UK FBA Answer · Updated 2026

How do I claim for lost or damaged FBA stock on Amazon UK?

Short answer

Amazon UK FBA reimburses sellers for stock lost in fulfilment centres, damaged by Amazon, or never received from inbound shipments — but you have to claim it. Most claims must be filed within 18 months for missing inbound items, 30-60 days for warehouse-lost or warehouse-damaged inventory. UK FBA sellers leave £100-£1,000+ per year in unclaimed reimbursements; it's essentially free money once you build the audit habit.

Amazon UK FBA loses stock. They damage stock. They lose units between inbound receipt and shelf placement. Most of the time they automatically reimburse — but a meaningful percentage of cases slip through and require manual claims. UK FBA sellers leave hundreds to thousands of pounds per year on the table by not auditing systematically.

Categories of reimbursable issues

(1) Inbound missing — your shipment showed 100 units, Amazon received 97. The 3 missing should be reimbursed within 30 days of close-out, but ~10% slip through. (2) Lost in warehouse — units that were received and stowed but later disappeared from your inventory dashboard. (3) Damaged by warehouse — Amazon staff damaged the unit in handling. (4) Damaged by carrier — Amazon's partnered carrier damaged it during inbound transit. (5) Customer-return discrepancies — refund issued to customer but unit not received back into your inventory. (6) Pricing errors — Amazon listed your item at a price below your minimum and shipped it.

How to find reimbursable issues

Three-step monthly audit: (1) Reports → Inventory and Sales → Inventory Adjustments → look for negative adjustments without paired positive ones in the same period. (2) Reports → Payments → Reimbursements → cross-reference against your records of damaged/lost units and check Amazon found them all. (3) Reports → Fulfillment → FBA Inventory Adjustments → look for "Damaged" + "Customer damaged" without paired refunds. The whole audit takes 30-60 minutes monthly for a £5k-revenue account.

How to file claims

Open Seller Central → Help → Get help with my issue → FBA Reimbursements. State the specific shipment ID, ASIN, FNSKU, units affected, and the reason (inbound missing / lost in warehouse / damaged by warehouse). Attach evidence: inbound receipts, your packing list, photos of damaged stock if applicable. Amazon UK responds typically within 7-14 days. Most claims approved or specifically rejected; partial approvals common where Amazon finds part of the discrepancy.

Time limits to know

Inbound shipment claims: 9 months from check-in date for missing units, BUT Amazon's automatic reconciliation typically catches issues at the 30-day mark, so file at 35-60 days for the strongest case. Lost-in-warehouse: 60 days from disappearance. Customer-return discrepancies: 60 days from refund date. Anything older requires escalation via Seller Performance and is harder to recover.

Specialist reimbursement services

Companies like Refunds Manager, GETIDA, and Seller Investigators charge 15-25% commission on recovered amounts. Worth it if your audit time is genuinely scarce or your account exceeds £30k annual revenue. Below that, doing it yourself is more cost-effective once you've built the spreadsheet template (one-time investment of 2-3 hours).

Why most sellers don't bother

"It's only £50/month, not worth the time." But £50/month is £600/year, often a meaningful fraction of net profit at small scale. And the more you scale, the more the absolute pounds compound. A £10k/month seller leaving £150/month in reimbursements is leaving £1,800/year — material money. Build the habit early.