Amazon says it received 94. You sent 100.

Every FBA seller meets this eventually. A shipment closes, the received count is short, and the difference is real money. Unlike a consumer dispute there is no argument with a person: there is a reconciliation process, and it either has what it needs or it does not.

What the process asks for

Two things, broadly. Proof you owned the goods, which means a supplier invoice dated before the shipment. And proof the shipment arrived, which is carrier tracking for small parcel shipments or a signed bill of lading for pallets.

Sellers who bring both do considerably better than sellers who bring neither. That much is not controversial and every reimbursement firm says it.

The deadlines, from Amazon’s own policy

Amazon publishes exact claim windows, and they differ depending on where the stock went missing. Both of these come from the current UK policy pages.

• Shipment to Amazon claims, which is the short-received scenario above: you can file once the shipment shows as eligible for investigation in the Status column of its Contents tab, and you must submit no later than six months after the verified delivery date at the fulfilment centre. Amazon states that claims submitted outside that window are not eligible for reimbursement.
• Fulfilment centre operations claims, for stock lost or damaged after Amazon has received it: no later than 60 days after the item is reported lost or damaged in the Inventory Defect and Reimbursement portal or the Inventory Ledger report.

If it has already happened

1. 1

   Wait for the eligibility date, then reconcile

   The shipment shows as eligible for investigation in the Status column of its Contents tab. Opening before it shows as eligible simply gets closed, and re-opening later is harder than opening once, properly.

2. 2

   Assemble the pack in one go

   Supplier invoice dated before the shipment, carrier tracking or signed bill of lading, the packing list, and the shipment ID. Submitting in pieces across several messages reads as a weaker claim than submitting once, complete.

3. 3

   Add whatever you have about contents

   Photographs of the packed boxes, the box contents and the shipping labels are the standard advice, and they are worth including even when imperfect. They are the only part of the pack that speaks to quantity.

Amazon’s document list, exactly

For missing units from an inbound shipment, Amazon names the documents it wants. Build the pack against this list, not from memory:

• The Amazon shipment ID, which is in your Shipping Queue.
• Proof of inventory ownership: a supplier invoice, a receipt from another seller, or a signed packing slip if you are the manufacturer. Whichever you use must show the date of purchase, product names matching the lost items, and the quantity.
• Proof of delivery. For pallets, that is a proof of delivery document showing the number of boxes and the total weight, stamped by Amazon to confirm the shipment was signed for at the fulfilment centre. Your carrier should have a copy. For small parcel shipments, it is the active tracking ID for each package.

If you shipped small parcel without an Amazon partnered carrier and never entered tracking, enter it now: the policy says the shipment is not eligible for research until you do. And note where quantity appears in that list. It appears once, on the ownership document, which proves what you bought rather than what you packed. Amazon may ask for information beyond the list, and states it may decline a claim if you do not provide what is requested.

What Amazon pays, and the cap

For stock lost before a customer ordered it, Amazon reimburses the sourcing cost: what you paid your manufacturer or wholesaler for the item, excluding shipping, handling and customs duties. You can enter your own sourcing cost on the Manage Your Sourcing Cost page in the Inventory Defect and Reimbursement portal. If you do not, Amazon uses its own estimate built from comparable products.

Two more numbers worth knowing. The maximum reimbursement for a single unit is £2,000, and for items worth more than that Amazon suggests third-party insurance. If you disagree with a valuation, you have 60 days from the date the reimbursement was issued to dispute it through Get support in Seller Central.

One line in the policy is worth reading twice: Amazon may decline a sourcing cost submission where documentation is forged, tampered with or illegible. Nobody interviews you. A reviewer decides whether your paperwork reads as reliable, and that is the same test every piece of your evidence faces.

Before the next shipment goes

The reason this is worth systematising rather than improvising is the arithmetic. A consumer dispute is one item and one buyer. An inbound discrepancy can be dozens of units, and it recurs.

• Record the box being packed in one continuous take, ending with the box sealed and the shipping label readable. The count is only credible if the recording runs from open box to sealed box without a cut.
• Say the count out loud as you pack. It is a small thing that makes a recording far easier for someone else to review.
• Keep the supplier invoice with the shipment ID, not in a separate folder you will search through in eight months.
• Photograph the pallet wrapped and labelled before it leaves, for LTL.

The awkward truth about all of it: the photographs and video live on your own device, so they establish what you say happened rather than what independently did. That weakness is the same one consumer sellers hit, and it is the reason a record made somewhere you cannot edit it is worth more than a better camera.

Common questions

Sources: Amazon’s published FBA reconciliation and reimbursement help pages, plus guidance from reimbursement specialists. Amazon changes this process regularly and the numbers quoted by specialists are their own. Confirm current requirements in Seller Central before relying on anything here.