Also, a shipping confirmation letter (or lack thereof) is one of the criteria that Amazon tells the buyer to rate us on in feedback.

Tom

I would be very upset if Amazon didn't allow potential buyers to write to me.

Just this week, I had an email from a buyer wanting to know if the price was on the dust jacket. Although my listing clearly said "Not price clipped", for some reason, he still wanted clarification that it was not a BCE.

Less than five minutes after answering him, the sale went through.

I also receive emails from buyers about late delivery. I always calm them down. If buyers can't email you about any problems with the order, the only way to get your attention will be negative feedback.  This is a very frightening thought.

Dale

*Some of us find it easy to just "Reply" to the SSN, in order to send our "It was shipped today" notices to the buyers. That can be done as a group effort, taking about 10 seconds each. It will probably be more difficult once we lose that ability.*

Additionally I find about 40% of questions asked by buyer's (including "when or how was my order mailed" just after you send an Email telling them when and how you mailed it) include no title or order number. The only way I have been able to find the order was to search by Email addres. Experience shows buyers don't like wading thru the superfluous Amazon information to find a buried question or comment. I certainly don't need a long Email from Amazon that gives repetitive information not pertaining to a specific order over and over. Glitches will now impede ability to process orders in a timely fashion and give us no alternate means of obtaining order information.

Ann

'OK, what is Beta? '

there are three phases to a project:

alpha:  this is the development stage where eveyone gets together and brainstorms what the product should look like, act and feel.

Beta:  this is where the company gets people to do their "field" testing.. checking out how the product actually works, how it actually feels and looks in the real world.  they use us as we are dumb enough to test it and then tell them what needs to be fixed for free.  Otherwise, they would have to hire testers at $10-$15/hr and Beta testing can go for 6-8weeks before going into the final phase:

Production:  this is where the product is actually put out to the general public who will still be testing and reporting errors even though they are not aware that that is what they are doing.  think of this phase as:  I paid for the Product and now it has so many bugs that I am complaining about that it isn't worth the effort any more.    This is really common in games that manufacturers push out due to demand and then you get the version 1 through 51 until they finally get it right.  

Bear

This is going to affect my business as well ... and it also shows again that Amazon does not have the capacity to put themselves in the shoes of the Sellers.  Before people reply with the typical "their bat, their ball, their rules" responses - remember that they are making 15% + fees per sale with almost no zero overhead, or additional capital costs and almost zero variable costs.

Now then.  For me ... I created a little but of software that reads the SSN and prints the label and postage and then notifies the buyer that his product has been shipped - and sends them the tracking info.  This gives the buyer a high level of comfort.   And then I check to see when the delivery confirmation changes ...  I notify them as soon as the package has been marked delivered, and make sure they got it and are satisfied.  In some cases - I am the one who tells them that the mailman left a note for them (sometimes they never got the note).     All in all - these 2-3 communications with the buyer ensures high customer satsifaction ...  (30% of my buyers leave feedback immediately, and all 5's).

In some rare cases, there is a problem with an order.  Having the email address allows me to communicate with the buyer BEFORE the item is shipped - to get their OK rare cases when the condition was in error or something.   This ensures everyone is happy and time is not wasted.

But most important - getting a SSN email allows me to have all the info I need in order to ship, without having to go back to the AZ website (a stupid convoluted process)... and also I have 1 single email record of the transaction.

I cannot for the life of me understand why they are changing this.

A better way to go (aside from requiring Amazon product designers to actually sell books online too!) ... is to give the seller a choice in their setup options:  Get a full SSN emaik for each order, a daily summary (with links to the website), a short email for the day (for those who use AWS/XML integrated software) or NO emails - for those who always check their seller site.

Just because some people *might* use the buyer's email improperly is NO reason to make the SSN process incovenient for ALL sellers.   They ain't protecting the buyer ... we have their physical addresses ... what's next - withholding the names and addresses of the buyers?   Seriously - I wouldn't be surprised it this suggestion came from AZ ... why?  Because they definitely don't understand third party sellers.

Make no mistake - I am a huge fan on Amazon and their marketplace.   Just once every 100 cases, they really get it wrong (see their video site if you don't agree ; )

Happy new year.

>But most important - getting a SSN email allows me to have all the info I need in order to ship, without having to go back to the AZ website (a stupid convoluted process)... and also I have 1 single email record of the transaction.

beautifully put!

s