Units go missing between your carrier and Amazon's shelves. Amazon reimburses for them — but only on shipments it has finished processing, and only when you ask.
The process is fiddly rather than difficult, and the two places it fails are the documents and the follow-up.
Automated reimbursement services exist and are worth considering if the volume justifies it. This is the manual process, which you need to understand either way.
Prefer to watch? One hundred and sixty-four seconds on finding eligible closed shipments, the invoice and BOL requirements, and the two-day response window that closes cases.
Step 1: find the eligible shipments
Inventory → Shipments.
Filter Status to Closed and apply.
Closed matters: Amazon only reimburses once it has completed processing. An open shipment's numbers are still moving.
Then look for shipments where Units located is less than Units expected — 1,008 shipped, 989 located, for example. That 19-unit gap is your claim.
Step 2: open the reconciliation
Track Shipment → Contents.
Review the discrepancy. If it is negative and the status is Action Required, proceed.
Then choose Research Missing Units from the dropdown, for each SKU with a gap.
Step 3: the documents — where most claims fail
Two documents, both required.
A commercial invoice, under Proof of Inventory Ownership
It must show:
Invoice number.
Purchase date — dated at least a month before the shipment creation date. A purchase date after the shipment was created makes no sense and gets the claim rejected.
Manufacturer name and address.
Buyer name and address.
Ship-to location.
Every product name on the shipment summary, with expected quantities.
Incoterms.
The Bill of Lading, under Proof of Delivery
Then confirm both appear under Attached Documents before submitting. Uploads silently fail more often than they should.
Step 4: the message
Keep it short and factual:
Dear Amazon Seller Support,
There is a discrepancy between units sent and received for shipment ID [ ]. Please investigate the missing units from this shipment. Thanks!
Regards, Team [Brand]
Preview Your Request, then Submit. A pop-up confirms the case and gives you a Case ID.
Step 5: record it
Keep a tracking sheet. At minimum: shipment ID, SKU, units missing, Case ID, date opened, status, result, remarks.
Record the Case ID and set the status to Case Opened immediately. Without it you cannot follow up, and follow-up is the part that gets claims paid — see Escalating an Amazon Case.
Step 6: the deadline that closes cases
This is the detail that costs people money.
Amazon may ask for additional documents. Provide them within two days.
Failure to respond within five days closes the case automatically.
And if you have heard nothing two days after submitting, follow up — Help → Manage Support Cases, find the case by ID, and reply on the thread.
A closed-for-non-response case is not reopened. You start again, if the shipment is even still eligible.
Which is why this needs an owner and a routine, not good intentions — see Onboarding a VA.
When it is approved, record the reimbursement ID and close the row. Where Amazon fails to investigate properly, note that explicitly — the pattern across cases is itself useful.
Checking what you have actually been paid
Seller Central → Inventory Reimbursement → Overview.
It summarises reimbursements for inventory defects — lost, misplaced and similar — over a date range, and can be filtered to a single SKU.
Reconcile that against your tracking sheet. Cases marked reimbursed that never produced a payment do happen.
And remember what the payout is calculated on: Amazon's estimate of your landed cost, not your invoice — see Keeping Your Sourcing Cost Current. Filing perfect claims against a stale cost basis means being paid promptly and incorrectly.
Make it weekly
Shipments close continuously, and eligibility does not last forever.
A weekly pass over closed shipments is enough to catch everything, and at real shipment volume the annual total is significant.
Run the same discipline on AWD shipments, which have their own reports and their own 30-day trap — see AWD Reimbursements.
Common mistakes
Claiming on shipments that are not Closed.
An invoice dated after the shipment was created.
Missing the Bill of Lading, or not confirming both uploads attached.
Not recording the Case ID, and losing the ability to follow up.
Missing the two-day document window, and having the case closed automatically.
Never reconciling approved cases against actual payments.
Filing against a stale COGS figure, and being underpaid on every successful claim.
Related
- Reimbursements, COGS and FBA Capacity — where this sits in the wider picture.
- Keeping Your Sourcing Cost Current — the cost basis these claims pay out on.
- Creating a Shipping Plan — the shipment these discrepancies come from.