How often do you get inbound shipments with discrepancy?
Hi, I just encountered recently a few discrepancies with what I ship and what Amazon receives.
While I understand that there is some room for a human error, I would like to ask what your experience is. If I manufacture items myself, what is the best practice to prove a number of units I have shipped?
My units are small (I sell greeting cards) and I tend to ship a few SKUs on one box using amazon shipment method and courier.
I would welcome your experience and best practice suggestions.
Also, I have one shipment where Amazon received more items than I expected I shipped. They are all shown as “Available”. What happens if Amazon is wrong and really they have less units than they show to me?
Thank you,
Kind regards,
Andrew
Seller_hDO7SVCl2tFYz
Long time lurker, first time poster (I think!)
We were getting a fair amount of discrepancies, AZ claiming we only sent 2 when the box was built for us to contain 3 for example or that we shipped an empty box that weighed 12Kg when they signed for it and UPS confirmed the weight!
We have now started taking a photo of the box, open with the items inside and then sealing it. I then write on the top of the box the following, for example
Box Number 1
1 x “Item A”
2 x “Item B”
14.5Kg
60x57x46cm
Photo and checked
and then I initial underneath.
I then take a picture of it on our scales with the writing and the scale readout visible and the UPS shipping label in the same photo.
It’s a bit more effort but, so far, nothing has gone missing since we have started doing this!
Hope this might help someone,
Paul
17 replies
Seller_amUAzjvL5uIzu
All SNL shipments,60% have errors I generally get reimbursed for most losses.A lot of my items are very small ie: 10x5x0.5 cm so I guess the odd one slips dowm a gap in the FC equipment.I regularly get items appearing in inventory that were “lost” over 12 months ago.Not a great deal you can do,it just happens.
Seller_nXrmtrWLfJULN
I used to get this regularly - for example - they said I only sent 11 when I know that my box contained 12. They fit exactly into the box so there was no way I sent 11.
They will only accept that it is your fault, never theirs.
Recently I have noticed a change - no discrepancies at all…
Maybe I have just been lucky.
Seller_KI5JlGbmAMaIE
Thank you for the answer. So you get reimbursed just like that? No actions done?
Also, what if amazon claims they have 100 items and I believe they have 80. What happens when they realise the mistake, are they going to reimburse me for it? Because I am wondering if I have to spend a lot of money to call back my inventory, check it, repack and send again to make sure that those “extra” units are not going to be another SKU and get delivered to the customer.
Seller_ae51e0CJoHqCX
Yes it happens but sometimes you do get an automatic recount.
I send in the same stuff time after time and I know my send are accurate because I produce a specific number of labels and they are packed on each send. It is possible that one could be missed and short but it would be impossible for there to be more than I am sending.
It is not unusual for me to send in say 120 units and they count 118 but the next time, I send in 120 units, it comes back as 122. Therefore i don’t really sweat it to much when it happens.
Seller_KI5JlGbmAMaIE
Great, huge thanks to all of you for sharing your experience and suggestions.
In this case I may breath out. As long as Amazon did not do a huge mistake (I print labels which I ship, so I hope I do not do too many mistakes either) I am sort of safe.
Seller_hDO7SVCl2tFYz
Long time lurker, first time poster (I think!)
We were getting a fair amount of discrepancies, AZ claiming we only sent 2 when the box was built for us to contain 3 for example or that we shipped an empty box that weighed 12Kg when they signed for it and UPS confirmed the weight!
We have now started taking a photo of the box, open with the items inside and then sealing it. I then write on the top of the box the following, for example
Box Number 1
1 x “Item A”
2 x “Item B”
14.5Kg
60x57x46cm
Photo and checked
and then I initial underneath.
I then take a picture of it on our scales with the writing and the scale readout visible and the UPS shipping label in the same photo.
It’s a bit more effort but, so far, nothing has gone missing since we have started doing this!
Hope this might help someone,
Paul
Seller_ypI4HgDJGCNUy
Around 80% of my shipments have discrepancies.
Usually around 5-10 units missing but sometimes upwards of 200+ units.
But I send shipments of 2000-3000 so I guess the margin is a percentage.
Honestly it’s unacceptable though.
It took me nearly 6 months to get a reimbursment once on a box they claimed I sent empty, but weighed 12kg.
Seller_IjUdXgfytlivr
About 50% receicing errors for me, single units missing out of 50-100 units per shipment normally.
I am very good at getting them to reimburse for warehouse lost items now (about 95% of the time), they know this and normally don’t try to argue too long nowadays.
Seller_KI5JlGbmAMaIE
Really insightful, thanks to everyone who has posted their experience and suggestions.
