FAQs for our PRA service.

A shortage claim in Amazon Vendor Central is when Amazon receives fewer units than what you (the vendor) invoiced them for, and they deduct or withhold payment for the missing items. In simple terms, Amazon is saying: “You didn’t send us everything you billed us for.”

Shortage claims happen when:

If you believe it's a mistake (e.g., Amazon received everything), you file a shortage claim dispute.

Most shortage claims in Amazon Vendor Central stem from manual receiving issues. Amazon typically uses an automated receiving process, which is fast and accurate. If a shipment has packaging, labeling errors, or ASN, it can get flagged and pushed to manual receiving. Manual receiving introduces delays and human error, increasing the risk of shortage claims.

Ensuring proper product packaging and adhering to Amazon's standards for EDI/API ordering processing workflows, will help you reduce your total shortage volume.

We wait 40 days after the invoice due date to file the shortage claim. This gives amazon time to find the inventory before we file a dispute. Amazon's vendor central documentation specifically recommends waiting at least 35 days to allow them time to reconcile your shipments.

It can often take 2-3 weeks for Amazon to fully receive a shipment. During this time, Amazon will issue shortage claims and shortage claim reimbursements for your inventory.

You can view all of the shortage claims that have been resolved by Amazon smart match by navigating to: CommerceIQ -> Profit Recovery Overview, and viewing the Journey Map (pictured below).

Shortage claim disputes are slightly different from chargeback disputes.

For chargebacks (e.g., prep issues, PO non-compliance), you have a strict 30-day window to dispute. For example, if a chargeback is issued on 1/1/25, it must be disputed by 1/31/25. After that, it can no longer be contested.

Shortage claims, on the other hand, follow a different process. Amazon asks that you wait at least 35 days from the invoice due date before disputing a shortage. There’s no official maximum window for disputing shortages, though we typically see lower success rates for claims older than two years.

You can dispute shortages through the Vendor Central dispute portal and also by submitting “Contact Us” cases. If an invoice has already been disputed twice or can no longer be disputed through the portal, you can still submit a Statement of Open Items to reopen the claim.

Open statements usually require significant back and forth, and will ultimately end in a negotiation and a settlement. Because of this there is not a clean way for us to automate the process. In order to help you on this journey you can view our guide on creating and submitting open statements.

If you run into any issues or would like an expert opinion, reach out to your customer success director.

We recommend submitting open statements no more than two times per year. This gives amazon enough time to respond to the automated disputes, without letting the total value get too large. The larger the open statement value, the harder they will negotiate to reduce it.