Amazon A-to-z Item Not Received Claim: UK Seller Guide

Do this now: identify the stage and protect the response

Read the order and notice. Save order ID, shipping model, ship-by date, latest estimated delivery date (EDD), tracking and the customer’s first message time.
Check the claim record. A buyer saying “I’ll claim” is not an open A-to-z case. Look under Performance → A-to-z Guarantee Claims for the actual status and any information request.
Reply where action is needed. Answer the buyer in Buyer-Seller Messages. If Amazon has requested evidence, submit it through the claim response as well.
Preserve dispatch and delivery records. Keep the label, carrier acceptance scan, complete tracking and any proof of delivery (POD). A label purchase is not a handover scan.
Check funding before choosing a refund. A customer remedy, a claim decision and any Buy Shipping protection are different questions. Do not assume Amazon will repay a voluntary refund.
Choose the relevant next guide. Tracking marked delivered? Use the delivered-dispute audit. Amazon already granted the claim against you? Use the A-to-z appeal guide.

First establish who fulfilled this order

Fulfilment and postage are different facts: record both.
Model or shipping arrangement	What it changes	Action
FBM / seller-fulfilled	You or your fulfilment provider dispatched the order. The canonical A-to-z seller process is primarily for orders directly fulfilled by you.	Handle the buyer contact and any assigned claim response.
FBA / Fulfilled by Amazon	Amazon stores, picks, dispatches and provides customer service.	Direct the delivery problem to Amazon Customer Service. Check seller-side adjustments through the FBA route; do not invent your own customer-parcel posting evidence.
Seller Fulfilled Prime · SFP	You dispatch, but Amazon handles post-order customer service.	Cooperate with Amazon’s request and follow the SFP refund/reimbursement workflow. An SFP support refund is not automatically a standard FBM A-to-z appeal.
Amazon Buy Shipping	A label-purchase route for seller fulfilment, not FBA and not necessarily the Amazon Shipping carrier.	Save the purchased service, any protection designation and first carrier scan. Verify eligibility against this UK order.
Your own carrier / other label provider	Ordinary seller-fulfilled shipping using your booking arrangement.	Respond to Amazon and pursue any separate carrier claim under that service’s terms.

Authorities: UK About A-to-z claims, FBA scope, SFP customer service and SFP support instructions. Amazon-managed customer-service programmes can also change who handles the buyer enquiry. Check the actual order; a courier name alone does not decide the workflow.

Pre-claim contact and active-claim requests have separate clocks

Buyer reports non-receipt
Normally the buyer contacts you first through Buyer-Seller Messages. Respond and attempt to resolve the problem within 48 hours of the first message.
Check the delivery eligibility gate
The UK seller Help criteria use EDD + three calendar days OR delivery confirmed by valid tracking, alongside the unresolved 48-hour buyer-contact stage. A delivered scan can therefore bring a dispute into scope; it is not an automatic defence.
Amazon notifies you of a claim
Check email and Seller Central. The claim can be investigated or processed automatically; do not assume a fresh manual waiting period always follows filing.
Amazon requests claim-investigation information
Answer within 48 hours of that request, using its actual notice. This is a new trigger, separate from the buyer’s message.

About A-to-z claims supplies the normal eligibility and exceptions; Respond to a claim supplies the investigation response rule. The customer-facing UK page describes a general claim time limit of 90 days or less from the last delivery date. That is the buyer’s reporting limit, not 90 days for your response.

Use the tracking event to choose your next action

Keep a dated copy before a carrier updates or removes the event.
State	Question to answer	Next action
Label created / no acceptance	Was the parcel physically handed over, and when?	Find the receipt or collection manifest, check for a carrier scan and explain any missing confirmation. Never describe label creation as confirmed shipment.
Moving / not yet due	What is the recorded delivery promise and most recent physical event?	Give a factual update and check the buyer-contact timer. If a claim exists, respond with the promise and current record.
Stalled / EDD passed	Does the carrier have an exception, enquiry or loss finding?	Open the enquiry and address the claim independently. A scan gap is not itself proof of loss.
Delivered, buyer disagrees	Does the evidence match the order destination and receipt?	Use the delivered-dispute guide; preserve photo/signature/location details where available.
Attempted / available for collection	Was receipt completed, or is another delivery/collection pending?	Save the attempt notice and ask the carrier about the next step. Do not report an attempt as a successful delivery.
Undeliverable / returning	What does the full return-to-sender history show?	Check whether Amazon has already processed an Instant Customer Refund and separate its money and metric effects.

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Respond to Amazon, as well as to the customer

Amazon sends an email and may put a claim notification on the Seller Central homepage when it needs information. Open Performance → A-to-z Guarantee Claims → Action Required → Respond to Amazon, match the order, answer the requested points and select Submit. Save the confirmation and your response.

The UK response Help says an unanswered additional-information request after 48 hours results in a grant to the buyer, an account debit and an ODR impact. Do not substitute a competitor’s three-day or five-business-day summary for this request-specific rule.

Attachments: that response text box does not support them. Help directs sellers to send relevant documents through Buyer-Seller Messages and refer to them in the claim response. Use buyer-safe delivery evidence and identify the message/date; do not send internal financial statements, another customer’s records or unrelated account information. Follow the live form if it provides a dedicated upload route.

Build an evidence packet that answers the allegation

Order and destination: order ID, products/quantity, fulfilment method and delivery address recorded for this purchase. Match the shipping label to it.
Dispatch: carrier, service/dispatch method, ship-by date, actual handover date and acceptance scan or receipt. Keep label purchase and physical acceptance separate.
Tracking: correct number, carrier name and full history, including attempts and later corrections. Confirm what is visible in Seller Central, not only on the carrier site.
POD where available: delivery date/time, destination, photograph and signature confirmation. State precisely what each record establishes and what is disputed.
Communication: buyer’s first report, your response and proposed remedy, and any later acknowledgement of receipt. Use the order’s Buyer-Seller Messages.
Claim chronology: Amazon request, deadline, your submission, carrier enquiry reference and any written finding. Explain a missing record honestly.

Amazon’s prevention guidance recommends valid tracking and relevant delivery proof. The response policy lists dispatch method, tracking, address, signature, carrier and correspondence as information it may request. There is no basis to invent a signature or claim every order must have the same signature service.

A Valid Tracking Rate record is not proof that this customer received the item. Use the VTR resource for the separate performance rules and Buyer-Seller Messages Help for the communication channel; current thresholds and exemptions are not substitutes for order-level delivery evidence.

Read the refund debit and ODR result separately

Do not infer the financial outcome from a closed status alone.
Outcome	Money	Account check
Amazon grants a seller-funded claim	The claim amount can be debited.	Check whether it counts in ODR and whether an appeal is offered.
You refund after a claim has opened	You fund the refund; the claim may close.	About Help says this affects the order defect report. Refunding now does not automatically erase the claim.
Returning/refused parcel gets an Instant Customer Refund	Seller may be debited.	The specific returning-parcel exception can have no ODR impact. Verify the decision reason.
Claim denied or buyer withdraws it	Read the decision and any existing refund record.	The ODR Help excludes denied/withdrawn claims. Do not assume a separate transaction has been reversed.
Qualifying shipping protection applies	Funding depends on the actual eligibility and decision.	Verify both the reimbursement and the metric treatment; a label alone is insufficient.

Check Account Health → Order defect rate and the matching transaction. If the claim is granted against you, the appeal guide explains the 30-calendar-day window. A generic account-health reinstatement appeal is a different process.

Buy Shipping: Amazon’s UK FBM overview supports protection for qualifying on-time Buy Shipping orders. The delivered-dispute guide’s eligibility checks distinguish the staff-described Claims Protected conditions, manual refunds and the current canonical-source limitation. Do not equate optional parcel insurance with A-to-z protection.

Amazon claim and carrier recovery are parallel tasks

Amazon: customer/order decision

Supply the claim evidence and meet the request deadline. Record the remedy, debit, ODR outcome and any appeal right. A carrier saying it needs more time does not pause Amazon’s process.

Carrier or label provider: transit investigation

Identify who booked the service, obtain a written finding and check cover, exclusions and the applicable claim window. A courier claim does not itself refund the customer or remove an Amazon defect.

Use our courier claims resource to identify the booking route. If relevant, consult the Royal Mail loss resource against the actual service. For a marketplace-supplied label, use its stated enquiry route rather than assuming you hold a direct carrier claim.

An adaptable active-claim response

Order [ID], claim [reference]. The customer reported non-receipt on [date/time]; we responded on [date/time] with [action]. The recorded delivery estimate was [date]. The parcel was handed to [carrier/service] on [date/time], tracking [number]. Its latest event is [exact event] at [time]. Evidence [record/message date] supports [specific fact]. The unresolved point is [delivery/location/scan gap]. We request review of [specific decision or evidence point]. Carrier enquiry [reference] is [confirmed status].

Remove anything you cannot substantiate. For the buyer, give a shorter update: “I’m checking the carrier record for [order]. The latest confirmed event is [event]. I’ll update you by [time]. Please keep the discussion in this order’s messages so the records stay together.” Do not demand withdrawal of a claim as the price of assistance.

If the parcel arrives after a refund

Save the new tracking and buyer confirmation; update the open claim or appeal. If the buyer accepts late delivery or a replacement and agrees to repay, the UK About Help requires the customer to initiate the reverse refund from Problem with order or ask Amazon Customer Service to reverse the claim refund. Amazon cannot recharge them on your assertion alone.

An appeal disputes Amazon’s decision; a reverse refund records the customer’s agreement to repay. Track both honestly and flag any duplicate recovery. For the customer’s separate perspective, see our Amazon non-receipt guide for buyers.

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Sources & policy review

Policy checked: 30 October 2026. Core claims use current indexed Amazon Seller Central Help text explicitly applying to the United Kingdom. Help links may require sign-in. Programme pages and any supplementary staff explanations are identified separately.

ParcelClaim is independent of Amazon and the carriers. These tools organise an order’s facts; they do not guarantee claim rejection, reimbursement or appeal success. Follow the actual notice and raise conflicting instructions with Seller Support promptly.