Amazon Reimbursements: A Seller’s Guide to Getting Paid Faster

Congratulations, you’ve set yourself up as a Fulfillment by Amazon (FBA) seller! 

Now what?

Amazon’s marketplace includes a number of areas, tools, and trade secrets that FBA sellers should know about. But there’s one that even the most experienced sellers often overlook — and it happens to be essential to optimizing your store’s profitability: Amazon reimbursements.

What Are Amazon Reimbursements?

Amazon is huge. Currently, there are about 10 million registered sellers on the platform, marketing over 564 million products to 300 million active customers. A whopping 73% of these are FBA sellers, so Amazon stocks and ships all their inventory as well. 

With such an enormous volume of products shipping in and out of Amazon’s fulfillment centers every day, accidents and mistakes are inevitable. 

RELATED: Why Amazon’s New Reimbursement Policy Will Anger FBA Sellers

As convenient as FBA is, it also requires sellers to keep a keen eye on their inventory at all times. Lost or damaged inventory can be a huge headache — and a hit to your revenue.

Fortunately, tools like Seller Investigators can help FBA sellers find and recover the money that Amazon owes them, which could be in the thousands.

How Do I Know if Amazon Owes Me Money?

Amazon owes 99% of sellers money. Chances are, you’re one of them.

Here’s a simple principle to follow: If Amazon or a carrier loses or damages your FBA-registered product and doesn’t replace it with one of the same Fulfillment Network Stock Keeping Unit (FNSKU) within 30 days, you’re entitled to file a claim for reimbursement. 

RELATED: Amazon Arbitrage for Beginners: 4 Mindsets for Starting a Book Arbitrage Business

So instead of asking if Amazon owes you money, start asking how much money Amazon owes you.

Seller Investigators can answer that question for you within 48 hours for free. To find every penny that Amazon owes you, they’ll conduct:

• A warehouse inventory adjustment audit.
• A missing inbound reconciliation.
• A shipping audit.

4 Things FBA Sellers Must Know About Amazon Reimbursements 

When it comes to recovering money from lost or damaged inventory, there a few things sellers should keep in mind:

1. Amazon Reimburses Sellers for Lost, Damaged, or Missing Inventory

FBA reimbursements are generally split into three main categories:

Lost inventory, which happens when Amazon:

• Adds your inventory incorrectly to another seller’s account.
• Loses items in transit between warehouses.
• Misplaces items during order fulfillment.

Damaged inventory, which happens when Amazon:

• Damages items during order fulfillment.
• Damages items when returning them to the warehouse.

Missing inventory, which happens when Amazon:

• Doesn’t reconcile all units when receiving shipments at the warehouse.
• Loses items in transit, which is especially common with small-parcel shipments.
• Adjusts stock levels according to incorrect inventory information.

As a seller, you’re entitled to file a reimbursement claim if Amazon mishandles your inventory and doesn’t replace it within 30 days.

2. Amazon Doesn’t Tell Sellers About the Money It Owes Them

Every day, items get lost or damaged in the warehouse, in transit, or during order fulfillment. Maybe the item isn’t scanned. Maybe it’s credited to the wrong seller’s account. Either way, Amazon takes responsibility… but only if you ask them.

You have to head to Amazon Seller Central to let Amazon know you’ve discovered a discrepancy, provide the necessary evidence, and submit a claim through the official channels.

3. Amazon Does NOT Punish Sellers for Claiming Reimbursements

Many sellers choose not to claim reimbursements because they’re worried about possible reprisals, such as store bans or other severe sanctions. But if you play by Amazon’s rules and file your claim through the right channels, you shouldn’t have any problems.

Using Seller Investigators can take worry directly out of the whole process. The app knows exactly how to work within Amazon’s Terms of Service to ensure you get the money you’re owed quickly. Because Amazon frequently audits their processes, you need to know how to play the game and adapt to Amazon’s ever-evolving rules.

4. Amazon Audits and Claims Should Not Be a Seller’s Main Focus

Managing your Amazon reimbursements is a tedious, time-intensive task. It requires time and energy that would be far better channeled into more exciting activities that will scale your business, like marketing and product development.     

That, of course, is exactly why the top 1% of FBA sellers automate their reimbursements through an accredited audit and recoveries service.

How FBA Sellers Can Get Amazon Reimbursement Faster

The best way to get the money you’re owed quickly is to use an audit and recovery service like Seller Investigators to streamline the whole process.

To figure out if a service like this would benefit your business, start by considering how much time and money you’d need to devote to filing reimbursement claims.

Having a professional audit and reconciliation service manage your FBA reimbursements is basically free. You only pay a service fee on actual monies recovered — after they’ve hit your bank account.

RELATED: Smart Profit Optimization and Recovery Techniques

As an added bonus, software like Seller Investigators will recover more money than you could on your own. They’ll also manage the whole process, from audit to reconciliation to filing to tracking cases. That means zero effort on your part. 

If you are going to choose a software tool to help collect reimbursements, just make sure your provider::

1. Is 100% Amazon compliant and an authorized service provider on the Amazon Appstore.
2. Provides attentive, communicative, and consultative customer support.
3. Has a zero-risk policy that ensures you only pay after you’ve received your reimbursement.

As a go-to service trusted by the top 1% of Amazon sellers, Seller Investigators has all this and more, including:

• Superior technology that expertly examines every nook to help you recover the most money possible.
• A top notch user experience with interactive client support tailored to your needs, a dashboard with essential, updated Amazon seller tools, and access to Carbon6’s suite of tools to optimize your Amazon business.
• No fees or fixed monthly charges. You’ll only pay a 25% recovery fee on whatever money they successfully claim back for you.
• Longer Look Back: Users can audit 18 months back in time for lost and damaged inventory, and 9 months back for missing inbound. With that depth of transparency, sellers could find thousands of dollars waiting to be recovered.