Amazon Freight Forwarder - a podcast by Michael Veazey

We’ve all made our share of mistakes. I know I have. I've recently run into some troubles with Amazon freight forwarder. That’s why today I’m stepping away from the customary formal interview format of the show to try to show you examples of problems that can be solved in our mastermind groups. Other people’s experience can be immensely valuable, especially if you can apply it to your business and avoid making some of the same mistakes.





The Background

The ramifications of these mistakes I’ve made are still playing out. It started in China in summer 2017 and has been slowly grinding it’s way to a resolution with Amazon’s (not so) slick communication in seller central.



In May 2017 I ordered 1800 units of a product I’ve been making for ages. The standard version is black. I wanted some variations, so I ordered 100 of a few other colors. As soon as you do variations you multiply the possibility of things going wrong. We talked about this recently in the 10k Collective Mastermind Group. For more information on our mastermind groups check out amazingfba.com/mastermind.

Mistake #1 - Unclear Communication

Whilst the products were being manufactured I was using a new Amazon freight forwarder as I wanted to have the products shipped by sea to keep my costs low… standard stuff. I created the inbound shipping plan on Amazon Seller Central, and as you may know. If you’ve done this before, I had no control over where the products were to end up. Long story short, I gave the freight forwarders two addresses for the purpose of getting a quote, one was my manufacturer’s address in China, and the other was for the Amazon Fulfillment Center in Texas. My mistake, the one that set this whole thing in motion, was not specifically stated to the freight forwarder that these addresses were only for the purpose of obtaining a quote.



Get the Checklist







If you want a cheat sheet for dealing with freight forwarders, here’s the one I use. It’s free. All you have to do is sign up for the Amazing FBA email list.

Mistake #2 - Unclear about what Information to Use

After I obtained the quote, I did my usual due diligence. I did my profit and loss spreadsheet,  chose my Amazon freight forwarder, renegotiated the price with my manufacturer, and placed the order. The freight forwarder took over from there, and I thought that was that. I created a new inbound shipping plan, downloaded the PDFs for the shipping labels, and sent them off to the freight forwarder–it turns out the shipment was to go to Pennsylvania, not Texas. Here’s where the next mistake happened. I didn’t explicitly tell the freight forwarder to disregard all previous shipping addresses.

Mistake #3- Only Sent Information Once to my Amazon Freight Forwarder

I only sent the shipping label one time in one format. There’s a good chance that the freighter never even saw the new label to begin with. It emerged that the freight was going to Texas instead of Pennsylvania. The freighter took responsibility. Dealt with the mistake, and paid to get it fixed. The shipment arrived. I moved on to another project put this whole thing behind me and started managing another company’s Amazon account. I took my eye off the ball.

Mistake #4 - I Lost Focus on my Business

Fast forward to November. I get a complaint that someone ordered a black version of my product and received a pink one. These things happen from time to time, so instead of viewing this as a problem that needed to be addressed, I ignored it. I should have looked at this as a warning sign. More messages and a negative review rolled in, so I asked a customer to send me a photograph of the product. Sure enough, there’s a nice little label that says “Pink” on the box. Behind it,

Further episodes of Amazing FBA Amazon and ECommerce Podcast, for Amazon Private Label Sellers, Shopify, Magento or Woocommerce business owners, and other e-commerce sellers and digital entrepreneurs.

Further podcasts by Michael Veazey

Website of Michael Veazey