SAFE-T claims for Easy Ship and Self-Ship
How to file a SAFE-T claim on amazon.in: the 15-day window and the three others, what SAFE-T will not pay for, why claims are refused, and the patterns that get SAFE-T blocked.
Every figure here comes from the seller-fulfilled returns report of one Amazon India business, roughly 500 FBM SKUs, that agreed to share its data for this guide. One seller, not an average.
What SAFE-T covers
SAFE-T stands for Seller Assurance for E-commerce Transactions. It is how a seller who fulfils orders from their own stock claims back a loss on a return - a return damaged on the way back, damaged by the customer, or never returned at all.
It covers three programmes: Easy Ship, Self-Ship and Seller Flex. If the unit was in an Amazon fulfilment centre and shipped by FBA, SAFE-T is the wrong route - that is an FBA reimbursement, covered in the FBA reimbursement guide.
A return that has come back to you is not eligible for a SAFE-T claim when:
- no refund has been issued to the buyer yet, or
- the refund was not issued by Amazon Customer Service.
Two Amazon rules together explain why a claim can fail on this point. Amazon's refund policy says that when Customer Service refunds a buyer on your behalf, the refunded amount is debited from your seller account. Seller Central's list of top denial reasons on the Manage SAFE-T claims page calls the failure Seller account not debited; the policy pages do not define that label, so reading it as "Customer Service has not refunded the buyer and charged you" is our reading of the two rules together.
- Customer Service refunded the buyer and your account was debited: this condition is met. You can file if the claim also fits the windows and exclusions on this page.
- You refunded the buyer yourself: the policy says a returned shipment is not eligible when the refund was not issued by Customer Service.
- The return is here but the buyer is not refunded yet: there is nothing to claim yet. Keep the unit and the evidence; the 15 days start from the refund date.
Source: Amazon Seller Central, Return and Refund policy for Easy Ship, Self Ship and Seller Flex (amazon.in, read October 2026).
Self-Ship orders worth more than ₹25,000 are not eligible. Amazon's policy lists the categories Furniture, Musical instruments, Tyres, Jewellery and Sports in the same sentence; it does not say whether that exclusion is limited to Self-Ship, so let the eligibility check in the filing form tell you for your order. And where a refund was issued but the shipment never came back to you, Amazon says it reimburses proactively under the channel's own lost-and-damaged policy.
Source: Amazon Seller Central, SAFE-T policy for Easy Ship, Self-Ship and Seller Flex orders (amazon.in, read September 2026).
What SAFE-T will not pay for
Amazon will not issue reimbursements for SAFE-T claims filed for primary package damage, or for seal-broken or open return shipments. That rule arrived on 1 August 2025, for Easy Ship, Self-Ship and Seller Flex orders alike, and it is now part of the policy.
The policy also puts packaging on you: Amazon is not liable for damage in either direction of transit if it happened because the seller packed the product poorly. And Amazon can deny a claim where you refused to accept the return, refused to give the delivery agent the return OTP, or received the return in secured, tamper-evident packaging.
Source: Amazon Seller Central, SAFE-T policy for Easy Ship, Self-Ship and Seller Flex orders (amazon.in, read September 2026).
The practical effect: a crushed box with an intact product inside is not a claim. The claim has to be about the product, and your photographs have to show the product damage itself.
The returns evidence checklist sets out the five photographs to take on every damaged return. Shot 4 - the damage, close and in focus - is the one that decides a SAFE-T claim now.
Filing a claim
The menu path below is how Seller Central shows it as of September 2026. The email address and the response time come from Amazon's own guide for Easy Ship sellers, written in 2018.
Open Manage SAFE-T claims
In Seller Central, go to Orders, then Resolve claims, then Manage SAFE-T claims.
Check eligibility
Choose File a new claim and enter the order ID, or the return's RMA ID. Amazon tells you whether the order is eligible.
Choose the reason and attach evidence
Amazon's form offers four reasons: I received damaged/used item, I received different item/empty box, I received item with missing quantity/accessories/parts and I did not receive the return, each with sub-reasons. Amazon warns that choosing the wrong reason code may lead to the claim being denied. For a damaged or used item it marks two photographs as mandatory: the contents of the return, and the returned package with the shipping label affixed. Describe what arrived and name the damage plainly; after August 2025, point to the product, not the box. If you suspect the product inside is not what was shipped, Amazon says an unboxing video showing the return label and all sides of the package can serve as extra proof.
Watch your email
Amazon's messages come from safe-t-review@amazon.com, to the address set for claim notifications in your notification preferences. Amazon's 2018 guide said to expect a response within 7 business days. If Amazon asks for more information, answer it - an unanswered request is its own reason for refusal.
Amazon files SAFE-T claims at order level, so you cannot open a second claim on the same order ID. If a second item in the same order turns out to be damaged, Amazon's guidance is to reply to the last email from safe-t-review@amazon.com rather than file again. Inspect the whole order before you file.
If a bad return arrives before the buyer has been refunded, you cannot file yet - but Amazon's policy is clear about what to do meanwhile: do not discard the item, and keep every piece of evidence - photographs, packaging, shipping labels, and video if you use one. Once the refund is issued you are notified, and you have 15 days from that date to file. Claims without supporting evidence may be denied.
Source: Amazon Seller Central, SAFE-T policy for Easy Ship, Self-Ship and Seller Flex orders (amazon.in, read September 2026).
Source: Amazon Seller Central, File a SAFE-T claim (amazon.in, read October 2026).
The filing windows
SAFE-T windows are short and they differ by what happened to the return. The main one is 15 calendar days, counted from the later of the day the shipment was marked returned or delivered to you and the day the buyer was refunded. For a return you say never arrived, Amazon's filing page tells you to check for a proactive reimbursement on the Payments dashboard first; the 50 to 75 day window applies only if there was none and the return is not marked returned to you.
Scroll the diagram sideways to see all of it.
Source: Amazon Seller Central, SAFE-T policy for Easy Ship, Self-Ship and Seller Flex orders (amazon.in, read September 2026).
Source: Amazon Seller Central, File a SAFE-T claim (amazon.in, read October 2026).
Two more limits sit on top. Appeals on a resolved claim must be made within five business days of the last resolution - after that, Amazon says they will not be actioned. And unless Amazon says otherwise, a resolved claim is final: once it is settled, you cannot reopen it.
File the week the return arrives, not the month after.
In one business's claims, the median granted claim was filed two days after the return reached the warehouse, and every WINDOW_EXPIRED refusal with a delivery date on record had been filed 47 or more days after it. That is one seller's data, not an Amazon rule, but it is consistent with the windows above.
Why claims are refused
Amazon's seller-fulfilled returns report records a state and an action reason for every SAFE-T claim. These are all the refusal reasons that appeared for one seller, with how often. The code names are Amazon's; the right-hand column is what each name says, not an Amazon definition.
Scroll the table sideways for the remaining columns.
| safet-action-reason | Claims | What it means |
|---|---|---|
SEND_EMAIL | 60 | Amazon handled it by email - the email carries the actual reason. |
WINDOW_EXPIRED | 23 | Filed after the claim window closed. |
SELLER_DID_NOT_RESPOND | 8 | Amazon asked for something and got no answer. |
APPEAL_DENIED | 5 | An appeal against an earlier decision was refused. |
SELLER_IS_NOT_DEBITED | 5 | The seller had not been charged, so there was nothing to reimburse. |
SECURED_RETURN_RTS_IMAGES_MISMATCH | 4 | Images from the secured return-to-seller process did not match the claim. |
INSPECTED_IMAGE_MISMATCH | 3 | Images reviewed at inspection did not match the claim. |
RNOTR_OTP_DELIVERED | 2 | A return-not-received claim, where the return was delivered with an OTP. |
FORWARD_POD_NOT_AVAILABLE | 1 | No proof of delivery was available for the original shipment. |
Three things follow. Answer every request for information. Make sure the photographs show the unit that was in that order. And for a return you say never arrived, check first whether it was delivered with an OTP - that is exactly what the RNOTR_OTP_DELIVERED refusal points to.
Amazon's policy lists patterns it treats as misuse: the same images used on claims for different orders, an image taken before the return date, two selling accounts sending the same images, and a ratio of claims to returns and rejects above 8%. The consequences range from denied claims to recovery of money already paid and blocking of the SAFE-T feature. Photograph every return fresh, on the day it arrives.
Source: Amazon Seller Central, SAFE-T policy for Easy Ship, Self-Ship and Seller Flex orders (amazon.in, read September 2026).
Tracking the money
What a granted claim pays is not your selling price. Amazon values it at a fair market value it calculates itself - from factors that may include your current sales, past sales and category averages - minus the product taxes, the selling on Amazon fees (including the closing fee) and any fulfilment channel fees. For damaged returns it may also apply an effective reimbursement rate, and there is no extra payment for any particular damage type.
Source: Amazon Seller Central, SAFE-T policy for Easy Ship, Self-Ship and Seller Flex orders (amazon.in, read September 2026).
Keep the SAFE-T claim ID for every claim, next to its order ID. It matters more than it seems: in Amazon's payment data, a SAFE-T reimbursement carries the claim ID, but not the order ID or the SKU. Without your own record, a payment in your settlement cannot be matched back to the return it paid for.
The seller-fulfilled returns report (report type GET_FLAT_FILE_RETURNS_DATA_BY_RETURN_DATE in the API) closes the loop. For each return it carries five SAFE-T columns:
Scroll the table sideways for the remaining columns.
| Column | What it holds |
|---|---|
safet-claim-id | The claim's ID - the only key a SAFE-T payment carries. |
safet-claim-state | Where the claim stands. Seen in practice: GRANT, NOGRANT, SELLER_WITHDREW, PENDING_ACTION and PENDING_MERCHANT_ACTION. |
safet-action-reason | Amazon's reason code for the decision - the refusal reasons above come from here. |
safet-claim-creation-time | When the claim was filed. |
safet-claim-reimbursement-amount | What Amazon paid on it. |
Watch for PENDING_MERCHANT_ACTION above all: as its name says, that claim is waiting on you.
Returns that still need a claim
Unilytic reads the seller-fulfilled returns report and puts every return next to its refund and its SAFE-T claim status, so the returns with money still recoverable are a filtered list instead of a hunt through Seller Central. For a return that never came back, it counts down the day 50 to day 75 window.
Unilytic does not file claims for you. Scanning returns at your own warehouse is covered in local warehouse returns.
Questions sellers ask
What is a SAFE-T claim on Amazon India?
SAFE-T (Seller Assurance for E-commerce Transactions) is how a seller who fulfils orders from their own stock claims back a loss on a return - for example a return damaged in transit or damaged by the customer. On amazon.in it applies to Easy Ship, Self-Ship and Seller Flex orders; for a return that has come back to you, only once Amazon Customer Service has refunded the buyer. FBA orders go through the FBA reimbursement process instead.
Why does a SAFE-T claim say the seller needs to be debited, or "seller account not debited"?
A SAFE-T claim on a returned shipment is only open once Amazon Customer Service has refunded the buyer. Amazon's refund policy says that refund is debited from your seller account. If the buyer has not been refunded yet, or you refunded them yourself rather than Customer Service, the policy says the returned shipment is not eligible. Seller Central's list of denial reasons includes Seller account not debited; the policy pages do not define that label, so linking it to these two rules is our reading. If the return arrived before the refund, keep the item and your photographs: you have 15 days from the refund date to file.
Does SAFE-T cover damaged packaging?
No. Amazon's SAFE-T policy says it will not issue reimbursements for claims filed for primary package damage, or for seal-broken or open return shipments - a change that took effect on 1 August 2025. Claims need to show damage to the product itself.
How long do I have to file a SAFE-T claim?
Usually 15 calendar days, counted from the later of two dates: the day the shipment was marked returned or delivered to you, and the day the buyer was refunded. If the return was never marked as delivered to you, file under Return order not received between 50 and 75 days after the refund, replacement or exchange. If the buyer shipped the return themselves and it never arrived, file between 30 and 60 days after the return request. Appeals on a resolved claim must be made within five business days of its last resolution date.
Can I file more than one SAFE-T claim on the same order?
According to Amazon, a SAFE-T claim is filed at order level, so you cannot file multiple claims on the same order ID. For another item in the same order, Amazon's guidance is to reply to the last email you received from safe-t-review@amazon.com.
How long does Amazon take to decide a SAFE-T claim?
Amazon's current SAFE-T policy gives no decision time. Its 2018 guide for Easy Ship sellers said to expect a response within 7 business days of submitting a claim; treat that as dated guidance for Easy Ship, not a promise for Self-Ship or Seller Flex, and check the status in Manage SAFE-T claims.
The returns evidence checklist
What to photograph and record on every returned unit, so a claim has evidence behind it instead of being reduced or refused for the lack of it. Set it up in about 30 minutes, on a phone you already own.
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.
FBA vs Easy Ship vs Self-Ship
Amazon's three fulfilment channels in India, side by side: who stores, packs and delivers, what Amazon charges on each, a worked per-order cost, and how returns and claims differ.
A-to-z Guarantee claims in India
A customer filed an A-to-z claim against your order. What Amazon expects before and after it, the 48-hour replies, the cases it grants automatically, the 30-day appeal, and what it does to your order defect rate.
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.