FBA Reimbursement Claim Windows: The Exact Deadlines for Every Loss Type
By Archit Mathur · Published · Last updated
Short answer
Amazon's FBA reimbursement deadlines are not uniform, and the 60-day figure everyone quotes covers only fulfilment-centre loss and damage. Customer returns run day 45 to day 105. Inbound shortfalls open only once the shipment closes and run to nine months. Removal orders have three separate windows of their own.
Reimbursement claims are the most reliably ignored money in an Amazon business. The units are genuinely missing, Amazon genuinely owes you for them, and the paperwork is genuinely winnable. The reason it goes unclaimed is that nothing announces the deadline, and the deadline is not the same for every kind of loss.
The single most important thing on this page
"Sixty days" is the number every guide repeats, and it is right for exactly one category: inventory lost or damaged inside a fulfilment centre. Every other loss type has a different window, two of them are not claimable on day one at all, and one of them runs nine months rather than two. Filing to the wrong clock is how sellers lose claims they had months left to make.
The claim windows
Amazon reset these windows in a Seller Forums announcement effective 15 October 2025 (opens in a new tab), and published a fuller filing walkthrough covering the categories the announcement left out in an August 2026 forum guide from its own community team (opens in a new tab). The table below merges the two.
| Loss type | Claimable from | Window closes | Published in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lost in a fulfilment centre | When the event appears in your reports | 60 days later | Both |
| Damaged in a fulfilment centre | When the event appears in your reports | 60 days later | Both |
| Inbound shortfall, missing from inbound | Once the shipment reaches Closed status | 9 months | Aug 2026 guide |
| Customer return not received | Day 45 after the refund | Day 105 after the refund | Oct 2025 announcement |
| Removal order lost | Day 15 from shipment creation | Day 135 from shipment creation | Oct 2025 announcement |
| Removal order damaged | On delivery | 120 days from the delivery date | Oct 2025 announcement |
| Removal order grading | On removal from the network | 120 days from the removal date | Oct 2025 announcement |
| Re-evaluation of a decided claim | After the first decision | 90 days from the initial claim | Oct 2025 announcement |
Where Amazon contradicts itself, and what to do about it
The two Amazon sources do not agree on three rows. The October 2025 announcement puts customer returns at day 45 to day 105 and removal orders at 135 or 120 days. The August 2026 forum guide instead says customer return claims may be filed no sooner than 60 days after the refund and within 18 months, and puts removals at 18 months. One of those is very likely a community manager quoting the pre-2025 policy, and the announcement is the more formal instrument, but you cannot tell from the outside which system the claim tool is enforcing. Work to the narrower of the two: open at day 60, close at day 105. That interval is valid under either reading.
Lost and damaged: the straightforward 60 days
These two behave the same way. A unit goes missing in the warehouse or gets damaged in handling, the event is recorded in your inventory adjustments, the claim is valid immediately, and you have sixty days.
The clock detail matters more than it looks. Amazon counts from the date the loss or damage event appears in your reports (opens in a new tab), not from the date the unit actually vanished. That is mildly in your favour, and it also means you cannot pre-empt it: until the adjustment posts, there is nothing to claim against.
Sixty days sounds generous until you consider how these are usually discovered. Most sellers find them while reconciling a settlement, which happens monthly at best. A loss posting just after one reconciliation and discovered at the next has already burned half its window before anyone looks at it.
Inbound shortfalls, which run to nine months
You send 500 units. Amazon records 480. The instinct is to file immediately, and that is the wrong instinct. So is the widely repeated correction, that you therefore have some shortened slice of sixty days.
The gate is not a number of days. A shipment must be in Closed status before it is eligible for reconciliation at all (opens in a new tab), and the status cycles through in transit, delivered, checked-in, receiving and finally closed. Amazon puts the reconciliation itself at two to thirty days, and up to sixty in some cases. Receiving is not atomic: units from a single shipment are frequently checked in over several days, and a shipment twenty units short on arrival is often complete by the end of the week.
Once it does close, the window is long. Amazon's August 2026 guide puts inbound claims at nine months, not sixty days, and names filing prematurely as the single most common reason claims are denied. What sinks a claim here is filing on day two, collecting a rejection for a discrepancy that resolved itself on day six, and never going back while eight months of eligibility quietly expire.
Customer returns, from day 45 to day 105
A customer requests a refund. Amazon refunds them. The unit is supposed to come back into your inventory. Frequently it does not.
This claim cannot be filed straight away because the customer legitimately has time to return the item. The announced window opens at day 45 after the refund and closes at day 105, with the caveat above that Amazon's 2026 guide states day 60 as the opening instead.
Amazon also says that in most cases it charges the customer and reimburses you for an unreturned item without any claim from you. Check before you file. Of all the categories this is the one most consistently left unclaimed, for an obvious reason: the refund happened six weeks ago, it is emotionally closed, and nothing brings it back to your attention at the moment it becomes claimable.
Removal orders, which carry three windows
Removals are the category missing from almost every guide, including the earlier version of this page. They carry three separate windows and none of them is sixty days: lost removals run from day 15 to day 135 from shipment creation, damaged removals close 120 days after the delivery date, and grading disputes close 120 days from the date the item left the network.
The day-15 opening on lost removals is the trap that mirrors inbound shortfalls. A removal that has not arrived after a week is not yet claimable, and the instinct to chase it immediately produces a rejection rather than a queue position.
What the claim is worth
Valuation depends on when in the order lifecycle the unit was lost.
Lost before a customer order
Valued on what it cost you to source. Since 10 March 2025 Amazon reimburses this category at the product manufacturing cost (opens in a new tab), which it defines as your cost to source the product from a manufacturer, wholesaler or reseller, excluding shipping, handling, customs duties and other costs. You can supply that figure yourself or accept Amazon's estimate, and the difference between the two is frequently material. A reconciliation without a cost figure loaded can tell you units are missing but cannot tell you what to claim, so load the cost sheet before you run one.
Lost after a customer order
Valued on the sale price less the fees Amazon charged. Usually higher than cost basis, and the arithmetic is derivable from your own reports. Note that the manufacturing-cost basis applies specifically to items lost or damaged before a customer order, which is what makes the timing of the loss worth establishing before you file.
Netting out what Amazon already paid you
Amazon reimburses some losses without you asking. Any reconciliation that ignores this produces an inflated figure and sends you to file claims for money you already received.
A trustworthy number is losses matched against reimbursements already paid, with only the remainder surfaced. If a tool reports a "money owed" figure without stating that it excludes reimbursements Amazon issued on its own, treat the number sceptically.
How to actually work this
The mechanical version is a monthly reconciliation: pull your inventory adjustment and reimbursement reports, match them, value the unmatched losses against your cost sheet, and file whatever is inside its window. It works, and it is tedious enough that it stops happening by month three.
The alternative is to have the reconciliation run continuously, so a claim surfaces with its countdown attached at the point it becomes claimable rather than whenever you next sit down with the reports. What matters either way is that something other than your memory is tracking the day each window opens and closes. There are now eight of them, they run on four different clocks, and Amazon notifies you about none of it.
Commission, and what it buys
Managed recovery services file these claims for you and commonly advertise a commission of around 25% of what they recover. On $40,000 recovered in a year that is $10,000. The trade is real, since they absorb the administrative load and the chasing. The finding and valuing part can be automated, and the filing part is a form.
Frequently asked questions
How long do I have to file an FBA reimbursement claim?
It depends entirely on the loss type, and the 60-day figure everybody repeats covers only one of them. Inventory lost or damaged inside a fulfilment centre must be claimed within 60 days of the loss appearing in your reports. Customer returns that never came back run between day 45 and day 105 after the refund. Inbound shortfalls are the outlier: Amazon's own August 2026 guidance says you file only once the shipment is closed, and then you have nine months.
When does the 60-day clock actually start?
Not on the day the unit went missing. Amazon's announcement sets the window at 60 days from the reported loss or damage, and its 2026 filing guide is more explicit still: 60 days from the date the event appears in your reports. If Amazon takes a fortnight to record an adjustment, you did not lose those days, but you also cannot claim before the event exists in the report.
Why can I not file an inbound shortfall claim immediately?
Because the shipment has to reach Closed status before it is eligible for reconciliation at all. Units from one shipment are frequently checked in over several days, so a shipment that looks short on arrival is often complete once receiving finishes. Amazon names filing prematurely as the single most common reason claims get denied.
Does Amazon reimburse some things automatically?
For unreturned customer returns, yes: Amazon says that in most cases it charges the customer and reimburses you without a claim. That is exactly why claim tracking has to net out what has already been paid. Filing again for something already reimbursed wastes the case and distorts your own accounting.
What is my claim actually worth?
It depends when the unit was lost. Since 10 March 2025, inventory lost or damaged before a customer order is reimbursed at the product manufacturing cost, meaning your cost to source it, excluding shipping, handling and duties. A unit lost after an order was placed is valued on the sale price less fees. Without a cost figure loaded, the first category cannot be valued at all.
Should I use a reimbursement service or do it myself?
Managed services file and chase claims for you and commonly advertise a commission of around 25% of what they recover. Doing it yourself costs your time instead. The economics favour a service if you value the administrative load more than the commission, and favour doing it yourself as recovery volume grows.
Sources
- 01Update to FBA inventory reimbursement claim windows (opens in a new tab) — Amazon Seller Forums, News_Amazon announcement, 14 August 2025
- 02FBA Lost Your Inventory? Steps to File a Reimbursement Claim (opens in a new tab) — Amazon Seller Forums, Indy_Amazon, 13 August 2026
- 03Guide to FBA Inventory Reconciliation: What to Do When Units Go Missing (opens in a new tab) — Amazon Seller Forums, Bryce_Amazon
- 04Update to the FBA inventory reimbursement policy (opens in a new tab) — Amazon Seller Forums, News_Amazon announcement, 18 December 2024
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