The below steps will help you find some money that is owed to you from Amazon. To speed up the process (and to avoid mistakes), I recommend using Refund X-Ray. The price is easily earned back the first time you run the reports.
This is a simple set of instructions that each of you need to follow. There is no guarantee that these instructions will work, but I have had success with multiple accounts using these steps. It doesn’t hurt to try, but I cannot promise results.
Step #1.
Go to Reports > Fulfillment
Step #2.
Go to the right hand side and click Inventory Adjustments.
Step #3.
Click on dates and run a report that extends past the start of your account.
Step #4.
Select “Destroyed” and run the report.
Step #5.
Highlight the results and copy them. There are sometimes multiple pages, so make sure to check that.
Step #6.
You will need to open a case with Seller Support. I do this by typing “test” into the search bar and click the contact button in the bottom center of the search results. I like to open cases under “FBA Issues” > “Other Issues”
Step #7.
Type in this message and paste the items into the case. Then submit it.
Step #8.
We are going to go back to Reports > Fulfillment > Inventory Adjustments and repeat the steps above, but click “Lost” instead of damaged.
Step #9.
Follow Steps #5 – #7 again.
Step #10.
Go to Reports > Fulfillment > Returns > Download (make sure to click this tab) > Run the report for the entire life of your account
Step #11.
Once the report is done running, download it.
Step #12.
If you are using a Mac, follow my screenshots. If not, consult the world wide web for help opening a text file in Excel.
If you use a Mac, see below.
Step #13.
You will see something like this. Select column K.
Step #14.
Click the top right that says “Sort and Filter” (note: This is on a Mac). Then click “Filter”
Step #15.
This box should pop up. Uncheck all of the boxes and click “Reimbursed”
Step #16.
Copy the items that are remaining.
Step #17.
Follow Steps #5 – #7 again with a little wordsmithing with the request.
Step #18.
Donate 10% of the money recovered to charity. This was money you didn’t have and it is only right to PAY IT FOWARD. If you need help finding a good cause, shoot me an email at chris@fbamaster.com.
These cases usually take time, so please have patience and follow up as needed.
If you have any questions, please let me know.
And if you wish to find out other ways to get back reimbursements, check out this review of Ryan Grants book here.
Cheers!
CW
Step #2 – Is that my right or yours? 😉
Step #10 – 18. I don’t understand the purpose of submitting a report for Returned/Reimbursed. Doesn’t reimbursed mean that Amazon has already reimbursed us for these items?
Thanks for the help with the Lost and Damaged and everything else you do.
No problem and sorry for the confusion. The items in Steps #10-18 are ones that Amazon reimbursed the customer, but the customer never returned the item. That is why we submit that case.
Hi Chris, thanks for clearing that up because I was wondering the same. However, I cross referenced the “Reimbursed” report with the Payments > Reimbursements report and all but the most recent (45 days) records show reimbursements with either cash or item.
I put the two reports in different sheets and used a formula similar to this:
=IFERROR(IF(MATCH(B2,Sheet1!$D:$D,0),”yes”,),”no”)
Columns B and D are the order-id for each report
I signed up for Refund x-ray 2 days ago through paypal and have still not received anything. I emailed support last night, but still no reply as of today.
Hi Chris,
Thank you for the post, very usefull as always.
However, can you please clear a point for me??
In step #4, you wrote : select “Damaged”, but the picture shows “Destroyed”.
Do you suggest to run the report and open a case for both the status or just one of them??
Thanks,
Ariel B.C.
Well looks like I posted the wrong word. Run them for Destroyed.
Chris,
I am getting too many items under “damaged” what is the significance of damaged?
Below are the sample records I have when I ran for “damaged” … There are many more of the same category.
1004076037 Doll EWR4 -1 Damaged at Amazon Fulfillment Center Sellable
1003330636 Tool set OAK4 -1 Transfer to holding account Unsellable
The first time I did this (November 2015) I received about $250 in remuneration. I did it again earlier this week and will receive a little less than that but that is because my inventory affected only spanned two months. I think it’d be good to do this process quarterly – maybe monthly, depending on the size of your inventory.
Why do this on reimbursements if you were reimbursed?
The items in Steps #10-18 are ones that Amazon reimbursed the customer, but the customer never returned the item. That is why we submit that case.
One more time………..Step #2 – Is that my right or yours? ?
It’s a screen shot your right and his right are the same.
Many of my items in the “Returns” report say “Data not Available”. Can I assume this means I cannot check into them ever? Thanks.
Thanks for this post…..great info! Is there a way to see if you have already been reimbursed for these items? I am pretty good about opening a case as soon as I see an item in my unfulfillable inventory, but I might have missed some. Would like to know for sure before opening a case.
After submitting all the items from my husband’s selling account, we were denied because they were older than 18 months. There is a 9 month time limit from sales and 18 month time limit for stored inventory. The case manager referred me to this policy page: https://sellercentral.amazon.com/gp/help/help.html/?itemID=200213130&ref_=ag_200213130_a_r1_cont_sgsearch
For step #17 would the wording be something like “These items were never returned by the customer and I would like for you to please investigate each of them” ?
I’ve read the comments – Chris you are mistaken on steps 10-18 as noted by others. The status of “Reimbursed” has nothing to do with the customer being reimbursed – it is the SELLER that has been reimbursed. The entire report is where the customer has been reimbursed. The article is a great one, however, you really need to delete 10-18 as it’s not valid.
There is a section for “Unit returned to inventory”. So as Chris said, reimbursement means inventory has not been returned…
Wow! I’m donating most of it to the Beauty for Ashes Uganda project. I should be able to fund at least a year. Thanks for posting this!
Excellent blog and advice, thanks for sharing.
Picked up over $100 for 20 minutes worth of work and that was only for lost items so far.
Thanks Chris
Thanks for the information.
Quick question , i see at your screenshot for the Lost items disposition says unsellable , but when i run the lost items report it most of my items are sellable. Can i still open a case regarding reimbursement ? Or does it have to be unsellable ?
Ummmmm you rock! I just pulled these reports and sent through to Amazon to investigate and just got reimbursed over $460! THANK YOU THANK YOU
I have a BIG issue with #18: donate to charity. I’d rather you just said donate to charity if that’s what you want to do, but the notion that “this was money you didn’t have and it is only right to PAY IT FOWARD” is just wrong. I know it’s PC to say these types of things today, but in reality it is money that is OWED to you anyway, and the only reason you don’t have it is because there was a breakdown somewhere in Amazon’s reimbursement process.
This is not to be confused with a windfall, like winning the lottery or sweepstakes, where the money was NOT yours and your good fortune allowed you to benefit from something unexpected.
What does that dude from the H&R Block commercials usually say? “It’s your money.”
It’s funny that you have a BIG issue with #18. You said it, “it’s your money,” right, so do what you want with it. In the end, it’s your choice, right!
To make sure you were reimbursed, the last thing you need to check is that transfer of reimbursement was made to your account which you can find using Payments tab and typing order number associated with reimbursement.
I have been doing this process for my clients for a little while now. One thing Chris that I think is really important to emphasize is that Amazon will only work with 5 FNSKU’s per case. So if you have more than that in one case, they wont even bother telling you about them, or reimburse them. They will just send you an email that says to restart the whole process and do separate cases for more than 5 FNSKUs. I took a lot of time sending in all of the cases for my clients, and I had to go back and redo them all. So It would be a good thing to post and explain, so Amazon users wont have to go through the process that I went through. This is GREAT information by the way.
Chris,
I did this and Amazon replied with the following: “Based on that we ask that you verify if we have not already automatically reimbursed you for any of the items reimbursed in your initial email. If it has been more than 30 days, and you have not already received a unit or reimbursement please reply to this email with the affected units and we will manually process a reimbursement.”.
I have no idea how to do this. Any idea?
Thanks
Dom
Oh and Chris this is for misplaced inventory from the first step in the process. Not the destroyed inventory or the examples with the spreadsheet.
Hey Dominik,
Under Reports > Fulfillment > Reimbursements you can check to see what you’ve been reimbursed for.
Thanks!
Okay I had a look at the report but I’m finding it difficult to match up anything to the initial report I pulled. What process do you suggest to find out what orders haven’t actually been reimbursed.