How to Recover FBA Reimbursements for Lost and Damaged Inventory

When you use Fulfilled by Amazon (FBA), your stock passes through many hands: your courier, Amazon's receiving dock, storage, picking, packing, customer returns and removals. Units get lost, damaged or miscounted along the way. Amazon's FBA inventory reimbursement policy says it will pay you for stock it loses or damages, but only some of it is paid automatically, and the time you have to raise a claim is short.

For a busy FBA seller, unclaimed reimbursements are one of the easiest sources of money to recover. Here's where it slips through and how to get it back.

Where reimbursements come from

Claim windows are short

In October 2024 Amazon shortened most FBA reimbursement claim windows from 18 months to 60 days, apart from claims about shipments to Amazon. Some claim types also have a waiting period before you can raise them, for example while Amazon waits for a customer return to arrive.

The reports to check

• Inventory Ledger: every movement of every unit (received, sold, returned, lost, found, damaged, disposed). The starting point for spotting units that disappeared.
• Reimbursements report: what Amazon has already paid, so you don't claim twice.
• Shipments (Send to Amazon): units sent versus units received for each shipment.
• FBA Customer Returns: returns received, with their condition (sellable, customer damaged, carrier damaged, defective).
• Removal order details: units requested, shipped and received for each removal.
• Fee preview / fee details: the size tier and weight Amazon uses for each product.

A two-weekly reimbursement routine

1. Reconcile shipments. For each closed shipment, compare units sent with units received. Raise a case for shortfalls with your proof of delivery and box contents.
2. Check lost and damaged units in the Inventory Ledger against the Reimbursements report. Units marked lost or damaged by Amazon with no reimbursement (and not later found) are worth a claim.
3. Match refunds to returns. For each order refunded more than a few weeks ago, check whether the item came back. Refunds with no matching return are claimable once the waiting period has passed.
4. Review returns marked unsellable. If a customer sent back a damaged, used or different item, raise it with the order details and photos where Amazon offers them.
5. Check removals. Count what actually arrived at your warehouse against the removal order.
6. Spot-check fees. If a product's size tier or weight looks wrong, ask Amazon to re-measure it.
7. Track every case in one sheet: order or shipment ID, units, claim date, case ID, outcome and amount.

How to raise a strong claim

• One clear issue per case, with the shipment ID, order ID or FNSKU and the exact unit count.
• Attach proof: your invoice showing the product cost, proof of delivery for shipments, packing lists and photos.
• Keep it factual and short. State what the report shows and what you are asking for.
• Follow up on partial payments. If Amazon reimburses fewer units than claimed, reply on the same case with the reconciliation.

Stop the losses at the source

• Label and pack shipments correctly, with box content information, so receiving counts match.
• Check high-return products. If customers keep returning a product as damaged, the packaging may need work.
• Measure your products accurately before listing, so fees are right from day one.
• Keep supplier invoices for every product; Amazon may ask for them to value a reimbursement.