Why Amazon Owes FBA Sellers Money
Amazon owes FBA Sellers money for mistakes made managing inventory, shipping orders, and receiving returns on your behalf. Unfortunately, it is all too often the case that Amazon owes FBA sellers money and they don’t even know it.
That’s because in many cases when Amazon owes FBA Sellers money, it isn’t automatically refunded. It’s mostly left up to FBA Sellers to identify errors and then submit claims for reimbursement.
How much might Amazon owe FBA Sellers? Potentially, quite a lot.
GETIDA, a company that specializes in stepping in when Amazon owes FBA Sellers money to accurately identify and submit appropriate claims, estimates most FBA Sellers are owed anywhere from 1% to 3% of their annual revenues. For FBA Sellers that make $1 million a year, that works out to anywhere from $10,000 to $30,000.
That’s quite a lot of money that easily gets overlooked if you aren’t constantly tracking FBA Seller reports for mistakes, not to mention the time and effort required to properly submit and follow up on claims for reimbursement.
Here’s a look at this whole issue and how to make sure that when Amazon owes FBA Sellers money, a lot of money isn’t left on the table:
- How can Amazon owe FBA Sellers money?
- How to know if Amazon owes FBA Sellers money
- How to get FBA Sellers money
How Can Amazon Owe FBA Sellers Money?
Amazon is a large global company, the leader in online sales, handling billions of transactions every year. It’s not surprising that sometimes items get mishandled, misrecorded, or lost. These kinds of legitimate mistakes qualify for reimbursement.
Amazon owes FBA Sellers money for products registered with FBA that are:
- Lost or damaged by Amazon (not the customer) either at the fulfillment center or on the way to a customer or in a customer return
- Disposed of by Amazon as no longer usable for sale (which it can do without FBA Seller consent)
- Returned by customers but Amazon:
- Refunded more than the initial charge
- Returned to another FBA seller’s inventory
- Accepted the wrong item
- Accepted a damaged item
- Refunded as a customer return but the item was never received
- Assigned larger-than-accurate dimensions that result in higher FBA storage charges
The maximum payment for a single item that meets these conditions is $5,000. FBA Sellers that carry any single item valued substantially more than $5,000 are advised to consider purchasing 3rd party insurance.
How to Know If Amazon Owes FBA Sellers Money
It’s not that easy to know if and when Amazon owes FBA Sellers money. One way is to review every month the Payments report available in Seller Central. In the Transaction view, search by either “Balance Adjustment” or “FBA Reimbursement” to determine how much money Amazon owes FBA sellers.
But this isn’t the whole picture.
In addition, FBA Sellers need to review shipping reports for any errors related to product shipment, fulfillment, and customer returns. For FBA sellers with a lot of SKUs, that’s a fairly onerous undertaking.
And this is only the part to identify where Amazon owes FBA Sellers money. The next part is to submit claims to the appropriate departments (incorrectly filed claims are automatically rejected and require refiling). Also, any claim for when Amazon owes FBA Sellers money must be submitted within 18 months of when the reported error occurred.
This is a time-consuming and tedious process. Nor is it any guarantee of finding a sufficient number of potential claims to warrant spending all this time. Given that FBA Sellers have so many other activities to concentrate on, it’s no wonder they don’t realize how much Amazon might owe them.
Most FBA sellers don’t have the time or resources to focus on looking for Amazon mistakes. But to ignore the possibility that Amazon owes FBA Sellers money is also potentially costly.
FBA Sellers could hire someone, either an employee or a VA (virtual assistant) instead of doing this work themselves. VAs usually work for a flat rate, so that is a less expensive option than an employee salary. However, in either case, there is time spent training that person to understand what to look for and how to submit claims. And then there’s the issue of trusting someone new and untested with access to private FBA Seller accounts.
How to Get What Amazon Owes FBA Sellers
While there are a few companies that specialize in getting FBA Sellers money Amazon owes them, the most robust solution with the least risk is to use GETIDA.
GETIDA stands for GET Intelligent Data Analytics. It was founded by FBA Sellers looking for the best way to recover their own Amazon FBA reimbursements. GETIDA is a twofold solution:
- A powerful software tool combs the last 18 months of transactions for incidences where Amazon owes FBA Sellers money
- An experienced team of former Amazon reimbursement employees; know where to submit claims properly and follow up to ensure success.
Here’s the best part: There is no charge to use the software or even to file claims.
GETIDA only charges a percentage of approved claims when Amazon owes FBA Sellers money. And the first $400 of Amazon refund claims are free.
It’s simple and easy to sign up with GETIDA. Just click the “Free Signup” button and provide the requested information. There’s no obligation.
GETIDA software scans the past 18 months of transactions to determine if Amazon owes FBA Sellers money and submits a detailed report. Nothing happens further without the FBA Seller’s approval. The GETIDA reimbursement team takes it from there to submit the proper claims.
It couldn’t be simpler, easier, or potentially more satisfying to determine just how much Amazon owes FBA Sellers money.
Sign up for Getida