FBA shipments lost multiple times and claims failed? That’s because your approach is wrong!

Maomao often sees in the seller group that many sellers have reported that incoming shipments are frequently lost in Amazon FBA warehouses recently; because sometimes , although the Amazon FBA goods have been signed for, there are always fewer when they are put on the shelves, sometimes there are fewer than a few, and sometimes there are even dozens of shipments missing!

However, when sellers open a shipment investigation in the backend, the customer service (presumably Chinese customer service) gives a robot-like reply: provide proof of purchase, invoice, and POD. But after the sellers provide the required information, after 1-2 days, the customer service will reply (same as the robot reply) that they have investigated and found that there are missing items, but they have not found the missing items (before the investigation, they gave a number of missing items, and now the reply is the same).

I believe that many sellers would not bother to take the time to file a complaint if only four or five items were lost. However, if Amazon lost 40 or 50 products at once, they would still take the time to file a complaint seriously . However, the complaint process is difficult, and you may often encounter situations where you still fail to make a successful claim even after providing a set of information.

Below, Maomao will share a real FBA lost goods claim appeal case. Seller friends can refer to it when filing an appeal. Of course, we also hope that seller friends will not use this experience!

Previously, a seller said that she sent a batch of 400 pieces of goods but only received 358 pieces. When she determined that the number of pieces in the warehouse would not change, she decided to file a claim. Zhaodanmao will list in detail her ideas and methods for solving such problems. You can refer to the case and follow it!

However, she had to wait until the shipment progress showed "completed" before she could file a complaint. But she didn't just wait there. She would find out in advance what information she needed to provide for the complaint .

Idea 1 : Ask questions in the seller communication group and see the responses from other sellers; however, there are different opinions, some appeals are successful and some are unsuccessful, it seems that there is a bit of luck involved. To summarize everyone's opinions, basically everyone said that the materials needed are: " order, invoice, delivery note, delivery receipt, package photo , etc."

Idea 2 : Open a case and ask Amazon's official customer service to see what the authoritative statement is. Since you are asking customer service, you must ask all the questions you can think of carefully to avoid failure of the appeal due to insufficient preparation, or the trouble of asking customer service multiple times.

During the case opening process, she also carefully prepared several questions in advance, and the answers from the official customer service are listed below:

Question 1: How to file a complaint?

Answer: You can directly start the shipment discrepancy investigation through the background.

What the customer service said is that you can go to the "Item Information" tab on the shipment overview page of a specific shipment, upload and submit relevant documents, and briefly describe your appeal to submit your application.

After you open a shipment discrepancy investigation through this page, a case will be automatically generated, and you just need to wait for a response. This is quite convenient for Amazon.

Question 2: What materials do I need to provide?

A: Amazon requires the following documents to be included with your investigation request: Proof of Inventory Ownership: Proof of inventory ownership helps to identify any potential discrepancies that may have occurred. Acceptable documents include invoices from suppliers, receipts from other sellers, or signed packing slips (if you are a manufacturer).

You must provide the following information:Purchase dateProduct name that matches the missing itemsQuantityProof of delivery: For LTL or FTL shipments, provide a bill of lading showing the number of boxes in the shipment and the total weight when the carrier picked it up. This document must be stamped by Amazon to confirm that the fulfillment center signed for the shipment. Your carrier should have a copy of this document. This information helps confirm that the entire shipment was picked up and delivered as expected.

Tip: If you provide a receipt or invoice as proof of inventory ownership, you don't need to provide the price you paid for the item. You can hide or obscure this price.

This customer service is too detailed and official. To put it simply, you need to provide:

A. Proof of inventory ownership. This includes the invoice provided by the supplier, the packing list signed by the supplier, and the receipt signed by the seller. These documents must include "purchase date, product name consistent with listing name, quantity"

B. Proof of delivery. If it is LTL or full truckload delivery, you need to provide a bill of lading with Amazon's stamp, which includes the number of boxes and the total weight. (This seller only delivers small packages, and she has never seen what a bill of lading looks like. So here comes question 3)

Question 3: She is sending a small package by express delivery. What should she do if she does not have the above delivery note?

A: Could you provide proof of receipt?

This is the courier's proof of receipt, which can be saved by checking the package on the courier's official website. She sent it via UPS, and their proof of receipt looks like this, which can be saved as a PDF file:

Question 4: I am a domestic supplier. Is it okay if the documents I provide are all in Chinese?

Answer: Try to use English. Anyway, she has encountered this kind of situation before. The invoice provided by the seller was in Chinese, and the investigation team refused to investigate because they could not recognize Chinese.

After asking the customer service a few key questions, she had a general idea in her mind.

It seems that materials in English will help her to succeed in her appeal , but the supplier had previously given her materials in Chinese, so she had to do it herself, and she had to use a more formal English template.

After browsing around, she got two pieces of information that were important to her. One was that she could make documents such as delivery notes and receipts on the website invoice home, which had many formal and exquisite document templates. The other was that it would be better to attach a screenshot of the official website for the courier receipt certificate.

Well, now that she has a thorough understanding, she first makes a list of materials that need to be prepared and then makes them one by one according to the list. In order to keep it all in English, the file name is also written in English. This is the list of materials she has sorted out (the receipt and screenshots of the other 7 packages are omitted here)

Tips: You can see that there is no invoice in her materials. Firstly, she did not issue an invoice and the supplier did not have an English invoice. Secondly, she saw a seller saying that after his forged invoice was discovered, the system labeled him as a fraud and affected his account. Although the invoice home can also make a pro forma invoice, she still did not take the risk.

Zhaodanmao summarizes the details that need to be paid attention to when making these materials:

1. All in English

2. The product name is consistent with the listing

3. The quantity is consistent with the shipment quantity

4. The dates should be logically correct (do not let the receipt date be before the delivery date)

5. The consignee and delivery address are consistent with your account information in the backend

6. It is best to put the supplier’s logo on it to make it look more formal.

7. Print out and sign by hand, then take a photo or scan

After that, she followed the steps to upload the file and write the appeal in the background . She didn't need to write too much, just write it clearly . Then Amazon's processing time was quite fast. She submitted the appeal on February 14, and the platform replied to her on February 16 that the investigation was completed and compensation was initiated.

The amount of compensation is calculated based on the amount you receive after deducting Amazon fees for each product sold, rather than the product selling price or product cost price.

Below is a screenshot of the seller’s successful appeal: