Ship from address questions

[KenjiMishima]

Those of you that do FBA on here. When dealing with the ship from address with a stealth account how do you handle it? Do you make it the same address as the one on the account, even if you are dropping your shipment off into a ups store or having them pick it up, or do you just have the ship from address as the one from the ups store

[Kelly441]

I have never had an FBA package returned to sender so just use the address that Amazon has for your account

[alekov]

I second Kelly441, in the few years I've been around I've never had a lost or returned FBA package. I would keep it same as your account address, even if it's a bogus address. It's not worth the risk of them raising a red flag and starting to dig.

[KenjiMishima]

Originally Posted by Kelly441

I have never had an FBA package returned to sender so just use the address that Amazon has for your account

See in my cash the address on my account is in a whole nother state where as the ups store I am dropping off at is in my state. Is this the same case for you too? Im just trying to get some final words before I send things in.

[Kelly441]

Amazon does not care where it is shipping from tracking wise. Many businesses have other locations

[KenjiMishima]

Originally Posted by Kelly441

Amazon does not care where it is shipping from tracking wise. Many businesses have other locations

Im merely trying to see if they may suspend you from shipping into fba from a different state that you say are in, to but it simply. Im trying to go over anything that may get my account banned, I think everything else is square but this.

[KenjiMishima]

Anyone got any data points on this?

[jane]

Originally Posted by KenjiMishima

Anyone got any data points on this?

No, amazon won't suspend you . they don't care where the parcel come from.

[Kelly441]

Originally Posted by jane

No, amazon won't suspend you . they don't care where the parcel come from.

Well there is one thing. I have always been paranoid about selling same product on two accounts and dropping off at the same post office. Amazon looks for similarities and this would be one along with selling the same item

[Play]

Originally Posted by Kelly441

Well there is one thing. I have always been paranoid about selling same product on two accounts and dropping off at the same post office. Amazon looks for similarities and this would be one along with selling the same item

Similarity - Yes. But it would take a lot of manual work to go around checking which post office items were sent from. Its definitely not a linking factor.

[Kelly441]

Originally Posted by Play

Similarity - Yes. But it would take a lot of manual work to go around checking which post office items were sent from. Its definitely not a linking factor.

It wouldn't take much work at all They just have to pull up some recent orders on both accounts and and click on the tracking to see where it is being shipped from. Also, if the post office scans them at the same time that is another similarity

[Play]

Originally Posted by Kelly441

It wouldn't take much work at all They just have to pull up some recent orders on both accounts and and click on the tracking to see where it is being shipped from. Also, if the post office scans them at the same time that is another similarity

Quite right. But its not enough evidence, so to speak - to link the accounts.

[KenjiMishima]

So you guys think it will be fine if my address on my account is in IL, but where it actually comes from is MA for example?

Would you recommend I just use the ups store addy on the account as the ship from address? Personally I think that is the safer option.

All answers are appreciated because this is the only thing holding me back from sending in my first shipment.

[Kelly441]

Originally Posted by Play

Quite right. But its not enough evidence, so to speak - to link the accounts.

Amazon looks for similarities, the less the better so I think its worth not showing any similarities

[Play]

Originally Posted by Kelly441

Amazon looks for similarities, the less the better so I think its worth not showing any similarities

I would argue there are other similarities which are more profound that people tend to ignore, yet users look for similarities in fickle things.

If your neighbourhood is saturated with post offices, by all means post from different locations.

There are others who dont have such privilege, and so they must take this 'small risk' of similarity.

[Keeponkeepnon]

Shipping from a different location than your account does not matter. You could ship direct from China or direct from a U.S. factory.

[Play]

Originally Posted by Keeponkeepnon

Shipping from a different location than your account does not matter. You could ship direct from China or direct from a U.S. factory.

I have heard people send FBA shipments direct from suppliers around the world to the amazon fulfilment centre. But I am not sure how true this is. If it is true, then it completely negates @Kelly441's statment.

[rsot]

Originally Posted by Keeponkeepnon

Shipping from a different location than your account does not matter. You could ship direct from China or direct from a U.S. factory.

Buyer's satisfaction is key meaning if he/she does not complain and leaves feedback (hard to get sometimes) then you are quite safe

[Kelly441]

Originally Posted by Play

I have heard people send FBA shipments direct from suppliers around the world to the amazon fulfilment centre. But I am not sure how true this is. If it is true, then it completely negates @Kelly441's statment.

I'm not denying that you can ship from multiple locations. My only point was that I don't believe it is a good idea to ship from same post office at the same time, with two accounts selling the same items. It's just another similarity

Green Bean gave the best advice on Stealth once. She said "it's not just exact information all the time, it is similarities, Amazon looks for similarities" I''m paraphrasing. I think it's best to stay away from any similarities and give them no reason to raise an eyebrow for linking. Just my two cents and the way I run stealth.

[KenjiMishima]

Originally Posted by Kelly441

I'm not denying that you can ship from multiple locations. My only point was that I don't believe it is a good idea to ship from same post office at the same time, with two accounts selling the same items. It's just another similarity

Green Bean gave the best advice on Stealth once. She said "it's not just exact information all the time, it is similarities, Amazon looks for similarities" I''m paraphrasing. I think it's best to stay away from any similarities and give them no reason to raise an eyebrow for linking. Just my two cents and the way I run stealth.

I shouldnt have an issue, I have never used it as a ship from address. So I guess I will go that route and add it. Then I will roll in a few of the items I have get a few sales and hopefully successfully get a payout.

[alekov]

I think people are mixing two different issues here. I believe the OPs question pertained to shipping FBA shipments - Seller sending their inventory to Amazon's Fulfillment Centers. Seller fulfilling Seller Fulfilled Orders from same address to end customers is a whole another issue, even though I'm not sure either of them is enough to link an account in itself. Kelly is correct that it's prudent to minimize any and all risks with similarities between different accounts - shipping the same exact inventory items to end customers from two different accounts with the same zip code starting point is already two strikes - 1. same inventory 2. same zip/ship from. However, I still don't believe that in itself is enough to link you. It is 2 strikes against you though, and if you fail on one or two more things showing similarities and the accounts might be gone. If that's all you are doing you should be ok though, I've done it for years on different accounts. One slip up on IP address though may put you over the edge, while if that happened without the other two factors you still might be ok. The way I look at it again, is common sense. Imagine you live in a busy city with many people per sq mile. Is it possible that two people living within few miles of each other sell on amazon, and happen to sell the similar/same inventory? Absolutely. Can amazon base their whole linking system on this alone? No. It would be extremely unfair and it will be linking people who didn't know each other all the time. It is just one more nail in the coffin, that's all. If that's your only offense, you will be ok. Just don't screw up anything else..

[alekov]

Kenji, you stated that your ship from address is in a whole another state from the state in which you are actually dropping off the UPS packages headed to FBA. I wonder if that maybe an issue. I've done it within the same state, just with different cities, however, shipping FROM different state might be a problem because UPS calculates your shipment price on Amazon's software based on the SHIP FROM address entered, so shipping from another state may create a problem at the UPS store as they may claim that there was insufficient postage applied to the package?? Not sure about this, maybe someone here can chime in if they have experienced this issue before. Imagine you are shipping a package going to the Fulfillment Center located in Indiana, and your account address is in Indiana, however, you are dropping off the packages in California. The automatically calculated postage from IN to IN would be much cheaper than the actual shipping cost from California, and when you drop the package off at the UPS store in California may create a problem with the UPS there?