The 5 Most Common Reasons Amazon Owes You Money
From lost shipments to warehouse damage, today we cover βThe 5 Most Common Reasons Amazon Owes You Moneyβ.
Running an Amazon FBA business is a balancing act of sourcing, scaling, and logistics. But even if your sales are booming, there is a high probability that a percentage of your profit is quietly disappearing.
Amazonβs fulfillment network is vast and generally efficient, but when you move billions of units across hundreds of warehouses, errors are inevitable. In 2026, many sellers are losing between 1% and 3% of their annual revenue to these mistakes without even realizing it.
If you aren't auditing your account, you are essentially leaving your hard-earned cash in Amazon's pocket. Here are the five most common reasons Amazon owes you money and how to spot them before your claim window expires.
1. Inbound Shipment Discrepancies
This is one of the earliest points where money leaks out of your business. You ship 100 units of a product, but Amazonβs warehouse staff only scans in 95. Those 5 missing units represent lost capital that is now sitting in "inbound limbo". While Amazon often catches these errors during the reconciliation process, they frequently miss them, and the burden is on you to prove that the units were actually delivered.
2. Lost in the Warehouse
Amazon's fulfillment centers are massive, and items occasionally get misplaced. An item might be scanned into a bin in California but never scanned out, or it might be moved to a different facility and "lost" in transit. If an item stays in an un-sellable or missing status for more than 30 days, you are generally entitled to a reimbursement at the fair market value of that item.
3. Warehouse and Carrier Damage
Accidents happen. Warehouse workers might drop a fragile box, or a forklift might accidentally crush a pallet. If Amazon damages your product while it is under their controlβwhether in their facility or via an Amazon-partnered carrierβthey owe you a reimbursement. The key here is monitoring your "Inventory Ledger" report to find items that have been adjusted for damage.
4. The "Ghost Refund" (Unreturned Items)
This is the most common "hidden" loss for FBA sellers. Amazon often grants a customer a refund immediately upon their request. However, if that customer never actually mails the item back to the warehouse, you are the one who loses out. Amazonβs policy states they should recharge the customer or pay you after 45 days, but their automated systems miss thousands of these cases every year.
5. Overcharged Referral and Fulfillment Fees
Sometimes the error isn't about physical inventory, but data. If Amazon has incorrect weights or dimensions for your product in their system, they may be overcharging you on every single sale. For high-volume sellers, a discrepancy of just half an inch or a few ounces can add up to thousands of dollars in overpaid fees over the course of a year.
Timing is Everything in 2026
In 2026, Amazon has tightened the rules on how long you have to ask for your money back. For most warehouse-related issues, the claim window has shrunk to just 60 to 90 days. If you aren't performing a monthly audit, those reimbursement opportunities expireβmeaning the money stays with Amazon forever.
Don't let your profit vanish. Protecting your margins is the difference between a business that survives and one that thrives.
π How ARD Reimbursements Can Help
At ARD Reimbursements, we specialize in finding the 1-3% of revenue that Amazon misses. We perform deep audits of your inventory ledgers, customer returns, and shipping manifests to ensure you get every dollar you are owed.