WARNING - Amazon is not longer putting the cheapest FBM shipping option as the top choice!!
Warning FBM sellers!!
For as long as pretty much any of us can remember, the cheapest shipping option was always on top and pre-selected.
Amazon changed this today and now they are preselecting and putting on top a shipping option with a blue bubble that says "Based on your shipping history and preference"
This is new pre-selected option with the blue bubble is NOT necessarily the cheapest way to ship. Nor is it even necessarily the "best" way to ship.
Dear Amazon,
You don't seem to know what my preference actually is, so please do not try to do it for me. My preference is the CHEAPEST way I can ship something and still have the package arrive on time. (The way it has always been until recently)
Period. Done. That's it.
For the vast majority of orders, I am not loyal to any particular carrier with the exception of the fact that we cannot ship FedEx because of where we are.
If a carrier other than the preselected carrier can get a package delivered a day earlier and it only costs a few pennies more, I might upgrade. I make these decisions on the fly. I do not want them to be considered as part of a "shipping history" or a "preference."
I just want the cheapest OTDR-Protected shipping option on top always.
The way it has been working for years as been FINE. Why are you changing things now? And right during the busiest time of the year?? I hate to sound like I am always griping, but this is once again some unnecessary meddling with the way things have worked for YEARS.
We have been selling since 2012. That is TWELVE YEARS of reflexes / muscle memory that Amazon has just decided to throw a curveball at.
I think maybe this was an attempt to address concerns that I and some other sellers raised in another thread? If that's the case, I guess I appreciate the attempt... but this was not the correct solution.
(And I want to be able to remove FedEx because we never use FedEx.)
WARNING - Amazon is not longer putting the cheapest FBM shipping option as the top choice!!
Warning FBM sellers!!
For as long as pretty much any of us can remember, the cheapest shipping option was always on top and pre-selected.
Amazon changed this today and now they are preselecting and putting on top a shipping option with a blue bubble that says "Based on your shipping history and preference"
This is new pre-selected option with the blue bubble is NOT necessarily the cheapest way to ship. Nor is it even necessarily the "best" way to ship.
Dear Amazon,
You don't seem to know what my preference actually is, so please do not try to do it for me. My preference is the CHEAPEST way I can ship something and still have the package arrive on time. (The way it has always been until recently)
Period. Done. That's it.
For the vast majority of orders, I am not loyal to any particular carrier with the exception of the fact that we cannot ship FedEx because of where we are.
If a carrier other than the preselected carrier can get a package delivered a day earlier and it only costs a few pennies more, I might upgrade. I make these decisions on the fly. I do not want them to be considered as part of a "shipping history" or a "preference."
I just want the cheapest OTDR-Protected shipping option on top always.
The way it has been working for years as been FINE. Why are you changing things now? And right during the busiest time of the year?? I hate to sound like I am always griping, but this is once again some unnecessary meddling with the way things have worked for YEARS.
We have been selling since 2012. That is TWELVE YEARS of reflexes / muscle memory that Amazon has just decided to throw a curveball at.
I think maybe this was an attempt to address concerns that I and some other sellers raised in another thread? If that's the case, I guess I appreciate the attempt... but this was not the correct solution.
(And I want to be able to remove FedEx because we never use FedEx.)
23 replies
Seller_MyXY4Myx9zVcR
I noticed that yesterday also.
Another useless Amazon tweak.
Seller_1rmRI97pyEB5T
I noticed this too.... I had to request a refund on shipping and re purchase.
Seller_tzb0Adb4whsRu
Amazon needs to stop controlling the FBM sellers.
We should do the decision making on these orders because we are the ones who are packing and shipping.
Amazon just needs to stop being controlling and greedy.
Seller_IlwjJKqpD81nL
@KJ_Amazon
Case ID 16669623991
Here is an example of Amazon doing everything wrong.
1. We have "Longest Delivery" selected for SSA - but SSA used "UPS Ground" instead of "USPS Ground Advantage" for the fulfillment promise
2. "USPS Ground Advantage" was not an order protected option for us
3. The pre-selected option was "UPS Ground" even though "UPS Ground Saver" was significantly cheaper and would arrive as time.
This is what we want:
1. We want our delivery promises to ACTUALLY be based on the LONGEST/SLOWEST shipping service. Just like it SAYS it will be on the option we check.
UPS Ground will basically never be the the slowest shipping option. Yet this service is constantly being used to make delivery promises.
2. We want the cheapest delivery option to be ranked on top and pre-selected on the Buy Shipping section of the order.
We do not care are all about the "Based on your shipping history and preference." This is completely meaningless to us. i would just get rid of it. If you insist on having it appear, then it should be just note only. It should not be actually lend any weight to how our shipping options are pre-selected.
3. We want the ability to make FedEx not appear at all as a shipping option. We will NEVER use FedEx under any circumstances. The option is just getting in our way right now. We want to be able to disable it completely so it is gone and does not appear anywhere.
Seller_1sZE5n9hympJR
I noticed this today and came here looking for a post.
If you ship in bulk, you can only edit about 5 orders to a different carrier, then the site locks you out.. meaning you cannot click on ANY buttons after that (doesn't matter which browser).
I noticed too about 25% of our orders say they'll be "late". Before it was maybe 2% that needed the carrier change.
Also a note: If you go in to buy shipping, it'll say for example that Priority mail will be a late risk. If you wait a few minutes and go back, it says Priority will be on time and is OTDR protected.
Majorly glitchy today.
Seller_c7AY5UmbBC07I
Also because i had so few orders in october because of the election I was able to ship faster. So guess what I was penalized and amazon forced me into AHT time of one day which is absurd.
As of now I have a spreadsheet of when to ship products so i dont lose my longer handling times.
I have told Amazon a million times why merchants need longer ship times, nothing absurd. For example I live in rural area prone to snowstorms etc. Amazon cannot even deliver because roads get obstructed, power lines go down, electric goes down.
This seems to be an obvious move to try and get people to pay for FBA.
This brings product prices up and no thank you the horror stories abound for products getting into the warehouses.
Here is what I see is many really good sellers moving off amazon because these types of "improvements are detrimental".
They are not efficient and stymie workflow.
Let's just throw in the dashboard as well. Too big to see across and you have to scroll across? This was as good as the dumb boxes
Seller_oDXVaydIpi3Hi
They probably looked at the thousand things sellers are upset with and said "let's see if we can do a micro-aggression change that doesn't do anything to make it 1001" then sat around the table and everyone laughed and laughed
Seller_WkX4DpNX9KsAI
Saw that new feature today. I now need to make sure my shipper knows that Amazon is trying to pull another fast one. We sell cheep used books, and some not so cheep. But unless the buyer asked for expedited shipping, everyting goes out Bound Printed Matter - (The Old Book Rate). OK, Now to retrain the shipper.
Seller_Ha6JyVvDK6Ybs
Amazon generating revenue at seller expense! All this does is make us the sellers sell less all these additional clicks and BS add up seems we now spend 30 seconds longer shipping clicking on all this BS and listing time has also gone way up as we chose Amazon for years over ebay on how fast we could list and ship now with all the BS a few seconds more we can list on ebay less fees no returns and the more we shift the more voids in amazon catalog good luck.
Seller_HRcJa1gdGHeov
Noticed it too, Amazon thinking they will get lucky and some sellers will not notice the higher value shipping; probably getting a kickback from UPS (most of mine were defaulting to them).
