It Scans, It Ships? What's Amazon up to now?

Long time lurker, first time caller... and ready to poke my own eyes out over whateverthehell it is Amazon is up to this time.

Seeing a ton of return service packages with just a square DataMatrix barcode slapped on them starting last week. No address, no barcodes or zone code or weight, nothing but a code and pixelated 1Z. All Amazon returns, all same shipper # (123TT9), all headed to Lexington, KY.

Customers are saying they can't get the normal label out of Amazon; the ASO drop-off points are beside themselves because contractually they need to accept "any and all UPS drop-off programs" and can't get any information out of their handlers about what to do with these; meanwhile I'm wondering exactly how these packages are supposed to get where they're going without anything more than a blob of pretty dots on it.

But, the DIAD scans 'em, the 1Z is valid, no one knows what to do about them to say otherwise, so off they've gone...

Any insights?
 

Brownslave688

You want a toe? I can get you a toe.
I’ve told them all they have to have a barcode with a readable address and tracking number. They’ve all magically had regular labels a day or 2 later.
 
I’ve told them all they have to have a barcode with a readable address and tracking number. They’ve all magically had regular labels a day or 2 later.
Same here, up until last week. Even the guys at the ASO's can't figure it out, and they've been walking customers through the Amazon-return-label-tango nonsense for years now. It's like all of the sudden a subset of the returns will only spit out this code - it's just that one shipper ID, which hasn't been spotted on a 'normal' label yet.

And there's not a The UPS Store or any other stores contracted with Amazon nearby as an alternative, which is all customers are being told to do when they call support.
 

Dr.Brownz

Well-Known Member
Long time lurker, first time caller... and ready to poke my own eyes out over whateverthehell it is Amazon is up to this time.

Seeing a ton of return service packages with just a square DataMatrix barcode slapped on them starting last week. No address, no barcodes or zone code or weight, nothing but a code and pixelated 1Z. All Amazon returns, all same shipper # (123TT9), all headed to Lexington, KY.

Customers are saying they can't get the normal label out of Amazon; the ASO drop-off points are beside themselves because contractually they need to accept "any and all UPS drop-off programs" and can't get any information out of their handlers about what to do with these; meanwhile I'm wondering exactly how these packages are supposed to get where they're going without anything more than a blob of pretty dots on it.

But, the DIAD scans 'em, the 1Z is valid, no one knows what to do about them to say otherwise, so off they've gone...

Any insights?

I don't care, and neither should you. Let Amazon and UPS deal with the problems this causes
 

iruhnman630

Well-Known Member
I told a customer last week to contact Amazon for a full return label.

Amazon refused and said this is all they send now.

I took the package but made the customer aware I could not guarantee it will get there.
 

badpal

Well-Known Member
They can take them to the ups store if they can, if u get stuck with one give it to the counter clerk, they can scan and print a label. I have heard amazon actually charges them 7 bucks for old type printable label. It's a pain for customers and drivers both if they live out in the boonies.
 
the data matrix code? I thought the diad 5 and 6 could not scan these, just the preload scanners.
YUUUUP. Hence the confusion; I was pretty sure they were limited to only scanning Code128 that met the tracking # schema. As of yesterday, ASO had a code that wasn't just a 1Z - it was prefixed with some alpha characters ("NIKL -1z..." IIRC) and it still scanned.

Rereading preload, I couldn't say, but none of the codes on the regular labels are DataMatrix. If you're thinking the honeycomb dots with a target in the middle of it, that's a MaxiCode.
 

Fido

Don’t worry he’s friendly
Ups stores deal with those scans.
Been like that for a while now actually. At least here in the south east.
 
I have heard amazon actually charges them 7 bucks for old type printable label.
ASO guys out here actually got insight from Amazon on that one a couple years back when it started - it depends on what the customer picks as the reason for returning the item. Anything that is remotely blamable on the customer (wrong size, bought by accident, didn't want...) gets charged. Anything that's Amazon's fault (missing parts, not as described...) gets the free label.

Trick is, a not-free option is always selected by default and the free ones are always at the bottom of the list, so everyone just clicks 'Next' and gets charged.

((Apparently, the Amazon support guy also told them "even if it's your fault just always say it wasn't as described to get the free label, no one ever questions that, seriously, when is anything ever as good as it looked when you put it in your cart?"))
 
I don't care, and neither should you. Let Amazon and UPS deal with the problems this causes
I care when mom & pop who run the ASO at the edge of civilization are out with CoViD and their kid, who is trying to hold down the entire family livilihood by themselves and has been literally sleeping under the counter for three weeks because they can't go home, is looking up lip trembling on the edge of tears clinging to a package with a stupid code on it because she's terrified some great big UPS boogey-man is going to come down from the sky and revoke their ASO status for a package that didn't meet PLD requirements.

Also, because traffic would absolutely suck and routes would take forever if every hillbilly townie out here had to get thier POS jalopy truck down to civilization and back just to take a return to the nearest The UPS Store.
 
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