I'm writing this thread to both express my dismay, and ask for help from any other experienced sellers. We are a company that sells seasonal product in the summertime, and have found that Amazon's receiving policy for goods makes it almost impossible to operate.

Two separate times this year, using both AWD and AMF, Amazon has lost or misplaced our shipment. With a seasonal item, we have a narrow window of opportunity to be able to sell our goods before the season ends. With our last shipment, goods were delivered on August 2nd to GYR3. The shipment only shows 2500 of 7500 expected units delivered. The carrier delivered all the units, but amazon won't even allow us to open an investigation until September 17th. We can't even find out if our goods have been lost until 45 days after the shipment was delivered? How can a seasonal business operate with these conditions? We've lost half of our season just waiting for Amazon to be able to tell us if they lost our goods. We can't run any sales or promotions because we don't know if we will have that inventory available. We can't order replacement inventory because we don't know if the other inventory will magically appear, and then we are stuck with excess for the slow season.

Other seasonal sellers, how do you operate on Amazon without pulling your hair out? How do you operate with these kinds of situations happening? Do you ship in smaller shipments more often? We lose economies of scales by doing that, so how can we grow with these kinds of issues?

Thanks for your advice and expertise,