How To Get Reimbursed From Amazon For Lost & Damaged Inventory - A Guide & Template
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Last updated
Last updated
Because of Amazon's massive size and scale, it is a common occurrence that your inventory can be misplaced, damaged or otherwise disposed of without your knowing. In the majority of cases, Amazon will reimburse you automatically (for the current selling price minus Amazon's fees) for these items however many items can slip through the cracks and chances are that Amazon owes you money and at scale, likely lots of it. A popular option for many sellers is to utilize a reimbursement service like GetIDA or Seller Investigators who simply go into your account, look at the reports shared below and open cases on your behalf then charge you a % based on the amount they recover. You can however do this yourself or train someone else to do it for you, such as a virtual assistant, which could likely save you a lot of money in the long term. Below I will walk you through the process of how to obtain the information needed in order to start requesting reimbursement along with a standard template that we utilize in our own business. This should be something you review/request reimbursement for on a regular basis as Amazon no longer provides missing reimbursement after 180 days. Amazon used to provide an "inventory adjustment" report which made this process pretty easy. Recently, they've replace that report with the "inventory ledger" which makes it a bit of a longer process but it is still not a difficult process. What reports you will want to access: 1. Seller Central > Reports > Fulfillment > Inventory > Inventory Ledger 2. Seller Central > Reports > Fulfillment > Payments > Reimbursements (if you want to cross reference before submitting cases) I would personally download these reports via CSV for the last 180 to 365 days to make it easier to view & manage but you can work with it directly in the browser. I find the summary view works fine for these. Process Note: this is the process I have personally found the most effective. There are other more "automated" review processes through support however I always prefer to submit my requests via a case for someone to manually review.
1. In your Inventory Ledger report, look for any items that have a disposition of anything other than "Sellable".
2. Cross reference that FNSKU with your reimbursement report to see if you have already been reimbursed. This step is not a requirement and many times to save time, we skip this step and submit requests for everything.
3. Copy all of the FNSKU's either into a document or spreadsheet. You may also want to copy some additional details such as the date & ASIN and save these details in a separate spreadsheet so you know where you left off for next time.
4. Start submitting your cases for reimbursement via support. We submit cases via Help > My issue is not listed > Describe issue (put in random text) > My issue is not listed > FBA related > Email > Attach a document with your reimbursement template (and corresponding FNSKUs included). Most reimbursement services that you see will submit one case per FNSKU however I have personally found it just as effective (and time saving) submitting up to 5 different FNSKUs per case. We make the template as simple, clear and straight forward as possible (as you should with any support contact), submit our cases one after another and then wait for responses. It is likely support will tell you a chunk have already been reimbursed, they will request invoices or receipts for others and for some they will just automatically reimburse you. I would recommend ensuring you do this process (after reconciling your shipments) once every 1 to 2 months. Amazon reimbursement template: