seller
- What changed
- Lost or missing Amazon packages and lost FBA inventory
- When
- Updated October 2026
- Who it affects
- Amazon shoppers, FBA sellers and seller-fulfilled (FBM) sellers
- What to do
- Shoppers: wait 48 hours, then contact the right party. Sellers: reconcile lost units monthly
Key takeaways
- Check who shipped the order: Amazon handles its own shipments, sellers handle theirs first.
- Wait 48 hours after a delivered scan, then report; seller orders can move to A-to-z after 48 hours without a fix.
- FBA sellers should reconcile lost inbound, warehouse and return units monthly, because claim windows are short.
- 1Check who shipped it
Amazon or a third-party seller
- 2Search and wait 48h
Photo, neighbors, mailroom
- 3Report it
Customer Service or message seller
- 4Escalate
A-to-z after 48h with no fix
First, check who shipped your Amazon package
Open Your Orders and look at the order details. If the item says it ships from Amazon, Amazon handles delivery problems directly. If it ships from a third-party seller, that seller is responsible for delivery and customer service, and Amazon steps in through the A-to-z Guarantee only if the seller does not resolve it.
This one detail decides who you contact, how long you wait and which refund route applies, so check it before you do anything else.
- Ships from Amazon: contact Amazon Customer Service
- Ships from a third-party seller: contact the seller through Your Orders
- Seller does not resolve it: request an A-to-z Guarantee refund
Package marked delivered but not received
Amazon's help page lists a short checklist before you report a missing package. Packages can be scanned as delivered before they actually arrive, so Amazon asks shoppers to allow 48 hours. In practice, most missing deliveries turn up at a neighbor's door, a mailroom or a side entrance.
- Confirm the shipping address on the order is correct
- Look for a delivery photo or a notice of a delivery attempt
- Check your delivery instructions and the area around the drop spot
- Ask household members and neighbors whether they accepted it
- Wait 48 hours, since packages may be scanned before arrival
- Check the carrier's own tracking page for more detail
How to report a lost Amazon package, step by step
If the package still has not appeared after those checks, report it. Amazon says orders shipped by Amazon should be reported to Customer Service within 30 days of the expected delivery date. For seller-shipped orders, message the seller from Your Orders first, because the seller has the first chance to send a replacement or refund.
- Go to Your Orders and select the order
- Choose Problem with order and pick the delivery issue
- For Amazon-shipped items, follow the prompts to Customer Service
- For seller-shipped items, message the seller and keep the reply in Message Center
- If the seller has not resolved it after 48 hours, request an A-to-z refund
When the A-to-z Guarantee covers a lost package
The A-to-z Guarantee claim process covers items sold and fulfilled by third-party sellers. For a package that never arrived, Amazon's help page says you can request a refund when three days have passed since the latest estimated delivery date, or tracking shows delivery, whichever comes first, and you contacted the seller more than 48 hours earlier without a fix. The last possible delivery date must also be 90 days or less in the past.
One important exclusion: if you ask your bank or card issuer for a chargeback, you are no longer eligible for an A-to-z refund. Pick one route, and the A-to-z route is usually faster.
Who handles a lost package
| Ships from Amazon | Ships from seller | FBA stock lost | |
|---|---|---|---|
| First contact | Amazon Customer Service | The seller | Seller Central case |
| Backstop | Amazon replacement or refund | A-to-z Guarantee | Reimbursement claim |
| Key timing | Report within 30 days | Seller gets 48 hours | Claim windows are short |
Lost packages from the seller's side (FBM)
For sellers who ship their own orders, a lost package usually becomes a refund request, a buyer message or an A-to-z claim. Answer buyer messages quickly, because Amazon expects a reply within 48 hours. Shipping with labels bought through Amazon's Buy Shipping service and keeping valid tracking gives you the evidence you need when a buyer says the order never arrived.
If Amazon refunds the buyer on your behalf and you believe you were not at fault, you may be able to file a SAFE-T claim for seller-fulfilled orders. For US orders the SAFE-T filing window is now 30 days, so do not leave lost-shipment cases sitting in a queue.
- Reply to buyer messages within 48 hours
- Use tracked shipping and keep delivery scans
- Respond to A-to-z claims with tracking and carrier proof
- File SAFE-T claims inside the 30-day window
Lost FBA inventory: inbound, warehouse and returns
For FBA sellers, lost packages happen out of sight. Units can go missing in an inbound shipment, inside a fulfillment center, or on a customer return that is refunded but never comes back. Amazon reimburses some lost warehouse units automatically, but many cases need a claim from the seller.
Seller guides report that claim windows for lost and damaged inventory are now short, commonly around 60 days from when the loss shows in your account, and that units lost before a customer order are valued at your manufacturing or sourcing cost rather than the sale price. Check the current FBA inventory reimbursement policy in Seller Central for the exact window that applies to each case type.
- Inbound: shipped versus received quantities
- Warehouse: units lost or damaged in a fulfillment center
- Returns: customer refunded but item never returned
- Removals: units lost on the way back to you
How sellers recover lost inventory
Recovery is a reconciliation job. Compare the Inventory Adjustments report with the Reimbursements report, compare refunds with the FBA Customer Returns report, and compare shipped against received quantities on every inbound shipment. Open one case per issue with supplier invoices and the exact report lines, because bundled cases tend to stall.
Our guides on FBA reimbursements and how to file an Amazon reimbursement claim walk through each report in detail.
- Reconcile monthly, not once a year
- Attach supplier invoices to prove cost
- One case per issue, with report lines quoted
- Re-file with sharper evidence if a claim is denied
Preventing lost packages and lost stock
For shoppers, delivery instructions, a secure drop location or an Amazon Locker cut most missing-package problems. For sellers, prevention means accurate box labels and box content information on inbound shipments, tracked shipping on every seller-fulfilled order, and weekly checks on inventory that has gone missing or stuck in receiving.
PPC Spider's inventory and FBA reimbursements service reconciles lost, damaged and unreturned units each month, and SpiderOS watches stock levels alongside ads so a quiet inventory loss does not turn into a stockout. If you want to know what you are owed, start with a free Amazon account audit.
Sources
- Amazon: Find a Missing Package that Shows as Delivered (amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GCU8BWGTQNJKQEBS)
- Amazon: A-to-z Guarantee (amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GQ37ZCNECJKTFYQV)
- Amazon: Contact a Third-Party Seller (amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=GLC8ZMBWMBTR6QZZ)
- Sellerboard: Amazon FBA reimbursements, what you are owed (blog.sellerboard.com/2026/07/14/amazon-fba-reimbursements-what-youre-owed-and-why-most-sellers-never-collect-it/)
- My Amazon Guy: Amazon SAFE-T claim filing window shrinks to 30 days (myamazonguy.com/news/amazon-safe-t-claim-filing-window/)
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