Amazon’s count says 24 units. Your invoice says 40. Say you sent four boxes of 10 to Amazon’s warehouse, and Amazon’s pickup service (ATS) collected them from your door. A week later, Seller Central shows 24 units in stock. You write to Amazon, and the reply says you sent fewer units than you declared.
A new seller asked almost exactly this on Amazon’s seller forum in January. We read 690 threads from Amazon India’s seller forums, posted between January and October 2026. Of those, 59 were about FBA stock that went missing, got stuck or wasn’t reimbursed. That’s about one in twelve. About 24 were about units that went missing or that Amazon counted short. Another 14 were about an FBA pickup that never came.
Our FBA shipment checklist covered getting stock ready for Amazon’s warehouse. This piece covers what to do when the count comes back short.
What to keep before the pickup
When units go missing, Amazon’s page on how to reconcile your shipment asks for two kinds of proof: that you owned the stock, and that it was delivered. You collect both before the boxes leave.
For ownership, keep the invoice from your supplier or manufacturer. Amazon doesn’t accept a pro forma invoice, or a file in Excel or Word. A scan or photo in PDF, JPG or PNG is fine, and you can hide the price you paid.
For delivery with Amazon’s pickup, keep the delivery challan for all the units. You can download it from the shipment in Seller Central. With your own transporter, you need the stock transfer note (STN) stamped by the fulfilment centre, plus the electronic proof of delivery (EPOD). Amazon wants the STN as a complete colour scan in PDF. A docket slip alone doesn’t count.
In our checklist, we said to get the pickup person to sign your copy of the challan. No Amazon rule asks for that. But when stock has gone missing on the way in, Amazon has asked us for exactly that: the delivery challan, signed at pickup. Put the carton count on the challan or invoice too. Without it, Amazon won’t process a claim for boxes that never arrived.
Weigh every box and note the weights. Amazon’s page says accurate shipment weights are needed for an investigation. Photograph every box with its label too. Amazon’s staff search for missing boxes inside the fulfilment centre, and the colour, size and marks on your boxes help them find yours.
When Amazon’s count is short
Amazon’s staff on the seller forums send sellers with missing units to the shipment’s Contents tab.
But first, wait. Amazon’s reconcile page says reconciling usually takes 14 days from the date the shipment is received. Amazon corrects some differences on its own in that time. You can only ask for an investigation once the shipment’s status says Closed.
In Seller Central, go to your shipments, find this one and click Track shipment. Open the Contents tab. In our example, it would show 40 units expected, 24 located and a difference of 16. Hover over the number located to see whether units were received, reconciled, reimbursed, counted on another shipment or received as a different product.
Each product marked “Action required” needs an answer. Choose “Research missing units” if you’re sure the units were in the boxes. Choose “Units not shipped” only if they really weren’t, because that answer tells Amazon you sent fewer.
Upload your proof of ownership and proof of delivery. In the description, say how many boxes you sent and what they look like. Then submit, and note the case number.
Don’t claim too early or too late. Amazon’s reimbursement policy says to claim for missing inbound units at least 14 days after the stock is received, and within 60 days of that date.
Why a “short shipped” finding is hard to change
If Amazon’s investigation confirms the 24, the reconcile page says to contact Selling Partner Support, Amazon’s seller support team, only with information that helps find the missing units.
Several of the threads we read ended this way. Amazon kept its “short shipped” finding after more than one investigation, and its staff on the forum said there was no further escalation. In one of them, the seller had filmed every unit being packed and had the delivery challan. Amazon still kept its count. A packing video isn’t on Amazon’s list of documents for this request.
So good papers don’t promise a win. But the reconcile page says a proof of delivery or STN with details missing won’t even be considered.
If a case is closed against you, appeal within five business days of the decision, with your reasons and documents. Amazon’s policy says it won’t act on later appeals. Amazon’s staff on the seller forums sometimes pass a case to an escalation team, but they say the team may decide the first finding was right.
What Amazon pays back
Amazon’s FBA inventory reimbursement policy covers stock missing from an inbound shipment, lost inside a fulfilment centre, lost on the way to or from a customer, or lost on a removal order.
When Amazon accepts that it lost your stock, it does one of two things. It replaces the lost units with units of the same FNSKU, the Amazon barcode for your product. Or it pays you the fair market value of the lost stock, minus any FBA and selling fees. Amazon works out that value, and can look at your current and past sales and at category averages.
When you book Amazon’s pickup, you accept its partnered carrier terms. If a partnered carrier shipment doesn’t show as Delivered or Checked in within 14 business days of the pickup date, the policy says Amazon pays you automatically and emails you. If it was delivered but units are short, use the Contents tab request above. It opens a case with Selling Partner Support.
Payments show in the Reimbursements report. If lost units are found later, the policy lets Amazon take the payment back.
When the FBA pickup doesn’t come
If the pickup person didn’t turn up, Amazon’s page on how to reschedule or cancel the FBA pickup says to check two things first. The contact details under Contact person for pickup and in the phone book should be the same, and correct. The ship-from address and PIN code should be correct too.
Then fill in the reschedule form linked on that page, at no extra charge. Amazon’s staff on the seller forums say to fill it in three hours after your pickup slot ends.
If the pickup was missed because your boxes weren’t ready, the page says to cancel the shipment, create a new one and book a fresh slot.
If you know you’ll miss the slot, cancel the pickup more than 12 hours ahead. Open the shipment’s Send to Amazon view. Under Step 3: Print box labels, click Cancel pickup & void charges, then book a new slot. Cancelling or deleting the shipment doesn’t cancel the pickup. After the 12-hour mark, you can’t get the pickup charges back.
Reserved or stranded stock
Reserved stock is in the warehouse but held back: for a customer order, to speed up delivery, or for checks at the fulfilment centre, such as an investigation. Amazon’s Reserved Inventory report shows which. If every unit is reserved, your listing can drop out of search for a while. Amazon says not to close or delete the listing. It comes back once units are available.
Stranded stock is in the warehouse with no active listing, so no one can buy it. The Fix stranded inventory tab on Manage Inventory gives the reason. Fix the listing, or create a removal order. If stock stays stranded, Amazon emails you, then removes it automatically thirty days later.
Where we come in
No agency can promise that Amazon will change a count it has confirmed, and we won’t. But we can do the work in this piece for you. Our account managers run Amazon accounts for brands day to day, from the brand’s own Seller Central account. That includes FBA shipments, lost-inventory claims and following up on support cases until they close.
That’s our account management work. If a shipment of yours is short right now, send us the shipment ID, and we’ll go through it with you.
