Within a day, Amazon processes millions of orders, and yours could be one of them. And with the rise of orders, mistakes happen. If you are using the Fulfilment by Amazon method when selling products, then there are high chances that Amazon owes you thousands of unpaid Amazon FBA Reimbursement payments. No need to panic. Amazon is not trying to take money away from you. They, too, are unaware that they owe you, unless you tell them.
There are ways for you to get your money back from Amazon, though there are also Amazon reverse logistics services out there that can do it for you. However, it is a good idea to know how reimbursement works, so read through this article to learn about the common areas where order failure happens.
When Can Amazon Give You a Reimbursement?
Both you and Amazon may be unaware that there are reimbursable costs over time. If you have no idea how it’s possible, here are the different situations wherein Amazon can give you a reimbursement.
Order Errors
Order errors are one of the most common causes of an Amazon FBA reimbursement. There are times when Amazon may not recognize some errors, like when excess products are sent to customers. Why would the customer return the extra item if that is beneficial to them?
Better detect the errors from your end. Start by checking your inventory. Review your order details so you can raise concerns to Amazon.
Lost Inventory
Sending items to Amazon warehouses may lead to a few missing units from your inventories that are not attributed to recent orders. If you have big inventories, there’s a high chance that the missing numbers were transferred to another inventory. As early as possible, you should take a look at your inventory reports and be the first to find out.
Damaged Inventory
Aside from lost FBA inventories, another common situation for a possible Amazon FBA reimbursement is a damaged item. It may happen during the order fulfillment proper, or through carriers during the process of delivering customer returns.
These are some instances where Amazon FBA will provide a reimbursement:
- Products lost and/or damaged in the fulfillment center
- Damaged and/or lost items going from the fulfillment center to customer
- Damaged and/or lost shipments while in transit to fulfillment centers for FBA
- Missing items in fulfillment centers for the past month (30 days)
You can always check the details of the damaged items in your Amazon seller central account. Just check your damaged inventory report, and you can already see it there. As a seller, you must also be vigilant with these situations and know if your items are up for Amazon’s reimbursement. There are times when Amazon takes accountability for reimbursing your money when an employee accidentally damages the item. However, there are also cases wherein you need to check and file a claim to process your FBA reimbursement.
Customer Returns
Although Amazon is in charge of the customer returns and refunds for FBA sellers, there are times when they fail to process these transactions. One of these issues includes the customers getting away with their refunds, and not returning the products. However, Amazon doesn’t always follow the rules. For some instances, customers obtain a refund even if they fail to return the items.
These are just some of the customer return issues:
- Refunded but not returned – When a customer gets a refund without sending the product back to the seller.
- Replaced without returns – When a customer gets a replacement for the product, but the initial item was not returned to the seller.
- Returned but not listed in inventory – When a customer was able to return the item, but the inventory wasn’t updated.
It is evident that customer returns are a part of any e-commerce business, but still, Amazon must know of any issue so you can get your money back. Amazon handles customer returns and refunds for FBA sellers.
FBA Fee Errors
Amazon FBA fees may also play a role in your Amazon FBA reimbursement. There are different types of FBA fees, and these include: commission fees, storage fees, long-term storage fees, and shipping fees, and you can be overcharged from these. You must keep track of these at all times as they also change depending on your selling category, as well as your items’ size and way of storage.
The Amazon FBA Reimbursement Process
If there are different situations wherein Amazon FBA reimbursements happen, then there are also different ways for you to process them.
Do-It-Yourself Reimbursement
Reimbursing items on your own without anyone’s help is considered to be the cheapest way for an Amazon FBA reimbursement. However, things may go wrong, become time-consuming, or become costly to your business.
Unless you are an expert in understanding Amazon’s reports, reimbursing on your own may not be a good idea.
Amazon FBA Reimbursement tools
Using automated reimbursement service tools is also a good way to claim reimbursements on Amazon FBA. These service tools offer data analysis and the entire reimbursement process if you also provide the following:
- How much you are willing to spend
- How much time you have
- How much trust you put in the service
Receiving Virtual Support
The last option is to seek help from an Amazon expert that also offers Amazon FBA reimbursement in their services. In this way, you’re able to outsource all the work — from downloading reports to making claims on seller central.
The best thing about virtual support is that your partner team can do all the repetitive tasks. You can also customize the workload, depending on the work you choose to outsource. They can help with analysis of data on claims, and submit reimbursement cases themselves, and more.
Final words
Given all this information, it’s very evident that the Amazon FBA reimbursement process is a tedious job that takes a lot of time and patience. And as an FBA seller, you are also entitled to reimbursement, as you provide money for Amazon. Although mistakes happen all the time, it’s still best to protect your business with the help of automated tools to make the job less difficult.
