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.

[Watch the walkthrough](https://kb.trackiq.com/kb-assets/kbvideo-shipclaims-explainer-c287f650.mp4)

*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**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/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**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/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.

![Units and cost per product, which is what a claim pays out on](/kb-assets/shot-prod-table-6c206b.png)

**And remember what the payout is calculated on: Amazon's estimate of your landed cost, not your invoice** — see [**Keeping Your Sourcing Cost Current**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/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**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/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**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/reimbursements-cogs-and-capacity) — where this sits in the wider picture.
- [**Keeping Your Sourcing Cost Current**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/keeping-your-sourcing-cost-current) — the cost basis these claims pay out on.
- [**Creating a Shipping Plan**](https://kb.trackiq.com/hc/knowledge-base/articles/creating-a-shipping-plan) — the shipment these discrepancies come from.