UPS is investigating the leaked account again, 1.5 million pieces of cargo were detained?

In 2023, the prices of cross-border logistics sea and air freight have dropped significantly compared to last year, and sellers' logistics costs have been significantly reduced, which is beneficial to profit increase.

However, this year, the logistics industry has encountered the biggest black swan - the collapse of accounts with lost users. Some major cross-border sellers have listed it as a huge challenge facing the logistics industry in 2023. How to identify and choose reliable channels has become something that many sellers urgently need to understand.

Not long ago, UPS conducted a surprise inspection on accounts that had lost money, and a large amount of goods were detained. The logistics information of the relevant sellers had not been updated for many days, making it difficult to retrieve the goods, which caused a shock in the industry.

The logistics industry has been relatively calm recently, and sellers believe that the storm has passed. However, this week, news broke that UPS is still investigating the accounts that have been leaked, and about 1.5 million pieces of goods have been detained. Is it true that such a large amount of goods have been detained? There are different opinions in the industry.

What can be confirmed is that UPS's inspections are still ongoing, and there are many logistics companies that have been inspected and have had their goods seized, but they have not disclosed the information. Many senior logistics professionals said that the use of water-trafficking accounts is still common and it is almost impossible to completely eliminate it.

UPS is investigating the account for leakage again. It is reported that 1.5 million pieces of goods have been detained

In May this year , UPS made a major rectification, strictly checking the leakage of accounts , stealing the area and stealing the weight . Once the violation is found, the logistics company will be charged with additional freight or downgraded at the least, or be sued and the delivery warehouse address will be blacklisted. An industry insider said that UPS had detained 170 containers in a short period of time , which triggered a chain reaction and many freight forwarding companies were involved in the "leakage of accounts" storm.

Sellers were also affected. Logistics companies in the industry revealed that goods affected by the leaked accounts are generally no longer available for withdrawal and renewal, and it is difficult for sellers to retrieve the goods. Under strict investigation, similar situations may occur again.

This week, a piece of news that "1.5 million pieces of goods were detained again for using the account with water leakage" spread in the industry. The news said: After the UPS incident, there are still many people using the account with water leakage. Recently, UPS conducted a second investigation on the account with water leakage. This time, 1.5 million pieces of goods were detained , which is stricter than the last time.

This news has caused considerable concern and controversy in the cross-border logistics industry. 1.5 million pieces of detained goods is a huge number, and many people are skeptical of this data. One freight forwarder bluntly said: "If it is true, it will be a disaster."

The editor has confirmed this with many industry insiders, but they all have different opinions.

Viewpoint 1: The news is true

A senior person in the cross-border logistics industry in Shenzhen said: "It's true, they want to make back what they lost." Another veteran freight forwarder who has been in the industry for more than ten years also confirmed the news, but he did not disclose more details.

Viewpoint 2: UPS is checking, but the data on detained goods is exaggerated

Many people in the industry believe that the 1.5 million pieces of goods detained is exaggerated. However, they confirmed that UPS is strictly investigating the problem of fraudulent accounts, and fraudulent accounts are still rampant, and there are many logistics companies whose goods have been detained. The industry is still tense:

"UPS checked once before and found that some accounts are still using fraudulent accounts in the market, but the monitoring is definitely strict, so it is normal to be checked. However, the data of 1.5 million pieces of seized goods should not be accurate. Few people can count these data. Unless you know clearly which company has seized how many containers, you can calculate the approximate number of pieces. All the seized goods may add up to this much."

——Yan Longhai, Secretary General of Guangzhou Cross-border E-commerce Industry Association

"Recently, UPS is investigating accounts that have been compromised. In fact, after the last round of investigation, many people are still using accounts that have been compromised. Some companies have also been affected by the recent strict account investigation, but no one has been exposed yet, so it is not convenient to say too much."

——Wang Yuan

"I initially thought the value of the goods was 1.5 million. This number is a bit exaggerated. I guess all the goods in the United States would have to be seized to make that much. But there should be a strict inspection. Many account owners are also posting this news, so it should not be groundless."

——Li Liang

"It's so funny. This is the amount of 1,500 cabinets. It would take more than a week or half a month to take away so much goods at one time."

——Gu Zhengyang

Although the account of fraud has caused many freight forwarders and sellers to fall into trouble, industry insiders believe that this problem will not be avoided in the future. Gu Zhengyang said, " As long as the goods are not withdrawn from Los Angeles and sent to the East Coast of the United States or China, many of them use the account of fraud. This is unavoidable. Sellers cannot afford to use regular accounts, and this problem cannot be eliminated no matter how they check. "

Using a regular account to deliver goods from the West Coast to the East Coast, UPS charges 8 to 9 yuan per kilogram, while the current market price for the entire journey is only 8 to 9 yuan per kilogram. Therefore, he believes that the biggest beneficiary of the leaked account incident is the seller, not the logistics company.

"It is difficult for sellers to do business now. They hope that logistics will be as cheap as possible, so logistics companies are trying to reduce costs, and the number of fraudulent accounts is increasing.

In the past, the unit price was more or less profitable for logistics companies, and the market did not blindly demand low prices, so many logistics companies still did it honestly. But as sellers demand lower and lower prices, others use siphoning accounts, and the market price can be very low. If you don’t do it, you will go bankrupt, so there are more and more logistics companies using siphoning accounts in the market. ”

The red tape accounts reduce the cost of cross-border logistics, but the risks are obvious to all. Therefore, many sellers will clear the mines when choosing logistics companies to reduce the risk of goods being detained.

There are too many fraudulent accounts. What should I do if my goods are detained?

Judging from the usage rate of water-leakage accounts, it is difficult for cross-border sellers to avoid them completely. Once the goods are seized, it will become an extreme stalemate if the two parties cannot resolve the issue through negotiation.

Gu Zhengyang introduced that if the goods are detained, both parties should divide the responsibilities according to the terms of the contract. Generally speaking, the contract terms of the logistics company only guarantee UPS to pick up the goods, and there is no responsibility after the pick up. Whether UPS loses or confiscates the goods, compensation is based on UPS rules - 100 US dollars per ticket. Pick up and transfer are considered completed, but it is difficult to define whether the goods are detained and whether they are picked up. It depends on the agreement between the seller and the cooperative logistics company.

Many times, these issues can be resolved amicably.

"Because many logistics companies have the freight costs in the hands of sellers, and in order to continue cooperation in the future, they will basically resolve the issue peacefully with customers. Now everyone is losing money to receive goods and maintain customers, otherwise it will be difficult to make it back after the customers leave. Everyone is using the Internet to play, and everyone wants to crush their competitors.

If the issue cannot be resolved peacefully, the logistics company may be exposed and attacked by the seller group. But in fact, ordinary freight forwarders cannot make money from it, unless they are top-level logistics companies with a certain scale and load containers themselves.

Yan Longhai said: "Even if the freight forwarder uses the swindle account to collect goods from e-commerce customers or foreign trade customers, he does not make money from it. He just gets a competitive advantage by charging a low price. It is the same as the under-invoicing of taxes and taxes in Europe. Many people do not make money from this. They get the goods at a low price and then sell them at a low price. The ones who really make money are the people who put up the account and the big dealers."

The frequent turmoil has reduced sellers’ trust in freight forwarders, and the cooperative relationship between the two is slightly tense.

One seller said that after he contacted the freight forwarder, the other party did not reply to his message for a whole day. He was nervous all day, and only felt relieved when he was told in the evening that the salesperson had gone back to his hometown for vacation.

Another seller said that he was uneasy about concentrating the shipments with one or two logistics companies, so he tested three new ones: one of them delayed the shipment by a week but did not inform him in advance, and the delivery time was not ideal, which had a great impact on his arrangement of shipments that needed to be shipped one after another, so he was ready to eliminate it; another one he had cooperated with before, but later stopped because the price was not ideal. Recently, he contacted the seller and updated the quotation. "It's better to spread it out a little. If problems occur at the same time, it will be a headache."

Freight forwarders also have complaints from time to time. "Even though we have signed an agreement in advance, when something goes wrong, the customer still demands other compensation and does not follow the contract." However, in a buyer's market, freight forwarders can only win customers by optimizing prices and services.

Many sellers reported that the delivery was slow and these warehouses refused to accept FedEx

Recently, many sellers have found that the products are slow to be put on the shelves and the inventory is already running out. "Who would have thought that this year, the most fatal problem for me is not advertising, not costs, not unsalable products , but putting the products on the shelves! It's so slow!! "said an angry seller.

Some sellers have delayed putting their goods on the shelves after they have been put into storage. " The goods were shipped in May and finally received at the end of July , but now it has been more than 20 days and is still showing as being transferred! There is no quantity available for sale . I asked the customer service, and they kept replying ' transferring to another warehouse '. Is this normal ? How can I solve this problem ? "

Similar situations are not uncommon. Another seller said: "Recently, Amazon warehouses have been in a bad state. Either the goods are nowhere to be found, or they are sent to FTW1 warehouses. After nearly a month, they still haven't been put into the warehouse. There are still several orders left to go there. I am trembling. The sales volume is so low, and they are out of stock..."

However, you should be careful when urging products to be put on the shelves. Some sellers joked that they have heard of two new ways to deal with Amazon account failures: 1. Claiming FBA lost inventory; 2. If the product is not put on the shelves for a long time, urging it to be put on the shelves is regarded as a claim.

Employee strikes may be a reason for the slow stocking process.

Amazon's delivery drivers in the United States are still on strike recently , and the scope of their activities has expanded to warehouse OAK4 in the Central Valley of California. So far, 10 warehouses including ONT1, BDL3, DCB4, DDT6, ONT5, DPS5, ATL6, OAK5, OAK7, etc. have been affected , affecting California, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Michigan and Georgia .

Shenzhen freight forwarder Jack Chen has also received feedback from many customers about slow stocking. "Take GYR3 for example. It went on strike due to high temperatures a while ago. After the resumption of work, the staff on the site were still very slow."

In addition, according to the latest Amazon reservation and delivery time information compiled by the company, FBA warehouses are still overstocked and the situation of deletion and modification of appointments still exists :

In terms of Amazon warehouse pallet appointments, ONT8, LGB8, and LAX9 were delivered to the warehouse in advance one week after the appointments were released, and there are continuous appointments for delivery this week; SBD1 has appointments for delivery, but the appointments are frequently postponed and the delivery time will be extended; SMF3 is affected by the warehouse explosion, and it is difficult to make appointments recently; the delivery situation of GYR3 is improving, but the probability of cancellation or modification of the appointment is still high.

In addition, GYR2, SCK4, and LAS1 have appointments available for delivery this week after 1-2 weeks of appointment release; VGT2 appointments are unstable, and the probability of cancellation or modification is relatively high; ABE8 and KRB2 have warehouse overflows, and the number of appointments released is small. After 1-2 weeks of appointment release, there is a possibility of cancellation or modification, and they need to be assembled for delivery; IND9 and MDW2 have warehouse overflows, and appointment cancellations are relatively frequent; MEM1 and MQJ1 cabinet dismantling appointments are approved 1 week late, and there are appointments for delivery this week.

At the same time, many warehouses will refuse to accept FedEx. Jack Chen introduced that in this case, UPS or trucks will be used for delivery. Warehouses that refuse to accept FedEx include MEM1 , QXY9 , BNA2 , FTW9 , LAS1 , etc.

However, freight forwarder Dapeng believes that the rejection is inaccurate. " Some people said that MEM1 would reject FedEx , but I went to this warehouse some time ago and FedEx signed for it normally . Some people also said that FWA4 would reject FedEx, but my client also signed for it normally, and he has been using this warehouse for a long time."

In August, Amazon Logistics also put forward new requirements for shipments. The notice stated:

In order to comply with our security policy, you must personally seal the trailer for truckload and intermodal shipments. Drivers will refuse to pick up shipments without an ISO-compliant seal or a seal number on the bill of lading. When you seal the trailer and record the unique seal number on the bill of lading, it helps us verify that the shipment remained sealed and intact during transit. If the seal is broken or the seal number is incorrect, our team will notice and investigate when your shipment arrives at our fulfillment center.

Amazon will not be responsible for lost shipments or inventory shortages for any shipment that does not adhere to security protocols, including but not limited to missing seals, non-compliant seals, broken seals, and missing documentation (such as a missing correct seal number on the bill of lading).

For FBA sellers, it is quite common to encounter lost items or discrepancies in the quantity of goods after delivery. In order to ensure the success rate of claims at that time, Amazon’s “sealing” requirements must be taken seriously.

According to logistics companies in the industry, Amazon's requirement to seal trailers was originally a requirement for warehouse delivery teams, especially overseas warehouses, to verify whether the goods are intact during transportation, and it is not aimed at sellers. Therefore, sellers do not need to do anything, but logistics companies need to do the delivery work more carefully. If there is a problem in this link, it may lead to difficulties in sellers' claims and disputes.

As the peak season approaches, Amazon will implement "no packaging" delivery

This year, Amazon has made a number of changes to the product display on the front page of its website, hoping to retain buyers and increase conversion rates on the site; its actions to optimize customer experience have also been passed on to the delivery end, such as abandoning the much-criticized excessive packaging, which has become a major point of contention among Amazon buyers.

Previously, there have been endless feedbacks from users about the excessive and even exaggerated packaging of products purchased online by Amazon, and now Amazon has listened to these suggestions.

Millions of Amazon orders in the U.S. will now be shipped without extra packaging as the company works to streamline its delivery process, promote sustainability and attract customers who are put off by the clutter of brown boxes on doorsteps and in aisles, The Wall Street Journal reported .

Pat Lindner, vice president of packaging and innovation, told the media: " Some senior leaders recognize that this is becoming more and more important. Our company urgently needs to take the next step in packaging innovation. "

For Amazon, reducing or eliminating packaging kills two birds with one stone, which can not only reduce operating costs , but also take environmental protection into consideration . Currently , about 11% of the delivered goods do not require additional packaging when delivered . The company calls it " bring your own packaging shipping " . Customers can choose whether to require additional packaging at checkout.

In the seller's view, this also puts higher requirements on the packaging of light and small products. The new initiative also faces other challenges . Amazon needs to ensure that the packaging is strong enough to meet the needs of individual transportation without adding too much material . On the other hand, are customers willing to give up the privacy and weather protection provided by the packaging box ?

Someone gave an example: Imagine that when you open the door to wait for Amazon to deliver, you see that the foot odor pads you ordered are missing the packaging box - at this moment, your nosy neighbor walks over. The scene is suffocating to think about, in addition, many people are worried about the safety of the product, including the visible package being stolen or the goods being soiled by rain and snow.

However, many people welcomed the move. "I ordered craft supplies and organizing tools, and all the extra packaging and huge boxes were unnecessary. I welcome just one box to my door," said one user.

At the same time, Amazon said that only items that pass the test will be shipped without additional packaging. Products such as toilet paper, baby wipes, and garbage bags may initially use zero packaging, while more private items such as collectibles and underwear will continue to be shipped with additional packaging.

According to Sanford C. Bernstein, Amazon delivers a total of about 608 million packages per year, about 1.6 million per day. No matter how you look at it, this means a lot of cardboard, and Amazon is realizing that future product deliveries will be carton-free. The "no packaging" campaign will greatly change consumers' shopping experience, which will be particularly evident during the peak season of high-frequency online shopping.

It is the back-to-school season, and related products such as school supplies, mobile phones and computer accessories are in hot sales. According to a research report released by the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics, this year's back-to-school spending in the United States will hit a record high of $135.5 billion, a surge of nearly a quarter over the same period last year. The sales situation in the second half of the year has a good start, and the annual highlight, the Q4 peak season, is getting closer.

Sellers have reported that orders for Christmas and winter products have started to come in, and freight forwarders have also sensed the peak season from the volume of shipments.

During the Prime Day promotion just passed, many sellers experienced a long-awaited surge in sales. During this year's Prime Day, Roborock Technology's sales reached more than 20 million US dollars, with more than 11,000 new products sold and traffic increasing by 55% year-on-year; the sales of women's sports bra Yvette also increased by nearly 7 times compared to normal days, and the conversion rate of some products increased by 100%. There are countless similar sales growth cases, which greatly boosted sellers' confidence in this year's peak season.

Amazon has launched the October "Prime Member Promotion". Although some sellers are conservative about the performance of this autumn promotion, many are still happy to prepare for it. In addition, they need to reserve inventory for important sales nodes such as Black Friday and Online Shopping. The industry is enthusiastic about stocking up, and everyone hopes to make a big splash during the peak season. What kind of answer will this peak season give to sellers?

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Water leakage account