Selling through Amazon FBA

[minicoopers11]

Email to Bezos?

[cobrakai]

4 minutes ago, zskid00 said:

BWI2, thank you very much!  It was a single box shipment of 22 units and they claim to have only received 9!  This shouldn't be difficult.

I should have guessed.  I don't understand what happens at that facility and why they can't fix it.  I'm surprised they don't have cameras recording every shipment receiving yet.  

[gmpirate]

Was just looking over my FBA inventory and noticed I haven't sold any Elsa's Sparkling Ice Castle 41062.  My listing does not even show up.  I did a "help" search using the SKU and it said I need to be approved to sell Frozen Movie products.  I sold some of these last year and simply "replenished" my inventory this year.  Anything to do here?  I'm guessing its just better not to rock the boat and have my inventory sent back.

[SpaceFan9]

3 minutes ago, gmpirate said:

Was just looking over my FBA inventory and noticed I haven't sold any Elsa's Sparkling Ice Castle 41062.  My listing does not even show up.  I did a "help" search using the SKU and it said I need to be approved to sell Frozen Movie products.  I sold some of these last year and simply "replenished" my inventory this year.  Anything to do here?  I'm guessing its just better not to rock the boat and have my inventory sent back.

discussed a few pages back.  short answer is all frozen themed items are blocked for the release of the new movie.  haven't heard from anyone that's unblocked how they achieved it.

[marcandre]

4 minutes ago, gmpirate said:

Was just looking over my FBA inventory and noticed I haven't sold any Elsa's Sparkling Ice Castle 41062.  My listing does not even show up.  I did a "help" search using the SKU and it said I need to be approved to sell Frozen Movie products.  I sold some of these last year and simply "replenished" my inventory this year.  Anything to do here?  I'm guessing its just better not to rock the boat and have my inventory sent back.

They gated everyone out of frozen a few weeks ago. I would guess everyone is back in after the holidays.

[exciter1]

16 minutes ago, SpaceFan9 said:

discussed a few pages back.  short answer is all frozen themed items are blocked for the release of the new movie.  haven't heard from anyone that's unblocked how they achieved it.

I wasn't gated for 41147, sold several this week.

[gmpirate]

Hmmm, anyone know from experience how long this could last?  I'm trying to figure if I should have my inventory returned (just 15 sets) or wait it out.

[landphieran]

Maybe I had quite a few extraordinary years in the past, but it feels like the competition on the listings this year has been much worse than in the past. There seems like there was a lot of HUGE online retailers during Christmas dropping 500-600 of a set at a time. This has caused most listings to mostly just decrease in price. It might be still early in the year but moving forward this resale model is definitely going to get harder.

[SpaceFan9]

2 hours ago, exciter1 said:

I wasn't gated for 41147, sold several this week.

interesting.  that was one specifically that gated on me.  I had other, non-LEGO items, gated as well.  maybe if one had enough volume, you were grandfathered in?

[gmpirate]

Idk, when I ship everything in I always set my prices a bit higher than current listings.  Been selling like hotcakes regardless.

[gmpirate]

1 minute ago, SpaceFan9 said:

interesting.  that was one specifically that gated on me.  I had other, non-LEGO items, gated as well.  maybe if one had enough volume, you were grandfathered in?

You never know and I choose not to rock the boat most of the time.  I can sell Lego but sometimes certain sets won't let me list.  Usually what happens is when I hit the "sell on Amazon" button it will tell me I can't sell a used/like new/collectable condition set.  I am selling brand new sets and it doesn't give me any other option.  I believe in the past I contacted support and they fixed the issue.  Sometimes the issue just goes away on its own and I'm good when I check back later.

This year I contacted support and told them of the same issue with a set this year.  The person just told me I needed to get approved.  Approval is not the message I get, it states condition, and I've been selling Lego on Amazon for years (currently too).  In any case, I'm sure she's just saying what gets her off the phone to most people the quickest, but I'm afraid to rock the boat.

[cobrakai]

Just now, gmpirate said:

You never know and I choose not to rock the boat most of the time.  I can sell Lego but sometimes certain sets won't let me list.  Usually what happens is when I hit the "sell on Amazon" button it will tell me I can't sell a used/like new/collectable condition set.  I am selling brand new sets and it doesn't give me any other option.  I believe in the past I contacted support and they fixed the issue.  Sometimes the issue just goes away on its own and I'm good when I check back later.

This year I contacted support and told them of the same issue with a set this year.  The person just told me I needed to get approved.  Approval is not the message I get, it states condition, and I've been selling Lego on Amazon for years (currently too).  In any case, I'm sure she's just saying what gets her off the phone to most people the quickest, but I'm afraid to rock the boat.

The like new/collectible issue might be resolved if you officially get approved in the "building blocks" subcategory.  I used Mega Bloks invoices a few years ago and it worked.  Other than that, i've only seen issues with the Star Wars episode 7 sets when they gated stuff for Force Awakens.  Even when I got approved for Episode 7, I still couldn't list any of it as "collectible" if it was Episode 7 merchandise.

[exciter1]

25 minutes ago, SpaceFan9 said:

interesting.  that was one specifically that gated on me.  I had other, non-LEGO items, gated as well.  maybe if one had enough volume, you were grandfathered in?

Yes, grandfathered

[river41]

On 12/6/2019 at 11:41 AM, zskid00 said:

Has anyone had issues with shipment inventory discrepancies?  I'm battling with Amazon support right now because they shorted me 13 of 22 units (59%!) on a shipment back in November.  They marked all inventory as received within 3 days of UPS delivering the single package to the warehouse, then 3 days, 5 days, and 6 days later they made manual adjustments to the shipment.  When the date came up for attempting to reconcile the difference they claim that they have already completed a manual reconciliation and the units were confirmed as missing from the shipment.  I sent them an inventory report showing the adjustments they made by SKU and also verified that UPS confirmed the shipment weight and measurements and they keep auto responding with the same canned response whenever I try to reopen the case.  How can I get this escalated?

do they require receipts now in order to file a claim for a discrepancy in receiving?

[allen9917]

On 12/6/2019 at 11:41 AM, zskid00 said:

Has anyone had issues with shipment inventory discrepancies?  I'm battling with Amazon support right now because they shorted me 13 of 22 units (59%!) on a shipment back in November.  They marked all inventory as received within 3 days of UPS delivering the single package to the warehouse, then 3 days, 5 days, and 6 days later they made manual adjustments to the shipment.  When the date came up for attempting to reconcile the difference they claim that they have already completed a manual reconciliation and the units were confirmed as missing from the shipment.  I sent them an inventory report showing the adjustments they made by SKU and also verified that UPS confirmed the shipment weight and measurements and they keep auto responding with the same canned response whenever I try to reopen the case.  How can I get this escalated?

From my experience, the chance of getting it corrected is slim. A while ago, I sent in 4 units of a set (value ~$300 each) and they received them as another set (value ~150 each) in my inventory. They sent a note to me that they did not receive what was specified in the package content but something else.  The warehouse error was so obvious and I asked them to investigate, and they responded they did investigate and they did not receive the correct units.  Interestingly, when I tried to have the 4 units sent back to me, the order couldn't be fulfilled due to the reason of 'warehouse damaged'. What a coincidence! In the end, they refunded the 4 units with the value of ~$150 each and I had to eat the loss.  It's part of the cost using the platform.   

[Loghamel]

On 12/6/2019 at 6:41 PM, zskid00 said:

Has anyone had issues with shipment inventory discrepancies?  I'm battling with Amazon support right now because they shorted me 13 of 22 units (59%!) on a shipment back in November.  They marked all inventory as received within 3 days of UPS delivering the single package to the warehouse, then 3 days, 5 days, and 6 days later they made manual adjustments to the shipment.  When the date came up for attempting to reconcile the difference they claim that they have already completed a manual reconciliation and the units were confirmed as missing from the shipment.  I sent them an inventory report showing the adjustments they made by SKU and also verified that UPS confirmed the shipment weight and measurements and they keep auto responding with the same canned response whenever I try to reopen the case.  How can I get this escalated?

Yes and in a big way.  I've never had the discrepancies I'm seeing this year.  And of course it's the Dallas warehouse that is losing all of my stuff as it's only 2.5 hours away.  I had a shipment of 30 900+ piece sets that were delivered, but Amazon said they never received them.  They investigated and reimbursed me for all 30.

I currently have 3 investigations going. 

1.  Shipment of 30+ large sets have been in 'Receiving' for over 2 months.

2.  Shipped 200 sets, they received 50.

3.  Shipped 310 sets, they received 15.  That's a UPS truckload of sets and they only received a single box of sets. 

My favorite part in all of this is I can't do a reconciliation on them because it says, "Investigation Completed - shipment contents counted and confirmed."  Like, yeah, you confirmed the content of 1 box.  What about the other 13 boxes which measure 24"x16"x15" and weigh over 20 pounds each?  

 

[Mark Twain]

Yes and in a big way.  I've never had the discrepancies I'm seeing this year.  And of course it's the Dallas warehouse that is losing all of my stuff as it's only 2.5 hours away.  I had a shipment of 30 900+ piece sets that were delivered, but Amazon said they never received them.  They investigated and reimbursed me for all 30.
I currently have 3 investigations going. 
1.  Shipment of 30+ large sets have been in 'Receiving' for over 2 months.
2.  Shipped 200 sets, they received 50.
3.  Shipped 310 sets, they received 15.  That's a UPS truckload of sets and they only received a single box of sets. 
My favorite part in all of this is I can't do a reconciliation on them because it says, "Investigation Completed - shipment contents counted and confirmed."  Like, yeah, you confirmed the content of 1 box.  What about the other 13 boxes which measure 24"x16"x15" and weigh over 20 pounds each?  
 

That’s insane.

[Foreman Porgy]

18 hours ago, exciter1 said:

I wasn't gated for 41147, sold several this week.

I’m not gated either On Frozen. Only on the 2019 sets but I’m not worried about those right now. 

[Sozial]

4 hours ago, Loghamel said:

Yes and in a big way.  I've never had the discrepancies I'm seeing this year.  And of course it's the Dallas warehouse that is losing all of my stuff as it's only 2.5 hours away.  I had a shipment of 30 900+ piece sets that were delivered, but Amazon said they never received them.  They investigated and reimbursed me for all 30.

I currently have 3 investigations going. 

1.  Shipment of 30+ large sets have been in 'Receiving' for over 2 months.

2.  Shipped 200 sets, they received 50.

3.  Shipped 310 sets, they received 15.  That's a UPS truckload of sets and they only received a single box of sets. 

My favorite part in all of this is I can't do a reconciliation on them because it says, "Investigation Completed - shipment contents counted and confirmed."  Like, yeah, you confirmed the content of 1 box.  What about the other 13 boxes which measure 24"x16"x15" and weigh over 20 pounds each?  

 

Puuuuh I hope your investigations get resolved...... and I am angry if I send it 55 sets in on box and they only receive 52. Most of the time the most expensive ones, but that might be a coincedence...

[skinsfan0521]

Just now, Sozial said:

Puuuuh I hope your investigations get resolved...... and I am angry if I send it 55 sets in on box and they only receive 52. Most of the time the most expensive ones, but that might be a coincedence...

I had the same thoughts... I'm mad if they miss like 2 or 3. Missing hundreds is another issue. I'd probably end up driving to that location and sitting in the lobby until somebody would talk to me for that amount of lost inventory. haha

[Loghamel]

So it appears like this is becoming an issue for lots of people, so I'm going to post my progress through this !@#$ show in case it might help others in the future.  For the case involving 300 missing sets, this is the email I received 23 minutes after the case was opened:

Hello from Amazon Selling Partner Support,

I understand your concern regarding the discrepancy from the shipment FBAXXXXXXXXX . (XXXX are from me for anonymity).

When we receive shipments with quantity discrepancies, we automatically initiate an investigation on your behalf for the items in your shipment.

As part of this investigation, we perform a second, physical count to reconfirm the quantity of the items received. Items are marked “Investigation Completed – shipment contents counted and confirmed” when we have completed the investigation.

Support then closed my case. 

I did some research of my own and found the following details.  I sent 11 boxes in.  Shipping was done via UPS using Amazon shipping services.  All 11 boxes were provided tracking numbers and all 11 were successfully checked in by the Dallas warehouse at the same time.  Amazon verified and added to my inventory the contents of a single box in the shipment which contained 16 sets.  10 boxes containing 292 sets were successfully delivered, but have seemingly disappeared.

I have fired off another email and requested the case be reopened.  I'll keep everyone posted.

Edit:  I just ran the numbers and the value of the missing sets at today's current Amazon Buy-Box is $10,092.60.

Edited December 9, 2019 by Loghamel

[redcell]

Yikes...I've had Amazon make some big mistakes over the years, but never one that big.  I suspect that you will be able to get resolution eventually based on the facts that you have laid out...you just have to get it into the right hands, which is the trick.

[tacsniper]

From my experience, one of the things they do is compare the weight of your shipment vs what was received. This allows them to determine what's missing.

I have learned over the years, the bigger your shipment, the higher the chance of items not received/missing.

[Bold-Arrow]

From Amazon : 

"As a reminder, FBA inventory was due on December 3  for the holiday season. Please consider sending your replenishment inventory in January as we focus on fulfilling customer orders during the holiday shopping period.

Thank you for providing customers with unbeatable selection and great prices. We’re proud to help you fulfill your products, delight customers, and grow your business."

[Darth_Raichu]

47 minutes ago, Bold-Arrow said:

From Amazon : 

"As a reminder, FBA inventory was due on December 3  for the holiday season. Please consider sending your replenishment inventory in January as we focus on fulfilling customer orders during the holiday shopping period.

Thank you for providing customers with unbeatable selection and great prices. We’re proud to help you fulfill your products, delight customers, and grow your business."

Then Amzn should remove "in-stock inventory" as a factor in IPI for December