Weekly Removal Order Reconciliation SOP (UK): The 30-Minute Checklist

The maths on removal order claim windows is unforgiving. Amazon gives you 74 days from shipment creation to file a lost-in-transit claim. That sounds generous until you account for the 15-day minimum waiting period, the time it takes to gather evidence, and the reality that Amazon agents regularly reject first attempts.

If you reconcile monthly, a shipment dispatched on the 1st of the month will not land on your desk until the 30th. That is 30 days consumed before you even know there is a problem. Subtract the 15-day waiting period and you have already used 45 of your 74 days doing nothing. That leaves 29 days to notice the discrepancy, photograph evidence, draft the claim, file it, wait for Amazon’s response, handle a denial, and escalate if necessary. Most sellers cannot do all of that in 29 days, especially when they are juggling dozens of shipments.

Weekly reconciliation changes the equation entirely. The longest any shipment can sit unreviewed is 7 days. A shipment dispatched on Monday is flagged by the following Monday at the latest. That gives you 67 days of runway instead of 44. More importantly, you catch issues while tracking data is still fresh, carrier records are still accessible, and Amazon’s systems still have the relevant case metadata readily available.

There is a compounding effect too. Monthly reconciliation means you face a backlog of 30 days’ worth of shipments in a single session. The task feels overwhelming, corners get cut, and marginal claims get skipped. Weekly reconciliation keeps the volume manageable. Five to fifteen shipments per session is far easier to process thoroughly than fifty to a hundred.

Every discrepancy you find during reconciliation goes onto the at-risk list. This is not a spreadsheet you file and forget. It is a living document that carries forward from week to week until every item is either resolved, claimed, or confirmed as a non-issue. The structure below captures everything you need to make a filing decision.

Sort the list by days remaining, with the most urgent at the top. Anything under 14 days needs immediate attention. Anything under 7 days is an emergency. If you are unsure how many days you have left, use the claim deadline calculator to check instantly. When you see items approaching deadline, check the claim type to determine which template and evidence pack to use.

The first question is whether the minimum waiting period has passed. For lost-in-transit claims, Amazon requires 15 days from the last confirmed tracking movement. Filing before this point will result in an automatic rejection with a “too early” response. If you are still inside the waiting period, add the item to your at-risk list with the status “Awaiting 15-day window” and revisit it next week.

Once the waiting period has passed, gather your evidence. The strength of your evidence pack is the single biggest factor in claim success. A weak filing gets denied. A strong filing with tracking data, goods-in records, and photographs gets approved. See the evidence pack guide for the full list of what to include for each claim type.

Choose the right template for your claim type. Each scenario requires different information and a different tone. A lost-in-transit claim needs tracking evidence and date calculations. A missing units claim needs goods-in records and quantity comparisons. A damaged claim needs photographs and condition descriptions. Using a generic message for all claim types is the fastest way to get denied.

After filing, record the case reference number on your at-risk list and set the status to “Filed.” If you do not hear back within 7 days, send a follow-up chaser referencing the original case ID. At 14 days, escalate by requesting a supervisor review. The follow-up chaser template gives you the exact wording for each stage of the escalation ladder.

The most important habit is closing the loop. Every item on your at-risk list should end with a final status: Won (reimbursed), Lost (denied after escalation), or Resolved (item was found or issue was a false positive). If you leave items in an ambiguous state, your at-risk list grows unmanageable within weeks.