time between the package being Delivered by UPS, and the package being 'Checked-In' has increased quite a bit. It used to be 1-3 days. Now it is at least a week, and sometimes more than 3 weeks.
B) Once the items are 'Received', they sit for 'FC Processing' for weeks often. This makes judging when to send in more difficult, and reduces sales as my items sit with no inventory for some time.
Seller_DaYqvZ1SJ9GN0
First off Amazon needs to hire competent people who can assist sellers when there are issues. I feel like Amazon hires workers from overseas (which isn't entirely the issue) as some workers are just good at what they do. There is way to much scripting in there responses. If support is unsure how to answer you they just choose a script, copy and paste and that's that.
If Amazon keeps ignoring issues and not addressing them I don't see them being around in the future. Slowly but surely its getting difficult to be a seller on their platform as most their rules are just plain outright dirty. The smaller 3rd party sellers don't have Amazon money. By this I mean Amazon expects us to just eat all these costs, A to Z claims, damaged items, customers buying your brand new product and filing for a return to send you an old pos product they used for years. Not to mention the ridiculous shipping demands they expect from us now. We are forced into these high standards and it benefits nobody but the customer. Amazon doesn't eat these losses, we do and they outright don't back us sellers at all. If you've got a massive company on Amazon you can afford to take some losses but most of us can't.
Amazon needs to just do better!! 3rd party sellers need help too especially if we have all the proof that shows the customer is defrauding the business and trying to scam us. Overtime I can see more 3rd party sellers leaving Amazon but we are what makes up most of the platform. Praying for change.
Seller_rcwYvRAF4Puw1
I’ve had about 40 pending orders the last 2 weeks and Amazon ships about 1 everyday. My grandmother could probably ship those orders out faster and she passed away a while ago.
Seller_2Cv5ymCy2Av65
Oh! I just found another problem popping up. My FBA shipments haven't updated in days. For example, my shipment is already in transit or even delivered, but it still shows as "shipped" or "In transit" I have to contact customer service just to get it updated.
There are so many issues with Amazon logistics now that I've lost count, and it's making me angrier every day.
