FBA damaged inventory reimbursement in India the rates, the grades, and what changed in March 2026
What Amazon pays for a unit damaged in a fulfilment centre or by a buyer: the formula, flat and grade-based rates, what changed on 5 March 2026, worked examples, and how to check a payment.
FBA damaged inventory reimbursement: what is covered
Fulfilment by Amazon (FBA) is not specific to amazon.in. The rates, grades and time windows on this page are specific to amazon.in.
Amazon's FBA damaged-inventory policy covers new, used or certified refurbished items damaged while in a fulfilment centre. Its reimbursement FAQ widens the list of causes: damage by an Amazon partnered carrier, in the fulfilment centre during storage, during delivery to the buyer, by the buyer, or at removal. The policy then sorts what you have to do into three rows:
- Damaged by the buyer or the carrier on a return: automatic, 45 days from the shipment returning to the fulfilment centre.
- Damaged in the warehouse: automatic, 60 days from the inventory adjustment.
- Damaged in a removal shipment: claim-based, 7 days from delivery. The removal order guide covers that one.
Source: Amazon Seller Central, FBA inventory reimbursement policy (damaged inventory) (amazon.in, read October 2026).
Amazon's table lists the first two as automated, so you do not file them. Its column is headed "Claim or reimbursement window" and does not say whether the 60 or 45 days is a payment deadline for Amazon or a cut-off for you, and the same 60 days is your filing deadline for a unit lost in the warehouse. So do not wait: if a damaged unit has not been paid well before day 60, raise it with Selling Partner Support (Help, then Manage support cases, then Create new issue). How much Amazon pays is a separate question, and it is the one this guide is about.
Two limits sit on the buyer-damage row. Amazon's FAQ says used and certified refurbished products are not eligible for buyer-damage reimbursement, and that a payment made anyway is clawed back. It also says your account is ineligible when the return is due to a seller-controllable issue: the seller controllable return rate guide explains what counts.
Source: Amazon Seller Central, FBA fulfilment centre reimbursement FAQ (amazon.in, read October 2026).
How the payment is worked out
Amazon pays a percentage of its own estimate of the unit's value, after taking off the fees that apply to it:
payment = effective rate
× (fair market value
− selling and FBA fees)- Fair market value is Amazon's estimate. Its FAQ says it considers your sales history, the average FBA selling price, the grading standards that apply, the ASIN's sales history and the tax rates, and that it uses similar items when it lacks the information. The Reimbursements report has no column for it.
- A cap: for calculating reimbursements, fair market value for a single item never exceeds ₹1,00,000, in any category.
- The rate comes from Amazon's rate page, by category. The page says the rates are final, include any applicable taxes, and that no extra reimbursement is paid for any particular disposition or damage type.
Source: Amazon Seller Central, FBA-FC reimbursement rate of damaged product and grade-based reimbursement (amazon.in, read October 2026).
Source: Amazon Seller Central, FBA fulfilment centre reimbursement FAQ (amazon.in, read October 2026).
A damaged unit is paid a share of its value, not its value.
Amazon's pages are not identical on taxes. The rate page says the rates are final and include any applicable taxes, while the lost-inventory policy says product taxes applied on an order are deducted from fair market value along with the fees. For lost units that policy says Amazon replaces the item or pays the evaluated fair market value, less applicable fees.
Source: Amazon Seller Central, FBA lost inventory reimbursement policy (amazon.in, read September 2026).
Flat rate or grade-based reimbursement
Nearly every category on Amazon's page has a flat rate (luggage is grade-based only). Some also have grade-based rates, which depend on the condition Amazon grades the returned unit at. The page says grade-based rates apply to units eligible under the damaged-inventory policy. It says the flat rate is used instead when a unit goes to a fulfilment centre where grading is not set up, or when Amazon cannot evaluate the unit because of an operational or process issue.
The grading process, as Amazon describes it: a six-sided visual inspection for scratches, dents and missing accessories or manuals, a check of the outer packaging, and for open-box products a functional test (for a phone, the camera, screen, speakers, microphone and Wi-Fi). The unit is then put in a grade and gets a colour-coded sticker on its box.
Source: Amazon Seller Central, FBA-FC reimbursement rate of damaged product and grade-based reimbursement (amazon.in, read October 2026).
The tables use the columns A+, A, B, C and BER, and a second table for tablets, video game consoles, some musical instruments and smartwatches uses A, M, B, S, C and BER. The page defines two of those letters:
- C is tagged a Defective Return, because the unit did not pass functional testing. Every C rate the page gives is 0%; many categories show a dash there instead.
- BER is Beyond Economic Repair. Its rates run from 80% to 95%.
It does not say what A+, A, B, M or S stand for, and neither does this guide. Do not read them as a quality ranking: for a phone the table pays 0% at A+, 10% at A and 50% at B. Notes under the second table add two more rules. One is a flat 1% for the "MRP Missing Defect", where a returned unit only lacks its MRP label and has no other defect; Amazon says it applies to "all the above categories", and the note sits under the second table, so check whether it covers yours. The other is 90% of fair market value for units marked "BAU" (Beyond Acceptable Use) in customer return grading.
The reimbursement FAQ says the grading process applies only to mobile phones, apparel, shoes, luggage, jewellery, large appliances and televisions. The rate table lists grade A and B rates for many more categories, including toys, furniture, watches and kitchen products. The FAQ also says a mobile phone received at a centre without grading is paid at an effective rate of 30%, where the table's flat rate for mobile phones is 35%. We do not know which one Amazon applies, and the pages carry no date to say which is newer. The FAQ's 30% is the same as the flat rate for mobile phones before 5 March 2026, which hints that the FAQ was not updated, but Amazon does not say so. Check the line in your own reimbursement report rather than assuming either.
Source: Amazon Seller Central, FBA fulfilment centre reimbursement FAQ (amazon.in, read October 2026).
What changed on 5 March 2026
Amazon's rate page says its rates apply on and from 5 March 2026, and links to a second page, the old reimbursement rates, for the figures before that date. Putting the two side by side, many flat rates fell and a few rose:
Scroll the diagram sideways to see all of it.
Source: Amazon Seller Central, FBA-FC reimbursement rate of damaged product and grade-based reimbursement (amazon.in, read October 2026).
Source: Amazon Seller Central, FBA old reimbursement rates for all products (amazon.in, read October 2026).
The grade A rate also changed. In most categories that list one it went from 10% to 8%, and in a few it moved more: toys from 25% to 15%, and mobile phones from 20% to 10%. Not every move is down. Mobile phones' flat rate rose and so did the flat rate for headphones and headsets, and a few kitchen categories nudged up: gas stoves and pressure cookers from 40% to 42%, kitchen tools from 12% to 15%.
One of Amazon's own worked examples still uses a pre-March rate. The shoe example on the current rate page applies 10% to a grade A shoe, which is the old rate; the table next to it lists 8%. The example uses a fair market value of ₹1,200 and fees of ₹200: 10% of the ₹1,000 difference is ₹100, and at 8% it would be ₹80. The refrigerator and mobile phone examples on the same page match the current table.
Reimbursement rates by category
Amazon's page is a long table, and this guide does not repeat all of it. These are a selection of categories, as the live page listed them in October 2026 (rates on and from 5 March 2026). Amazon can change them, so confirm your own category on the page, and use it for the rest of the grade columns.
- Toys (all toys): Flat 30% · grade A 15% · grade B 30%
- Clothing: Flat 23% · grade A 8% · grade B 23%
- Shoes: Flat 23% · grade A 8% · grade B 23%
- Beauty: Flat 29% · no grade rates
- Baby: nappies: Flat 43% · grade A 8% · grade B 43%
- Baby: feeding: Flat 36% · grade A 8% · grade B 36%
- Kitchen: small appliances: Flat 32% · grade A 8% · grade B 32%
- Home: bedsheets, towels, curtains: Flat 26% · grade A 8% · grade B 26%
- Mobile phones: Flat 35% · A+ 0% · A 10% · B 50% · C 0% · BER 95%
- Any category not listed: Flat 25% (the page's default rate)
Source: Amazon Seller Central, FBA-FC reimbursement rate of damaged product and grade-based reimbursement (amazon.in, read October 2026).
A dash appears where the page gives no rate for that grade. Music, DVDs, eyewear, books, software, tyres, beauty and gift cards share a single "Not applicable" cell for the grade columns, and a few other rows show it too, such as desktops, game CDs and the default rate: these only have a flat rate.
Two worked examples
The unit values and fees below are made up to show the arithmetic. In practice Amazon picks the fair market value, and the fees are the ones that apply to your item.
Toy: value ₹600, fees ₹150 base 600 − 150 = ₹450 flat 30% 0.30 × 450 = ₹135 grade A 15% 0.15 × 450 = ₹67.50 grade B 30% 0.30 × 450 = ₹135
Phone: value ₹20,000, fees ₹1,500 base 20,000 − 1,500 = ₹18,500 grade A+ 0% 0.00 × 18,500 = ₹0 grade A 10% 0.10 × 18,500 = ₹1,850 grade B 50% 0.50 × 18,500 = ₹9,250 grade C 0% 0.00 × 18,500 = ₹0 grade BER 95% 0.95 × 18,500 = ₹17,575
Source: Amazon Seller Central, FBA-FC reimbursement rate of damaged product and grade-based reimbursement (amazon.in, read October 2026).
The grade carries as much weight as the category. The same phone is paid ₹1,850, ₹9,250, ₹17,575 or nothing, depending on the grade Amazon records.
Checking a damaged-unit payment
The Reimbursements report has no column for the fair market value or the grade, so the check is approximate. It can still show a payment that looks far too low.
Find the payment
In Seller Central, as its menus read in October 2026, open Supply chain, then Supply chain reports, then Payments, then Reimbursements. The report has a Reason, a Condition, the Amount Per Unit and the Quantity Reimbursed for each line, and you can filter by Merchant SKU, Fulfilment Network SKU, Reimbursement ID or Amazon Order Id.
Work out your own base
Take what the unit sells for and subtract its fees. Amazon's Fee Preview report, in the same Payments group, is the likely place to find the fees. Your selling price includes GST, and Amazon's pages differ on whether tax comes off before the rate is applied, so work the base out with and without the tax and treat the gap as your margin of error. Amazon's fair market value is its own estimate, so this is only a close figure.
Multiply by the rate for the category
Use the rate for the grade if Amazon graded the unit, and the flat rate on the rate page if it did not. For an ungraded phone the rate page says 35% and the FAQ says 30%, as the note above explains, so work out both. If the payment is a long way under both, it may be worth asking. If it falls between them, Amazon's own pages disagree, so ask which one applies.
Ask for a re-evaluation within 60 days
Amazon's FAQ says the request must be filed within 60 days of the original reimbursement and that Amazon may ask for a receipt or invoice. Amazon's FAQ says to contact it but not which issue type to choose, so open a case from Help, then Manage support cases, then Create new issue, describe it as a re-evaluation of a damaged-unit reimbursement, and quote the reimbursement ID.
Source: Amazon Seller Central, FBA fulfilment centre reimbursement FAQ (amazon.in, read October 2026).
The reason names in Amazon's reimbursement report, Damaged_Warehouse among them, and how often each appeared in one business's report are in the FBA reimbursement guide. The report shows what Amazon paid, and cannot show a unit that was damaged and never paid.
Limiting the loss
Amazon's own rate page ends with advice: to prevent further degradation and improve what you recover for graded units, remove them on a fortnightly basis, and use the automatic unsellable-removal setting to schedule it. The FAQ points to the Recommended Removal report, under Supply chain reports, then Removals, to identify unsellable inventory.
Source: Amazon Seller Central, FBA-FC reimbursement rate of damaged product and grade-based reimbursement (amazon.in, read October 2026).
Source: Amazon Seller Central, FBA fulfilment centre reimbursement FAQ (amazon.in, read October 2026).
In Manage Amazon inventory, as it read in October 2026, the FBA Inventory tab splits unfulfillable units into warehouse, carrier and distributor damaged, defective and expired.
A removal order has a per-unit fee and its own claim windows if the shipment arrives short or damaged: the removal order guide covers both.
Source: Amazon Seller Central, FBA removal order fees (amazon.in, read October 2026).
Source: Amazon Seller Central, FBA inventory reimbursement policy (damaged inventory) (amazon.in, read October 2026).
To find the damaged units themselves, as Seller Central showed it in October 2026, open the Inventory Ledger in the Detailed view. Its Disposition filter lists CARRIER_DAMAGED, CUSTOMER_DAMAGED, DEFECTIVE, DISTRIBUTOR_DAMAGED, WAREHOUSE_DAMAGED, EXPIRED and UNSELLABLE_OTHER next to SELLABLE, and its Event Type filter lists Adjustments, CustomerReturns, Receipts, Shipments, VendorReturns and WhseTransfers. Amazon's pages do not say how a disposition maps to a grade or a rate, so use the ledger to find the units and the Reimbursements report to find what was paid.
Where Unilytic fits
Unilytic syncs the reimbursement report from Amazon's API and lines each payment up against the sale price, fees and tax, and flags the ones that came in short. That comparison is against the net proceeds of a sale, not against Amazon's rate for the category or grade, and Unilytic does not use the grade. It also leaves out a payment when the customer's return of that order came back in sellable condition, because you have the unit to resell. A damaged-unit payment made exactly at the rates on this page can therefore still be flagged: use the formula above to judge whether a flagged payment is actually low. It does not file claims or re-evaluation requests for you.
For the full set of views, see FBA reimbursement tracking. The FBA reimbursement calculator runs the formula for a batch of units with your own estimate of the value.
Questions sellers ask
How much does Amazon reimburse for a damaged FBA unit in India?
A percentage of Amazon's estimate of the unit's fair market value, less the Amazon selling and FBA fees that apply to it. Amazon's rate page sets the percentage by category: a flat rate, and for some categories grade-based rates that depend on the condition Amazon grades the unit at. The rate is applied as: effective reimbursement rate x (fair market value - Amazon selling and FBA fees). Amazon also says the rates are final and include any applicable taxes.
Is a unit damaged in the fulfilment centre reimbursed automatically?
Amazon's damaged-inventory policy lists a unit damaged in the warehouse as automated, with a 60-day window counted from the inventory adjustment, and a return damaged by the buyer or the carrier as automated, with a 45-day window counted from the shipment returning to the fulfilment centre. A removal shipment that arrives damaged is claim-based: you have 7 days from delivery to raise it.
What do the grades A+, A, B, C and BER mean in Amazon's reimbursement table?
Amazon's rate page does not define most of them. It says a unit that did not pass functional testing is tagged grade C, a Defective Return, and every C rate the tables give is 0% (many categories show a dash there instead). It defines BER as Beyond Economic Repair. It does not say what A+, A, B, M or S stand for, so this guide does not guess. A unit is graded by a six-sided visual inspection, a check of the outer packaging and, for open-box products, a functional test, and gets a colour-coded sticker.
Did Amazon change FBA damaged-inventory reimbursement rates in 2026?
Yes. Amazon's rate page says its rates apply on and from 5 March 2026 and links to a separate page of the rates before that date. Comparing the two, the flat rate fell in many categories (toys from 57% to 30%, hardware, power and hand tools from 75% to 50%, cycles and treadmills from 44% to 23%), rose in a few (mobile phones from 30% to 35%, headphones and headsets from 23% to 40%), and the grade A rate fell from 10% to 8% in most categories that list one, with larger drops for toys (25% to 15%) and mobile phones (20% to 10%).
How do I get a damaged-unit reimbursement re-evaluated?
Amazon's reimbursement FAQ says a re-evaluation request must be filed within 60 days of the original reimbursement, and that Amazon may ask for more information such as a receipt or invoice. It also says fair market value for a single item never exceeds ₹1,00,000 for calculating reimbursements. Open a case with Selling Partner Support, quoting the reimbursement ID, and compare the payment with the formula first.
Does Amazon reimburse returns damaged by the customer?
Only in some cases. Amazon's reimbursement FAQ says used and certified refurbished products are not eligible for buyer-damage reimbursement, and that any amount paid is clawed back. It also says an account is ineligible for buyer-damage reimbursement when the return is due to a seller-controllable issue, such as a defective or damaged item sent to the buyer or an inaccurate listing. Amazon's rate page adds that units defective or damaged by distributors or sellers are not eligible.
FBA reimbursements in India
Amazon now pays some losses without a case - but its report only shows what it paid, never what it missed. How to read the reimbursement report, what Amazon pays for a lost unit, and how to find what is still owed.
How to read the Amazon Inventory Ledger
The bank statement for your FBA stock: the two views, the columns and event types, how to reconcile a SKU, and the three traps that make stock look lost when it is not.
FBA removal orders in India
How to remove stock from an Amazon fulfilment centre: the two ways to create an order, the bulk file, what Amazon charges, how long it takes, and the 30-day and 7-day windows if units arrive short or damaged.
Seller controllable return rate (SCRR)
Amazon's SCRR on amazon.in: which returns count, the formula, what a high rate does to visibility, STEP, refunds and claims, the monthly window for non-returnable items, and how to dispute a charge.