Are my items insured while at your warehouse?

Some of you have asked questions and expressed concern regarding the insurance coverage of your items while they are in the possession of McKenzie Services. First and foremost, we take great pride in the care and safety we provide for your items. From the time they arrive at our loading dock, through the processing line, all the way until the boxes get shipped off; we are fully aware of the value these items have for both yourself and us, as a business. Our current insurance policy is written such that we are covered for items housed in our warehouse, located at 8220 NE Walker Rd, Hillsboro, OR 97124. This includes personal property, including inventory and property of others while it is in the case, custody, and control of McKenzie Services up to a specific amount. If you feel that your items are high value items or irreplaceable, we would be happy to ask our insurance provider specific coverage questions. The coverage mentioned above begins when McKenzie Services takes possession of the property and ends when McKenzie Services relinquishes control. If you have any additional questions, please feel free to reach out to our team members as they would be happy to assist you.

Are you capable of using 2D barcodes for box content information?

Yes! McKenzie Services is equipped with our own proprietary software to perform 2d barcode printing for box content information. We can use 2D barcodes to provide the product quantities and expiration dates (if applicable) for each box in your shipment. If you choose to use 2D barcodes, you do not need to provide box content information through Seller Central. Instead, you can select Use 2D barcodes in the shipment creation workflow and McKenzie Services will apply a 2D barcode to each of your boxes. Amazon will then simply scan the 2D barcodes to determine the contents of a specific box. Providing box content information helps reduce the time needed between your products arriving at the Amazon FBA fulfillment center and your products being available for sale. Also, 2D barcodes will scale to larger shipments more easily. In Seller Central, go to your Fulfillment by Amazon settings, then to your Inbound Settings page. Please note that McKenzie Services has written, and fully tested, an application to generate 2D barcodes. 2D barcodes do not replace Amazon shipping labels. Amazon shipping labels are still required.

Are you close to an Amazon FBA Warehouse, and what will be the cost to ship my products to Amazon?

Yes, we are close to an Amazon FBA Warehouse. However, you must be familiar with “distributed inventory placement”. By default, when you create a shipping plan, your shipment may be divided into multiple shipments, each directed to a different fulfillment center. This division is called distributed inventory placement. The destination fulfillment centers are selected based on the products you’re shipping and where you are shipping from. By having your inventory spread across multiple fulfillment centers across the country, the person who buys your product will receive it faster than they would if your inventory was in a single fulfillment center farther away from the buyer.

Are you in a sales tax free state?

Yes, we are located in Oregon which is a sales tax free state. This is important for many online arbitrage sellers, as it can save a lot of money in having items shipped with no sales tax. The average combined sales tax rate in the United States for the second quarter of 2015 was 8.454 percent.

Can you provide information regarding climate control for your storage center?

Climate control in our warehouse is heat-only, with a minimum of 60 degrees fahrenheit in the winter months. There is no air conditioning. Therefore temperatures in the summer months can be over 90 degrees fahrenheit in our warehouse. Our office (adjacent to our warehouse) does have air conditioning, but there is limited storage available–and no palletized storage is available in the office.

Can I have an Amazon Removal Order shipped to you, and then you store the items?

Yes! We’ve done this for many clients. It is very common, especially with Amazon charging LTSF on a monthly basis now. We can either store your products, or forward it on to another destination.  Contact us for a quote.

Can your company make us custom boxes or packaging?

Yes. We can help create the perfect packaging. Turn your brand into the total package with full customization and fast turnarounds. Mailer boxes, folding cartons, and shipping boxes are all available.  Contact us for details.

Can I send part of my inventory into Amazon, and store the remainder with you?

Yes! Split up your shipments by sending part to Amazon, and then storing the remainder with us. As your stock on Amazon runs low, we will replenish as needed.

Can you process my items, only after a certain amount of items have arrived?

Yes, absolutely. You are in control of when you want to ship to Amazon. This is especially applicable to online arbitrage of new products. We can receive products that trickle in from suppliers, and then ship to Amazon when you are ready. Be advised that storage fees may apply if your products sit for 7 days or more. Also, please note that we do not offer this service for “one by one” arbitrage or used books–it is offered for new products only.  Contact us for pricing and more details.

Do you have 24 hour video surveillance?

Yes. We take security very seriously. We have multiple Nest Cameras, recording video to the cloud 24/7. Live video can be accessed remotely by Management, in addition to video history. Every employee we hire has a full criminal background check. The building is also locked down with motion sensors and door sensors. If those sensors are tripped during non-business-hours, a security monitoring company is notified and police are immediately dispatched. An extra bonus we have is that the Hillsboro Police Department takes their breaks in our parking lot. So there is always an officer near by!

Do I have to provide the shipping labels?

Yes, we will provide you with the information needed to generate your labels when processing is complete so that you can provide them to us. However, if you have provided your Account Manager with limited access to your Amazon account, then we will generate the shipping labels ourselves.

Do you offer direct to customer (order fulfillment) services as well?

Unfortunately, at this time, we do not offer FBM (Fulfillment) services.

Do you offer freight forwarding services?

Yes! We have many clients using our freight forwarding services. We also call this carton forwarding. We can receive and forward as little as a few cartons via small parcel, or as many as a full 20 or 40 foot shipping container. You have the option to forward some or all of your cartons to Amazon FBA. Some clients choose to only forward some cartons to take advantage of our less expensive long-term storage options. We will also optionally assist with the customs brokerage paperwork through our Customs Brokerage Services Packages. See our  pricing page for details.

Do you store my credit card? Is it secure?

We do not directly save your credit card, but we use Stripe.com to store your credit card information when you create an account with us. Stripe has been audited by a PCI-certified auditor and is certified to PCI Service Provider Level 1. This is the most stringent level of certification available in the payments industry. To accomplish this, they make use of best-in-class security tools and practices to maintain a high level of security at Stripe. More information may be  found here.

Do you require me to have a US address?

No, a US address is not required for doing business with us, or for selling on Amazon US. We currently accept payment in USD, GBP, AUD, NZD, CAD, SGD, ZAR, EUR, DKK, SEK, NOK, HKD, MYR, JPY, CHF, INR, PLN, CZK, RUB, BRL, PHP, RON, and MXN.

Do you work with liquidation lots?

If it is books, we may consider it. For most other products, likely not, but  contact us for details.

Do you work with online arbitrage FBA sellers, or only wholesale and private label?

Yes, we do work with online arbitrage sellers.  Contact us for more details. Also, please check out the  pricing page, which details out different rates for sellers doing arbitrage.

Do your prices include the shipping cost from the McKenzie warehouse into Amazon FBA?

No. Shipping cost from our warehouse to Amazon FBA is not included in our per unit or per carton pricing. This is usually paid for via your Amazon Seller Central account. View sample UPS rates  here, and sample LTL Freight rates  here.


How do I sell on Amazon as a non-US resident?

This  How to be an International Seller article by Bob Sled Marketing covers this topic in terrific detail. Check out part 3 of the article, which covers common questions about how to import products into the US.

How do I qualify for wholesale pricing (versus online arbitrage)?

The basic difference between Wholesale and OA from our perspective – to qualify for Wholesale – you will need to be ordering at least 50 units per SKU at a time.

How do you track my inbound inventory, or what is currently received at your warehouse?

We use a Web Portal that we developed in house. Our Portal, known as EPIC, tracks information such as the date of arrival, tracking numbers, status, quantity, product description, UPC, expiration date, any issues, warehouse storage location, and comments.   Watch our video for more info on our receiving report and EPIC. One of the great advantages of EPIC is that the data is always live and updated. Once you are signed up with McKenzie Services, we will provide you with a log in.

I am brand new to selling on Amazon. May I still use your services?

For people that are brand new to Amazon, we highly recommend doing the prep yourself for the first month. In our experience, it is a great learning experience to do the work yourself at first. Then, after you have a good handle how to do all the receiving, labeling, creating the FBA shipping plans, and outbound shipping, reach out to us and we can talk more about doing the work for you.

How much would it cost to ship my products to the UK? Australia? Some other country?

You can get an ocean freight quote here: https://freightquote.dhl.com/lcl You can get an air freight quote here: https://freightquote.dhl.com/afr For the quote, use Zip Code ( 97124 ) Hillsboro as the “From”.

How long will it take to process my orders?

We aim to process your shipment within 1-3 business days (a business day is Monday-Friday). We do not work on Saturday/Sunday, except under special circumstances. For larger orders or if you requested a large amount of extra processing, this time may be slightly extended.

I am not based in the USA. How do I import as a foreign Importer of Record?

To be a Foreign Importer of Record, you will need a Customs Assigned Number and a Customs Bond.  Contact us for Customs & Border Protection (CBP) Brokerage and Freight Forwarding/International Shipping package options and pricing.

I have units already in FBA. May I ship them to you, then you process them, and ship back to Amazon?

Yes. We’ve done this work many times. Here is the process:

1. Create a removal order and have the items shipped to us.

2. Send us the PDF file of the new FNSKU 30-up labels (if re-labeling is needed).

3. We receive the inventory and process it as needed.

4. We case-pack all of your products for better storage and outbound shipping rates.

5. You create the shipping plan, indicating the number of destinations, or your Account Manager can do this for you.

6. You finalize the shipping plan and send us the UPS labels, or your Account Manager generates these for you.

7. We ship to Amazon. Receiving, prep, and shipping costs will apply. See our  pricing page for details.

I would like to do storage and freight forwarding–will you please explain your total pricing?

It’s difficult to compare rates from different companies online as they all structure the charges in different ways. As such, we would like to present you with a basic scenario for products and give an example quote based on that. Here is a brief description: You ship a 40′ container to our warehouse including 150-200 cartons each of 5 SKUs. You request a shipment to Amazon Fulfillment Center once per month of varying quantities of all 5 SKUs, including Carton Labeling, Palletizing to Amazon Specifications, Storage for remaining items – assume it takes 6 months for all ~1000 cartons to be sent out. Trucking to Destination is assumed to be quoted and paid for via your Amazon Seller Central account and is not part of the quote. Items do not require any additional inspection or prep and will only be shipped to AMZ in increments of the master cartons – no repackaging needed. For our pricing, we are assuming ~34 cartons per pallet, so 1,000 cartons makes 30 pallets. We charge our storage per pallet position. If we cannot get 34 cartons per pallet, then storage fees could go up. We assume you would be shipping 5 pallets per month for 6 months. Also, our price assumes that as soon as the container arrives, you immediately ship your first 5 pallets to Amazon (thus avoiding storage for those 5 pallet positions once month 1 hits). Click here for an estimate of total costs for the 6-month period assuming this scenario.

May I grant you permission to access my Seller Central account on my behalf?

If it is mutually agreeable to you and to McKenzie Services, and if it makes BOTH you and McKenzie Services more efficient/accurate, then yes. But, we reserve the right to decline this, or bill hourly for this service, if there is no efficiency/accuracy benefit. Setting up the permissions may be accomplished by using the  Seller Central Rights Manager screen. If this is agreed upon, we will provide detailed instructions on which permissions to select in order to give McKenzie Services access to limited areas of your Seller Central account. We will not create listings for you, as this is not part of our services. We will only print FNSKU labels, and assist with the creation and/or finalization of your FBA shipping plans.

What currencies do you accept for credit card payment?

We currently accept USD, GBP, AUD, NZD, CAD, SGD, ZAR, EUR, DKK, SEK, NOK, HKD, MYR, JPY, CHF, INR, PLN, CZK, RUB, BRL, PHP, RON, MXN. We accept VISA, MasterCard, American Express, and PayPal. You do not need a US address for your credit card to go through, but if you have any trouble when entering your credit card, please  contact us and we will help.

What is the nearest sea port to your warehouse for container shipping?

The Port of Portland does not allow sea vessels/containers, due to the Longshoremen issue. Importing to Seattle Port or Long Beach Port then freight/rail to our warehouse is the usual option.

Will I have a dedicated Account Manager when using McKenzie Services?

Yes! All of our pricing plans and services include an experienced and dedicated Account Manager as your single point of contact with our company.

What kinds of products can you prepare for shipment to Amazon?

We can prep and handle just about any product. Our company has a long history and expertise in books, but we’ve since branched out as an Amazon FBA focused warehouse logistics company who can handle nearly anything that Amazon sells.

What is the process for Online Arbitrage?

Here is the high-level process for online arbitrage:

1.) Inventory arrives at our facility.

2.) Our Intake Team will scan the tracking number for each package/shipment into EPIC (our online portal that tracks client’s inventory) and then the contents/items for each shipment is then scanned into EPIC as well.

3.) You and your team will be able to log into EPIC at any given moment to see what inventory you currently have here.

4.) You may then request a shipment for the inventory we have on hand.

5.) Your dedicated account manager will then create the shipment for you in Seller Central using our API.

6.) Our Production Team will then pull, prep and process the items to Amazon’s standards.

7.) Once Production is completed, your Account Manager will then generate the postage using Amazon’s Preferred Partner Program to get these shipped off to Amazon.

Obviously, that is just a quick snippet, but it gives you an idea.

What makes McKenzie Services different from other FBA prep services companies?

Here is a video that may be helpful to review:  https://youtu.be/r-hwQwuNd2k

Blog article listing out the top 10 reasons to work with us as well. 

What do you mean by a “job minimum”?

The job minimum means that we expect at least a certain number of items to ship to Amazon in each “batch”. Number of items processed x $P(price) per item = $J(job) at least our job minimum worth of work. If less items are processed and shipped that do not meet our job minimum, then we simply charge the minimum. In the extreme case, if a client were to ask us to ship just ONE item to Amazon, then the overhead labor cost of doing that would mean we would lose money. So, we want to make sure we are doing a minimum amount of work for every outbound FBA shipping plan in order to cover our overhead cost.

What is your policy on disposal, recycle, donate items to prevent them from getting resold?

Under no circumstance can any employee take discard / donate / recycle / dispose items and resell them. Also, under no circumstance can we provide items to any other person or organization (such as a non-profit) without prior written consent from the client.

What is the difference between a bundle and a multipack?

The difference is bundling is multiples of different products, and multipacks are multiples of the same product.

Will you receive, prep, and ship used products?

If it is books, we may consider it if the volume is significant. Other than books, we do not handle used products. We receive, prep, and ship new products only.

Will you sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement (NDA)?

Yes! First, you must have signed up and have a current account with us. Download our mutual NDA  here, fill it out, and send it to your dedicated Account Manager. We are also occasionally asked about a non-compete. We do not have a template for a non-compete, but if your company has one, we are happy to review and sign it. We have no intent or desire to sell anything on Amazon. We simply wish to use our logistics expertise and facilities to help others sell their products on Amazon successfully.

Will you notify me when you receive my orders?

Yes, we will notify you once we’ve received your shipment. We will also notify you of any issues during the inspection or processing of your order.

Your EPIC web portal is asking permission to access my Google Account. Why?

“Your data on Google” is just a generic statement that Google starts with. If you click the button that says “Review Permissions”, then Google will tell you EXACTLY what permissions we are requesting: 1. Allow this application to run when you are not present. 2. Connect to an external service (this external service is a mysql cloud database). It does not give any access to your email, your docs, your contacts, or any other information.