A Detailed Guide on How To Recover Amazon Reimbursements

According to Jungle Scout’s 2022 State of the Amazon Seller Report, 68% of Amazon sellers use FBA to fulfill all their orders in the United States, while an additional 21% use FBA combined with other fulfillment methods. Amazon ships approximately 1.6 million packages daily, translating to more than 66 thousand orders per hour and 18.5 orders per second. With the massive amount of inventory arriving at one of Amazon’s 110 fulfillment centers in the US each day, mistakes are inevitable.

For Amazon FBA sellers, the most common reasons Amazon may owe you money include:

1. Lost Inventory: Lost inventory can result from discrepancies in the number of units shipped to the fulfillment center versus what was marked as received, incorrect assignment of inventory to another seller, or inventory not being assigned to an order. To be considered lost by Amazon, the product must have been missing in fulfillment centers for at least 30 days.
   

2. Damaged Inventory: Damage can occur after Amazon receives the item into its fulfillment center. This damage may happen at the fulfillment center, en route to the customer, or during the customer returns handling process. Damage can be caused by Amazon or a carrier used by Amazon. In rare cases, Amazon may even destroy items without permission.
   

3. Lost or Damaged Inventory From Your Inbound Shipping: These situations apply when items are lost or damaged before they are checked into the fulfillment center.
   

4. Issues Relating to Processing Customer Returns: The National Retail Federation noted that in 2021, over 20% of online purchases in the US were returned, amounting to over $23.2 billion. For Amazon sellers using FBA, Amazon manages the processing of these returns directly. Several issues can occur with these returns that may be eligible for reimbursement:

• The product isn’t returned after the customer is refunded.

• The product isn’t replaced after return.

• The returned item isn’t added to your inventory.
  

1. Errors with Amazon Fees: Other errors eligible for reimbursement include incorrect referral fees, incorrect weights or dimensions of a product, incorrect storage fees or long-term storage fees, and incorrect shipping fees.
   

Steps to Recover the Money You Are Owed

Amazon sellers must send the appropriate documentation or evidence, file the case with Amazon, and follow up with Amazon Support until the case is resolved. Key documentation steps include:

• Reconciling discrepancies between your shipping plan and what was received by the fulfillment center.

• Verifying FBA charges and the weights and dimensions being applied to items.

• Reviewing your Inventory Adjustments Report.

• Checking your Removal Order Detail Report and your Removal Shipment Detail Report.

Although you can perform these steps yourself, the process is often time-consuming and requires diligent monthly reviews of your Amazon Seller Central reports.

Additionally, you need to act quickly. Depending on the type of claim, there are different lengths of time to claim your reimbursement before they expire. For example, for claims related to FBA Shipments, you have nine months from the last activity on the shipment to make your case.