How to Get Your Amazon FBA Refunds

December 1, 2022

Rebecca Montag

This is a guest post written by GETIDA, an 8fig partner.

What are Amazon FBA refunds? Amazon owes FBA sellers money for mistakes and overcharges in handling their inventory. FBA refunds aren’t automatic, however. If you don’t file claims for FBA refunds, it’s money you are leaving on the table. How much money? GETIDA, a company founded by Amazon sellers to recover their own FBA refunds, estimates that unclaimed FBA refunds represent between 1% to 3% of an Amazon seller’s annual revenues.

Let’s say your annual revenue is $1 million. That means anywhere from $10,000 to $30,000 of FBA refunds is potentially left on the table. And after 18 months, those FBA refunds are gone forever.

Now that we have your attention, read further for details about what is eligible for FBA refunds and how you can best get your money back.

Why Are You Owed FBA Refunds?

Amazon FBA sellers hand off the logistics of inventory management, order fulfillment, and customer returns to Amazon. You pay fees for this service. You are owed FBA refunds for these fees whenever errors occur in providing this service.

It’s not surprising that errors happen. After all, Amazon handles billions of transactions every day. Things happen. The kinds of things that happen include:

Lost inventory

This can happen when a product is lost during shipping, items are accidentally placed in another Amazon FBA seller’s account, or the item is incorrectly barcoded.

Damaged inventory

Items are broken, due either to mishandling at the fulfillment center or during shipping. In some cases, you are owed a refund even when the customer breaks it and Amazon accepts it as a return.

Incorrect returns

Given Amazon’s highly favorable return policy, it’s not surprising that many errors involve returns and refunds that aren’t properly credited and returned to your inventory.

Destroyed and Disposed of Inventory

Amazon destroys and disposes of any inventory it deems unsaleable. It can do so without your permission and without sending any special notice that it has done so. It is noted in your seller account, but unless you are looking for it, it can easily escape your attention.

FBA overcharges

Storage and shipping fees are based on item weight and dimensions. If a product is assigned to a higher fee level due to incorrect size and weight, you are paying more than you should. This happens more often than you might expect.

Whenever any of these occur, you are owed FBA refunds. The problem is that Amazon doesn’t always automatically issue FBA refunds. For the most part, that’s left up to the Amazon seller to track and file claims for FBA refunds.

How Do I Know if I Am Owed FBA Refunds?

More often than not, you won’t know if you are due FBA refunds unless you are constantly looking for discrepancies in your Seller Central reports. If that isn’t time-consuming enough, you also have to document the errors eligible for FBA reimbursement and submit claims to the proper departments. Incorrectly filed claims are rejected and you must refile. And if a claim is not properly submitted within 18 months of the occurrence, any possible FBA refunds are lost.

There’s also the possibility that you go through all the time and trouble submitting claims for FBA refunds that are either denied and/or don’t result in all that much money to justify the effort.

Ensure You Get Your FBA Refunds

You’re busy. Is this something you really need to worry about?

Yes.

Don’t assume you somehow aren’t owed a lot of Amazon FBA reimbursement because you probably are. Remember that the amount of FBA refunds might total as much as 3% of your revenue for the year.

If you don’t want to spend the time and effort to track FBA errors that qualify for FBA refunds, you can hire either an employee or a VA (virtual assistant). But you still have to spend time training that person and trust them with access to your seller account.

A better option is to work with a third party to handle the FBA claims process, such as GETIDA.

GETIDA and FBA Refunds

GETIDA (GET Intelligent Data Analytics) offers a twofold service that’s hard to beat:

  • Powerful and time-tested software that scans the last 18 months of your transactions for potential FBA refunds. (The founders of GETIDA developed the software to track potential FBA refunds for their own Amazon business.)
  • A dedicated team of former Amazon reimbursement employees who submit claims on your behalf and follow up until there is a resolution.

Now here’s the best part: there is no charge for the software review of your transaction or to file claims. GETIDA makes money just by charging a percentage of approved Amazon FBA refunds. Considering the time you save, and the FBA refunds that might otherwise get “lost in the wash,” the fee is more than worth it. To make the GETIDA value proposition even more worthwhile, the first $400 in FBA refunds is free of charge.

It’s simple and easy to get started with GETIDA. There’s no obligation and any FBA refund claims only get submitted with your approval.

Rebecca Montag

Rebecca Montag

Rebecca is an eCommerce writer at 8fig. She strives to provide sellers with the information and support they need to succeed in the ever changing eCommerce space.