Kashif Rajpoot

Amazon Reimbursement & Refunds Prepared by Kashif Rajpoot Content 01 03 What is Amazon Reimbursement Ways of Reimbursement In this section we will discuss about methods of reimbursement. 02 04 Types of Inventory that may Reimburse In this section we will discuss on which inventories we can get refund Process In this section we will discuss about the simplest method we can use to get money back. 01 What is Amazon Reimbursement How Amazon Owe Your Money When you are a FBA seller, Amazon is responsible of handling your stock and ship what your customers buy from you. Amazon stores and processes orders of millions of products every day. Hundreds of machines and Amazon employees are involved on a daily basis, and mistakes are bound to happen. If inventory related mistakes happen, Amazon should reimburse or refund you. 02 Types of Inventory that may Reimburse Inventories that Amazon Owe to Refund Lost Inventory Damaged Inventory Customer Returns The item(s) has been lost or misplaced The item has been damaged during handling The return items not added in inventory. FBA Fees Overcharged If Amazon charged more than weight and dimensions of you product Lost Inventory Once you send inventory to Amazon FBA warehouses, it may get lost for several reasons. You might be missing a number of units from your inventory. This may not be attributed to recent orders. One of the reasons could be that it might get placed in another seller’s inventory. This can happen because of the huge inventory and more orders. So you can reimburse the missing or lost inventory. Damaged Inventory Your FBA inventory can be damaged by Amazon during order fulfillment or by carriers when they are delivering customer returns. This is another common area for Amazon’s FBA reimbursement. Amazon FBA lost and damaged policy covers sellers from these cases. ● Products lost in the fulfillment center ● Products damaged in the fulfillment center ● Items that are damaged or lost en route from the fulfillment center to customer ● Shipments that are lost or damaged on their way to fulfillment centers (for FBA) Customer Returns Amazon handles customer returns and refunds for FBA sellers. ● Let’s take a look at a few common ones. ● Product isn’t returned after refund – This happens when a customer is refunded the amount but did not return the product. ● Product isn’t replaced after return – The customer received a replacement for the product, but the initial item isn’t returned to the seller. ● The returned item isn’t added to your inventory – The customer returns the item, but for some reason, it is not returned to the inventory. FBA Fees Overcharged ● ● There are many types of Amazon FBA fees like commission fees, storage fees, long-term storage fees, and shipping fees. These fees change with the category you are selling in, as well as the size and storage of the item. You can be overcharged sometimes. This can account for a major part of your FBA reimbursements, especially if you haven’t kept track for a few weeks. 03 Methods of Reimbursement Methods 1: Do it Yourself This is, of course, the cheapest method – doing it manually without anyone’s help. But the downside is that you can go wrong, things can get more complicated, or it can be time-consuming – which may cost you a lot. You don’t want to end up spending hours on reports just to send some invalid claims. Do you? But In the coming section I’ll discuss the procedure with which you can do the reimbursement by yourself. Methods 2: FBA Reimbursement Tools You can find a few potential automated reimbursement service tools for your Amazon business. In most cases, this is the easiest way to claim reimbursements. However, it may cost you a lot. Few of the popular ones include Amzrefund, Refundly, Refund genie (helium 10) and Amzrefund etc. To get help from these tools, you need to link your seller central with the tool and it is little risky if too many people are using the same tool. Methods 3: Hire a virtual assistant to get the job done The last option is to hire a virtual assistant to get the job done. This means outsourcing your work. You can outsource all the manual work, right from downloading reports to making claims on seller central. The biggest advantage of outsourcing your reimbursement service is that you can get all the repetitive tasks done by the virtual assistant (VA). You also have the flexibility to decide on the work you choose to outsource. You can use the VA to analyze your data on claims, and submit cases yourself, if you don’t want to give them access to your Amazon seller central account. 04 Process of Reimbursement Process 1: Go to the Fulfillment. •After login the seller central you need to go to the Fulfillment under reports section. Process 2: Go to the Inventory Ledger •After going fulfillment reports click on inventory ledger under inventory section. •Click on download > Detail view > Adjustments (event type). •Select the date range for which you want to check adjustments. You can go 18 months back. After that Click on Request CSV Download. Process 3: Segregate the Reasons •After downloading the file you need to segregate the reasons of inventory adjustments. Process 4: Reasons Grouped by Adjustment Codes •The reasons grouped by adjustment codes are mentioned on the screenshot. •You need to select the reasons codes for damaged, lost and other. To view the detail of the adjustment codes please check last page. Process 5: Segregate Unreconciled Items •It means Number of units not reconciled with adjustment events and Amazon didn’t work on it. So we want amazon to work on it in term of reimbursement. •We will segregate all unreconciled inventories to submit the case on it. Process 6: Create files of 10 Transaction Ids •After collecting unreconciled damaged, lost , and customer returns inventory, you need to create excel files and put 10 row (transactions) in every file. •We should not put more data in single file because that may be difficult for amazon to find properly. So create multiple files with 10 rows. Process 7: Time to Create Cases to Amazon Support Team •After create files for 10 rows each, Now you need to submit case to amazon support team. •You can write the following message to support team: Hi Amazon Support Partner. Some of my products have been lost. Please review the attached file for ASINs with warehouse codes where product was lost or damaged by Amazon. I have not yet been reimbursed.If your records show the same please reimburse our account. Thank you for your time and attention. • While doing case you need to keep in mind that attach 1 file per case and create only 5 case daily for better performance or recovery. Things that Need to Keep in Mind There are some following things that you need to do. Do’s ● To maximize the efficiency and to file a proper reimbursement claim, you need to pick the right method that suits your needs. ● Find and review all the ways that Amazon might need to reimburse you. ● Follow up. Once you raise a support ticket, you need to follow up periodically. Amazon usually takes around 12 hours to respond to an email. Things that Need to Keep in Mind You need to understand following things that you don’t need to do. Don’ts ● You need to be cautious while approaching Amazon. Simple mistakes can result in your Amazon account being suspended. ● Ensure you don’t allow an automated tool to collect your reimbursement claim. Amazon may not like it if you use automated tools to open cases. Besides, opening too many cases at a time may result in a warning or lead to suspension. Inventory Adjustment Codes Thanks! Do you have any questions? Feel Free to ASK