I remember when I bought my first computer about 12 years ago. The thing came with a users manual as big as a small telephone book. And the manual for Microsoft Word was even bigger!
Software has has gotten lots more powerful and complicated in the past few years. Meanwhile, the software makers have been eliminating the users manuals to cut their costs. I suppose that’s fine — IF they include all the documentation you need in well-designed help files viewable on your computer.
But what happens when the help files aren’t very helpful? That so-called productivity tool you paid big bucks for can waste your whole day. It’s gotten so bad recently that a whole new field of publishing has cropped up to help people learn how to use the stuff they’ve bought. The “Missing Manuals” are selling like hotcakes because the makers of software and other products often can’t be bothered to let us know how to use the products they’ve sold us.
I was reminded of all this on Friday afternoon when I downloaded the Amazon Services Order Notifier. It’s the new software that’s going to be replacing our “Sold, ship now” e-mails pretty soon.
Usually I avoid installing software updates until the last minute, and I’ve gotten pretty gun-shy of trying out betas. I need my computer 24/7, and I don’t want to have to pay Geeks on Call to get my computer unstuck.
But I couldn’t wait to try this one out. I make my living on Amazon, so I was just too curious to resist this download.
The good news is that installation was pretty fast and, no, my PC didn’t lock up. But I was a bit surprised that there was no documentation — at least none I could find — as to how to use this darned software. I stared at it for about 10 minutes before guessing that you had to select and double-click an order in your Order History window to do stuff like print an address label/packing slip. Am I the only one that didn’t get it?
The lack of documentation aside, I think the ASON is going to be a handy little tool, and I’ll tell you why: Last November, my Internet provider, Verizon, began filtering some of my Amazon orders into a spam folder, and I wasn’t aware of it. If Verizon had filtered ALL my Amazon e-mails — or MOST of them — I would have noticed. But Verizon only killed about one in every 15 of my “Sold, ship now” e-mails.
It took me about five weeks to catch on to the fact that Verizon was filtering some of my Amazon e-mails. When I got the third “where’s my book?” e-mail in one week for a transaction I’d received no e-mail for, I finally woke up. So I had to send about 75 books via Priority Mail, along with a personal letter of apology to all those customers. But that was the easy part. The hard part was figuring out which customers I hadn’t shipped to. I had to spend two days comparing my shipping log against my Payments Account. What a nightmare!
If you’ve had a chance to check out the Amazon Services Order Notifier, I’m interested to hear what you think about it. Please add a comment at the bottom.
16 Comments
Quick question Steve, after seeing this:
***The Amazon Services Order Notifier (ASON) is currently available only for the Microsoft Windows operating system.***
I’m wondering if Amazon mentioned ever making a Mac version? If not then I guess it will be to drag my old dusty PC out of storage, or maybe just use Virtual PC.
Uncertainty,
I have heard no mention of a Mac version. If there isn’t one, I think that will be pretty unfair to Mac users.
However, when the “Sold, ship now” e-mails are eliminated, there will still be one other option: You can download your fulfillment reports, assuming you’re a Pro-Merchant. That gives you a spreadsheet of your current orders.
That’s probably what I will do, and use ASON as a backup. It will be a fairly painless switch from what I’m doing now. I have a special program that parses all the order info from my “Sold, ship now” e-mails and prints my packing slips and Endicia labels all in one batch every morning. I’ll just have to modify it to use the data from the fulfillment reports instead of the e-mails.
A question…Why not just rely on the “my marketplace orders” page of Amazon to get sales and print a packing slip? That way you don’t miss anything. Or am I missing something?
While I think it is nice to have the “pop-up” that says you have a sale, and that this pop-up can be persistent or just fade away if you like, this little program is not good for anything else. The invoice comes with a shipping label that many don’t need with no way to adjust that feature, and it prints on two full sheets of paper! No way! Then, there are typos in this which is embarassing for Amazon and for us to send out to our buyers? The invoice/packing slip itself does not have item details or the little thank you and please leave feedback note at the bottom like the packing ship under order details does inside my account. Why didn’t they make them the same? This new one is sadly lacking. Plus if you have numerous orders to ship in one day (my highest is 28 I believe), you still have to go in and print invoices separately; with eBay, you are able to print all your invoices with just a couple of clicks and the invoice can be edited with many options. I feel like Amazon has quite fallen down with the lack of sophistication in this part of the selling process.
Anonymous,
You’re right, using the “My Marketplace Orders” page on your seller account is fine, but some people who do this full-time need the automation and the time savings it provides.
For example, one day last year I had over 400 orders. I never would have gotten through it if I’d had to spend another 45 seconds per order manually printing packing slips and cutting and pasting the customer names into Endicia. If I hadn’t been able to print everything in one batch, that one day’s worth of orders would have required at least two days of work — hard work.
I use Art of Books to manage my listings and orders. I always check my spam folders for stray wanted emails before deleting the unwanted ones.
And I check my Amazon sellers account and marketplace orders list several times a day for sales, too. I don’t rely solely on Sold Ship Now emails, because they’ve been unreliable in the past, though I’ve never missed an order.
So I can’t think of any reason I need this new software. Am I going to lose anything by not downloading what appears to be a cumbersome and unnecessary program from Amazon?
Steve, you said ” special program that parses all the order info from my “Sold, ship now” e-mails and prints my packing slips and Endicia labels all in one batch every morning”. What program do you use for this?
Thanks.
It’s an old program called “Message Parse”:
http://www.cypressnet.com/Products/msgparse/msgparse.htm
Well, hopefully a Mac version will be made. But I do rely on the “My Marketplace Orders” for cutting and pasting my orders, as I’m only selling part time. But as my goal this year is to increase my sales and streamline my bookselling, this is a great incentive to explore some other options. I do everything by hand and it is extremely time consuming, and that’s time I could be using to hunt for more books.
What if you have two accounts..one marketplace, one Merchant Pro?
Will they interfere?
So far, for the Merchant Pro I have it downloaded and I have to just leave it to double check, to see, if I miss an order, because e-mail does not reach me. Otherwise, I can not use it, I can not customize it at all, can’t even copy and paste from it…
Anybody similiar experience? Thanks!
If you have 2 accounts, you better watch out, they do not like that.
I have used Art of Books for 1 1/2 years, they have never missed an order, so I dont check amazon online, though I still have the e-mails coming to my Inbox.
Because my system is semi-automated already, this new program has no advantages for me. In fact, it is so basic, it doesn’t provide ENOUGH information to do a quality job in my opinion. For example, the Item Condition information option has been lost and there are there any auto-reply options. I get orders every minute while there is only an option to retrieve them every 15. Before Amazon requires any level of dependency on its latest tool, I think it should create a more detail oriented, practical version.
I am not a computer savy person, so I don’t even ‘understand’ some of what you are talking about. I am a very small reseller, selling on three sites (abe/amazon/alibris).
I just go to each site, hit filled, or whatever is required (on amazon it’s already filled), and then just print out what I need, and ship the order. I then go to each site and take off those books I no longer have (from any of my four places of sale…I also have a brick and mortar site).
WON’T I be able to do this anymore? I often found that the delay in waiting for the emails slowed down my fulfillment rate (esp. on amazon), so why WAIT for that?
Will this change? Won’t I be able to just go to the site, and Manage Your Orders anymore?
And HOW COME I haven’t heard a peep from Amazon about this, no emails to this effect???
Debbie K.
Steve you’ve mentioned something in passing that really bothers me, and I hope you’ll follow up on it.
Why would Verizon be filtering your emails? Was this part of their service agreement? Or is worrying about this in the same category as those pesky government mind-control rays?
Uncle Pavian,
Believe me, you don’t want to know the details.
But I’ll share a bit: Yes, it was supposed to be part of their service — filtering out spam messages. Unfortunately it turned out they were filtering out a certain percentage of my Amazon messages along with the spam.
I spent many (many!) hours trying to locate a tech person at Verizon, so I could warn them that they’re probably killing the legitimate Amazon e-mails for millions of other subscribers. I could never get through to anyone who could help, so eventually I had to dump the address I’d been using for six years and start using a new one.
Ohh…Spam Filter Hell. Been there, didn’t like it.
Thanks for clearing that up.