Recovery
Marketplace reimbursement and claim calculator
Lost units, damaged stock, refunds where nothing came back and fees charged above the rate card are all recoverable, but only while the filing window is open. Put your numbers in and see what is worth chasing, what it is realistically worth, and what to file first.
What went missing
Landed cost, including inbound freight.
Most reimburse at cost. Some use a discounted sale value.
Used to flag the claim windows that have already closed.
Units that were received and then went missing from the inventory ledger. Window is about 18 months.
Marked unfulfillable through no fault of yours or of the buyer. Window is about 18 months.
You sent a hundred, they booked in ninety four. Needs the invoice and the carrier proof. Window is about 9 months.
The refund left your settlement and the stock never returned to sellable. Window is about 2 months.
The courier shows delivered to the warehouse and your inventory never moved. Window is about 4 months.
Count the orders, and use the rupee gap per order as the value. Window is about 3 months.
Same idea. Orders on the left, the per order overcharge on the right. Window is about 6 months.
₹17,415
What you can realistically expect back
₹25,440
Still inside the claim window
₹12,663
From lost and damaged stock
₹4,752
From fee and weight overcharges
51 units and a stack of fee lines are unaccounted for here. Gross, that is ₹36,429. Not every case gets paid, so the number above discounts each claim type by how often it actually succeeds once the evidence is attached.
Claim by claim
Lost inside the fulfilment centre
18 units at ₹420, about 85% of these get paid
₹6,426
of ₹7,560
Shipping billed at the wrong weight
240 orders at ₹36, about 55% of these get paid
₹4,752
of ₹8,640
Damaged inside the fulfilment centre
9 units at ₹420, about 75% of these get paid
₹2,835
of ₹3,780
Return delivered but never added back to stock
7 units at ₹420, about 60% of these get paid
₹1,764
of ₹2,940
Short received on an inbound shipment
6 units at ₹420, about 65% of these get paid
₹1,638
of ₹2,520
Buyer refunded, unit never came backwindow closed
11 units at ₹999, about 70% of these get paid
₹7,692
of ₹10,989
Worth filing for
₹17,415
Success rates here are what a well documented claim tends to achieve. A case filed without the invoice, the shipment id or the settlement line attached does considerably worse, and a case refiled after a rejection without new evidence does worse still.
How this works
- Each claim type is valued on its own basis. Lost and damaged stock is reimbursed on your cost, a refund without a return is worth the sale value you already lost, and fee overcharges are worth the rupee gap per order.
- Gross value is discounted by how often each type of claim actually gets paid, because a filed claim is not a recovered claim.
- Every type carries its own filing window. The age of your oldest case is checked against each one, and anything past the deadline is struck out rather than quietly counted.
- Claims are then ordered by the closing date rather than by size, because a small claim that expires next week beats a large one with a year left on it.
- Windows are indicative. They move between marketplaces and get changed without much notice, so treat a case near its limit as already urgent.
Questions sellers ask
What can I actually claim for?
Inventory that was received and then lost, units damaged while in the marketplace network, inbound shipments received short, refunds issued to a buyer where the unit never came back, returns delivered to the warehouse but never added to your stock, and fees charged above the published rate for your category or weight.
How long do I have to file?
It varies by type and by marketplace. Lost and damaged inventory tends to be the most generous at somewhere near a year and a half. Refund cases are the tightest, often a couple of months from the refund date. Weight and fee disputes usually sit in between. The short ones are the ones sellers miss.
Will I get the selling price back or my cost?
Usually your cost, sometimes a valuation the marketplace calculates from recent sale prices with a deduction applied. You will rarely recover the full retail value, and you will never recover the profit you would have made on the sale.
Why do some claims fail?
Almost always evidence. A claim needs the purchase invoice, the shipment identifier, the specific order or settlement line, and dates that agree with each other. Without those it gets a template rejection, and a refiling that adds nothing new tends to get the same answer.
Is it worth chasing thirty rupee weight overcharges?
One at a time, no. As a batch of two hundred orders with the same underlying error, yes, and fixing the cause is worth more than the refund because it stops the leak repeating every month.
How often should this be done?
Monthly. The arithmetic is not the hard part, the calendar is. Sellers who reconcile once a year recover a fraction of what they are owed simply because most of it has gone out of time by the time anyone looks.