Types of FBA Fees and Amazon’s Reimbursement Policies
Amazon Sellers who subscribe to their FBA (Fulfillment by Amazon) service may not be aware that you can ask for reimbursement for different types of fees charged against their seller account. That is if you submit a valid claim within a reasonable time frame. Valid claim means that you present a case to Amazon backed by documents culled from various data reports. You need to be familiar with Amazon’s reimbursement policies to successfully claim your fees back.
Types of FBA Fees
Amazon offers the FBA service to sellers in exchange for a set of fees, and they are (but not limited to):
- The monthly FBA subscription fee (applies to sellers with active listings)
- Selling fees
- Referral fees (varies by category)
- Per item fees (applies to individual sellers)
- Closing fees
- Manual processing service fee
- Rental book service fee
- Lithium batteries fee
- Special handling fee
- High-volume listing fee
- Monthly inventory storage fee
- Long-term storage fees
- Removal order fees
- Disposal order fees
- Returns processing fees
- Unplanned service fees
- FBA prep and label service fee
- Inventory placement service fee
- Aged inventory surcharge
- Restocking fee
- And the refund administration fee
Sellers will not be necessarily charged for all of the listed fees above. Some of the items you offer may belong to a different fee category from where it was originally assigned to. You may have been charged an aged inventory surcharge when all of your items sell quickly. You can imagine how keeping abreast of all the charges and fees can be overwhelming on top of managing your orders and selling your products. Add to that the need to monitor your inventory, refunds, and if you were correctly reimbursed for the fees you should not be charged for.
As a reseller, you need to monitor your inventory, refunds, and FBA fees.
There are several scenarios where you are eligible to get a reimbursement for the fees levied against your account. In most cases, Amazon automatically credits your account, but as with all systems, there is a margin of error. And because Amazon is a behemoth in e-commerce and deals with over a billion dollars in daily sales, a small margin of error is a lot. Sellers should monitor their accounts for reimbursements that Amazon owes them and guard against that probability that they may have been charged incorrectly.
Amazon’s Reimbursement Policies for FBA Fees
Amazon has several reimbursement policies in place to help safeguard sellers. Some of these are:
FBA inventory reimbursement policy. You are eligible to get either a replacement product or a reimbursement if your product gets lost or damaged by an Amazon carrier, or at a facility. This covers items that were lost or damaged due to an Amazon error, and your claim depends on when it occurred. Did it occur on its way to the customer, on its way to the fulfillment center, was it damaged or lost by the carrier, or just missing from the Amazon inventory? Your claim and supporting documents differ depending on the circumstances and you should provide all of the information requested by Amazon.
FBA inventory reimbursement policy: Customer return claims. If a customer returns a product and the item got lost or damaged, your seller account should be credited back the appropriate amount. There are a lot of scenarios that this policy covers, and it can include the following:
- Delivery tracking shows that the products were received but the customer denies getting the items
- Customer returns the products after 60 days
- Customers did not return the items
- Customers returned incorrect or damaged products
- Customers returned items that were deemed unsellable
- Customers returned the incorrect number of items
- Customers received more than the number of items that they ordered
- Customer getting a refund from Amazon that’s more than what they ordered
You have a claim window of 18 months but not within 60 days of the refund.
Amazon has several reimbursement policies in place.
FBA inventory reimbursement policy: Shipment to Amazon claims. You are eligible for a reimbursement if you have items that were lost or damaged after Amazon has received them. You need to file a claim with a proof of delivery, the Amazon shipment ID, the Proof of inventory ownership, and other supporting documents that Amazon may request.
FBA inventory reimbursement policy: Fulfillment center operations claim. This policy is similar to the one above, except that it applies to products that were deducted from your inventory after Amazon closed it but were later deducted from your product inventory list. You need to check your Inventory Adjustments, Manage FBA Inventory, and Reimbursements reports to confirm if the items are indeed missing from the fulfillment center and not reimbursed to your account.
FBA inventory reimbursement policy: Removals claims. You are eligible to a reimbursement if an item that’s being returned to your returns shipping address by Amazon is lost or damaged in transit. For lost items, you can file a claim 14 days after the last confirmed movement of your shipment. For damaged items, you can file a claim as soon as you receive them.
FBA fees reimbursement policy: Weight and dimensions. If your seller account was charged using the incorrect weight and dimension for a product or set of items, Amazon will reimburse the FBA fees. Amazon’s verified measurement takes precedence over your own, and you have to file a claim within 90 days of the fee being charged to your account.
Referral fees reimbursement policy. You can determine if you were charged the appropriate referral fees using the correct product categories, and/or if you were charged an additional per-item minimum referral fee. Items that were returned by customers shouldn’t be charged referral fees. You may only file one reimbursement claim for each fee charge, and specify the amount with which you should have been charged.
FBA shipping label reimbursement policy. If you have unused shipping labels due to a cancelled or closed shipment, you are eligible for a reimbursement. Submit one claim per shipment and file it within 9 months of the shipment creation date.
There are loads of other situations where you can submit a claim for FBA fee reimbursements that are not limited to those covered by the policies listed above. What’s important in filing a claim is that it should be submitted in a timely manner and backed by reports, documents, and proofs.
Amazon sellers should concentrate on selling their products in an ideal world. But there are a million different things (and reports) to stay on top of if you want your business to achieve a healthy profit margin. You can ask Seller Maven to take care of your FBA Fee Reimbursement management, all without any long-term commitment or paying any upfront fees! Get your money back without spending time poring and comparing reports and inventories. Talk to a Seller Maven expert now!
No responses yet