Overview

When you fulfill orders yourself on Amazon, handling refunds and concessions is your responsibility. Amazon has strict timelines and processes that sellers must follow to stay compliant and maintain good account health. Understanding how refunds work for seller-fulfilled orders — including full refunds, partial refunds, returnless refunds, and concessions — is essential to keeping your metrics strong and your customers satisfied.

Key Points / What Sellers Need to Know

• Four-day refund deadline — Once you receive a returned product, you have four calendar days to issue the refund. Missing this window can result in Amazon automatically refunding the buyer and charging the amount to your seller account.
• Shipment must be confirmed first — You cannot initiate a refund until the order's shipment has been confirmed in Seller Central. This is a prerequisite before any refund action can be taken.
• Returnless refunds are available — If you decide to let the buyer keep the product, you can issue a refund immediately without waiting for a return. This can be useful for low-value items where return shipping costs outweigh the product's value.
• Per-item refunds supported — For multi-item orders, you can issue a refund for individual items rather than the entire order. This gives you flexibility when only part of an order has an issue.
• Multiple refund tools available — Amazon provides the Manage Orders page and feed-based tools to process both full and partial refunds for each item in an order.
• Tax-only refunds — In states where Amazon handles tax collection through its Marketplace Tax Collection system, FBA order refunds and tax-only refunds are processed automatically by Amazon.

How the Refund Process Works

The refund process for seller-fulfilled orders begins after a buyer initiates a return request or you agree to issue a concession. Once a return is authorized, the buyer ships the product back to you. Amazon strongly recommends waiting until you physically receive the returned item before processing the refund so you can inspect its condition. However, if the return qualifies for a returnless refund or you choose to offer one, you can process the refund right away without waiting for the product. All refund actions are handled through the Manage Orders section of Seller Central, where you can select the specific order and choose from full refund, partial refund, or concession options.