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. Its help pages give 60 days from the reported loss for fulfilment-centre loss and damage, day 60 to day 120 after the refund for customer returns, nine months from verified delivery for inbound shortfalls, and 60 to 75 days for removal orders. An October 2025 announcement gave other figures.
A reimbursement claim is money Amazon owes you for units it lost or damaged. The units are missing, Amazon owes you for them, and the paperwork is winnable. What loses these claims is that no reminder arrives before a window closes, and the window is not the same for every kind of loss.
Sixty days is not the window for every loss
Sixty days from the reported loss is right for inventory lost or damaged inside a fulfilment centre. The other loss types run on different clocks: 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). Its FBA inventory reimbursement policy (opens in a new tab) now gives each window on its own help page, and where those pages differ from the announcement, the table below follows the help pages and shows the announcement's figure beside them.
| Loss type | Claimable from | Window closes | Published in |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lost in a fulfilment centre | When the event appears in your reports | 60 days later | Help page and both forum posts |
| Damaged in a fulfilment centre | When the event appears in your reports | 60 days later | Help page and both forum posts |
| Inbound shortfall, missing from inbound | When the shipment shows as eligible for investigation | 9 months after the verified delivery date | Help page; Aug 2026 guide |
| Customer return not received | Day 60 after the refund | Day 120 after the refund | Help page (Oct 2025 announcement: day 45 to day 105) |
| Removal order lost | Day 15 after the last confirmed movement | Day 75 from shipment creation | Help page (Oct 2025 announcement: day 15 to day 135) |
| Removal order damaged | On delivery | 60 days from the delivery date | Help page (Oct 2025 announcement: 120 days) |
| Removal order grading | On delivery | 60 days from the delivery date | Help page (Oct 2025 announcement: 120 days from removal) |
| Re-evaluation of a decided claim | After the first decision | 90 days from the initial claim | Oct 2025 announcement only |
Where Amazon contradicts itself, and what to do about it
Amazon's three sources do not agree on the customer return and removal rows. The help pages put customer returns at day 60 to day 120 after the refund, lost removals at 75 days from shipment creation, and damaged or graded removals at 60 days from delivery. 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 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. You cannot tell from the outside which one the claim tool enforces. Work to the narrowest: customer returns from day 60 to day 105, lost removals by day 75 from creation, damaged or graded removals within 60 days of delivery. These dates overlap the two published windows; confirm eligibility in Seller Central before filing. Missing or uncertain source dates require review, not an assumed countdown.
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 Ledger report and Inventory Defect and Reimbursement portal, 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 assuming 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 Shipment to Amazon claims page (opens in a new tab) allows nine months from the verified delivery date, not sixty days, so the time spent waiting for the shipment to close comes out of it. Amazon's August 2026 guide 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 60 to day 120
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. Amazon's Customer return claims page (opens in a new tab) opens the window at day 60 after the refund and closes it at day 120. The October 2025 announcement said day 45 to day 105, so a claim filed between day 60 and day 105 satisfies both.
Amazon also says that if the item is not back within 60 days, in most cases it charges the customer and reimburses you 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 two months 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 carry three windows of their own. Amazon's Removals claims page (opens in a new tab) opens lost removals 15 days after the shipment's last confirmed movement and closes them 75 days after it was created, and closes damaged removals and grading disputes 60 days after delivery. The October 2025 announcement gave 135 days for lost removals and 120 for the other two; work to the help page's shorter dates.
The 15-day wait on lost removals, counted from the last confirmed movement, 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 31 March 2025 Amazon reimburses this category at the product manufacturing cost (opens in a new tab), which its reimbursement policy (opens in a new tab) now calls the sourcing cost and 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 refund amount, or the price of the replacement item, less applicable fees. Usually higher than cost basis, and the arithmetic is derivable from your own reports. Note that the sourcing-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 work this
The mechanical version is a monthly reconciliation: pull your Inventory Ledger and Reimbursements 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.
There are eight windows on six different clocks. Put the reconciliation on a fixed date each month, and on that day file every unmatched loss that is inside its window.
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 clock starts from a different event for each. Inventory lost or damaged inside a fulfilment centre must be claimed within 60 days of the loss appearing in your reports. Amazon's help page puts customer returns that never came back at day 60 to day 120 after the refund. Inbound shortfalls are the outlier: you file once the shipment shows as eligible for investigation, and no later than nine months after the verified delivery date.
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 customer returns not back within 60 days of the refund, 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 31 March 2025, inventory lost or damaged before a customer order is reimbursed at what Amazon now calls its sourcing cost, meaning your cost to source it, excluding shipping, handling and duties. A unit lost after an order was placed is valued on the refund amount or replacement price, less fees. If you do not supply your own cost, Amazon applies its estimate, which you can change, and the difference between the two is often material.
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
- 04FBA inventory reimbursement policy (opens in a new tab) — Amazon Seller Central
- 05FBA inventory reimbursement policy: Shipment to Amazon claims (opens in a new tab) — Amazon Seller Central
- 06FBA inventory reimbursement policy: Customer return claims (opens in a new tab) — Amazon Seller Central
- 07FBA inventory reimbursement policy: Removals claims (opens in a new tab) — Amazon Seller Central
- 08Changes to program policies: effective March 31, 2025 (opens in a new tab) — Amazon Seller Central
Get told automatically
Notifcentral compares FBA inventory and shipment records with recorded reimbursements on a six-hour schedule. It helps you review possible unreimbursed losses and prepare case text and an evidence checklist. A candidate or estimated amount is not confirmed money owed. Check the applicable marketplace policy and Seller Central eligibility before filing.
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