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Replies:
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Last Post:
Dec 31, 2009 5:52 AM
by: myvintagebooksa...
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Posts:
3,187
Registered:
8/11/06
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Lack of action on missing / found inventory unacceptable
Posted:
Nov 3, 2009 10:06 AM
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The lack of action Amazon has taken on the missing / found inventory fiasco is beyond unacceptable. It is a complete joke that the merchant is responsible for finding these problems and then on top of that has to wait weeks for Amazon to investigate.
I'm trying to keep up on it, but with the holiday season approaching I only have so much time to spend on it. However, I just found 1 SKU where the net missing / found ratio is -57...almost 20% of my inventory with no action from Amazon.
The FBA Team has offered no solution other than asking us in a survey if we would be willing to pay extra for insurance for these losses. Really? A 3rd party can't keep track of our inventory and then this 3rd party wants us to pay for the insurance to cover the losses?
Really Amazon, this is just sad.
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Posts:
212
Registered:
8/19/08
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Re: Lack of action on missing / found inventory unacceptable
Posted:
Nov 3, 2009 10:18 AM
in response to:
nextgen_gamer
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It can be frustrating. We had an entire shipment of 100+ units received at Fernley but never checked in a few months back. It took about 60 days before we were issued a refund.
However, Amazon did message us once a week on progress and the refund of our missing items was very fair and we received funds within 24 hrs.
So, they can take some time, but when they make the final decision that items are lost, they are fast with results. At least that was our experience
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Posts:
84
Registered:
11/11/07
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Re: Lack of action on missing / found inventory unacceptable
Posted:
Nov 3, 2009 10:26 AM
in response to:
nextgen_gamer
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I agree. There is no reason that these problems should go one as long as they do. The weekly updates that TAM provides are useless also. I don't want to hear the same update week after week. I want results and I want them in a day or two, not weeks or months later.
FBA has been around way to long for some of this silly nonsense to continue happening. There needs to be some major overhaul in both TAM and FBA dept.
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Posts:
160
Registered:
6/30/07
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Re: Lack of action on missing / found inventory unacceptable
Posted:
Nov 4, 2009 4:51 PM
in response to:
nextgen_gamer
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I stumbled upon 8 missing units the other day. Amazon had them marked as missing .. . which raises the question of why I have to report the missing units to them in order to get reimbursed. I mean, they already know they're missing.
Also, on a semi related notes, weren't we supposed to be reimbursed for inventory damaged in the warehouse automatically? What happened to that?
Back to topic .. . AZ, what is going on with the missing units? I know Amazon has been moving inventory around between warehouses . . . is it being lost in transit or what?
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Posts:
35
From:
Chicago
Registered:
4/9/08
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Re: Lack of action on missing / found inventory unacceptable
Posted:
Dec 20, 2009 5:02 PM
in response to:
nextgen_gamer
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Who is in charge of the FBA program? Does anyone here know his/her name?
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Posts:
22
Registered:
10/25/09
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Re: Lack of action on missing / found inventory unacceptable
Posted:
Dec 22, 2009 7:53 AM
in response to:
nextgen_gamer
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You're right -- it is very sad.
It starts at the receiving dock and continues to roll downhill from there. My experience has been fairly decent until they moved me to the Fernley center. They are absolutely terribly at the receiving dock, and once the errors occur, there is no one available to troubleshoot and make the corrections. They either have scanning equipment problems or employee problems -- or both. And if the errors to Amazon's inventory are comparable to ours, then they've decided someone needs to pay for the losses. (In other words, the errors are out of control and instead of taking responsibility and fixing the problems, they want to pass on the costs.) This is the first I've heard of the insurance, and I don't understand why I should insure my products against their poor hiring and faulty equipment. Isn't that cost already part of the FC fees they charge?
I just started sending to Fernley two weeks ago, and I'm not impressed so far.
1) It costs me 25% more to send to Fernley than to Coffeyville (needless to say I live in Dallas-Ft Worth and have a center nearly in my backyard).
2) I send multiple boxes at a time, otherwise my shipping would go up another 10%.
3) In the last 2 shipments, they've had to recreate a label for my shipping box because the other one was unreadable. (Odd -- UPS could read their own label sitting right next the FBA label with no problems, and there hasn't been any problem reading labels on any of the other shipments I've sent until now.)
4) 2 weeks ago they red flagged me for problems with a shipment. I shipped 3 Florida Seminole and 3 Florida Gator products. They showed 4 and 2. I contacted Cust Svc and explained. The FC checked it out and I'm now back at 3 and 3.
5) In last week's delivery 3 items were missing for 3 days and I didn't question it because they were still in receiving status. All of the sudden on day 4 I'm still missing the original 3 and now I'm overstocked on 3. Again they flagged it (apparently Fernley is quick to shift blame). I contacted CS. Well they fixed 2 items, overstocked me on 2 more items, and I'm still missing 3. Needless to say, I sent 64 units, they've received 64 units and they have them in the wrong product bins. Overselling the products now comes into play.
The CSRs treats me like I don't know what I'm talking about and I'm the one that has made the errors. Well, all I have to say is I have 21 years in Sr Management in a production facility managing millions of dollars of inventory and budgets and a key troubleshooter. Needless to say, I don't appreciate CSRs treating me like I don't know what I'm talking about when in fact I've spent nearly more time in the business than they've spent on this planet! Especially when I ask them pointed questions and they cannot answer them.
All I have to say is improve the staff on hand, and if the scanning equipment is not working properly repair it or replace it. I'm already supposedly paying the FC fees to cover this.
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Posts:
61
Registered:
2/9/09
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Re: Lack of action on missing / found inventory unacceptable
Posted:
Dec 23, 2009 10:24 AM
in response to:
nextgen_gamer
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As frustrating as the missing / found discrepancies are, the really frustrating part occurs when items go missing and never appear on the Inventory Adjustment report at all! Last spring I did a detailed review and found just over $1,000 of merchandise that was inexplicably missing, but never showed up on an adjustment report. $1k, while not huge, was enough for me to really care. After about 60 days I was reimbursed for the missing items.
This event prompted me to create a database that tracks all the inventory I send to FBA, all the orders fulfilled by FBA, what the remaining FBA inventory should be, and a report that shows any SKUs where my inventory differs from the FBA inventory. In about 80% of the cases, the difference also appears on the Inventory Adjustment report, but in about 20% of the cases there is no entry on the Inventory Adjustment report for that SKU, yet quantities are still missing. I open tcikets and get reimbursed for those items. Fortunately this whole process is automated and checking it takes about 5 minutes once a week, but creating it was a bear! At least now I feel like I have real control over my inventory and am not reliant on FBA's reporting of missing units.
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Posts:
25
Registered:
7/28/09
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Re: Lack of action on missing / found inventory unacceptable
Posted:
Dec 30, 2009 5:33 PM
in response to:
ertonamazon
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We have had similar experience(s). Amazon TAM reps (their version of Seller "Customer Service") are not business people, and regardless of what is voiced in this forum or in Contact Us tickets, there is something very amiss at Amazon. This is the notion that a wise seller is going to be handling cash and inventory investments with a very high degree of sensitivity.
That being said, if it takes 60 days to be reimbursed for lost inventory, we could have flipped that cash 4-8 times by converting the listings BACK to MFN and listing/selling them before taking possession of the items from suppliers. Amazon seems very lost on the fact that they are 'holding back' needed capital we need run our businesses for this 60 day period. Would anyone dream of being on a 60 day settlement cycle? We couldn't run our business if we were on a 60 day settlement cycle, we'd run out of capital much earlier than 60 days.
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Posts:
6
Registered:
9/15/08
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Re: Lack of action on missing / found inventory unacceptable
Posted:
Dec 31, 2009 5:52 AM
in response to:
penguinmints
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I hope I'm staying with the gist of this thread.
I just started shipping items for the FBA program. Today, I attempted to check on the first few boxes and see if anything needed repricing.
So far, three of the books listed on my inventory and sent to FBA are just not listed at all when I went to check the lowest prices. They're not in pending orders...not in the listings...just gone!
Am I missing something?? (besides my books?)
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