So for a couple of years, to keep our VTR on ‘NA’ we buy shipping via Amazon, mostly 2nd class/large. Occasionally we have a larger order over £20 and we wish to sent that tracked to cover ourselves. So we buy normal 2nd class, then request a refund on it, and take the parcel to the post office to be properly weighed/sized and correct postage.
We’ve done 1000’s of these and the VTR remains on NA (aside from a current issue, but that’s not because of this).
I worry a little that the quantity of postage label refunds might be flagged up but have never had any issue or warnings. Just wondering if anyone knows if this is a risky practice?
Well, I do, but not because I am trying to “beat the system”:
99% of the order we send are either untracked 2nd class, or 2nd class large as they are sub £10 low value items.
We buy the postage for these orders through Amazon.
Because 2nd class non-tracked is VTR exempt, it automatically appears as NA.
We don’t intentionally mark it as or keep VTR as NA, Amazon does.
We do however do what we can to keep our account healthy. Hence this question. The VTR percentage (i.e something other than NA), only appears when you buy and send orders using a tracked service (whether linked to RM account or not). So all I am trying to do is keep our account healthy and as we don’t buy tracked postage, that means rather than striving for 100%, by default we’re striving for ‘NA’.
Linking a RM account won’t make any difference to the above, it would just mean we would receive the rate agreed on the business acccount (which Kika had previously suggested you might be able to help advise what that discount is when I asked if worth it and what likely discount is, but oh well, you didn’t.)
Do of course let me know if you know for certain I have got any of the above facts wrong. But I do strongly resent terms like “messing around” and “behave like a proper business and do things properly” which is also not only offensive, deeply patronising and completely unhelpful but also factually and materially incorrect and not how we have operated for the past 12 years as amz sellers. Crucialy, I in fact asked this question hoping to acheive quite the opposite of ensuring we are doing things that are obeying / not falling foul to Amazon’s rules all of which we all have to try and navigate best we can.
Side note. @Kika had recently lead me to believe by previously tagging you in my posts, that you were as a frequent poster, someone supposedly helpful that I might seek sound decent advice from, as a similarly positioned sme, but this response and your terse tone has left me looking to seek any future advice from a different forum from here on, so well done on that. Instead of being kind and helpful, as you easily could have, you instead opted for an presumptuous, abrupt, rude, patronising and pontificating tone.
Over, and out.
As mentioned above, with Amazon you should never use any workarounds, because if they find out you are trying to trick the system in any way, then you will be hit with the dreaded Code of conduct suspension, which are the most difficult to get lifted.
Always state the correct postal service when initially shipping your orders. If you are sending tracked, then purchase tracked postage.
The NA marking is not something that really matters. I am excluded from the VTR as well, however, once I ship anything with an integrated carrier, such as FedEx or USPS, then the order in question shows as being subject to the VTR. If you initially mark your order as shipped 2nd Class and then refund, Amazon will mark it in their system as sent untracked.
Please note that there is a misconception among sellers about keeping an account healthy.
Most people incorrectly believe that maintaining the metrics at 0% or 100% or NA is the most important. It isn’t.
Amazon won’t deactivate your account if it fails to meet any of these simple metrics, such as the VTR, ODR, OCR or LSR. In case of a breach, you will be asked to undergo a quiz and that’s it.
However, if they detect any attempt to avoid detection / circumvent the rules, when you would otherwise receive a simple metric hit, this can lead to serious consequences.
For example, many sellers mark orders as shipped and then refund instead of cancelling. All of these attempts to circumvent the rules, if detected will result in account deactivation over a violation of Seller Code of Conduct. And these are nearly impossible to get lifted.
Please note that @AmazonUKForumRefugee is a very senior poster and experienced seller. As I am a young girl and Rugsy is older, he won’t be as friendly as me, but his advice is helpful and correct. Don’t get offended when you see something you disagree with.
Also, this week I was in the UK, so I didn’t have so much time to reply here. But I reply on most days.
Thanks Kika as ever. On the above note which I totally take on board; I will from here on buy tracked via Amazon. Question - how does that effect our VTR, which as we’ve said, is NA as we send 99% 2nd class untracked. So if we buy 1% as tracked, do I assume the VTR will start showing a percentage again? I note you say you are VTR exempt also, but occasionally do send with an integrated carrier - so what effect does that have on your VTR rating? (I appreciate your comment that it isn’t as important, account health wise, but still, I wonder.
All your untracked services don’t count so if you send 1000 untracked but you send 1 order tracked, then you will get 100% VTR, in other words, 1 out of 1 order had the correct tracking.
Yes, it will display a percentage, but not for the NA orders. It will simply display a single order on the whole metric - the one where tracking was obtained.
Exactly as @AmazonUKForumRefugee says, if the one order is sent tracked, then your VTR will display 100% out of 1 orders.
My VTR is also displaying 100% although I am exempt from the metric, but some orders complied and these are shown and recorded.