You shipped it. Amazon counted less. You have nine months.

The one claim with a long window

Since late 2024, most inventory reimbursement claims have to be filed within about 60 days. Inbound shipments are different. Amazon accepts a research request on a shipment until nine months after the shipment was created — on its own cases Amazon calls it a nine-month statute of limitations.

There is also a start line. Amazon has to finish receiving and reconciling first, and every shipment carries the date it becomes eligible for research. A request sent before that date is turned away as premature, so a claim lives between two dates: eligible, and nine months from creation.

What counts as missing

• Received short. You sent 120, Amazon located 95, and the shipment closed with 25 unaccounted for.
• Lost after the dock. The carton arrived and was signed for; the units never made it to a shelf.
• Every line, not just the big one. A shipment often comes up one or two units short on several SKUs at once. One request covers every short line on the shipment.
• Net of what Amazon already found. Amazon’s reconciliation counts units it located elsewhere and units it already reimbursed, so the claim is only what is still missing.

What Amazon asks for, and what comes back

The request asks for one document: the supplier invoice showing the purchase date, the product and the quantity bought, dated before the shipment. Your invoice proves you owned the units. Amazon’s own receiving counts prove they went missing.

Answers are fast and mostly automated, often the same day. Many come back as a reimbursement: Amazon confirms the units are missing and pays. Some come back as a denial — the partnered carrier “never picked up”, or the plan and the receipt “did not match” — and those are answered on Amazon’s own numbers: the units its warehouse counted, the carrier charge on its own shipment summary, and your proof of delivery and packing list where you have them.

One thing to watch on the ones that pay: Amazon pays its own valuation of the unit, and that can land under the cost on your invoice. We check every payment against the invoice it was filed with, and contest the ones that came in short.

What we do about it

• Read Amazon’s per-item shipment reconciliation every day, for every shipment still inside the nine-month window.
• File each shipment once it is eligible, covering every short line in one request, with the supplier invoice for each line attached.
• Answer extra-unit rows the neutral way — ask Amazon to research them — and never claim units were not shipped when nobody can say so.
• Have the reply to an automated denial written before we file.
• Match every payment to its case, and contest a reimbursement that came in under invoice cost.

Removals & inbound · Every check, published · What we file, and what we refuse

Questions

How long do I have to claim units missing from an inbound shipment?

Nine months from the date the shipment was created. That is Amazon’s own cutoff for an inbound research request, and it is far longer than the roughly 60 days most other inventory claims now get.

Can I file as soon as the shipment is delivered?

No. Amazon has to finish counting first. Each shipment shows the date it becomes eligible for research; a request sent before then is turned away as premature.

What does Amazon ask for?

A supplier invoice that shows the purchase date, the product and the quantity bought, dated before the shipment. The invoice proves you owned the units; Amazon’s own receiving counts prove they went missing.

How much does Amazon pay for a missing unit?

Amazon pays its own valuation of the unit, which can come in under the cost on your invoice. Where it does, the shortfall can be contested with the invoice.