FBA Inbound Discrepancies
Has anyone using FBA in the UK experienced a huge increase in Amazon not booking in all of the products on FBA inbound shipment since the beginning of March 2022?
We have used FBA for years and have had small discrepancies here and there, but usually got reimbursed within a week or so of raising a case, or if reimbursement was refused, we were able to absorb the small discrepancies into our business.
However since the start of March 2022 we have had a lot of incound discrepancies, and not by small quantities either. At the moment we have had 20 FBA since march and most cases raised for them have not been resolved.
For example, 7th March we shipped 120 units (SSDs) but only 15 were booked in. The shipment closed so we raised a case to reconcile the discrepancy, provided invoices and still don’t have a reimbursement.
At them moment we are looking at about £100K worth of stock which we have sent to Amazon but they have not booked in. What usually happens is Amazon will initially book in the full quantity, and then between 4 to 7 days later they reverse booking in a proportion of them. Or, they will book them all in, and do an FC transfer on a proportion of them that will stay in FC transfer for 4 to 7 days, and then they will reverse booking them in.
I have one case where we shipped 48 computer processors that cost about £300 each. All were booked in fine on 1st of April, went into FC Transfer, then into FC Processing and then on the 7th of April all 48 were reversed from being booked in. The shipment closed and showed that Amazon had booked in 0 of the 48 units shipped, and when we tried to reconcile the shipment, we couldn’t because it said “Investigation completed – shipment contents counted and confirmed”.
I pack all of our FBA shipments myself so I know the quantities we are sending are 100% accurate and the weights of the shipments are correct.
I have reached out to the Managing Directors office and I have one of their Selling Partner Relations Executives tring to help us, but we aren’t getting very far in the 34 days we have been in contact and the list of cases is ever growing.
I’m at a loss as to what is happening to my inventory. Is someone within Amazon taking it? are UPS taking it? Is there someone not following the booking in process correctly? And why are the cases taking so much longer to resolve than they used to?
Anyone in the same boat?
15 replies
Seller_aOogeQQcgrYam
Yes, we’ve seen similar. We sell similar items (SSDs, flash memory, cameras, lenses etc), most of which are high-value. We’ve seen several shipments where stock is marked as missing and the shipment closes. Fortunately in many cases we’ve argued our situation (using invoices and photos of the items shipped), and they’ve reimbursed them. But there are many where they have refused and we are still fighting for our funds.
In one situation we had an entire case of 24 microphones marked as not having been received, despite the tracking and FBA notifications telling us that they had got there, and Amazon unable to say what was in the box if it wasn’t the items we shipped!
Unfortunately I don’t have any answers - only can understand your concerns.
I do think that Amazon should be willing to provide photographic evidence of what they receive in each package where there are discrepancies. I won’t hold my breath for that though!
Seller_28iXFtH7pJlg6
We have found that almost 100% of our shipments are received in full initially - however then a couple of days later (usually following an FC transfer) they take a few items or units off the shipment and say they were never there in the first place.
I usually open a case under the reason ‘other FBA issue’ and quote that the items were received in full first and some items were then removed after - or after the FC transfer if there was one.
Usually the first reply is a refusal to reimburse or investigate and the standard “Investigation completed – shipment contents counted and confirmed”.
In the instance there has been an FC transfer - I ask the associate where the secondary check took place - I.E the first FC all items were received at, or the FC the items were ‘transferred’ to - and usually by arguing that the FC transfer completely invalidates the secondary check, eventually sellercentral do provide a reimbursement.
Quite infuriating, and feels like they deliberately blame losing items in FC transfer or FBA warehouses on the seller. however they do reimburse if you use the right language and thoroughly check your ‘received inventory’ and ‘inventory event details’ reports.
Seller_PY6qN1rPPfY0J
It is always frustrating when Amazon 100% assume the discrepancy is the seller’s fault and not that of the mandrills they employ to scan the stuff in. Twice in recent times, they have scanned cartons of 12 products as one item and it’s taken weeks for them to acknowledge the error and mark the rest in stock.
I reached the conclusion long ago that these ghost ‘discrepancies’ are a fact of life when dealing with Amazon FBA.
Seller_lng9J1QsdTug3
On some of the cases we are disputing the discrepancies on, Amazon are saying that the weights of the packages are less than we stated and so wont reimburse us. This is nonesence as I weigh the boxes myself before sending.
Anyone got experiences of this and how to argue it?
Seller_lng9J1QsdTug3
One one of my cases, I now have Amazon telling me that the Invoices provided aren’t valid, but they can’t tell me why they aren’t. Despite the fact that I have provded invoices from the same supplier for similar products many times before and they have been accepted without question.
