Amazon FBA seller refunds with Ben Chambers - a podcast by Michael Veazey

FBA seller refunds  with Ben Chambers (operations manager) of  Refund hunter

Why do people need Refund Hunter/Refund Hunter? 

Amazon FBA seller refunds is a real issue. Often sellers often have unclaimed funds. That's because they:



* Don’t have know-how

* Don’t have time to get that money back



Who uses Refund Hunter?

Wide range of customers need to get FBA seller refunds:



* Corporations doing $10’s of millions

* Lots of big Chinese manufacturers these days.

* Anyone who can’t scale out a dedicated team of people filing 1000s of cases over year (Some other people have VAs that manually file claims)



Do you support European markets?

Yes - Europe (UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain);  North American markets (USA, Mexico, Canada); and  Japan are all supported.

What are the sources of FBA seller refunds  that Amazon owes?

FBA seller refunds come from 3 basic causes:



* Warehouse discrepancies (lost inventory)

* Customer returns

* Inbound shipments



Under that they branch into 3 fields.

Which is the biggest cause of lost in FBA seller refunds?

Lost inventory!

What’s the problem with lost inventory?

Things get lost in Amazon; Amazon requests 30 days to find product or reimburse FBA seller for it.

After 30 days, Amazon lets you raise a case.

Refund Hunter look at the inventory  (18 months of numbers)



* Lost report

* Found report

* Reimbursements reports



Inventory adjustments report - in warehouse itself

For people who don’t have a lot of SKUs, this isn't an issue;  but if you have 4000-5000 SKUs, it's a big problem.

With say 10-20 SKUs, what are the DIY solutions to getting FBA seller refunds ?

Easiest to find is lost and damaged inventory.

Lost inventory

Simplest way - video 11 minute walk through - click here.

Ben makes a pivot table in excel. Move fields around - sum number at end.

Do It yourself for 2 months to test it.

Inventory codes - for movements and descriptions:

F - found; M - misplaced

Put in date range - downloaded report

100 lost events, 98 found events

Online is cleaner but only 50 lines

Cross reference with Inventory report - if that number isn’t equal, then some units are lost.

From there, file a ticket, and give Amazon the details.

Sometimes if sellers are just starting out selling on Amazon, Ben will teach them how to do this themselves.

Relatively DIY method



* Download excel file

* Create a pivot table

* Contact Ben on a one-to-one basis!



Refund Hunter is for when people start scaling.

Inbound Shipments

Easiest ones to do on own.

Amazon in the last year has started cracking down on paperwork needed for inbound shipment reconciliation.

The hard thing is Amazon starting to ask for paperwork for any level of discrepancy

Manual invoices are a pain.

You'll need a Stamped inbound Amazon proof of delivery - get from logistics provider.

Ideally a scan of a piece of paper and proof

At least an electronic version

Even with just 1 item out of 2000 units, Amazon wants paperwork from manufacturer!

Obviously, this is most  valuable for bigger sellers to get off their plate, especially if they are doing several shipments a week.

Refund Hunter will try to file on behalf of sellers.

Further episodes of Amazing FBA Amazon and ECommerce Podcast, for Amazon Private Label Sellers, Shopify, Magento or Woocommerce business owners, and other e-commerce sellers and digital entrepreneurs.

Further podcasts by Michael Veazey

Website of Michael Veazey