Anyone else experiencing delays with FBA shipment centers?

[Ramble On]

Front load next year. It's all part of the learning curve. The worst of the log jam is passed.

Don't pass over this great advice. I learned this lesson last year. This year I had all of my holiday inventory sent in over a month ago. It has been very relaxing to sit back and watch the sales roll in without having to worry about running out of stock.

I also sent in 25% more than I thought I would need. Good thing because it looks like it will all get used up.

 

[Vigilante]

Front load next year. It's all part of the learning curve. The worst of the log jam is passed.

 

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[biophase]

I still have stuff that was sent to FBA on Nov. 19th and 25th that still hasn't been checked in..

Eskil, this stuff is lost. It's been way too long. Open up a ticket. Do you have an Amazon rep? If so, call him/her directly.

 

[biophase]

Yeah, just like the title said, is it just me or...

Hope this is the right subforum to post this. Well. I'm just sort of losing my mind here because three of my shipments are apparently stuck in limbo right now & I really, really, really need to restock. Ugh.

It's my first Chrsitmas season selling on Amazon so idk if it's ordinary at this time of the year?

Yes, and it's actually faster this year than last year. Last year it took 1-2 weeks after your shipment was delivered for it to be available. If your shipment is in limbo for more than a few days, I'd open up a ticket using the reconcile feature ASAP.

 

[Jake]

I'll know soon..

My first FBA product shipment should hit Amazon's warehouses tomorrow

 

[biophase]

I did the same. I have all my China shipments arrive by September. Then I send all my FBA out by October. However, we had a really good October and I needed to send out more in November. Then we had a good BF and CM and I had to send even more last week. Then Amazon lost a crap load of stuff that I sent in November so I sent out even more stuff just this Monday.

Now I think we are finally covered as there are only 12 days of shopping left. But now I'm short from January to March in inventory, but that's ok.

 

[JustinBoshans]

Yeah, just like the title said, is it just me or...

Hope this is the right subforum to post this. Well. I'm just sort of losing my mind here because three of my shipments are apparently stuck in limbo right now & I really, really, really need to restock. Ugh.

It's my first Chrsitmas season selling on Amazon so idk if it's ordinary at this time of the year?

It's our peak season alright! 200 or so people stowed over 115000 units in 2.5 hours today. We normally do 7 trucks a day, we've been doing 16.

 

[DrkSide]

Eskil, this stuff is lost. It's been way too long. Open up a ticket. Do you have an Amazon rep? If so, call him/her directly.

Going to have to agree, I would open a ticket on this stuff as that has been WAY too long for something to be sitting there. I had them lose a shipment of mine last month. They reimbursed me the same amount that I get paid when I sell one for every unit. While it was nice that they did that I would have rather had the inventory.

Wtf... I really wonder why it's so fast for some, and like molasses for others.

Different centers? Different shipping methods? Could be a number of reasons.

Next Christmas I will likely require a serious capital injection/loan to frontload to the requirements needed. Progress, nonetheless.

Same here. This year I had a 12k loan that I took out to buy inventory with and blew through that like it was nothing. I prefer to run without taking loans but it makes sense this time of year.

 

[biophase]

Going to have to agree, I would open a ticket on this stuff as that has been WAY too long for something to be sitting there. I had them lose a shipment of mine last month.

Only one? Consider yourself lucky! I think they've paid me about $20,000 in lost inventory in the past 4 months. It got so bad that I only do one shipment per SKU per warehouse because whenever I sent multiples something got lost and I needed to hunt it down. ONT8 used to lose 50% of my stuff, now FTW1 is beginning to lose things. One shipment was 700 lbs, the size of 2 pallets and they lost everything in the shipment worth about $10,000.

 

[biophase]

Yeah this really makes you wonder what is going on at these warehouses. I mean, I understand losing/damaging a couple of units here and there, it happens. But THAT much product!? Where does it all go? To a magical mystery land?

Well... it goes into this big warehouse I assume where they just let it sit until they lose more of your stuff. Because when they lose some of my stuff now, instead of paying me, they replace it. Of course, how do they replace something that only you make? Probably with your lost stuff that they
found after they've reimbursed you.

I had a new product, sent over another 15. They lost 15. But they paid me for 14 units and replaced 1 unit. No idea where the 1 unit came from. The 1 unit went for sale, sold in a few days. No complaints from the buyer, so I guess they got the correct item.

I don't know what they are doing over there.

 

[Phones]

1. List some low-cost manufactoring products at 500$
2. Send a huge shipment to Amazon
3. Wait for them to loose it
4. Profit

/joking, but I can't understand how a company that should have their shit together is loosing money on this.

 

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[ddall]

Last Christmas:

Ran out of my one and only skew before US Thanksgiving.

This Christmas:

Ran out of 4 out of 6 products, although 3 will be replenished shortly. Next Christmas I will likely require a serious capital injection/loan to frontload to the requirements needed. Progress, nonetheless.

 

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[ddall]

That is who the loan is from. I was invited a couple months ago and took them up on the offer. Bought inventory with it plus some extra and ran out Dec 1st. Using profits to buy more as soon as I get them in my hand. They offered me another one already but I have not taken it as I want to see what sales are going to do in Jan-Feb. I suspect that I will get another one after the new year and may take it.



Wow, that is horrible. I always just send in one SKU for each shipping plan to make it easy and all the boxes are the same size/count. I can't imagine loosing that much inventory. You have to wonder what is really going on at some of these warehouses.

@Eskil - Expounding on the speed of check in. Right now I am sending in 1-2 boxes at a time so that may also be why mine are being checked in quick. I am sticking UPS labels on boxes about an hour after DHL is delivering them and I do my quality check. I have had to change the QC procedure because of a bad shipment last time. Not sure if it was that way from the factory or from shipping but I had a spike of returns.

I'm in Canada so do not get offered the Amazon loan. This year I borrowed $155K (Cad) through multiple means (including maxing CC's), and a Canadian Government Small Business loan where I had a lot of work and interviews to get. I need a serious cash injection to scale quickly. LendingLoop.ca just arrived in Canada but requires two years of operation. By next Q4 I hope to have 9-10 products in stock. The largest challenge is scaling and maintaining inventory. (I take no profit out as I work full time) I plow it back into the business for new products and larger orders.

 

[biophase]

What proof did you send? I'm dealing with this right now on a "counted twice" item.

I sent the Fedex tracking numbers of each box with the size and weight of the box. My products are so big that if I were missing 10 units, there would be a 40 pound difference in box weights. I also sent them the commercial invoices.

 

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[theag]

Wow, I wouldve never guessed that Amazon is so sloppy in their core business.

 

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[Jake]

I'll know soon..

My first FBA product shipment should hit Amazon's warehouses tomorrow

Just received an email from Amazon that 1 box arrived. Checked status and listing is live.

No delays here

 

[Eskil]

I still have stuff that was sent to FBA on Nov. 19th and 25th that still hasn't been checked in..

 

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[DrkSide]

Amazon lending is still running strong but it's something that they have to offer you… You can't apply for it.

That is who the loan is from. I was invited a couple months ago and took them up on the offer. Bought inventory with it plus some extra and ran out Dec 1st. Using profits to buy more as soon as I get them in my hand. They offered me another one already but I have not taken it as I want to see what sales are going to do in Jan-Feb. I suspect that I will get another one after the new year and may take it.

Only one? Consider yourself lucky! I think they've paid me about $20,000 in lost inventory in the past 4 months. It got so bad that I only do one shipment per SKU per warehouse because whenever I sent multiples something got lost and I needed to hunt it down. ONT8 used to lose 50% of my stuff, now FTW1 is beginning to lose things. One shipment was 700 lbs, the size of 2 pallets and they lost everything in the shipment worth about $10,000.

Wow, that is horrible. I always just send in one SKU for each shipping plan to make it easy and all the boxes are the same size/count. I can't imagine loosing that much inventory. You have to wonder what is really going on at some of these warehouses.

@Eskil - Expounding on the speed of check in. Right now I am sending in 1-2 boxes at a time so that may also be why mine are being checked in quick. I am sticking UPS labels on boxes about an hour after DHL is delivering them and I do my quality check. I have had to change the QC procedure because of a bad shipment last time. Not sure if it was that way from the factory or from shipping but I had a spike of returns.

 

[Eskil]

I think they've paid me about $20,000 in lost inventory in the past 4 months. It got so bad that I only do one shipment per SKU per warehouse because whenever I sent multiples something got lost and I needed to hunt it down. ONT8 used to lose 50% of my stuff, now FTW1 is beginning to lose things. One shipment was 700 lbs, the size of 2 pallets and they lost everything in the shipment worth about $10,000.

Yeah this really makes you wonder what is going on at these warehouses. I mean, I understand losing/damaging a couple of units here and there, it happens. But THAT much product!? Where does it all go? To a magical mystery land? Trolls and gnomes stealing stuff? Lol.. Somewhere in the dungeons of Amazon is probably a vast chamber of "lost" inventory...

 

[biophase]

So this is scary. Apparently they are now logging in products sent to our warehouses in different warehouses.

I sent 50 of A to BNA2. It got logged that BNA2 received only 25 and was missing 25. So I opened up a case. They told me that my other 25 were logged in at PHX5. I checked my tracking numbers and I sent them to BNA2. How do they log a shipment in Cali into a warehouse in Arizona?

So now this complicates things, because even separate warehouses won't fix your issues.

So now my shipment at PHX5 has extra 25 of A. But it's missing 25 of B. So I have no idea if they lost B or if it's logged in at FTW1. So it's a huge clusterfuck.

And to top it all off. I sent a total of 100 units of A and 100 units of B, to 4 different warehouses. I ended up with 150 units of A and 68 units of B. And I KNOW that I sent the correct amounts. So now I have 218 units in stock. Who knows where the other 18 units came from. This is a brand new product.

And yes, this is after they investigated everything.

 

[1step]

Well... it goes into this big warehouse I assume where they just let it sit until they lose more of your stuff. Because when they lose some of my stuff now, instead of paying me, they replace it. Of course, how do they replace something that only you make? Probably with your lost stuff that they
found after they've reimbursed you.

I had a new product, sent over another 15. They lost 15. But they paid me for 14 units and replaced 1 unit. No idea where the 1 unit came from. The 1 unit went for sale, sold in a few days. No complaints from the buyer, so I guess they got the correct item.

I don't know what they are doing over there.

Have you ever seen the "we have counted this twice and its not eligible to reconcile" message? I know I pack boxes right, and yet sometimes full boxes are lost, it's obviously obvious when an entire box goes missing... And yet amazon says they have counted twice and I get nothing.

 

[Cascade]

I'm in Canada so do not get offered the Amazon loan. This year I borrowed $155K (Cad) through multiple means (including maxing CC's), and a Canadian Government Small Business loan where I had a lot of work and interviews to get. I need a serious cash injection to scale quickly. LendingLoop.ca just arrived in Canada but requires two years of operation. By next Q4 I hope to have 9-10 products in stock. The largest challenge is scaling and maintaining inventory. (I take no profit out as I work full time) I plow it back into the business for new products and larger orders.

Offer some encouragement...
There is large pools of money waiting to be tapped. For example

Supplier financing i.e. consignment
Buyer financing i.e. prepaid
Invoice financing i.e. factoring
etc etc etc

What places have you tried? Hmm...you're not trained in financing skills? ....oh...have you sought out expertise from those who know?

Ask yourself: If I had $$$ to lend, why would I lend to Company X out of every and any other borrower seeking financing, including the "borrower" which is my own fixed deposit at the bank?



Another bit of info to share for those doing FBA. They main shipper UPS is experiencing service failures. Had placed an order for some gifts that arrived very late and the rest are still somewhere in transit. AMZN rep was really great in responding. Got some refund for the shipping paid.

Action for biz>>> Give your customers a feedback channel. Just because the yellow button is clicked doesn't end the total customer experience. Great opportunity to offer superior customer service and some raving fans.

 

[Eskil]

I know I pack boxes right, and yet sometimes full boxes are lost, it's obviously obvious when an entire box goes missing

Yeah I have noticed that it's (almost) always entire boxes that go missing. I used to send in cases of 6 units per box. So they "lost" them in multiples of 6 (like 6, 12, 18, etc.), not like 7 or 11. Obviously exact case counts. Same after I switched to 25 units per box. Now they are lost in increments of either 25, 50, etc. Multiples of 25. (not like 23 or 47).
Interesting...

 

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[Jake]

All of my boxes are in but they screwed up somewhere. I have 2 less of 1 product and 3 extra of another..I could understand 2 extra as they look somewhat similar but 3?

 

[Vigilante]

Want to know how this gets worse? When liquidators show up listing your lost inventory on Amazon under your listing.

 

[biophase]

Want to know how this gets worse? When liquidators show up listing your lost inventory on Amazon under your listing.

Yes, I've had a couple selling under my products and the are selling authentic stuff because I test ordered from them. Thankfully it's been only a few units here and there and it's always the same supplier. But I guess it's ok because Amazon technically already bought that product from me.

 

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[DrkSide]

Wow, I wouldve never guessed that Amazon is so sloppy in their core business.

During the normal year I didn't have many problems with them losing inventory. Maybe a couple units here or there.

The holiday rush seems to have impacted their ability to count and manage inventory. I am wondering if they did not put enough staff on to handle the rush or if they are just trying to rush things through the door.

I have one item that I only sent 50 units in. They counted the 50 and put them inventory. Then sold 51 of them. Wonder how that is going to work.

 

[Hassen]

Yeah, just like the title said, is it just me or...

Hope this is the right subforum to post this. Well. I'm just sort of losing my mind here because three of my shipments are apparently stuck in limbo right now & I really, really, really need to restock. Ugh.

It's my first Chrsitmas season selling on Amazon so idk if it's ordinary at this time of the year?

 

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[Vigilante]

Don't pass over this great advice. I learned this lesson last year. This year I had all of my holiday inventory sent in over a month ago. It has been very relaxing to sit back and watch the sales roll in without having to worry about running out of stock.

I also sent in 25% more than I thought I would need. Good thing because it looks like it will all get used up.

I frontloaded enough inventory to last me through the Chinese new year. However, my best-selling item still ran out of stock and I had to manually fulfill several hundred orders until I could get more through the logjam.

 

[Ramble On]

Good point about the Chinese new year. I should have enough stock on hand to get through that period. When should someone start sending in stock to Amazon for regular sales starting back in January? Should it be sent now during all of the crazy holiday rush? I was thinking about re-stocking the week between Christmas and New Years.

 

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