Amazon Reimbursement Claim

4 Quick Tricks to Get Your FBA Inventory Money Back using Amazon Reimbursement Claims

I bet many of you selling all these years on Amazon may not be aware of some of the Amazon Reimbursement Claims. Through selling, masterminding, and doing some research I’ve found a bunch of ways to get back money that Amazon owes you on account of different Amazon FBA Inventory claims for various reasons.

Yes, there are services out there that will do this for you for a fee or a percentage of what they recover, but I’m going to share 4 quick ways that you can do this yourself for free with a little time and effort. I got back over $1,500 this week through all the methods, so it’s totally worth it.

The best part is you don’t need to buy any software or share any of the refunds with anyone else.

ITEMS SHIPPED BUT NEVER PUT INTO INVENTORY

This is the easiest of all – lots of people already know this but in case you don’t, here’s how to get money back for items you shipped to Amazon that they never put into inventory: In Amazon Seller Central;

Access Path: Inventory > Manage FBA Shipments

  1. On that screen find the headings for Units Shipped and Units Received
  2. If received is less than shipped by even 1 unit, then click Track Shipment on the right
  3. [You need to give them several weeks after a shipment before they will let you do a reconciliation]
  4. On the new page that opens near the top will be a link that says Reconcile, click it. It will be located just above the words 1. View Discrepancies and Request Research
  5. Under Status / Action Required, use the pull down menu and select Missing – Please Research. You don’t need to fill out any of the other info on that page, including the Purchase Invoice related to the shipment.
  6. Click Preview Your Request
  7. In the new window that opens click Submit Request

Do this for every shipment where received is less than shipped until you have filed reimbursements for all the items shipped to Amazon FBA but were never credited to your Amazon FBA Inventory.

LOST, DAMAGED OR DESTROYED INVENTORY

To get reimbursed for lost, damaged, or destroyed inventory once it’s in Amazon’s possession can also be more lucrative.

Access Path: Reports > Fulfillment > on the selection pane on the left hand side under Inventory, click Show More, and select Inventory Adjustments.

  1. Go to the Download tab and set the Date range to whenever the last time you did it, to date or if you’ve never done it from when you started selling on Amazon, to date.
  2. Download the report.
  3. Open the downloaded file in MS Excel.
  4. Filter for Reason, anything that is D, E, or M (Destroyed – D, Damaged – E, Missing/Lost – M). It’s doesn’t matter what it says in the column next to it.
  5. Now is a little bit of a pain because Amazon won’t do more than 20 at a time, so you have to break up the list into groups of 20 and save as multiple files as their own for multiple groups of 20 each.

Amazon actually wants groups of 5 each but will do 20 if you tell them it’s not practical. You can save them in sequence by numbering the groups as #1, #2, #3, etc. in the file names.

Now you’re going to open a case with Amazon Seller Support for each of these groups individually but my recommendation is to do it one at a time (e.g., submit #1 and wait for it to be resolved before submitting #2).

For opening case for reimbursement, in Amazon Seller Central;

Go to Help > FBA issues > Other and do it by email.

You can put “FBA Issues – Other Issues – Lost \ Damaged \ Destroyed – 1” in the email subject field.

I change the 1 to 2 or 3 or 4 for each group that I submit, to help keep track. I also send in one at a time and they get resolved within 2-24 hours before I send the next one in.

You can write;


Hi,

The items in the attachment are showing up in my Inventory Adjustments as being either lost, damaged, or destroyed, and I am requesting reimbursement. I have sorted this to a list of 20 as a list of 5 is unrealistic.

Thank you!

Your name

Some of the Seller Support personnel just give you the reimbursement right away. Others go line by line and tell you why they are or are not giving it. Some are a pain and say to resubmit in 24 or 72 hours because the product is on the reserve.


How to Deal with Product Reviews and Seller Feedback – The Right Way


CUSTOMER RETURNS THAT WERE NEVER RETURNED

This one requires slightly more work, so now we’ll see who’s willing to put the time in to get reimbursed for the moneys owed to them.

If a customer says they are going to return an item, but then something happens and they don’t actually return it, then Amazon owes you money.

Note that a customer has 30 days to return an item, so you have to do this somewhat after the fact. Also, Amazon policy is that any purchase made between Nov 1 and Dec 31 can be returned until Jan 31.

There are a couple ways to do this but here’s mine – it takes a little time but is totally worth it.

Step 1:

Access Path: Reports > Payments > Transaction View

  1. Custom Date range to whenever the last time you did it was or if it was never done before then choose the date when you first started selling on Amazon, to date.
  2. Filter by Refunds.
  3. Click each Dollar figure at the end and it will bring up all the details. On the bottom, if there isn’t a block that says “FBA Inventory Reimbursement” then you will have to write down the Order ID.
  4. Do this for anything showing up as a Refund.

Now that you have your list from Step 1, time to move onto Step 2.

Step 2:

Access Path: Reports > Fulfillment > on the selection pane on the left hand side under Customer Concessions, select FBA Customer Returns

  1. Choose the “Download” tab and select the same Date range you did for payments in Step 1.
  2. Open the file in MS Excel.
  3. Find the last column that says Status at the top.
  4. Highlight any rows that say Reimbursed.
  5. Now compare the list of orders you made from Step 1 to this list. If it’s on the list of returns and it says Unit Returned to Inventory then cross it off.
  6. At the end you should have a list of Order IDs that either show up as Reimbursed or are not on the Returns list that you just worked out.

You can claim to be reimbursed for the items that are not on the Returns list. You will have to open a case (one at a time) with Seller Support to submit your reimbursement claims.

For opening case for reimbursement, in Amazon Seller Central;

Choose Selling on Amazon > Customers and Orders and type in the Order ID. I choose Other from the options and then write.

You can write;

Hi,

This item has been refunded but it has not been returned. Please investigate and reimburse.

Your name

Since each one of these is separate, you can submit a whole bunch simultaneously.

OTHER CUSTOMER CONCESSIONS

This is for when Amazon is being nice to a customer and gives them a refund outside of the 30 day return window but they forget to reimburse you. (Keep in mind any purchase made on Amazon from Nov 1 – Dec 31 can be returned by Jan 31.)

Access Path: Reports > Payments > Transaction View

  1. Custom Date range to whenever the last time you did it was or if it was never done before then choose the date when you first started selling on Amazon, to date.
  2. Now using the down arrow, select Refund and download the file.
  3. Open the downloaded file in MS Excel.
  4. Filter the column that says Payment Detail and choose Other Concessions.
  5. It will give you a short list of Order IDs.
  6. Now take them and go back to Seller Central on the Transaction View screen and plug in the Order ID one by one.
  7. Click on the dollar figure at the end to pull up all the details of the transaction.
  8. If there is not an entry at the bottom that says FBA Reimbursement then open a case with Seller Support to get reimbursed.

For opening case for reimbursement, in Amazon Seller Central;

Choose Selling on Amazon > Customers and Orders and type in the Order ID. I choose Other from the options and then write.

You can write;

Hi,

An Other Concession was made on this transaction and I was never reimbursed. Please investigate and reimburse.

Your name

Since each one of these is separate, you can submit a whole bunch simultaneously.

So there it is. These are the four quickest ways you can get your hard earned inventory money back. So what are you waiting for? Go get your money now and do not forget to share in the comments below how much you got reimbursed from each of these methods!

Author – Rizwan Zaffar (Originally posted in Ecommerce Outset)


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