Hundreds of orders in minutes - and they are now marked unshipped!
I'm a long-time Amazon seller (12+ years) I've heard of this happening, but never experienced it myself. In a matter of 40 minutes, 550 orders for the same SKU were placed. This is a SKU that normally sells 10-40 units per day. I immediately changed my inventory to zero to stop the orders. I expected these orders to sit in "pending" status for a long time. But after 30 minutes, they all dropped into "unshipped" status.
Every order has a different buyer name and shipping address. Every single order is placed from a business buyer account. If I don't ship them, the volume of late shipments will cause my account to be suspended. Likewise, if I cancel them. And if I ship them, I expect to eventually lose the product and the money.
What are my options? Any insight or input? I do have a case open with Amazon, but I have not heard back yet. Nor do I expect much help from them.
Hundreds of orders in minutes - and they are now marked unshipped!
I'm a long-time Amazon seller (12+ years) I've heard of this happening, but never experienced it myself. In a matter of 40 minutes, 550 orders for the same SKU were placed. This is a SKU that normally sells 10-40 units per day. I immediately changed my inventory to zero to stop the orders. I expected these orders to sit in "pending" status for a long time. But after 30 minutes, they all dropped into "unshipped" status.
Every order has a different buyer name and shipping address. Every single order is placed from a business buyer account. If I don't ship them, the volume of late shipments will cause my account to be suspended. Likewise, if I cancel them. And if I ship them, I expect to eventually lose the product and the money.
What are my options? Any insight or input? I do have a case open with Amazon, but I have not heard back yet. Nor do I expect much help from them.
49 replies
Seller_kIukTwdhvntAp
Bring in some help to pick and pack and start shipping.
I'm a 'one man shop' and during Covid I was handling 150 +/- orders every Monday for about six weeks.
THEN, pray to whatever higher power you believe in that these are not all fraudulent!
Seller_7LrAV0m5llaI7
Send it all with a signature then to confirm delivery if you're worried about it. Is it all to the same buyer?
It's possible your item was featured in Amazon's advertising on social media if all the buyers are in different locations.
Seller_TBxuTzZtdzO0U
A few tidbits about these orders that are intriguing:
- Every order is placed from a business buyer account.
- The "Buyer" name matches the "ship to" name. Usually, drop-shipped orders have differing names.
- I checked a number of the addresses, and the "ship to" name matches property records - indicating the addresses aren't random.
- Every single order is going to the East Coast - 80% of them going to the Northeast.
The last two points give some indication that these might not be fraudulent. But I have never, in 10+ years of selling this item, sold more than 120 in a day. And now 550 sell in 40 minutes?
Seller_f4a7xAPCCSMqD
I wonder if someone on social media made a post about your product or something. I would ship them using Amazon's buy shipping and make sure the carrier scans them at pickup, so you're protected under Amazon's buy shipping guarantee if they try to say they didn't receive it.
Seller_TBxuTzZtdzO0U
Thanks for the input, everyone. Every order is packed up and ready for the carrier. And yes, they were all shipped using Amazon Buy Shipping.
So now I guess it's a waiting game to see what happens with them. I did search online, but I found no social posts or anything out of the ordinary. Roughly 80% of the packages went to the Northeast and 99% of them were on the East Coast. I counted only three packages that went west of the Mississippi.
Seller_vWhgseZxKF7Jj
I had a similar case a few years back. All of a sudden I had hundreds of orders for one product, which was odd. I also thought that it was some kind of fraud. Till one customer called and asked for a faster shipping. So I asked her what is going on. She said that my product was reviewed by a celebrity on social media. That explained it all.
I don't know what you are selling, but that might be the case. Someone famous mentioned it somewhere.
Seller_qTJiCxRI8PpIZ
I agree with @Seller_kIukTwdhvntApand @Seller_f4a7xAPCCSMqDhere. It is perfectly possible an influencer may have mentioned your product. I've noticed that if something was said in a live video, a google search may not do you any good. I think you did the right thing by handling the orders as you normally would. My fingers are crossed for you that these are legitimate orders.
Seller_kZvm6BR3doXxX
is the item something that could have an upcoming g shortage that you might not be aware of? Sometimes I get surges in orders because of that
Seller_TvaTXH61RRGLO
They are not fraudulent, just ship them
Seller_5MFjkRLzJTrZG
If you find out where the sales come from let us all know, I have a few items that could use this kind of sales.
