If you are an Amazon seller on Seller Central / Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA), there is a good chance that Amazon owes you some money, and let’s see how you can identify these instances and claim this amount.
Amazon processes thousands of orders daily with people and machines seamlessly working together. No process is error-proof and Amazon warehouses are no different. Due to these errors, Amazon has ways of reimbursing their Sellers and it’s important we understand the most common reimbursements that we get to see and claim.
- Errors while processing Inbound Shipments to Amazon warehouses
- Overcharged FBA fee
Inbound shipment errors:
In the most common scenarios, items that are being shipped to Amazon's warehouse from the Seller’s warehouse can go missing or damaged due to the carrier or due to receiving errors that might occur at Amazon's loading docks. Once Amazon receives the complete inventory and updates the status of the shipment to “Closed”, one must review the content tab to identify if there are any missing units. Amazon gives 3 standard inputs when the received units don’t match the units sent.
1. Investigation completed – shipment contents counted and confirmed - If this option is there against the missing units, then we cannot request Amazon to investigate further.
2. Units located No action required – This means they have done some additional research and have found the units and added them to your inventory
3. Action required – You will get this option when there are either missing units or Extra units shipped received against the shipped units. This is where you can submit the needed documents to get reimbursed.
To submit a claim Amazon allows a window of 6 months since the shipment is shown as eligible for investigation on the 'Reconcile' tab of the Summary page in the shipping workflow. Sellers will need the below details to successfully submit a claim.
- Proof of inventory ownership – Sometimes we can use the signed and sealed Packing Slip, Internal Invoice (signed and sealed), Proof of purchase invoice from the Manufacturer. Please note you don’t have to disclose any pricing to Amazon and blur them or strike out in a dark color to hide the cost details. The date of the invoice should not be a newly created one for disputing purposes.
- Proof of Delivery (POD) / Signed Bill of Leading (BOL). This document would be signed by the carrier driver with a PRO Number. POD will be available on the carrier website.
Once you have these documents, you can upload them and submit the disputes. After submitting the dispute, you will get the case ID which is used to track the approval/research status. Amazon will update the status by sharing the reimbursement IDs if they are approved.
Overcharged FBA fee:
The various fees the Amazon FBA program has are storage fees, fulfillment fees, and commission fees (applicable to FBM too). However, the most important of the Fees that you pay to Amazon is called as FBA Fee. FBA Fee and Storage fees are calculated basis the category, weight, and dimension of the item.
FBA Fees are calculated based on Product Size Tier and Weight. These values determine whether your product is Standard Size or Oversize. A small change in the weight or dimension can result in a higher fee than what it must be. This information can be viewed in a report called Fee Preview Report which can be viewed under the Reports Fulfillment Payments section. Amazon shares dimensions, weight, and the tier in which your product is categorized. Please use Amazon’s guiding instructions available in the Seller central help to determine your weight of the product and corresponding FBA Fee.
Amazon uses CUBISCAN to determine the dimensions and weight of the product. Sometimes incorrect dimension results in increased FBA Fee. Since you have validated the dimensions and weight, you can request Amazon to remeasure the products. Please note Amazon takes a maximum of 20 remeasurement requests per month. Please be mindful of the below pointers to determine if your ASIN is eligible for a re-measurement.
- Make sure it hasn’t already been re-measured twice in the past 60 days by Amazon
- Make sure there are available units in the fulfillment center
- The Seller Centralaccount should not have exceeded the monthly remeasurement request limit.
Amazon will do the remeasurement and notify if any changes result in reimbursement. The catch here is, Amazon does automatic changes only to the list of orders within the current payment cycle and we should only raise a manual reimbursement request, which must be within 90 days from the change in FBA fee.
Once your review the payments of the past 90 days, submit a reimbursement request to Amazon by giving them the Order ID, Payment Timeline (15-day period), Previous FBA Fee, current FBA Fee, no of units sold, and the total money per order that Amazon must reimburse.
Please note Amazon Seller Central will resolve the cases stating anything but not addressing your reimbursement. We would recommend that you give them all possible information and try multiple times to get your money reimbursed by Amazon.
Frequently Asked Questions
About the Author
Meet Arjun Narayan, a Business Dynamo with two decades of conquering boardrooms and founding two companies that didn't just survive but thrived. When he's not navigating business strategies and delivery teams, you'll find him immersed in his love for cars and exploring new models, geeking out over tech trends, globe-trotting for new adventures, and occasionally pondering the mysteries of the universe over a good cup of coffee.
