What can I get reimbursed for on Amazon FBA?

Inventory Amazon lost or damaged in its warehouses or in transit, units it disposed of without your instruction, customer returns that were refunded but never came back to your sellable inventory, fee overcharges from incorrect product measurements, and discrepancies where fewer units were received than you shipped. In each case Amazon's own systems caused a loss, and its policy is to reimburse you, but not always automatically.

Does Amazon reimburse automatically?

Sometimes, but not reliably. Amazon does auto-reimburse some lost-and-damaged cases, but many reimbursable events are never paid unless you find them and file a claim with the evidence. That gap, between what you are owed and what Amazon pays on its own, is exactly the money most sellers leave on the table. Reconciling and claiming is what closes it.

How do I file an FBA reimbursement claim?

Pull the relevant inventory and transaction reports, identify the specific discrepancy, lost units, a refunded-but-not-returned order, a fee error, and open a case with Amazon citing the shipment or order IDs and the evidence. Be specific and factual: the IDs, the dates, the quantities. A precise, well-documented claim gets resolved; a vague one gets bounced back for more detail.

Is there a deadline for FBA reimbursement claims?

Yes. Amazon enforces time windows after which a claim for a given event can no longer be filed, and the windows vary by claim type. That is why reconciliation should be a regular routine, not a once-a-year scramble, money you are clearly owed becomes unrecoverable simply because the window closed while you were not looking.

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The FBA reimbursements you are owed, and how to claim them

Amazon regularly loses, damages, and miscounts FBA inventory, and owes you for it, but it does not always pay automatically. Here is what you are owed, how to find it, and how to claim it before the window closes.

January 13, 2026 7 min read

Amazon handles millions of units, and at that scale it regularly loses, damages, miscounts, and mis-charges your inventory. Amazon FBA reimbursements are its policy for those errors, but its systems do not always pay automatically, so a real amount of money you are owed sits unclaimed until you go find it. Here is what Amazon owes you, how to surface it, and how to claim it before the window shuts.

What you are actually owed

Reimbursable events fall into a few clear buckets, each one a case where Amazon’s own operation caused you a loss.

Lost and damaged inventory. FBA lost inventory and units Amazon damaged in the warehouse or in transit between facilities. This is the most common Amazon inventory reimbursement you will file.

Disposed without instruction. Stock Amazon removed or disposed of that you never told it to.

Returns refunded but not restocked. A customer was refunded, but the unit never came back to your sellable inventory, or came back damaged.

Fee overcharges. Fulfillment fees charged on incorrect measurements, you paid a higher size tier than your product belongs in.

Receiving discrepancies. Amazon received fewer units than your shipment shows it sent.

Amazon’s policy is to pay you back for its own mistakes. Its systems just do not always do it on their own. The gap is your money.

How to claim Amazon FBA reimbursements

Reconcile the reports

Pull your inventory ledger, reimbursement, and shipment reconciliation reports and look for the discrepancies: shipments received short, returns refunded but not returned, removals you did not order. The evidence is in your own reports; the job is reading them.

Build the specific case

For each discrepancy, gather the exact shipment or order ID, the date, and the quantity. Specificity is everything: an FBA reimbursement claim that names the IDs and shows the numbers gets paid, a vague one gets bounced.

File before the window closes

Open a case citing the evidence, and do it inside Amazon’s time window for that claim type. Track what you have filed and what is still owed so nothing ages out unclaimed.

Make it a routine, not a rescue

The reimbursement routine

Reconcile inventory, reimbursement, and shipment reports on a schedule
Check lost and damaged, disposed, returns, fees, and receiving
Capture the shipment or order ID, date, and quantity per case
File precise, evidence-backed claims, not vague ones
Track filed vs owed so nothing slips the window
Verify Amazon's product measurements to catch fee overcharges

This connects to the rest of your warehouse hygiene: stranded inventory and miscounts often surface the same discrepancies that become reimbursement claims, so a clean reconciliation routine pays twice. It is core amazon-operations discipline, money you already earned, recovered instead of forfeited.

If you have never reconciled FBA reimbursements, there is almost certainly money owed to you right now. Surfacing and claiming it is exactly the kind of fast, concrete win a Growth Audit is built to find.