Watch Your Inventory for Amazon's FU Game

[VTR]

How Amazon screws you via FBA receiving volume 37.

So your shipment went to Amazon and was received in full with no discrepancies, and the shipment is closed! Congrats, you are in the clear and Amazon has all your inventory without issue.

Here is an example of how Amazon will go back after they receive your stuff and require you to go back through the inbound shipment reconciliation process in order to deny your reimbursement, AFTER THEY RECEIVED IT A MONTH PRIOR AND CLOSED THE SHIPMENT.

So here is the evidence so you can look for your own discrepancies. I made an FBA shipment back on June 26, and it was sent UPS on Jun 27 and delivered Jun 30. The shipment was received and then closed without discrepancies on the 10th of August.

After a few weeks of the inventory not being available for sale, I opened a case where I was told the inventory was in transfer. Being a smart monkey I looked at the inventory ledger and replied, “there is no active transfer as the inventory is still at the same location for 30 days”. They said they would get back to me.

Well, today they sent me this. Essentially saying F U seller, we lost it and now want to make you jump through more hoops in order to find ways to deny your reimbursement.

I opened up a chat window and demanded that the lost inventory policy be used and each time they said I had to provide an invoice I pointed them back to the inventory ledger and how the shipment was closed prior to the inventory being removed from the ledger.

Prior to Aug 23 it said “shipment successfully closed”

This is how they screw sellers. Your shipment may show received in full one day then a variation a month later and Amazon is still not responsible.

The agent really did not like me repeately quoting this policy over and over and over again with the inventory ledger.

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"This page applies to eligible items that are lost or damaged by an Amazon fulfillment center or a facility operated on behalf of Amazon, after we receive them from you.
Each reply they made was rebutted with this policy until they escalated it. This process does not require proof of delivery nor does it require proof of ownership, that they will use to deny your claim.

Watch your back and review inventory up to 90 days.

[Amazon_Seller]

I have never had a problem with reimbursement. Usually just one case will do it. Don’t make it too hard for them. Send in all info in one PDF. Short and sweet.

[VTR]

Same here but recently they have found excuses. Like DG shipments via UPS and they will claim it does not have a signature and deny. They have denied invoices because part numbers do not match, despite the number on the invoice matching exactly on the ASIN and the SKU.

To put salt on the wound they put this on the shipment.

[Amazon_Seller]

In my initial case, I don’t mention UPS or anything. I just tell them they received it and show them the inventory ledger. They haven’t given me any problems, knock wood.

If investigation is completed, just open a case.

[VTR]

Thanks, we do about 45 shipments a week so we understand the process’. The point is it should not revert back when the inventory is received in full, one should not have to provide any of this stuff per policy as written in plain English, and what do you do when they tell you to go back in time and get a signature for a UPS shipment to a FC, or they reject your invoice for a BS reason?

For volume shippers this is a concern, compared to those less likely to experience these issues due to lack of volume, and the odds of having a dim wit at amazon actually do their job go up with each shipment sent in.

[primetime]

@VTR

it should not revert back when the inventory is received in full,

Absolutely this! They counted it correctly when they received it. So later they somehow recount it - after it has been moved around or sent to other FC’s? I’ve been down this road too and my volume is very low compared to yours. I suspected an FC transfer went wrong and that’s where stuff got lost so they just claimed they didn’t ever have it.

I’ve gone round and round with them over this status too! They confirmed the wrong count.

Mine are single sku case packs, always the same 12 unit cases. A claim of one or two missing is ludicrous.

[papy]

@primetime

I suspected an FC transfer went wrong and that’s where stuff got lost so they just claimed they didn’t ever have it.

Is it helpful to point to the transfer as needing investigation when you open the support case?

[primetime]

It was not recent. I suspect sometimes things get lost waiting for transfer, between initial receiving and outbound transfer, so they don’t get recorded in the transfer log. My theory: the received count gets adjusted based on the number that actually gets transferred. Often transfers are not full case packs of my inventory, so for example 3 of 12 units are missing; they’ve opened the case to split it among FC’s and a few get misplaced??
This is speculation but I don’t know how else to account for the changing received counts.

[ZaphodBeeblebrox]

I’ve been subjected to this a few times.

1. Shipment is received, and the counts match, and all is well.

2. Then the FC sends inventory to other FCs, and that’s where it all goes pear-shaped.

3. You won’t get anyone to look at the inventory ledger unless you demand that seller support send your case to the inventory transfers department. First-line seller support won’t even understand an inventory ledger that you send them.

4. The internal system will blame the seller for ANY “discrepancy”, even though the inventory ledger shows that the lost goods were lost on FC transfer.

5. No matter the cause of the mystery, they’ll want a copy of your Packing List for the original shipment to Amazon, but they get angry if you ever include a copy of that same packing list with the shipment.

6. Once you ship to them, you have to think about each individual carton or pallet as a stand-alone item, as they might “receive” one carton of 22, and leave the other 21 sitting for a week or two. With pallets, they seem to finish what they start pretty promptly, and not leave a partial pallet sitting around.

[VTR]

Looks like my temper tantrum and refusal actually paid off (this time) as I demanded escalation and I swore they blew me off.

I just kept repeating over and over “Who is lying because the inventory ledger and you cannot both be correct”.
The last associate did not like my cut and paste of the verbiage of lost warehouse inventory quote for the 5th time. LOL
I think a part of me simply enjoyed putting the screws to someone at Amazon over their repeated theft and hoop jumping.

[papy]

Yeah but…they still didn’t acknowledge their own multiple errors/failures, correct?

I know it doesn’t really matter because you’ve been reimbursed, but how many other Sellers have been burned by Amazon’s same ineptitude but didn’t have the capacity to keep fighting?

Hopefully your efforts and success will help some other Sellers hang in there and hold Amazon to account when Amazon messes up.

[ZaphodBeeblebrox]

@papy

Is it helpful to point to the transfer as needing investigation when you open the support case?

I think it might be more helpful to tell the front-line “seller support” staff that you do NOT want the case sent to the “inbound” team, but instead the “transfers” team. On my many slow, patient attempts to use simple reasoning with these people, I discovered that the inbound team has no access to the inventory ledger at all, and only the transfer team does.

I’d laugh, but I am still crying too hard.

[papy]

@ZaphodBeeblebrox

the inbound team has no access to the inventory ledger at all, and only the transfer team does.

Welp. Thank you for telling us! But that is a bit bizarre.

@ZaphodBeeblebrox

I’d laugh, but I am still crying too hard.

Me everyday in 2025

[Amazon_Seller]

@ZaphodBeeblebrox

No matter the cause of the mystery, they’ll want a copy of your Packing List for the original shipment to Amazon, but they get angry if you ever include a copy of that same packing list with the shipment.

This part is untrue. I include a copy of the packing slip with every inbound shipment. No one has every complained.

[Amazon_Seller]

@ZaphodBeeblebrox

The internal system will blame the seller for ANY “discrepancy”, even though the inventory ledger shows that the lost goods were lost on FC transfer.

I did have one case that they dinged me for that I could prove was their fault on their own ledger. It’s maddening when that happens.

However, the vast majority of cases are resolved in our favor using the same ledger. I guess it depends on who’s working that day.

[ZaphodBeeblebrox]

@Amazon_Seller

I include a copy of the packing slip with every inbound shipment. No one has every complained.

Back to “seller university” with you, then.

They insist that NOTHING should be included in a carton except the product itself, the stickers on the outside of the box are sufficient for them to know what’s inside, so they claim.

[Amazon_Seller]

They insist on a packing slip to prove I made the inventory. It’s not a packing slip unless I put it in with the pack. That’s the definition of a packing slip.

[wadeorcas]

@Amazon_Seller

They insist on a packing slip

I see nowhere where a packing list is mandatory for a shipment but they insist for a “COPY” when requesting for reimbursement, which would imply there is an original so why would you keep an original and a copy and not include it with the shipment. When I did FBA (I quit because of their total incompetence), I included a packing list (checked off) and photographed with my open carton of product before closing for shipment.

@ZaphodBeeblebrox

the stickers on the outside of the box are sufficient for them to know what’s inside, so they claim.

If Amazon would trust the stickers and not their counting ability, there would be a lot less count problems.

[Amazon_Seller]

@wadeorcas

I see nowhere where a packing list is mandatory

They insist on a packing slip to show we are the manufacturer. It is not mandatory for resellers to present a packing slip for FBA inbound shipment problems. Whether or not others put it in the box is up to them, but we do, because that is the point of a packing slip.

I really don’t care what they say about packing slips as long as it’s working for us, and it is. We all know how Amazon is when it comes to one hand not knowing what the other is doing, so that is how I see their policy on packing slips.

[Tried_Tested]

Packing slips have been a standard acceptance for MFI inventory and reimbursements. This is precisely what reimbursement companies were using before they all went out of business. Getida for instance.

This is after amazon’s automatic refunds policy changes about ~ 10 months ago or so. I know @Dogtamer was using Getida - but I doubt he is any longer.