Seller-Fulfilled Offers SUSPENSION
To sell on Amazon, sellers must adhere to the performance targets which mirrors one's ability to provide good customer experience. Failure to meet these targets may result in the removal of selling privileges. Aside from the entire account suspension, Amazon may also limit your ability to sell FBM offers until the performance issue is addressed.
Metrics that may impact the ability to list/sell seller-fulfilled listings:
Shipping Performance
Identify which metric is not hitting the target in the Account Health Dashboard (AHD).
Path: Performance → Account Health
NOTE: Amazon would usually send notification regarding the removal of certain selling privileges with instructions on how to submit the appeal.
Look for any emails coming from Amazon related to the seller-fulfilled eligibility suspension
PATH: Performance → Performance notification
Amazon may ask for a POA in order to reinstate your ability to sell FBM offers.
Different options to submit the appeal.
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On the notification you received, review if there is a specific email address provided where you need to send your appeal to.
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“Appeal” button at the bottom of the notification.
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“Appeal” button in the Account Health Dashboard.
IMPORTANT: For FBM offers suspension due to VALID TRACKING RATE reason, appeal must be submitted to op-pso-vtr-appeals@amazon.com.
Reference:
Valid Tracking Rate FAQ
https://sellercentral.amazon.com/help/hub/reference/G202014610
VALID TRACKING RATE ISSUE:
Send it to email address: op-pso-vtr-appeals@amazon.ca
Subject line: Seller Fulfilled Offers Suspended - Updated Plan of Action
New POA (email body):
Greater detail on the root cause(s) of not providing valid tracking numbers
1. We have not used integrated carriers to ship some of the products. We did not know that was a requirement on Amazon's end. We have noticed the warnings but we were not able to identify the root cause. Therefore, it took us a long time to take an action.
2. Our warehouse personnel was not trained properly to fulfill the shipment effectively. They did not know how to provide a valid tracking number on Amazon properly.
We did not have enough employees in the warehouse to fulfill all the orders properly.
Greater detail on the actions you have taken to resolve not providing valid tracking number
1. We stopped using Canpar for the shipments and switched to an integrated carrier Canada Post immediately after noticing the root cause of the issue on Oct 12, 2021. After that date, we only used Canada Post and increased our VTR. But
2. We have assigned one of our experienced employees in the warehouse as a manager. He is assigned to supervise all shipping processes to prevent not providing valid tracking numbers. We have created a new system and our manager in the warehouse will check the orders three times a day:
- in the morning, at 9 AM (to print labels and create tracking ids)
- in the afternoon, at 1 PM (to print labels and create tracking ids)
- in the evening, at 5 PM (to check all orders are taken care of and check all shipments are delivered to the shipping companies).
We have already contacted all customers that had problems with their orders and offered compensation. We have offered replacement items, full refund, and partial refund according to their problems. We have made sure all customers are satisfied with the service they received from our company.
3. We have trained our employees on the Amazon policies. We have also trained them on basic tasks on Amazon. They all know the rules of Amazon and our first mission is to provide a great customer experience and how to provide valid tracking numbers on Amazon. We have also hired a customer service specialist. She will take care of all customer issues within 12 hours.
Greater detail on the steps you have taken to prevent not providing valid tracking number
1. We will only use integrated carriers that Amazon provide. We have started working with Canada Post. This will prevent any issues with the valid tracking in the future.
2. We have read and understood the help page for "Valid Tracking Rate (VTR)" (https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/G201817070?ref=sp_st_vtr_summary). We will only use Canada Post in the future in order to prevent any problems with the tracking information.
3. Our shipping department manager will be supervising and double-checking the whole shipment process to prevent issues with the shipments and providing valid tracking numbers. He will check the orders three times a day:
- in the morning, at 9 AM (to print labels and create tracking ids)
- in the afternoon, at 1 PM (to print labels and create tracking ids)
- in the evening, at 5 PM (to check all orders are taken care of and check all shipment are delivered to the shipping companies)
4. We will integrate better-streamlined solutions for efficient on-time shipping processing. We will be switching to ShipStation automated shipping software. One of our employees is taking training for the software. He will finish all the courses this week and we will start using this software immediately. This software will submit all valid tracking information to Amazon automatically.
We have trained all of our employees on printing labels and providing Amazon with the correct tracking information properly. If there is any problem with ShipStation, they are able to handle the problems manually.
5. We will provide a great level of customer service in the future and take action for all customer complaints immediately. We will respond to all customer messages within 12 hours. If they have a problem with their orders, we will provide them with a solution. We are going to send a replacement item or refund them immediately if they have a problem with the product they receive. We are going to use a 2nd-day shipping service for replacement orders to satisfy the customers. If they request a refund, we will refund them without a return.
6. We have learned from this incident and understand Amazon takes failure to comply with its policies seriously. We had a company-wide meeting and discussed all employees in the company should obey all rules determined by the company to comply with all Amazon rules, policies, and other regulations. We are confident these mistakes will never happen in the future.
We appreciate your support to help us keep selling on Amazon. We offer a great level of shopping experience to our customers and try to do our best on Amazon.
LATE SHIPMENT CONFIRMATION:
Greater detail on the root cause(s) of late shipment confirmations.
1. We did not have a proper system in place. We checked the orders and printed labels randomly. We did not have a manager in the warehouse to supervise the process. This caused printing labels and delivering the shipments to the shipping companies too late.
2. We did not have enough employees in the warehouse to fulfill all the orders on time. They were not trained properly to fulfill the shipment effectively. This caused late shipment confirmation issues.
Greater detail on the actions you have taken to resolve late shipment confirmations.
1. We have assigned one of our experienced employees in the warehouse as a manager. He is assigned to supervise all shipping processes to prevent late shipments. We have created a new system and our manager in the warehouse will check the orders three times a day:
- in the morning, at 9 AM (to print labels and create tracking ids)
- in the afternoon, at 1 PM (to print labels and create tracking ids)
- in the evening, at 5 PM (to check all orders are taken care of and check all shipments are delivered to the shipping companies).
We have performed a full inventory check and updated the stock completely.
2. We have hired experienced employees to the warehouse to handle all shipments. Schedules have also been made for the workers to handle shipments on Saturday and Sunday, so this problem never occurs again. That prevents the overwhelming number of orders we have on Mondays. This will assure buyers will receive their orders on time.
Greater detail on the steps you have taken to prevent late shipment confirmations going forward.
1. Our shipping department manager will be supervising and double-checking the whole shipment process to prevent late shipments. He will check the orders three times a day:
- in the morning, at 9 AM (to print labels and create tracking ids)
- in the afternoon, at 1 PM (to print labels and create tracking ids)
- in the evening, at 5 PM (to check all orders are taken care of and check all shipment are delivered to the shipping companies)
He will be performing a stock check every morning and update the stock accordingly.
2. There will be weekend and night shifts for our warehouse team to fulfill weekend orders. We will integrate better-streamlined solutions for efficient on-time shipping processing.
3. We have learned from this incident and understand Amazon takes failure to comply with its policies seriously. We have had a company-wide meeting and discussed all employees in the company should obey all rules determined by the company to comply with all Amazon rules, policies, and other regulations. We are confident these mistakes will never happen in the future.
We appreciate your support to help us keep selling on Amazon.
LATE SHIPMENT RATE:
Greater detail on the root cause(s) of late shipment rate.
1. We did not have a proper system in place. We checked the orders and printed labels randomly. We did not have a manager in the warehouse to supervise the process. This caused printing labels and delivering the shipments to the shipping companies too late.
2. We did not have enough employees in the warehouse to fulfill all the orders on time. They were not trained properly to fulfill the shipment effectively.
3. We were not able to fulfill the orders on time since we have not updated the stock on Amazon regularly. We have sold some products we did not have stock of. That caused shipping the orders too late. Therefore buyers received the orders late.
Greater detail on the actions you have taken to resolve late shipment rate.
1. We have assigned one of our experienced employees in the warehouse as a manager. He is assigned to supervise all shipping processes to prevent late shipments. We have created a new system and our manager in the warehouse will check the orders three times a day:
- in the morning, at 9 AM (to print labels and create tracking ids)
- in the afternoon, at 1 PM (to print labels and create tracking ids)
- in the evening, at 5 PM (to check all orders are taken care of and check all shipments are delivered to the shipping companies).
We have performed a full inventory check and updated the stock completely.
2. We have hired experienced employees to the warehouse to handle all shipments. Schedules have also been made for the workers to handle shipments on Saturday and Sunday, so this problem never occurs again. That prevents the overwhelming number of orders we have on Mondays. This will assure buyers will receive their orders on time.
3. We have already contacted all customers that had problems with their orders and offered compensation. We have offered replacement items, full refund, and partial refund according to their problems. We have made sure all customers are satisfied with the service they received from our company.
4. We have trained our employees on the Amazon policies. They all know the rules of Amazon and our first mission is to provide a great customer experience. We have hired a customer service specialist. She will take care of all customer issues within 12 hours.
Greater detail on the steps you have taken to prevent late shipment rate going forward.
1. Our shipping department manager will be supervising and double-checking the whole shipment process to prevent late shipments. He will check the orders three times a day:
- in the morning, at 9 AM (to print labels and create tracking ids)
- in the afternoon, at 1 PM (to print labels and create tracking ids)
- in the evening, at 5 PM (to check all orders are taken care of and check all shipment are delivered to the shipping companies)
He will be performing a stock check every morning and update the stock accordingly.
2. There will be weekend and night shifts for our warehouse team to fulfill weekend orders. We will integrate better-streamlined solutions for efficient on-time shipping processing. We will be switching to ShipStation automated shipping software. One of our employees is taking training for the software. He will finish all the courses this week and we will start using this software immediately.
We will increase the handling time of the listings if we need additional time to fulfill the orders. We will put our account on vacation mode if we cannot fulfill the future orders because of the high amount of orders.
We will review our account health dashboard regularly to see the issues and take precautions on time. If any problem appears on the account health page, we will take care of it immediately.
3. We will be performing a stock check every morning and update the stock accordingly. We will do it through Google Spreadsheets so everyone on the company can see the stock levels.
We will use the services of FedEx and UPS companies. We will use expedited shipping services (Overnight Shipping Service, Second Day Shipping Service, etc.) if required to prevent late receipt of orders.
We will have a buffer inventory to prevent being out of stock. We will restock products when we have 4 weeks of stock. We will only list the products we have in our warehouse physically.
4. We have decided to start using FBA so that we can fulfill Amazon Selling Policies easier. We will move our business to FBA 100% in 3 months.
We will buy the products from dependable suppliers and send them to Amazon FBA warehouses. We have already talked with 2 suppliers and we will start working with them as soon as our account is reactivated. We will start using FBA services immediately.
In this 3 months, we will do FBM as we will need more investment to buy products to send to FBA.
5. We have learned from this incident and understand Amazon takes failure to comply with its policies seriously. We have had a company-wide meeting and discussed all employees in the company should obey all rules determined by the company to comply with all Amazon rules, policies, and other regulations. We are confident these mistakes will never happen in the future.
6. We will provide a great level of customer service in the future and take action for all customer complaints immediately. We will respond to all customer messages within 12 hours. If they have a problem with their orders, we will provide them with a solution. We are going to send a replacement item or refund them immediately if they have a problem with the product they receive. We are going to use a 2nd-day shipping service for replacement orders to satisfy the customers. If they request a refund, we will refund them without a return.
We appreciate your support to help us keep selling on Amazon. We offer a great level of shopping experience to our customers and try to do our best on Amazon. Please review our Plan of Action above and reinstate our seller-fulfilled offers.