Amazon said high demand has led to longer receiving times for shipments to some of its West Coast inbound locations from sellers who use its FBA fulfillment service. Amazon is rerouting shipments to other regions to increase capacity.
“We know how important it is for your inventory to be ready for peak season,” Amazon wrote in an announcement on Thursday. “We’re continuing to monitor the situation and are working hard to ensure your inventory is placed before your deals start.”
Separately, Amazon sellers have been reporting a sudden substantial increase in the cost of sending inventory to Amazon via UPS – some said the costs tripled overnight, but aren’t sure if it’s a glitch or not. “Last night I was working on a shipment and the estimated UPS cost was $9,” one seller wrote. “This morning I happened to catch that it went up to $27 before buying the label. Has to be a glitched. No way UPS went up 3x overnight on a random Thursday.”
Sellers wondered if they would be reimbursed if it was a glitch, and worried about the potential cost of returns – “I am going to be opting out of auto return labels,” a seller wrote.
One seller even theorized the sudden rate hike could be related to Amazon capacity issues: “Amazon is trying to slow all new FBA shipments in November and December to focus on fulfillment, I suspect this caused them to raise shipping rates to curb shipments.”
“Could this be UPS Black-Friday-Christmas surge pricing?” another asked.
