Does Amazon Have A Theft Problem
or is the Amazon receiving departments across the country that incompetent. Do the employees need to be trained properly or is my missing units on every other shipment the price I have to pay to do FBA? A sort of Amazon tax. I do all my own bagging, barcoding and packing, I know what was in the box when I deliver to UPS, so it's not me. Anybody else having issues
Does Amazon Have A Theft Problem
or is the Amazon receiving departments across the country that incompetent. Do the employees need to be trained properly or is my missing units on every other shipment the price I have to pay to do FBA? A sort of Amazon tax. I do all my own bagging, barcoding and packing, I know what was in the box when I deliver to UPS, so it's not me. Anybody else having issues
21 respuestas
Seller_CW0P5hgbsiqWX
There is a lot of truth in what you said. Most of it comes from Jeff Bezos design and philosophy. The hire to fire principle and the Day One - Day Two working conditions. Amazon employees don't make mistakes. If they do, it is one day/week closer to termination. That is why the seller is always wrong.
It is not theft by individuals on the way home at night, but maybe in some other around about way.
Seller_Ha6JyVvDK6Ybs
Amazon is the theft problem.
Seller_Sram36TnVt73c
Everybody is dealing with fba Miscounts... I imagine it would be hard to get merchandise out of an Amazon warehouse so I have a hard time believing that's much of an issue ...personally I think it's just incoming count errors.
Seller_2UkjhY9D9b6bj
Perhaps I can provide some insight - and you might not like the answer but its probably true...and then I will follow it up with some things I have personally observed over the years.
You must understand a few things.
1. Amazon employees are not as careful or mindful with your products as you are
2. The potential for FNSKUs to come off of products, stick to other polybags, polybags getting stuck together, or FNSKUs becoming unscannable for multiple reasons is a real and true thing.
Now - as far as "theft" I don't believe there is theft of your products from your SPDs - but I can tell you that when your products become unsellable at check-in (whether for issues with barcodes being scannable, or "distributor damage" that often times these products are 100% put into amazon's own inventory either under "Amazon" or "Amazon Resale". It happens, I have proof it happens, and it does paint a gray area between "is this theft" or "is this amazon taking found inventory and selling instead of disposing"
As far as proof - I cannot tell you how many times I have ordered products directly from Amazon as a seller and received a product that has another seller's FNSKU on it (this is especially prevalent on products that use manufacturer barcodes). I recently placed a large order of around 180 units of a small item for employee gifts. In that shipment I had 11 different FNSKUs and the product was randomly at what I considered to be a price error but was likely amazon selling off other seller's inventory.
In short - Amazon does resell your inventory that does not scan, or has some certain issues at check in. If this same situation happens after it has been received and happens during FC transfer you will be reimbursed - I dont believe this really constitutes theft and think you would do the same thing in your business.
All this being said - you should have appropriate invoices to show amazon when you have a shipping discrepancy that you actually shipped the units - at that point you will be reimbursed for the missing products.
Seller_qKazf8TmYbJNO
I'm sure a lot of it is miscounts but damaged ups boxes at the hubs are a huge issue. I have a few friends that work at ups who tell me that every night they have thousands of loose products from boxes that opened in their warehouse. They sweep them all up and they never get to amazon.
Seller_v4lPj0G4GLA42
One of our shipments was marked as discrepancy found with all the contents in the box which means an empty box received by Amazon Fulfillment Center. When we checked the SKUs of that shipment, we realized that most of the items in that shipment has been sold as FBA. We opened a case and send them the sale reports with the SKUs in that shipment and the screenshots with every details and told them it was obvious that the shipment incorrectly marked as discrepancy. However, incompetent seller support associates sent us same response over and over again. We did not loose much money since the most of the items in that shipment sold, but it negatively affected our shipment metrics.
Seller_DnVcdNkwor08g
We had a major issue 2 years ago with a pack of 24 cards/envelopes. Customers were getting one card only. It was as though someone at FBA opened the plastic resealable bag and just sent out one. Cases submitted, customer emails sent explaining it was an error (on AMZ's side). We then started putting a label on the seal of the bag stating 'This package contains one set of 24 each, cards and envelopes.' In addition, we put clear tape over this label and the bag closure. This seemed to take care of the issue. This week, when reviewing the Voice of the Customer page, there were 2 separate returns/info about this same issue! The case response just showed pics of our products without issues. No decent response. I sent emails to customers, once again, explaining the unknown error and a pic of what/how we package. Can a FBA exmployee be that moronic to do this? Or are they doing it purposely to upset Amazon/their customers/their sellers? I just don't 'get it'...
Seller_Qvkq0XIyYVeNa
I have come to realize the problem is my fault.
I have no issues counting from 1-10, or from 1-20 when I pack things to ship to other ecommerce retailers. My shipments are always 100% accounted for and I RARELY have a discrepancy in my shipment.
But for some reason whenever I pack my Amazon FBA boxes my mind wanders and numbers lose all sense of reason. 5 becomes 1. 43 becomes 20. It's the strangest thing!
I also have a tendency to pack empty boxes, put labels on them that say they weigh 40 lbs, and then ship air to Amazon's warehouses. I do this so often that Amazon needs to keep track of my item's material costs for me. PHEW! What a relief.
Its comforting that Amazon knows exactly when my boxes are delivered by UPS and exactly when they are received by the warehouse, and when necessary they take the time and effort needed to review the video of my multi-thousand dollar shipments being accepted to make sure that I sent them air.
Overall, I'm excited to continue being an Amazon Trusted Partner because I'm hopeful that I can work on my counting skills to improve as we continue to work together.
Seller_xVwTcecKusGAG
The title of this post is what grabbed my attention, as this whole week I have been wondering if theft is the issue that we are encountering as well...
Our shipping procedures for FBA are extremely simple, as all of our product is "oversized", so ALL of our FBA shipments are in multiples of three - since three packaged and labeled items fit in one "skin" of a box. As a result, it is realistically impossible for our products to be shipped in less than multiples of three.
We also ONLY ship one SKU per workflow, so the possibility of miscounts or confusion is slim to none. However, over the last year we have had several instances of "incorrect item quantity in box" problems, and they are always one or two "items missing". Knowing that we can ONLY ship in multiples of three, this is impossible. At first, we believed it could have been a labeling error, so we changed our packing protocols to ensure labeling was ALWAYS done correctly, even at a cost of slowing packaging time by 20%. Even so, we still encountered "incorrect item quantity" shipment error notices every couple months. Amazon service has been completely unhelpful in researching or resolving the issue, and they literally ignored our last investigation request.
At this point it seems that it is yet another "cost" of doing business through/with amazon, and they have no interest in rectifying this ongoing issue.
Seller_oEw5wUNHgJxxP
I so appreciate this statement. I have two speeches I give to new employees. The first I will not take the time here, possibly I will put it in the other Sellers Forum.
I look them in the eye, especially (intimidating) for interns...
You will never make a mistake here... I pause and get the same reaction, fear each and every time... "You will make mistakes here, it will cost me money. I am ok with that. You will learn, you will grow, you will make more mistakes, you will continue to grow."
I end with "What will upset me is if you don't try, if you don't try you will not make mistakes."
Now somehow, I don't think Amazon gives the same style parable to its team members.
To the OP we often have one or two units over or under on our shipments. We never bother with contacting Amazon on the issue. We have had units show up three years later and be sold.
We did just have our first claim, a case of 60 units reported as nothing in the box. Yet the box was 40 pounds on departure, and scanned in as received, but nothing in it. We provided what they asked for. An invoice from our parent company, a signed packing slip by the shipping team member and a principal of the company. The request was fair, burdened costs, CoGS, (Cost of Goods Sold), packaging, outbound shipping. They credited our account in 48 hours.
Yes, I fell off the chair. They said if they find them they will claw the money back or sell them themselves. Ok with that.
I do wonder what will happen this spring when they only refund CoGS. That is not fair.
