Amazon's fulfilment network moves millions of units a day, and errors are inevitable: units go missing in transit, get damaged in a warehouse, are destroyed without authorisation, or are lost during a return. Amazon's own policy is clear — when it makes a mistake with your inventory, it owes you a reimbursement. The problem is that Amazon does not proactively find every one of these errors and hand you a cheque. You have to find them yourself, and most sellers never do.
At StoreStride we routinely find sellers who are owed hundreds or even thousands of pounds in unclaimed reimbursements when we run an account audit. This guide explains exactly what is reimbursable, how to find the discrepancies in your own account, and how to file claims that get approved rather than rejected.
Why this matters for PPC. Unreimbursed inventory losses distort your true margin and your true stock position. If you are running ads against a product that Amazon has quietly lost or damaged, your reported profitability is wrong, and your restock timing can be thrown off — both of which affect campaign performance.
What Amazon Will Actually Reimburse
Amazon's FBA reimbursement policy covers inventory that is lost or damaged while in Amazon's custody, or lost/damaged as a result of Amazon's own processing errors. It does not cover damage caused by your own packaging deficiencies or normal wear from customer use. The main reimbursable categories are:
📦 Warehouse Lost Inventory
Units received into a fulfilment centre that later cannot be located during an inventory reconciliation. Amazon's own inventory ledger will usually show a discrepancy between units received and units accounted for.
⚠️ Warehouse Damaged Inventory
Units damaged by Amazon staff or equipment while being received, stowed, picked, or packed. These are typically marked “unsellable” in your inventory reports with a warehouse damage reason code.
🚚 Lost or Damaged in Transit
Units lost between fulfilment centres during Amazon's internal inventory transfers, or lost/damaged by the carrier while Amazon controlled the shipment.
↩️ Customer Return Not Restocked
A customer returns an item, Amazon refunds them, but the unit is never returned to sellable inventory and no restocking fee is charged to the customer — you are owed the difference.
Beyond these four, there are several less obvious categories worth checking: units destroyed or disposed of without your authorisation, inventory adjustments with no clear reason code, overcharged FBA fees due to incorrect dimension or weight data, and units still showing in your account after a warehouse fire or lost shipment event.
Why Most Sellers Leave This Money Unclaimed
Reimbursements are not automatic for every case, and Amazon does not send you a notification saying “we lost your inventory, here is your refund.” Some losses are auto-reimbursed after a set number of days, but many require you to actively find the discrepancy in your reports and file a case. Sellers miss this money for a few consistent reasons:
- They never reconcile units shipped to FBA against units that show as received, sold, returned, or on-hand
- They assume Amazon's automated system catches everything (it catches a portion, not all)
- The relevant reports (Inventory Adjustments, Inventory Ledger, Reimbursements) are scattered across different areas of Seller Central and rarely reviewed together
- Claims have filing windows — historically up to 18 months for most categories — and once that window closes, the claim cannot be filed
- Manual reconciliation across SKUs and months is genuinely tedious without a system for it
How to Audit Your Account for Missing Reimbursements
A proper audit works through three core reports in Seller Central. This is the same process we run for every account we take on.
Pull the Inventory Ledger Report
Reports → Fulfilment → Inventory Ledger. Set it to “Summary” view by SKU across the widest date range available. This shows starting inventory, received units, sold units, adjustments, and ending inventory for every SKU. Any unexplained negative adjustment is a candidate for reimbursement.
Cross-Check the Reimbursements Report
Reports → Fulfilment → Reimbursements. This shows every reimbursement Amazon has already issued. Compare this against the discrepancies you found in the ledger — anything not already reimbursed here is money still owed to you.
Review Manage Inventory — Inventory Adjustments
Filter for “Warehouse Damaged,” “Warehouse Lost,” and “Found” adjustment reasons. Each one should have a corresponding reimbursement. If it doesn't, that unit is a claim waiting to be filed.
Check Customer Returns Against Refunds Issued
Reports → Fulfilment → Customer Returns, cross-referenced with your Refunds report. If a customer was refunded but the return status shows the unit was never received back into inventory as sellable or the disposition is unclear, this is reimbursable.
Compile Your Case List with Evidence
For every discrepancy, note the SKU, FNSKU, quantity, date of the adjustment, and the report row it came from. Amazon Seller Support wants specifics, not a general complaint that “inventory doesn't match.”
How to File a Reimbursement Claim
Once you have identified a discrepancy, open a case with Seller Support (Help → Get Support → Fulfilment by Amazon → Inventory Reconciliation) or use the direct “Request Reimbursement” action available against specific line items in the Inventory Adjustments report. Best practices for a claim that actually gets approved:
- Reference exact figures — SKU, FNSKU, quantity, date range, and report name. Vague claims get bounced back for more detail, wasting the time you have left in the filing window.
- Attach the report export as a screenshot or CSV excerpt showing the specific rows in question.
- File promptly. Most reimbursement categories have an 18-month filing window from the date of the incident, but some categories are shorter. Do not sit on discrepancies.
- Escalate politely if rejected. A first response of “no reimbursement due” is common and not always final. If your evidence is solid, request escalation to a specialist team or reply with the specific ledger rows again.
- Keep a running log of every case number, submission date, and outcome so nothing falls through the cracks if a case goes quiet.
Watch the filing window. Once the reimbursement window closes on a given loss, there is no route to recover it — Amazon will not process late claims regardless of how clear the evidence is. Run this audit at least quarterly, not once a year.
Don't Forget FBA Fee Overcharges
Reimbursements aren't limited to lost or damaged stock. Amazon periodically miscalculates FBA fulfilment fees based on incorrect product dimensions or weight, particularly after a packaging change or a new listing setup. Check your Fee Preview report against your actual product dimensions periodically. If Amazon has been charging a larger size tier than your product qualifies for, you can dispute the fee and claim back the overcharged amount for the period it was applied incorrectly.
Set a recurring reconciliation routine. The sellers who recover the most money treat this as a standing monthly or quarterly task, not a one-off clean-up. Small discrepancies compound across hundreds of SKUs and thousands of units moving through FBA every month.
Using Software to Speed This Up
Manual reconciliation works but is slow, especially for catalogues with dozens or hundreds of SKUs. Third-party auditing tools (such as GETIDA, Refunds Manager, or similar reimbursement-focused services) automate the ledger comparison and, in some cases, file claims on your behalf for a percentage of what they recover. These can be worthwhile for larger catalogues, but always review what they file — automated claims occasionally miss context that a manual review would catch, and you remain responsible for your account's compliance.
Not sure how much Amazon owes you?
As part of our account management service, StoreStride runs a full inventory reconciliation and reimbursement audit for every client account — then files and tracks the claims. Book a free audit and we'll tell you what we find.
Book a Free Call →Common Questions About FBA Reimbursements
How far back can I claim FBA reimbursements?
Most categories allow claims up to 18 months from the date of the loss or damage event, though the exact window can vary by category and has changed over time. Always check the current policy for the specific loss type before assuming a claim is still valid, and don't delay filing once you've found a discrepancy.
Does Amazon reimburse at full retail price?
Reimbursements are generally based on the estimated sale price of the item at the time of the loss, not your cost price, though the exact calculation can vary. This is one reason it's worth checking reimbursement amounts against your own records rather than assuming Amazon's default figure is correct.
Can filing too many claims get my account flagged?
Legitimate, well-evidenced claims based on genuine discrepancies in Amazon's own reports are a normal part of managing an FBA account and are not a compliance risk. What can cause problems is filing speculative or inflated claims without evidence — always base claims on data pulled directly from Amazon's own reports.
What if my reconciliation shows Amazon owes me for units from over a year ago?
File immediately. If the loss falls within the current filing window, submit the case as soon as you find it rather than waiting to batch multiple claims together — the window can close while you wait.