Key takeaways
- Refurbishment and Liquidation became automated-removal options effective September 9, 2021, and they take priority over Return or Dispose.
- Amazon states that units not eligible for those two fall back to your Return or Dispose choice, so eligible units never reach it.
- Liquidation credits you a recovery value. A credit is a payment, not a loss event, so it is not a reimbursement you can claim.
- A Return setting without a current, valid return address does not produce returns.
- FBA removals policy gives you 30 days from a required removal notice, so leaving all four options off is not a plan either.
Before you start
- A Professional seller account with access to Fulfillment by Amazon settings
- A user role with permission to change FBA settings
- A current, valid return address on the account
- The Reimbursements report, to check for past recovery credits
Step by step
- Open your automated unfulfillable settingsGo to the automated removal settings page. Four controls live here: Return, Dispose, Refurbishment and Liquidation. Read all four before changing anything, because the value-recovery pair overrides the Return or Dispose choice.
Settings > Fulfillment by Amazon > Automated unfulfillable settings - Untick Liquidation if you want units returnedWith Liquidation enabled, eligible unfulfillable units are sold wholesale through a provider and you receive the recovery value as a credit. Sellers also report that manual removal orders for unfulfillable inventory are unavailable while it is on.
- Decide on Refurbishment separatelyRefurbishment is the one option that works in your favour: an eligible returned unit in new condition that needs light work goes back to sellable at no cost to you. Leaving it on does not send your stock to a liquidator.
- Set Return and enter a valid return addressChoose Return and check the return address on the account. A Return setting without a current, valid address is the most common reason units are disposed of anyway. A weekly or biweekly removal schedule requires Return plus that address.
- Screenshot the saved pageSave the page and keep a dated screenshot. Sellers report settings reverting after support interventions, and a dated screenshot is what turns a later case from an opinion into a record.
- Check the Reimbursements report for past creditsLook for recovery credits against the FNSKUs you expected back. This tells you whether units were liquidated rather than lost, which decides whether you have a settings problem or a claim.
Reports > Fulfillment > Reimbursements
You set unfulfillable removals to Return years ago. Then a credit lands for a few dollars against units you expected back on a pallet. The setting that did it is not the one you checked.
Why it happens
Automated unfulfillable settings have two layers. The first, on the automated unfulfillable settings page, is what happens to a unit Amazon cannot sell: Return or Dispose. The second is a pair of value-recovery options, Refurbishment and Liquidation, added as automated-removal options effective September 9, 2021.
Those two take priority. Amazon's announcement is explicit that units which are not eligible for refurbishment or liquidation fall back to your Return or Dispose choice. Read it the other way round: eligible units never reach your choice. Refurbishment returns a lightly damaged unit to sellable status at no cost, which is good for you. Liquidation sells the unit wholesale through a provider and credits the recovery value to your account, which may be a long way from what the unit was worth.
Two things sellers report that Amazon does not state officially, so treat them as reports and not procedure: that these options were pre-ticked on some accounts without the seller enabling them, and that liquidation recovery lands at roughly 5% to 10% of average selling price. One Amazon forum reply also states that with liquidations enabled you cannot place manual removal orders for unfulfillable inventory, which is the detail that makes this hard to undo once it starts.
The fix, step by step
Open the settings page, read all four controls, and set them deliberately. A Return setting with no valid return address does not produce returns.
If it already happened
Check the Reimbursements report under Reports, Fulfillment for a recovery credit against the FNSKU. A liquidation credit is a payment, not a loss event, so it will not appear as a reimbursement you can claim. That is the uncomfortable part: the units were handled according to a setting on your account, which makes this a settings problem rather than a reimbursement case.
Where a unit was damaged rather than liquidated, the path is different and the customer damaged returns rules apply instead.
Keeping it from coming back
Check these four controls once a quarter. Sellers in the forum thread above report settings reverting after support touched the account, so a one-time fix is not a fix. If you want units back, confirm the return address is current, and remember that FBA removal fees are per unit, so returning everything is not automatically the cheaper answer either. Amazon's removals policy also requires you to clear unfulfillable units within 30 days of a required removal notice, so leaving all four options off is not a strategy, as the update to the FBA removals policy sets out.
“Unfulfillable units that are not eligible for these value-recovery services will be removed automatically based on your selection of either Return or Dispose.”
Amazon Seller Central
Sources
- Amazon Seller Central: Refurbishment and liquidation are now automated-removal options sellercentral.amazon.com
- Amazon Seller Central: Automated unfulfillable settings sellercentral.amazon.com
- Amazon Seller Central: Update to FBA removals policy sellercentral.amazon.com
- Seller on Amazon Seller Forums: Amazon auto-enabled Refurbishment and Liquidations sellercentral.amazon.com
Hey! I'm Amara
Press at SellerKey.co
☕ Espresso. Never a latte macchiato.
I cover Amazon fee and policy changes: what changed, when it applies and where Amazon published it.
