What Happens When Amazon Loses Your Items?

Selling stuff on Amazon is usually straight forward, until problems arise. I had one of these problems recently, where Amazon lost my items. Well let me go back a bit, before getting into the lost items part.

I’ve mentioned that I’m not a expert Amazon seller, but I’ve been doing fine so far. Well I saw some Samsung Galaxy S6 for sale on eBay back in December. I did a quick check on Amazon and it looked like a great opportunity, since there was a 4x eBay Bucks promo going on at the time.

Here’s the quick math. I purchased three phones for $1247.97, with $96 back in eBay Bucks, $15 from portal and $25 from my credit card. So total price cam down to $1,111.41 or $370.47 per phone. I could make over $120 per phone after $40 in FBA fees, which was an amazing return.

My calculations fell through when I saw I couldn’t list them as new. I always check this prior to buying an item (and you always should), but didn’t this time since I did the purchase on my cell phone. A great deal turned into just a few bucks. I think I was aiming for a profit of $10-20 per phone by listing them as refurbished.

Lost Items

So I sent my items in and after a few weeks they still weren’t showing. There’s a Live Chat option for Amazon seller that works great. You can go to Inventory > Shipping Queue > Click on Item Name > Reconcile and you’ll see a Chat option.

I explained my problem and the rep said I would be contacted by email. Amazon has two options to deal with lost items

• Replace the item(s) with one with the same FNSKU, or;
• Pay you the evaluated replacement value of your lost inventory, less any applicable FBA and Selling on Amazon fees

I soon received an email explaining what would happen and asking me for a receipt. I sent in a screenshot of my transaction on eBay.

The next day I received an email saying they would provide an evaluated replacement value. Amazon considers several factors when determining an item’s value, including your sales history and the average FBA selling price on Amazon.

The email said “Your account will be credited USD 1183.80”. Not exactly what my receipt showed, but close. My cost was $1,111.41, so slightly better than I expected, about $70 in profit.

Few lessons here. Always check thoroughly before making a purchase and calculate your profit to figure out if it makes sense. Check FBA fees and see if you can list item as new. Also check on your inventory. If items that you shipped don’t show up within a few days, something might be wrong. The chat feature is a great option to get quick answers.