Every Amazon seller has felt that jolt of frustration when inventory mysteriously goes missing inside an FBA warehouse. It’s one of those situations we accept as part of doing business on the world’s largest marketplace. But lately, there’s a new wrinkle that’s making things significantly more complicated—and far more costly.
Over the past year, more and more sellers are reporting the same pattern: Amazon marks inventory as lost, issues a reimbursement (usually after plenty of back-and-forth), and then—months later—magically “finds” those units again. While on the surface this might sound like a positive outcome, in practice, it can trigger a cascade of problems that impact your revenue, your product ratings, and your operational costs.
The Cost of Being Reimbursed…Then Penalized
Historically, when Amazon lost your inventory, you were reimbursed based on the product’s average sale price. While this didn’t make up for all the hassle, at least you were reasonably compensated. But in Walk 2025, Amazon changed its repayment arrangement. Presently, dealers are repaid as it were for the fabricating fetched of each unit.
This move alone was as of now a extreme pill to swallow. Envision offering a item at $35 but being repaid fair $5 when it goes lost. For low-margin venders or those contributing intensely in branding and bundling, this alter dissolved a significant parcel of their productivity.
The situation gets even more challenging when Amazon later finds those items. Because the inventory is technically “found,” Amazon reverses your reimbursement—effectively pulling money back out of your account. You don’t get a say in whether the products are still viable or if you’d prefer to dispose of them. And if your items are marked as “sellable,” they’re automatically returned to available stock—even if they’re expired, damaged, or no longer match your current listing or pack size.
A Real-World Example of How This Unfolds
To illustrate, let’s look at what happened to one of our clients recently. Last year, Amazon lost a batch of their units and, after weeks of case escalations, finally issued a reimbursement. Over the following months, our client updated the product’s pack size to respond to shifting customer preferences and rising ad costs.
Five months later, Amazon declared the missing inventory had been found and quietly returned it to active FBA inventory. The problem? Those units were now the old configuration—completely inconsistent with the new listing. When customers began receiving the outdated packs, confusion set in. Negative reviews appeared, returns spiked, and our client had to spend hours coordinating removal orders. To add insult to injury, they were charged disposal fees to clear out stock that was unsellable through no fault of their own.
This isn’t an isolated incident. Across seller forums and private groups, reports of similar cases are multiplying, particularly among businesses carrying seasonal or perishable products.
What This Means for Your Amazon Business
Beyond the obvious financial loss, this issue has several less visible but equally damaging effects. If a customer receives expired goods or the wrong pack size, you risk negative reviews that harm your listing performance for months. Returns also hurt your seller metrics, potentially impacting your Buy Box eligibility.
And because reimbursement reversals often happen automatically—without a detailed explanation—it can be hard to know what triggered them until the damage is done. Sellers end up locked in cycles of chasing Seller Support tickets, trying to convince Amazon that their inventory no longer holds its original value.
How Sellers Can Protect Themselves
At this point, there is no official policy that fully resolves this problem. While Amazon has improved some aspects of reimbursement transparency, there is no clear process for disputing reversals tied to long-lost inventory that resurfaces in unsellable condition.
That doesn’t mean you’re powerless, though. Now more than ever, it pays to be proactive:
- Regularly review your inventory adjustments. Watch for any items marked as lost or found, and create a record with screenshots and date stamps.
- Document the exact version of each product configuration. If you change pack sizes or product features, make sure you have clear evidence of when that change took effect.
- Audit reimbursements and reversals monthly. It’s easy to miss these adjustments if you’re only looking at sales reports.
- Consider creating removal orders as soon as lost inventory reappears. Even if Amazon flags it as sellable, you may be better off disposing of units that no longer meet your standards.
- Stay persistent with Seller Support. While it can feel like an uphill battle, a well-documented case increases your chances of a favorable resolution.
The Bottom Line
Amazon’s FBA framework is an exceptional coordinations arrange, but when things go off-base, the burden as well regularly falls unequivocally on the seller’s shoulders. The later move to reimbursements based as it were on fabricating costs has made it indeed more imperative to track your stock with care and advocate for your trade when disparities emerge.
In case you’ve confronted comparative challenges with misplaced and after that “found” stock, you’re not alone. Numerous venders are pushing for clearer approaches that secure brands from paying the cost for fulfillment blunders they didn’t cause. Until Amazon overhauls its approach, carefulness is your best defense.
Remain educated, remain organized, and don’t waver to share your involvement with others. Together, we will shine more light on issues that affect everybody within the commercial center.
