Amazon forcing changes in Postage settings :(

[jazzydan58]

Dear Seller,

We are writing to let you know about a change to the UK shipping regions in your Amazon.co.uk seller account. As of 21st March 2012, deliveries to the Isle of Man, Guernsey and Jersey, as well as other off-mainland locations, will be included in the main "UK Street" shipping region.

We are making this change in order to ensure a consistent delivery experience for buyers on our site. Customers can now shop in confidence knowing that they will be charged the same rates for delivery to addresses throughout the UK, Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.

Your "UK Mainland Street" delivery rates will be automatically applied to the new "UK Street" region. If you wish to modify your current pricing, click the "Shipping Settings" link on the Settings tab in your Seller Central account, and then click the Edit button at the top of the Shipping Model section.

To find out more about changing your shipping settings, enter "Shipping Settings" in the Search box in the upper-right corner of the main seller Help page, or click "Configure My Shipping Settings" under the Configure Account Settings heading.

Thank you for selling on Amazon.

Amazon Services Europe

Is this going to be a problem for everyone else that sells on Amazon as it is sure going to give us a headache!

We could just about muddle through if they force you to ship to most places but we have serious problems with the channel islands there are no viable postage methods except Royal Mail and that only works if your stuff is really light weight.

 

[wezers]

yep, we got this problem , heavy goods cant go r-mail.
if a customer orders from an offshore address we will have to cancel the order in amazon. Not good for us, the customer or amazon.

Amazon is trying to force everyone into one simple location, when in fact we could do with more locations not fewer.

Wes

 

[mikeytt]

Certainly is for me. I send large items (canvas prints) which Royal Mail will not accept for posting to the Channel Islands - the only option is a £25 courier! So what do I do now, pray that no one from the Channel Islands purchases one of my items or charge everyone else in the courier rate postage? Ridiculous.

There should be an option to opt out those locations because Amazon's statement that "Customers can now shop in confidence knowing that they will be charged the same rates for delivery to addresses throughout the UK, Channel Islands and the Isle of Man" just isn't the case in the real world.

 

[biscuitvillage]

Yes we got this email today. I think it means nothing if you only use the Royal Mail.

For larger packets and parcels, we use PARCEL MONKEY and the difference on a parcel can be upto £30 so this will not help us as sellers at all.

We'll be praying for small orders from the Isles which is a ridiculous scenario to be in. We simply can't afford to subsidise this. A real shame.

 

[mikeytt]

I've fired of a message to Amazon to ask them to clarify this and to explain to me what sellers who have items that Royal Mail won't accept are meant to do. I'll post their reply when they get back to me.

 

[ADC]

We sell small items so it doesn't affect us. But the other thing you could do is look at how often you send an item to the channel islands and raise everyone elses postage charge accordingly.

e.g If the postage difference to the channel islands is £30 and you send 1 in every 30 items to the Channel Islands. You raise all your other postage by £1 to cover the cost.

 

[mikeytt]

That's certainly an option but if you increase your prices on Amazon, you have to keep to Amazon's price parity rules, so therefore have to increase your prices on other sales venues where it is still possible to exclude the channel islands. For some people this increase could mean that they become uncompetitive compared to other sellers on those sites.

Amazon really has not thought this through at all - at the very minimum there should be an opt out for sellers of items that they can't send by Royal Mail to the Channel islands

 

[123Simples]

We sell small items so it doesn't affect us. But the other thing you could do is look at how often you send an item to the channel islands and raise everyone elses postage charge accordingly.

e.g If the postage difference to the channel islands is £30 and you send 1 in every 30 items to the Channel Islands. You raise all your other postage by £1 to cover the cost.

That seems a little unfair though - as unfair as Amazon bringing in the UK shipping changes. Plus the fact that a seller might send 1 in 30 items to the Channel Islands today, but tomorrow that might be 5 items and they would be stuffed.

 

[jazzydan58]

We sell small items so it doesn't affect us. But the other thing you could do is look at how often you send an item to the channel islands and raise everyone elses postage charge accordingly.

e.g If the postage difference to the channel islands is £30 and you send 1 in every 30 items to the Channel Islands. You raise all your other postage by £1 to cover the cost.

This sort of system will not work as soon as people in the channel islands realise they dont have to pay any extra for washing machines, furniture, beds, curtain poles etc (basically anything that does not fit in an A3 envelope) they will all be buying through Amazon.

 

[mikeytt]

Can one just cancel orders received from the Channel Islands?

 

[123Simples]

Third-party sellers on the Amazon.co.uk Marketplace platform can also specify further delivery restrictions

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=3149611

So I guess therefore you could apply certain restrictions if you had to

 

[wormcity]

This is going to be very unfair.
and I can't understand why they are doing it.

Surely Amazon understands that couriers charge extra for remote and offshore places, and in most cases (ours definatly) that the surcharge we have to pay is high.

I guess the only way is to add extra per sale to cover the extra out of pocket shipping charge. !

 

[Lightfan]

It will be interesting to see what Amazon will be charging if you choose to use their "Buy Delivery" option. In the recent past this option would not process one of my delivery to Northern Ireland as it was to large and heavy!! I think I will be waiting to see if I end up cancelling 'off mainland' deliveries subject to royal mail restrictions - remember to many cancellations can affect your Pre-fulfilment Cancel Rate.

 

[MatthewOgborne]

Howdy,

This isn't a nice update.

While I can understand why they have done it, but come on, that's the 3rd update in as many weeks by Amazon. Play fair!

Matt

 

[newbiemanc]

Here's the response we got off Amazon when we questioned the new delivery policy: basically they are saying UK mainland customers will need to pay more postage as their new system will not differentiate between mainland and Channel Islands/Isle of Man.
We will put a note on all our listings stating that due to courier charges we unfortunately cannot ship to Channel Islands/Isle of Man. Would be nice to have the option to sell to customers in those places but looks like Amazon aren't going to let us do business there! Do they realise that we are at the mercy of the couriers and it is impossible to ship to those areas for the same price as UK mainland??????

Dear Seller,

Thank you for coming back to us.

I am sorry to hear that you are not satisfied with the change to the UK shipping regions that is about to take place on 21st March 2012.

However, please note that this is to ensure a consistent delivery experience for buyers on our site.

If you believe your delivery costs will exceed the postage credit granted for a particular item, we encourage you to set the price of the item with that in mind.

We do appreciate your feedback regarding this change and are always looking for ways to improve our service. Therefore your comments will be forwarded to the relevant department. For the moment please understand that the credit provided to sellers is standardised, however although we set a standard credit amount, we do not set the actual price of the item.

I do apologise for any inconvenience this may cause you.

Thank you for understanding.

 

[donnakebabnew]

Hi as you are talking about Amazon I thought I would ask you a question if you dont mind. I was wondering if it is legal to ship items over from China and purchase my own barcodes(as most dont comme with them) and sell them on AMazon using my own barcodes? I dont want to get into trouble for this if it is illegal but I have seen an item on there that I ship in being sold already.

Many Thanks
Donna

 

[AndyP]

Hi as you are talking about Amazon I thought I would ask you a question if you dont mind. I was wondering if it is legal to ship items over from China and purchase my own barcodes(as most dont comme with them) and sell them on AMazon using my own barcodes? I dont want to get into trouble for this if it is illegal but I have seen an item on there that I ship in being sold already.

Many Thanks
Donna

Donna

I think you would do better to start a separate thread to ask this question. You are likely to get a better response if it stands on its own and you also don't run the risk of highjacking the OP's well established and active thread.

 

[donnakebabnew]

Ok thank you.

Regards
Donna

 

[Mark XS-Stock]

We are in the same boat. It seems a bit silly for Amazon to force sellers towards the new Tesco.com or eBay for larger items. I spoke to Seller Support and they basically said this is what is happening, raise all you prices to cover any off mainland charges.

Like many of the views on this forum we sell approx 10000 products from small Royal mail to Palleted items so there is no way you can keep the same price for shipping.

 

[SamStones]

Hi All,

I was just wondering how others are getting on with this? I've tried Amazon's "Buy Delivery" option but it says they can't find any quotes to ship to these addresses...

 

[designfirmusa]

yep, we got this problem , heavy goods cant go r-mail.
if a customer orders from an offshore address we will have to cancel the order in amazon. Not good for us, the customer or amazon.

Amazon is trying to force everyone into one simple location, when in fact we could do with more locations not fewer.

 

[SillyJokes]

I think that firstly, this may not be as big a problem as you imagine it is. One in 30 people in the UK do not live in the Channel Islands, Isle of Man etc for instance. You may find it consititutes very few orders. Only your own figures will show

Making all customers pay extra because of these outlying areas does seem a bit unfair but it's already the case. Royal Mail would be cheaper if they didn't have to already take goods there.

April will bring much higher postage charges all round and of course rising oil priced mean more expensive couriers and packaging.

Unfortunately customers may soon find that shipping is a very real cost that merchants can no longer absorb. The extra few pence you'd need to add on to cover far off places will be a drop in the ocean.

 

[SamStones]

I think that firstly, this may not be as big a problem as you imagine it is. One in 30 people in the UK do not live in the Channel Islands, Isle of Man etc for instance. You may find it consititutes very few orders. Only your own figures will show

Making all customers pay extra because of these outlying areas does seem a bit unfair but it's already the case. Royal Mail would be cheaper if they didn't have to already take goods there.

April will bring much higher postage charges all round and of course rising oil priced mean more expensive couriers and packaging.

Unfortunately customers may soon find that shipping is a very real cost that merchants can no longer absorb. The extra few pence you'd need to add on to cover far off places will be a drop in the ocean.

We had two orders yesterday, one for Channel Islands, one for NI. In the NI case shipping was going to be over 50% of what the customer paid in total, and in the case of the Channel Islands order shipping was going to be £42 and total order value was £31

Had to cancel both unfortunately, as I've spent over an hour searching out shipping quotes just to see if it's possible and I've perhaps missed something!

 

[SillyJokes]

did you give the customers the option to pay the shipping?

 

[SamStones]

did you give the customers the option to pay the shipping?

Of Course. But quite naturally they didn't want to pay £40 shipping on a £30 item

 

[CLSLTD]

Anyone made any progress on this? Amazon sent us the same ridiculous justification newbiemanc got.
The result of this change is that people in Channel Islands are going to have their orders cancelled - which is completely unfair on them.
There is for sure EU legislation which makes it illegal for corporations to discriminate against people living in outlying areas - which is what this change does.
Any EU lawyer wanting to take this on?!

 

[CLSLTD]

Channel Islands are not part of the UK. So now I'm really confused as here they show Jersey as being part of EU shipping:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_left_sib?ie=UTF8&nodeId=14044781

 

[Talay]

I called Amazon today to return something outside 30 days as it is faulty and they wanted me to go find a something plus drop shop in the middle of nowhere. Not likely I said, so they are emailing me a Royal Mail freebie.

I guess Amazon are feeling the pinch as well then ?

 

[Jeremy-MarketPlaceSeller]

did you give the customers the option to pay the shipping?

I asked Amazon about this and they confirmed it would be a breach of policy for a seller to ask a customer to pay anything extra outside of Amazon "as this would involve you and your buyer leaving the security of the amazon platform."

There is for sure EU legislation which makes it illegal for corporations to discriminate against people living in outlying areas - which is what this change does.
Any EU lawyer wanting to take this on?!

I think this law could be part of the reason for the change, as Amazon would argue including different charges for offshore regions is discriminating against the people in those regions.

I believe the change was probably done as a counter-measure against eBay introduction of their shipping rates table last year, to try to get more offshore buyers off eBay and onto Amazon.

I don't think Amazon realise that this move is having the opposite affect on the very thing they're trying to achieve. Rather than resulting in the increase in offshore customers I have been cancelling orders (4-6 per week at £50-£120) that under the old structure with an extra fee I would have fulfilled.

So where do those customers go? eBay probably (or direct to a website) where a seller can offer them the item and delivery with an extra but fair charge.

And the Channel Islands - these are not part of the UK and Amazon's own fulfilment service doesn't ship there, so why on earth they are included within the UK street region is a mystery to me.

 

[krupuk]

yep, we got this problem , heavy goods cant go r-mail.
if a customer orders from an offshore address we will have to cancel the order in amazon. Not good for us, the customer or amazon.

Amazon is trying to force everyone into one simple location, when in fact we could do with more locations not fewer.

Wes

You cannot use cancellations to avoid the policy.

I wrote to Amazon UK's managing director to complain about the policy, pointing out that it was absurd as many couriers charge more to ship to the UK's remoter regions than they do to ship to France, Germany, Benelux, Eire. They wrote back saying that they understood that I might want to stop selling products where this was an issue.

Amazon are not in the business of helping marketplace sellers. They are in the business of market domination, taking your money, and using marketplace to amass data on product sales that helps them to manipulate and dominate product sectors. They have no interest in what effect this has on you. They're probably very happy that its a problem for you, because it isn't for them.

It may also be designed to push sellers towards Amazon fulfilment.

 

[Jeremy-MarketPlaceSeller]

You cannot use cancellations to avoid the policy.

I was advised by Amazon that in cases where I can only offer products for delivery to the UK mainland, I should note this in the condition note of the item.

They never said anything about not being able to cancel orders, but they did say they would not adjust feedback or seller metrics in the event of cancelled orders for this reasons.

I think part of the problem comes from Amazon trying to provide a one size fits all solution, where in reality they need options and solutions that vary in accordance with the nature of the items being offered.

 

[kulture]

I know that this is not a complete solution, but depending on what you sell you can use the shipping override method to adjust the shipping charge of up to 10% of your inventory.
https://sellercentral-europe.amazon...59180?ie=UTF8&itemID=200212820&language=en_GB

So you can for example set your shipping charges to use the Royal Mail for everything up to 2Kg and then the override for everything over 2Kg (you specify which products, so you are not at the mercy of some other seller helpfully changing the shipping weight to 3 grams!)