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A-Z Claim Guide Thread – Appeal Templates for A-Z Claims

Published

2 years ago

November 24, 2022

As everyone knows, I really like sharing my experience and knowledge with selling on the Amazon platform gained after years of successfully trading here since high school (across all international Amazon marketplaces) and this guide thread should help all sellers who struggle with representing their case properly in cases when the buyer decides to open an A-Z claim.

Unfortunately, all my original threads were maliciously deleted from the Amazon forums and as I did not have the text saved anywhere, I have now prepared a new thread to repost the content (with the help of Google cache which preserved parts of the original deleted thread) and this one is updated to reflect all recent changes of Amazon policies.

So I hope you like it and if you need any help, feel free to comment and I will get back to you.

A-Z claim guide

The most important factor when determining how to respond to an A-Z claim is the claim title. There are 2 main types:

– “Package did not arrive”

– “Different to what I ordered”

There also used to be an option of opening a claim with no title at all or a claim type “Order Returned”, but since I haven’t seen them for a few months, I am assuming that Amazon is no longer allowing them and their use has been discontinued.

Buyers on Amazon have exactly 90 days past the latest day of the Estimated Delivery Date range of their order to open an A-Z claim, however the Customer Service can submit one on their behalf until after 6 months past delivery

You should know, that buyers (or Amazon Customer Support) are often selecting the incorrect claim title and mentioning a completely different issue in the claim comments, therefore making it difficult to submit a proper response.

Also, buyers are able to appeal the claim decision and update their story anytime. For example by claiming that the item arrived damaged after losing a “Package did not arrive” claim or by stating that the goods were never received when being asked by Amazon to return them in order to get their money back.

For this reason, my claim representations almost always address the second claim type as well, to ensure that Amazon will not simply refund the buyer after the story gets changed.

They are written in a very clear, polite language so that overseas Amazon reps will understand them. There are no accusations or insults towards Amazon or buyers. I am simply standing my ground. This 100% works, without any need to submit proof pictures, videos, contact the Seller Support or report the buyers.

Do I always have the option to respond to all A-Z claims which the buyers submit?

Unfortunately, while in the past sellers had the option to represent their case within 72 hours whenever a claim was submitted (in cases of non-receipt claims as long as the tracking information was entered at the time of dispatch), this is no longer the case.

As many of you know, Amazon has recently changed the way how A-Z Guarantee Claims are being processed on their site.

They are now in most cases getting automatically granted with an instant full refund issued to the buyer.

Once this happens, all the seller can do is submit an appeal after clicking on the “Appeal claim” button. The appeal attempt is only one and the outcome is usually having Amazon cover the previously debited amount out of their own funds or simply having it rejected.

The updated policy wording says that:

”If we determine that additional information is required before we make a claim decision, we will contact you via email, and you must respond within three calendar days.”

So basically, you will only be contacted prior to the final decision being made if Amazon determines that additional information is needed.

From what I have seen by now, non-receipt claims are getting automatically granted in cases where the seller did not use a shipping carrier integrated with Amazon, which would enable the investigators to easily verify the tracking status of a package, or if the integrated carrier’s tracking results don’t indicate that the package was successfully delivered to the buyer’s shipping address.

”Package did not arrive” A-Z claims

While in the past, sellers used to be able to win these claims or at least have them funded by Amazon with just tracking, Amazon has recently gotten a lot stricter and is in many cases of non-receipt requesting sellers to provide a proof of delivery with the buyer’s signature.

So even if you respond properly, the claim might bounce back as requiring a response and end up being granted and Seller Funded.

The only guaranteed way how to win them is having a tracking link showing delivery + pdf file with the buyer’s signature. A tracking link showing delivery with a signature of the addressee will be often sufficient, unless the buyer appeals.

Here are some example situations with my response templates:

Buyer claiming non-receipt and seller has the signature proof of delivery

Buyer claiming non-receipt and seller has just tracking

Buyer claiming non-receipt and the shipment was delayed in transit

“Hello, the order was shipped on (date) with tracking number (xxxxxx) by carrier (carrier name). The shipment can be tracked on this link: (link to online tracking showing the status of the shipment). According to the order’s tracking information, the package is currently still in transit to the buyer, due to postal delays caused by (enter what is appropriate – bad weather, postal strikes, etc.). The order will be delivered to the buyer in a few days.”

Buyer claiming non-receipt and the package is awaiting collection at the post office

Buyer claiming non-receipt after selecting Expedited/Premium Delivery at checkout without noticing the extra cost and then refusing/not collecting the package, hoping to get a full refund

“Hello, the order was shipped on (date) with tracking number (xxxxxx) by carrier (carrier name). The shipment can be tracked on this link: (link to online tracking showing the status of the shipment). According to the order’s tracking information, the delivery was attempted to the correct address on (date), however the addressee refused the package. Since the package was returned, I refunded the buyer the full product price + Standard shipping cost of (xx + xx). The buyer selected Expedited/Premium Delivery at checkout, which is an extra service priced at (xx) and won’t be refunded. According to the Amazon’s marketplace returns policy and the law, sellers are only required to refund the cost corresponding to the lowest shipping option offered when items are returned. Here is the Amazon marketplace returns policy which says: “Sellers are only required to refund standard postage charges corresponding to the least expensive type of delivery offered by them.” “Sellers aren’t required to refund the cost of gift-wrapping, delivery or other services provided to you in connection with your purchase.” Link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_left_v4_sib?ie=UTF8&nodeId=201819160 . Please close the claim since I have already refunded the buyer according to the Amazon Marketplace Returns Policy and there has been no error on my part, as the buyer refused the delivery of the package. Thank you.”

Buyer claiming non-receipt and seller shipped a replacement

“Hello, the order was shipped on (date) with tracking number (xxxxxx) by carrier (carrier name). The shipment can be tracked on this link: (link to online tracking showing the status of the shipment). According to the order’s tracking information, the package (was lost/ delivered / returned back to sender, etc…). The buyer contacted me on (date) and stated that she didn’t receive her order. I immediately responded to the buyer and promised to send her a new package as a replacement. So I shipped a new package as a replacement with tracking number (xxxx) by carrier (carrier name), which [will be delivered to the buyer after weekend/ was already delivered on (date)]. I did not receive any response to my messages. I think that the buyer opted out of the Amazon messaging. The Amazon customer service opened an A-Z claim, despite I already shipped a replacement and mentioned it in a message. Please contact the buyer and tell her that the replacement was already (shipped/delivered) and that the tracking number is (xxxx), it can be tracked on this link: (tracking link showing status of the shipment) and ask her to cancel the claim. Thank you.”

Buyer claiming the receipt of an empty box – “Package did not arrive” claim title”

“Hello, the order was shipped on (date) with tracking number (xxxxxx) by carrier (carrier name). The items, which I shipped were in the correct quantity and exactly as described in the listing. The shipment can be tracked on this link: (link to online tracking showing delivery and signature). According to the order’s tracking information, the package was delivered to the correct address on (date) and signed by (name). The tracking information doesn’t show any damage or loss of contents during transit. If the buyer isn’t satisfied with his order, it is possible to return it for a refund. Please close this claim since the order was already delivered. Thank you.”

Buyer claiming non-receipt after refusing the delivery and demanding a full refund while the package is still in transit

Buyer claiming that only a part of order was received after ordering multiple items

Buyer claiming that items were not as described – “Package did not arrive” claim title”

“Hello, the order was shipped on (date) with tracking number (xxxxxx) by carrier (carrier name). The items, which I shipped were exactly as described in the listing. The shipment can be tracked on this link: (link to online tracking showing delivery and signature). According to the order’s tracking information, the package was delivered to the correct address on (date) and signed by (name). The tracking information doesn’t show any damage during transit. If the buyer isn’t satisfied with his order, it is possible to return it for a refund. Please close this claim since the order was already delivered. Thank you.”

Buyer claiming non-receipt after refusing a package, which was then lost in transit

Buyer claiming that the order arrived late – “Package did not arrive” claim title”

*Applies to Amazon USA only:

Buyer claiming non-receipt and the shipping was purchased from Amazon

“Hello, the order was shipped on (date) with tracking number (xxxxxx) by carrier (carrier name). The shipment can be tracked on this link: (link to online tracking showing delivery and if applicable signature). According to the order’s tracking information, the package was delivered to the correct address on (date). The shipping was purchased from Amazon and according to the Amazon’s policy regarding Buy Shipping Services, Amazon will cover any non-receipt claims regarding shipments sent using their service. Here is the Amazon’s Buy Shipping Policy addressing A-Z claims: “If you purchase Amazon’s Buy Shipping and ship on time, you are protected against claims where a customer reports problems with delivery. Amazon will cover the cost of these claims and they will not affect your Order Defect Rate.” Link to the policy: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/help.html/?itemID=G200202220. Please close this claim since the order was already delivered and the shipping was bought from Amazon. Thank you.”

Buyer claiming non-receipt after refusing a package shipped using Amazon’s Buy Shipping Services, which was then lost in transit

“Hello, the order was shipped on (date) with tracking number (xxxxxx) by carrier (carrier name). The shipment can be tracked on this link: (link to online tracking showing the shipment’s status). According to the order’s tracking information, the delivery was attempted to the correct address on (date), however the addressee then refused the package and it got lost on it’s way back to the sender. The shipping was purchased from Amazon and according to the Amazon’s policy regarding Buy Shipping Services, Amazon will cover any non-receipt claims regarding shipments sent using their service. Here is the Amazon’s Buy Shipping Policy addressing A-Z claims: “If you purchase Amazon’s Buy Shipping and ship on time, you are protected against claims where a customer reports problems with delivery. Amazon will cover the cost of these claims and they will not affect your Order Defect Rate.” Link to the policy: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/help.html/?itemID=G200202220&ref* =ag_G200202220 *Also, Amazon’s policy states that refusing a package isn’t a way to return the item and in a case like this, the buyer would not be covered by the A-Z guarantee. Here is the text of the policy: “If a package doesn’t arrive and you don’t use a trackable method to return or if you refuse the shipment as a method of return, we may not be able to cover you under the A-to-z Guarantee.” Link: https://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?ie=UTF8&nodeId=15015721 . Please close this claim without debiting my account, since the shipping was purchased from Amazon and the package got lost after buyer refused the delivery. Thank you.”

What to do when the A-Z guarantee responds back, asking for additional information?

If Amazon doesn’t find your proof of delivery to be sufficient, which is usually the case when you only have a tracking number, they will repond back with an e-mail.

At this point, you are very likely to lose if you don’t have a signature proof of delivery. You can still try responding with just the tracking number or telling them that the order was low value and this is the reason why you don’t have the signature. In some cases it will work, but these are becoming rare.

Responding to Amazon’s e-mails with a request for additional information can be tricky as they are often not accepting incoming communication.

In such case, you will need to respond through the A-Z claim form and include any attachments in a form of a link to an online image hosting site.

My preferred option is opening a case with the Seller Support under “A-to-z Guarantee claim issues” and presenting all additional information here, along with any attachments. Don’t forget to enter the order ID and request to have your submissions forwarded as an addition to the claim representation.

”Different to what I ordered” A-Z claims

These claims are very easy to win, regardless if the items were shipped tracked or not. However, the outcome is very dependent on the way, how a seller handles his return requests.

All return requests should be processed (either denied or accepted) within no more than 48 hours. Eligible returns (requested within the Amazon’s 30days mandatory return period or 90 days if the order was placed between 1.November and 31.January) need to be authorised, regardless of the category. Out of policy return requests can be denied.

A failure to do so will result in any “Different to what I ordered” claim being automatically granted with a full refund:

”Respond to return requests from the Online Return Center within 48 hours. Failure to do so may result in an A-to-z Guarantee claim and an immediate debit to your account.”

The most common mistake, which inexperienced sellers make is demanding the buyers to supply proof pictures or explain why are they are asking for a return. Some sellers will dispute the return reason selected by the buyer and call the Seller Support, expecting assurances that they are within their rights to refuse the request. This is often followed by an A-Z claim with a full refund to the buyer.

Also, once a return is authorised, there is no room for any negotiations with the buyer. They are within their rights to return the items.

Once items are returned, the seller should carefully inspect the merchandise and in case that it arrived back in a different condition than sent, it is possible to withold a reasonable deduction out of the refund to cover the loss of value as a result of it or refuse to refund at all (items which are not suitable for returns due to health protection or hygienic reasons if unsealed after delivery) and ask the buyer to supply a pre-paid return label instead, in case that he wants his non-returnable items back.

A very important thing is also knowing how to handle returns for orders placed on different Amazon marketplaces.

The seller is always required to either provide a local return address, pre-paid return label (to have the items returned to his own country) or refund the buyer in full, without requesting the merchandise to be returned.

Here are some example situations with my response templates (click on each link to expose the claim representation):

Buyer claiming that items were not as described, without ever contacting the seller

“Hello, the order was delivered to the buyer on (date) according to the order’s tracking number (xxxxx) by carrier (carrier name). The item which I shipped was exactly as described in the listing. The buyer never contacted me to say, that there is anything wrong with the item. According to the Amazon policy, it is possible to return the order for a refund within 30days past delivery. I will issue a refund as soon as I receive the item back.”

After you respond with this, Amazon will e-mail you and ask you to e-mail the buyer with CC to A-Z guarantee and provide return instructions (just the return address is enough, no pre-paid return label is necessary). Then the claim will get denied.

Buyer claiming that items were not as described after requesting a return, without returning the items or providing a tracking number as proof of shipping anything back

“Hello, the order was delivered to the buyer on (date) according to the order’s tracking number (xxxxx) by carrier (carrier name). The item which I shipped was exactly as described in the listing. A return was requested on (date) and authorised immediately, however nothing was returned and no return tracking information provided. I will issue a refund as soon as I receive the item back. Thank you.”

Buyer claiming that items were not as described after the returns period has already expired

“Hello, the order was shipped on (date) with tracking number (xxxx) by carrier (carrier name). The items were exactly as described in the listing. According to the order’s tracking information, the order was delivered on (date). The buyer never contacted me to say that anything is wrong with the items and didn’t request a return within the Amazon’s 30days return policy. A return request was opened on (date), which was denied for being “out of policy” as it was opened (xx) days after delivery. Please close the claim since this order is no longer eligible to be returned. Thank you.”

Buyer claiming that the shipping cost/price was too high and requesting a partial refund without a return

“Hello, the order was shipped on (date) with tracking number (xxxx) by carrier (carrier name). The items were exactly as described in the listing. According to the order’s tracking information, the order was delivered on (date). The buyer never contacted me to say that anything is wrong with the items, but complained that the shipping cost/price is too high. The cost was displayed at checkout and the buyer agreed to it by placing the order. If the buyer isn’t satisfied with his order, it is possible to return it for a refund within 30 days past delivery. I will refund the buyer as soon as the items are returned. Thank you.”

Buyer claiming that items were not as described and demanding a full refund/ free item without a return

“Hello, the order was shipped on (date) with tracking number (xxxx) by carrier (carrier name). The items were exactly as described in the listing. According to the order’s tracking information, the order was delivered on (date). The buyer contacted me to say that he is not satisfied with his order and demanded (xxxxx) without a return. According to the Amazon policy, it is possible to return the order for a refund within 30 days past delivery. I will refund the buyer as soon as the items are returned. Thank you.”

Buyer requesting a refund of the Expedited/Premium Delivery charge after returning his order and getting only a partial refund of product price + Standard Delivery

“Hello, the order was shipped on (date) with tracking number (xxxxxx) by carrier (carrier name). The items were exactly as described in the listing. The shipment can be tracked on this link: (link to online tracking showing delivery). According to the order’s tracking information, the order was delivered to the correct address on (date) and signed by (name). The buyer requested a return on (date), which was authorised. As soon as the order was returned, I refunded the buyer the full product price + Standard shipping cost of (xx + xx). The buyer selected Expedited/Premium Delivery at checkout, which is an extra service priced at (xx) and it won’t be refunded. According to the Amazon’s marketplace returns policy and the law, sellers are only required to refund the cost corresponding to the lowest shipping option offered when items are returned. Here is the Amazon marketplace returns policy which says: “Sellers are only required to refund standard postage charges corresponding to the least expensive type of delivery offered by them.” “Sellers aren’t required to refund the cost of gift-wrapping, delivery or other services provided to you in connection with your purchase.” Link: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/help/customer/display.html/ref=hp_left_v4_sib?ie=UTF8&nodeId=201819160 . Please close the claim since I have already refunded the buyer according to the Amazon Marketplace Returns Policy. Thank you.”

Buyer demanding the remaining order cost to be reimbursed after only getting a partial refund due to returning items in a materially different condition than sent

“Hello, the order was delivered to the buyer on (date) according to the order’s tracking number (xxxxx) by carrier (carrier name). The items which I shipped were exactly as described in the listing. A return was requested on (date) and authorised immediately. The return was received on (date) and immediately processed with a refund of (amount). A partial refund was isssued to cover the cost of loss of value, since the items were returned without the original packaging and heavily used, in unsellable condition. Please close this claim since the return was already processed with a refund issued according to the Amazon Marketplace Returns Policy. Thank you.”

What to do when the A-Z guarantee responds back, asking for additional information?

If the buyer never opened a return request and an A-Z claim is the first time you hear from them or he simply discarded the item and is refusing to do a return, Amazon will e-mail you with a message (in English/German/French/Spanish or Italian, depending on the marketplace).

After this e-mail, you will have exactly 3 days to respond back.

As already mentioned, responding to Amazon’s e-mails with a request for additional information can be tricky as these are often not accepting incoming communication.

In such case, you will need to respond through the A-Z claim form or my preferred option is opening a case with the Seller Support under “A-to-z Guarantee claim issues” and presenting all additional information here, along with any attachments. Don’t forget to enter the order ID and request to have your submissions forwarded as an addition to the claim representation.

Once you respond, the claim will be closed. The same claim will get re-opened as soon as the buyer responds to A-Z guarantee with the return tracking information.

When this happens, you will receive an e-mail.

At this point, to prevent Amazon issuing a full refund to the buyer, you will need to keep responding to the claim every 3 days to say, that you haven’t received the goods yet and that you will refund as soon as you do.

If you eventually receive the merchandise back, process the return with a refund and also respond to the claim with an update to let them know about your refunding decision (for example why you decided to deduct the cost of loss of value out of the refund).

After this, the claim will get either denied, Funded by Amazon or the seller. In some cases, Amazon will dispute your refunding decision and ask you to issue a further concession. This is the time when you will need to stand your ground and keep argumenting, depending on your specific situation in order to win.

Appealing incorrectly closed A-Z claims

The updated Amazon help pages state that:

”If a claim is granted to the customer and the amount is debited from your account, you have 30 calendar days to submit an appeal if you disagree with our decision and have new information for our investigation.”

So you can appeal any incorrectly closed claims through the A-Z claim interface using the “Appeal” button, by opening a case with the Seller Support or if nothing works, by e-mailing jeff@amazon.com or managingdirector@amazon.co.uk.

But make sure that your message is brief, easy to read, written in short paragraphs and includes all necessary information and attachments.

Here is an example A-Z claim appeal addressing a situation in which an automated refund was issued to the buyer without giving the seller any option to respond:

Here is an example A-Z claim appeal addressing a situation in which the seller lost the claim after representing his case:

I hope you found this article helpful. Many Amazon sellers recently started trading stocks and crypto currencies, hoping to diversify their income, which is a very good idea with all the uncertainty which comes with the platform. For this reason, we launched a new Facebook group, Crypto Arbitrage Income (Bitcoin, Crypto, Altcoins, Blockchain, Trading) – feel free to join us and forget about the troubles of selling on Amazon for a moment!

Regarding Amazon Seller Performance, you can always participate in our Amazon Seller Performance – Friendly Advice – Worldwide group, where you will be very welcome.

If you are an Amazon Seller who needs help with any Amazon-related issues such as suspensions, listing blocks or is looking for professional assistance, please don’t hesitate to subscribe to my new OnlyFans page at: www.onlyfans.com/kikaangelic

In case you are an Amazon Seller who needs help with Seller Identity Verification on Amazon, please feel free to watch my most detailed video on the subject, addressing all common questions:

Kika Angelic

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My name is Kristina Hajdukova, but I am known as Kika Angelic. I have been selling online since high school and I dedicated my entire life to helping other Amazon Sellers and building the seller community Regarding Amazon Seller Performance, you can always participate in my Amazon Seller Performance – Friendly Advice – Worldwide group, where you will be very welcome. If you are an Amazon Seller who needs help with any Amazon-related issues such as suspensions, listing blocks or is looking for professional assistance, please don’t hesitate to subscribe to my new OnlyFans page at: www.onlyfans.com/kikaangelic

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New OTDR On-time Delivery Policy explained for international sellers

Published

1 day ago

July 26, 2024

Kika Angelic

If you are one of the millions of third party sellers doing business across Amazon’s platforms, you are already used to having to adapt to the announcements of extremely strict, unexpected policies which lack clarifications of the most crucial points.

This evening, Amazon suddenly e-mailed their third party sellers on the United States platform to inform them about a newly-announced policy called “On-time delivery rate” or OTDR. Here you can review the full policy.

Many sellers reacted with confusion, anger and outrage and expressed their views on social media. In this article, I would like to respond with clarification to the most common concerns.

Below you can review the e-mail from Amazon regarding On-time delivery policy:

New updates to our On-time delivery policy and changes to shipping settings

Dear seller,

Fast and accurate delivery is essential for customers and often determines where they choose to shop. Over time, we’ve learned that the best way to ensure reliable on-time delivery for customers is to set accurate Handling and Transit Times and to choose reliable shipping services. To help reduce late deliveries and improve delivery speeds, we’re updating our On-time delivery rate (OTDR) policy.

Effective 09/23/2024 [60 days from today], you’ll need to maintain a minimum 90% On-time delivery rate (OTDR) without promise extensions to have seller-fulfilled products listed on Amazon.com. We will start by addressing sellers with the lowest OTDR performance. This policy does not apply to offers using the Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA) service because sellers are not responsible for on-time delivery promises for FBA orders.

Your current OTDR, calculated between 7/5/2024 and 7/18/2024 is 100.0%. Your account is currently in healthy OTDR standing.

You can manage your delivery dates using the tools we’ve provided, or you can manually adjust your Transit Time and Handling Time settings. We designed these tools to set accurate delivery dates, reduce late deliveries, and to meet or exceed the minimum OTDR requirement, and because Amazon is making calculations on your behalf that affect OTDR, you will get OTDR protection from late deliveries on items shipped through Standard Shipping if you use all three tools as follows:

a) Shipping Settings Automation (SSA), for Professional sellers, sets accurate delivery dates through automated Transit Time calculations of your preferred shipping services. You must choose one of the preferred ship methods in the SSA templates, which will mark the Transit Time on the shipping template as “Managed by Amazon”.

b) Automated Handling Time (AHT), for Professional sellers, sets accurate Handling Times per SKU based on how long it usually takes you to pass each SKU to carriers. You must ensure that AHT is enabled in your shipping settings.

c) Amazon Buy Shipping, for both Professional and Individual selling plans, sells shipping labels that use highly-reliable ship methods. You can use Amazon Buy Shipping through Manage Orders, Shipping API, Veeqo, or select multi-channel integrators with access to Amazon Buy Shipping. You must choose shipping labels marked as “OTDR Protected” when using Amazon Buy Shipping or Veeqo.

We’ll also make changes to shipping settings to help Professional sellers set more accurate delivery dates:

a) Transit Time settings: On 08/24/24 [30 days from today], our Transit Time requirements will be updated to match the delivery capabilities of shipping services. If you are shipping within the contiguous United States (excluding Hawaii, Alaska, and US territories), you can set a maximum Transit Time of 5 days for Standard shipping and 8 days for Free Economy shipping. To learn more, go to Default Transit Time.

b) Handling Time settings: On 09/23/24 [60 days from today], to help improve the accuracy of Handling Time, we’ll enable Automated Handling Time (AHT) for sellers that have a manually configured Handling Time that is 2 or more days slower than their actual Handling Time (also known as a Handling Time gap). To see your Handling Time gap, review your Fulfillment Insight dashboard.

You can review your OTDR on your Account Health dashboard. We also recommend you review the “Deliver by” dates for your orders to ensure they match the expected delivery date without promise extensions.
To learn more, go to On-time delivery.

Thank you,

Fulfilled By Merchant Team

This is the post published by Amazon regarding the matter elsewhere:

New updates to our on-time delivery policy and shipping settings

Fast and accurate delivery is essential for customers and often determines where they choose to shop. Over time, we’ve learned that the best way to ensure reliable on-time delivery for customers is to set accurate handling and transit times and to choose reliable shipping services. To help reduce late deliveries and improve delivery speeds, we’re changing our on-time delivery rate (OTDR) policy.

Effective September 25, 2024, you’ll need to maintain a minimum 90% OTDR without promise extensions to have seller-fulfilled products listed on Amazon.com. We will start by addressing sellers with the lowest OTDR performance. For a great customer experience, we recommend that you maintain a 95% or greater OTDR for all seller-fulfilled orders. This policy does not apply to offers using the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) service because sellers are not responsible for on-time delivery promises for FBA orders.
Also, we’ll make the following changes to shipping settings to help sellers with Professional selling plans set accurate delivery dates:

Transit time settings: On August 25, 2024, our transit time requirements will be updated to match the delivery capabilities of shipping services. If you’re shipping within the contiguous United States (excluding Hawaii, Alaska, and US territories), you can set a maximum transit time of five days for standard shipping and eight days for free economy shipping. To learn more, go to Default transit time.

Handling time settings: On September 25, 2024, to help improve the accuracy of handling time, we’ll enable automated handling time for sellers that have a manually configured handling time that is two or more days slower than their actual handling time (also known as a handling time gap). To see your handling time gap, review your Fulfillment Insight dashboard.

We understand changes like this are significant and require time to prepare. You can manage your delivery dates using the tools we’ve provided, or you can manually adjust your transit time and handling time settings. We designed these tools to set accurate delivery dates, reduce late deliveries, and to meet or exceed the minimum OTDR requirement, and because Amazon is making calculations on your behalf that affect OTDR, you will get OTDR protection from late deliveries on items shipped through standard shipping if you use all three tools as follows:

Shipping Settings Automation (SSA), for Professional selling plans, sets accurate delivery dates through automated transit time calculations of your preferred shipping services. You must choose one of the preferred ship methods in the SSA templates, which will mark the transit time on the shipping template as “Managed by Amazon.”

Automated handling time, for Professional selling plans, sets accurate handling times per SKU based on how long it usually takes you to pass each SKU to carriers. You must ensure that automated handling time is enabled in your shipping settings.

Amazon Buy Shipping, for both Professional and Individual selling plans, sells shipping labels that use highly-reliable ship methods. You can use Amazon Buy Shipping through Manage Orders, Shipping API, Veeqo, or select multi-channel integrators with access to Amazon Buy Shipping. You must choose shipping labels marked as “OTDR Protected” when using Amazon Buy Shipping or Veeqo.

You’ll receive an email with your current OTDR and recommendations on how to improve if you’re below the minimum requirement. To learn more, review your OTDR on your Account Health dashboard or go to On-time delivery.


While this policy brings nothing new to most FBM Amazon sellers who are based in the United States or major countries with Amazon marketplace presence, it may sound confusing and bring uncertainty to Amazon sellers outside of the Valid Tracking Rate criteria, who don’t have access to Buy Shipping Services. I would like to address the most common questions.

What does OTDR mean for international sellers?

For sellers based in smaller countries all over the world, including Europe, access to easily available international online trackable shipping is an unachievable luxury.

In smaller countries, there is no infrastructure to facilitate international shipping with online tracking. As the OTDR policy states, using the Buy Shipping Services is the recommended way of complying with the OTDR policy. However, Buy Shipping Services are not available in countries with lack of international online tracking services offered and provided by carriers.

Because of this, sellers with no access to Buy Shipping Services have always been exempt from the Valid Tracking Requirement and also any other tracking-related metrics and policies.

OTDR applies to all sellers equally. According to the policy, effective September 25, 2024, you must maintain a minimum 90% on-time delivery rate (OTDR) without promise extensions to have seller-fulfilled products listed on Amazon.com. An OTDR below 90% can result in restriction of your ability to have seller-fulfilled products listed.

If your OTDR is below 90%, you can appeal by clicking on “Submit appeal” at the top of your Account Health dashboard. Sellers on Individual selling plans or sellers on a Professional selling plan but shipping from outside the US must submit an appeal request indicating how they will improve their OTDR.

However, the OTDR measures the percentage of your tracked seller-fulfilled items that were delivered on or before the seller-promised “Deliver by” date. OTDR is the average of all of your tracked shipped items, not just a specific SKU or shipment.

This means that if you are not subject to Valid Tracking Rate requirement, then only the performance of your tracked FBM orders will be measured for OTDR percentage calculation.

Please note that the OTDR policy doesn’t mean that you will now have to ship every FBM order tracked.

Does Amazon offer any tools for international sellers that can help them improve their OTDR and meet the Amazon’s OTDR requirements?

No. OTDR Protection is only applicable to Professional sellers shipping from the US, as all of the required tools are currently not available on Individual selling plans or to Professional sellers that are shipping from outside of the US.

This indicates that if you are an international Amazon Seller who decides to ship orders tracked, you will need to carefully select a carrier who can deliver within each order’s promised Estimated Delivery Date, otherwise you may have your FBM shipping ability revoked.

What are “Promise Extensions”?

Promise Extensions are the additional time that Amazon may add to your configured promised delivery date to account for logistical factors that might delay a delivery. Examples include extreme weather, transportation network constraints, or recent history of delivering after the delivery date without promise extensions. When a promise extension is added, the promised delivery date that customers see is later than the “Deliver by” date that you will see in Seller Central.

When your order is subject to a Promise Extension, the customer may be unable to open an A-Z claim and will be advised to wait until the order gets delivered.

Where can I access my current OTDR performance?

The OTDR metric is currently only available on the United States platform. You can view your performance by accessing the Account Health Dashboard, where the metric is on the right side, under Shipping Performance as “On-Time Delivery Rate without promise extensions”.

Where to get more help and information regarding OTDR

If you have any other questions related to the OTDR and need fast and professional assistance provided for free and without wait, join our discussion forum for Amazon Sellers.

To stay in touch on Facebook, feel free to join and post into my large Amazon Seller Performance – Friendly Advice – Worldwide Facebook group, where you will be very welcome too.

Here, you can also review the full OTDR policy reposted from Amazon help page, which mainly focuses on answering the questions from US based sellers:

Frequently asked questions about on-time delivery rate (OTDR)

What is Amazon’s policy for on-time delivery without promise extensions?

Effective September 25, 2024, you must maintain a minimum 90% on-time delivery rate (OTDR) without promise extensions to have seller-fulfilled products listed on Amazon.com. An OTDR below 90% can result in restriction of your ability to have seller-fulfilled products listed. For a great customer experience, we recommend that you maintain a 95% or greater OTDR for all seller-fulfilled orders.

What is changing?

Our updated policy requires a minimum 90% OTDR without promise extensions to have seller-fulfilled products listed on Amazon.com. An OTDR below 90% can result in restriction of your ability to have seller-fulfilled products listed. To help provide a positive customer experience, we recommend that you maintain a 95% or greater OTDR for all seller-fulfilled orders.

We are also changing the way we measure OTDR to now measure the percentage of your tracked seller-fulfilled items that were delivered on or before the seller-promised “Deliver by” date prior to promise extensions being added. Before this change, OTDR was measured after promise extensions were added. Promise extensions are additional days that we may add to the delivery date to account for logistical factors that may delay a delivery such as extreme weather, transportation network constraints, or recent history of a seller delivering shipments after their set delivery date. This policy does not apply to offers using the Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) service because sellers are not responsible for on-time delivery promises for FBA orders.

Note: We will communicate as we roll out the OTDR policy, and any changes from the policy as it stands today, that may affect you.

What will happen to my account if my OTDR falls below the 90% minimum requirement?
An OTDR below 90% can result in restriction of your ability to have seller-fulfilled products listed. If that happens, we’ll notify you of the policy violation and you can appeal by clicking the Submit appeal button at the top of your Account Health dashboard to request reinstatement of your capabilities to list seller-fulfilled products.

The request will be reviewed within 72 hours and should include the following information:
The issues that led to a low on-time delivery rate
The actions that you’ll take to improve your on-time delivery rate
The steps that you’ve taken to prevent future issues regarding on-time delivery

On subsequent policy violations, if your OTDR is still below 90%, you can appeal by clicking Submit appeal at the top of your Account Health dashboard.

To get reinstated:

Sellers on Individual selling plans or sellers on a Professional selling plan but shipping from outside the US must submit an appeal request indicating how they will improve their OTDR. Professional sellers that ship domestically within the US will be required to meet the 90% OTDR requirement by using the following Amazon free-to-use fulfillment and shipping tools for their seller-fulfilled orders for the next 180 days:

Shipping Settings Automation (SSA) to set accurate delivery dates through automated transit time calculations of your preferred ship methods.

Automated handling time to set accurate handling times per SKU, based on how long it usually takes you to pass each SKU to carriers. For new SKUs, the default handling time will apply until there are enough shipments for your automated handling time to be calculated.

Amazon Buy Shipping to buy shipping labels that use highly reliable shipping methods for both Professional and Individual selling plans. You can use Amazon Buy Shipping through Manage Orders, Shipping API, Veeqo, or select multi-channel integrators with access to Amazon Buy Shipping.

How is OTDR calculated?

OTDR measures the percentage of your tracked seller-fulfilled items that were delivered on or before the seller-promised “Deliver by” date. OTDR is the average of all of your tracked shipped items, not just a specific SKU or shipment.

To calculate OTDR without promise extensions, we’ll consider a 14-day window of time. We’ll pull data from shipments that had a promised delivery date in the last 21 days, and exclude the most recent 7 days as the shipments from last 7 days may still be in the process of being delivered. For example, if you had 130 orders with a promised delivery date in the last 21 days, and 30 of those has a promised delivery date in the last 7 days, OTDR will be calculated excluding the 30 orders from the last 7 days (130 – 30 =100). Of those 100 orders delivered, if 90 were delivered on or before the promised “Deliver by” date, your OTDR would be 90%.

Seller’s promised “Deliver by” date is calculated using seller-set handling and transit time, prior to the addition of promise extensions. This date may be different than the delivery date shown to customers if promise extensions were added.

For example, for a seller with a set handling time of 1 day and set transit time of 2 days:
The promised “Deliver by” date will be in 3 business days.

So, if an order is received on a Monday, this order would need to be delivered by Thursday (seller-promised “Deliver by” date) to be considered delivered on time.

However, if 1 day of promise extensions was added to that offer, the promised delivery date the customer saw while purchasing would have been Friday. Irrespective of the date shown to the customer (Friday), sellers must deliver by their set “Deliver by” date (Thursday) for the shipment to be considered delivered on-time.

Shipped units will be considered as OTDR compliant if either the delivery occurred on or before the “Deliver by” date shown on Seller Central, or the following 3 conditions were met:

The shipped SKU was assigned to a shipping template with Shipping Settings Automation (SSA) enabled.
Your account has automated handling time enabled.
You bought an “OTDR Protected” shipping label on Amazon Buy Shipping.

Note: OTDR Protection is only applicable to Professional sellers shipping from the US, as all of the required tools are currently not available on Individual selling plans or to Professional sellers that are shipping from outside of the US.

Does Amazon offer tools that can help me improve my OTDR and meet the Amazon’s OTDR requirements?

Yes. You can manage your delivery dates using the tools we’ve provided, or you can manually adjust your Transit time and Handling time settings. We designed these tools to set accurate delivery dates, reduce late deliveries, and to meet or exceed the minimum OTDR requirement. And because Amazon is making calculations on your behalf that affect OTDR, you’ll get OTDR protection from late deliveries on items shipped through standard shipping if you use all three tools as follows:

Shipping Settings Automation (SSA), for Professional selling plans, sets accurate delivery dates through automated transit time calculations of your preferred shipping services. You must choose one of the preferred ship methods in the SSA templates, which will mark the transit time on the shipping template as “Managed by Amazon”.

Automated handling time, for Professional selling plans, sets accurate handling times per SKU based on how long it usually takes you to pass each SKU to carriers. You must ensure that automated handling time is enabled in your shipping settings.

Amazon Buy Shipping, for both Professional and Individual selling plans, sells shipping labels that use highly-reliable ship methods. You can use Amazon Buy Shipping through Manage Orders, Shipping API, Veeqo, or select multi-channel integrators with access to Amazon Buy Shipping. You must choose shipping labels marked as “OTDR Protected” when using Amazon Buy Shipping or Veeqo.

Note: OTDR Protection is only available for items shipped through Standard Shipping, items shipped through other shipping options such as Free Economy, Standard Prime, or Premium Shipping, are not eligible for OTDR protection.

For example, if a seller shipped 100 orders and 15 were delivered late:

Scenario A: If a seller did not use all three of Amazon’s free fulfillment and shipping tools for any of those 15 late deliveries, all 15 of their late deliveries will negatively impact their OTDR. As a result, their OTDR will be (100-15/100) = 85%.

Scenario B: If a seller used all three of Amazon’s free fulfillment and shipping tools for 5 of those 15 late deliveries, only the 10 late shipments that were not using Amazon’s tools will negatively impact OTDR. As a result, the seller’s OTDR will be (100-10/100) = 90%.

Note: OTDR Protection is only applicable to Professional sellers shipping from the US, as all of the required tools are currently not available on Individual selling plans or to Professional sellers that are shipping from outside of the US.

Can I be exempted from the OTDR requirement if delivery delays are caused by weather or carrier network issues beyond my control?

Sellers must meet the 90% OTDR requirement without promise extensions. However, if there is a major disruption event that impacts all sellers shipping to a specific region, Amazon will not count deliveries that are late as a result in your OTDR. Whether a disruption is considered to be major is a discretionary decision made by Amazon.
What changes are you making to handling time and transit time settings?

Transit time changes: As of August 25, 2024, transit time requirements will be updated to further align with the delivery capabilities of shipping services. If you’re shipping within the contiguous United States (excluding Hawaii, Alaska, and US territories), you can set a maximum transit time of 5 days for standard shipping (previously 8 days) and 8 days for free economy shipping (previously 10 days). To learn more, go to Default transit time. If you’re shipping internationally to the US, there are currently no changes to the transit times that you can configure.

Handling time automation: As of September 25, 2024, to improve handling time accuracy, automated handling time will be enabled for sellers who have a handling time gap of 2 days or more between their set handling time and their actual handling time. To help you keep in good standing with other account health metrics related to handling time, if you have automated handling time enabled, your seller-fulfilled listings will not be deactivated if your late shipment rate (LSR) does not meet the LSR policy requirement. To see your handling time gap, review your Fulfillment Insight dashboard.

How can I view my on-time delivery (OTD) metric and report?

To view your OTD metrics and report on Seller Central:

On the Performance menu, select Account Health.
Locate the Shipping Performance section and select On-time delivery rate.
You can see your OTDR metric on the Shipping Performance page. Only orders included in the current OTD defect report count against the OTDR metric. If the report contains no orders, it means either all of the orders were delivered on time or they fulfilled using Amazon’s free fulfillment tools.
To download the OTD defect report, click View details and then Download report.

Important: Allow 72 hours for the report and metrics to reflect any updates or edits.
How can I maintain a healthy OTDR?

To keep a healthy OTDR without promise extensions we recommend that you do the following:

Review your OTDR without promise extensions metric on your Account Health dashboard. You can also download a report of which orders were delivered after the delivery date without promise extensions.

Review the “Deliver by” date for every order. This date corresponds to the expected delivery date without promise extensions. Note that the actual delivery date that customers see may be longer because of promise extensions.

If you are a Professional seller, use automated handling time to set accurate handling time per SKU based on how long it has taken you historically to hand off each SKU to carriers. Additionally, with automated handling time enabled, your seller-fulfilled listings will not be deactivated if your late shipment rate (LSR) does not meet the LSR policy requirement.
If you are a Professional seller, enable Shipping Settings Automation (SSA), which sets accurate delivery dates for your orders by automatically calculating transit times of your preferred ship methods from your warehouse to each customer’s location.

Select a ship method with a high reliability to deliver your order on time. You can also use Amazon Buy Shippingto buy shipping labels that have been identified to have a high reliability for On-time delivery based on Amazon’s data from millions of shipments. These ship methods have a shield icon next to them, marked as OTDR Protected. You can use Amazon Buy Shipping through Manage Orders, Shipping API, Veeqo, or select multi-channel integrators with access to Amazon Buy Shipping. To learn more about purchasing OTDR protected shipping labels, go to Amazon Buy Shipping.

All Blogs & Seller News

How to Showcase Your Product’s Superior Features Through Amazon Storefront Images

Published

3 weeks ago

July 9, 2024

Kika Angelic

A+ Content is Amazon’s secret sauce for enhancing customer experience. It lets you add extra info, images, and interactive features to your product pages, making your storefront pop and boosting engagement. So, how did this thermos product fare with its A+ content? Well, let’s just say there’s room for improvement.

The Good, the Bad, and the Text-Heavy

The Good: The final content has a nice touch, mentioning that a portion of the proceeds is donated to build parks and contribute to the community. It’s always great to see a brand with a sense of social responsibility, especially since customers love feeling like they’re making a difference with their purchase.

The Bad: The A+ content is a bit of a snoozefest. It’s text-heavy and not very cohesive. The images don’t visually represent the features well, and there’s a disconnect between the text and images, leaving buyers confused.

Let’s Talk About Image 2

Image 2: This image highlights four core features of the thermos, but the design feels rushed. Three features have icons, but the “splash resistant” feature does not. Consistency is key! Plus, adding small explanatory images next to each feature would help customers instantly get what you’re talking about.

Final Thoughts

This set of images captures the “fun” aspect of the product with its dynamic and youthful vibe. However, it misses the mark on showcasing close-up shots of the features, leaving buyers unclear about the product’s composition. The visual elements need more relevance and detail to truly shine.

So, don’t let your product get lost in the Amazon jungle. Let’s make it the star of the show with stunning, intuitive, and unique A+ content!

If you are an Amazon Seller looking for free help with any Amazon related issues from me or other sellers with whom you can network, don’t hesitate and join our discussion forum for Amazon Sellers.

To stay in touch on Facebook, feel free to join and post into my large Amazon Seller Performance – Friendly Advice – Worldwide Facebook group, where you will be very welcome too.

Additionally, here you can watch my YouTube video, where I am presenting you several secret tips about appealing Amazon Seller Account suspensions (don’t be confused by the opening of the video, where I am enjoying a vacation – it’s a part of the story):

All Blogs & Seller News

Why TikTok Shops Might Be Your Next Big Opportunity

Published

3 weeks ago

July 8, 2024

Kika Angelic

TikTok isn’t just for dance challenges and viral pranks anymore; it’s the new frontier for businesses looking to make a splash. With millions of users logging in daily for their fix of catchy and fun videos, TikTok has transformed into a selling powerhouse. If you’re not already leveraging TikTok Shops, you’re missing out on a goldmine of opportunity.

The Allure of TikTok Shops

TikTok’s charm lies in its simplicity and massive user base. It’s like the cool kid at school who everyone wants to be friends with. For businesses, this means a ready-made audience eager to discover new products. Plus, setting up shop on TikTok is straightforward and low-risk, making it a perfect playground for budding entrepreneurs.

Enter Inboostr: Your Secret Weapon

Here’s where things get exciting. Inboostr has created a database of over 100K influencers, complete with bespoke hygiene screening tools and thorough manual investigations into each influencer and their feed. Translation? We’ve done the legwork to ensure you’re partnering with top-notch influencers who can genuinely boost your brand.

Easy Peasy Logistics

Got products manufactured in China? No problem. Inboostr handles the logistics, shipping your goods to our American warehouse and managing your TikTok business. We connect your products to our big TikTok shop, giving you an easy entry into this booming market.

One-Stop Solution

Inboostr’s got you covered from start to finish. We help you find the right influencers, manage logistics, and run your TikTok business. All you need to do is watch the sales roll in.

Ready to Dive In?

TikTok Shops are more than just a trend—they’re a lucrative opportunity waiting to be tapped. With Inboostr’s comprehensive support, you can jump in with confidence and start reaping the rewards. So, what are you waiting for? The TikTok crowd is ready and waiting.

To stay in touch on Facebook, feel free to join and post into my large Amazon Seller Performance – Friendly Advice – Worldwide Facebook group, where you will be very welcome too.