VTR - Critical Issue with DHL Express Tracking not validating 100% of the time
Hoping to get some escalation on this ongoing issue with VTR and DHL Express tracking numbers.
The problem:
Pre-VTR, Amazon always had an issue validating two of the couriers that we use - Hermes and DHL Express. There would be a handful of tracking numbers that for some reason Amazon would not validate. There was no issue tracking them on the carrier’s respective websites.
As soon as the mention of VTR arose, I was concerned. Amazon appeared to fix the Hermes issue and since VTR came in as an enforced metric, there hasn’t been a problem - Amazon’s automated system validates Hermes (now Evri) 100% of the time.
The same cannot be said of DHL Express. Until this month Amazon would fail to validate 1 or 2 numbers a month. I have raised a couple of cases to draw Amazon’s attention to this. In previous two support cases they eventually advised that the issue was fixed but it isn’t.
The way we communicate the data to Amazon is through Linnworks. I have double and triple checked and Linnworks is communicating the data in the correct format Amazon expects:
Shipping Carrier: DHL
Shipping service: DHL Express
Along with the tracking number. There is no manual intervention by us and I have supplied a full audit trail on the cases to show that Linnworks is supplying the data to Amazon via API and Amazon’s system is acknowledging receipt.
Today we now have 7 invalid DHL Express tracking numbers and our VTR compliance is dropping close to 95% overall and has dropped below this in one category. There is now a warning triangle against that category.
I’m hoping an Amazon representative reads this and can escalate the issue to the top so that it is fixed ASAP once and for all. Alternatively, remove DHL Express from the metric until the system is capable of validating DHL Express tracking numbers 100% of the time. At the moment it is a lottery and we are being penalised for it.
Amazon - please fix this issue.
Please see case numbers: 7922830512, 7881740492, 8001444862 and 8027941892.
Outcome to case number: 7922830512 “Currently your VTR Is 100% and the issue has been fixed.”
Outcome to case number: 7881740492 “We have removed the orders incorrectly marked as invalid and have received confirmation from our internal team the issue relating to DHL tracking has being resolved with the Carrier as of August 10th 2022.”
Notable Comment in ongoing case number: 8001444862 " We still have technical difficulties assigning validity of some T&T numbers in our internal tool and therefore valid numbers may slip through and be seen as invalid: Although the issue seemed solved, we see that still some T&T numbers are falling through."
4 replies
Seller_ZQyopdiwkUHOZ
The mods don’t have any extra power than Seller Support associates. If you want this escalating you’ll need to email the managing director’s office:
Remember to use polite, non forceful language and email from the email address your account is registered to.
Seller_BnqfOH5ahn4zV
Try changing tracking confirmation on those invalid consignments to
Carrier - Other - DHL
Delivery Service - Other - Express
Tracking ID - [Consignment number]
This should change VTR positively over following 72 hrs
Seller_SlXZyY9vz3zbX
Thanks for the suggestion.
Funnily enough earlier in the year, Linnworks was supplying the data as:
Carrier: Other > DHL
Delivery Service > Other > DHL Express
Similar to the present issue a handful of tracking numbers every month would not be validated.
I tried amending them to:
Carrier: DHL
Delivery Service: DHL Express
But it made no difference - they remained on the report.
I raised a case and Amazon advised ensure that they were entered this way - from the ticket:
" you used DHL, DHL Express as a carrier and for all beside first order you added carrier under “other” from drop down menu. You should only manually add a carrier name in the free-form text field “Other” when the carrier you are using is not present in the drop-down."
We made adjustments to Linnworks to ensure the data was being supplied to Amazon in the exact format specified but it has made no difference.
This month is worst in a long time - usually there are a couple of validation errors. There are 8 so far this month and 6 of those are from the last two days alone…
