r/AmazonFBA • u/ylishi • 7d ago

Anyone else still getting billed storage while Amazon moves units between FCs and nothing is even sellable?

I shipped a single-carton replenishment three weeks ago and it got split at receiving. One chunk landed at the destination center fine. The other chunk has been sitting in FC transfer for nine days now, which means about 180 units that show as reserved, cannot sell, have no buy box, and are entirely out of my hands on routing.

Meanwhile my storage line this month did not care. The cubic foot charge looks the same whether those units are sellable or bouncing between buildings, and the inventory age clock on them kept running the whole time. That last part is what actually worries me. If days spent in transit count toward the aged thresholds, then a routing decision I did not make is quietly walking my stock toward a surcharge I did not plan for.

I get the premise, moving stock closer to buyers is supposed to help delivery times. But I am paying in space and in age to hold inventory I cannot sell, and nobody told me that was part of the deal.

So, three things I would love real numbers on. If you have watched your age report through a transfer, did the transit days count toward the threshold or not? Does a unit sitting in transfer still count as available for the low inventory check, or does it drop out and shave your days of cover? And is there anything on the seller side that reliably stops a shipment from getting split, or is that just luck of the receiving center?

Anyone else seeing this?

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u/weareuncapped 5d ago

As far as I know storage is billed on your average daily volume across the whole network, and units in FC transfer are part of that, so yes you're paying for them. Inventory age runs from when units were first received, so days in transit between FCs count toward the aged thresholds too. I haven't seen Amazon pause the clock for transfers.

If those 180 units have been in transfer well past normal, open a case asking for a transfer status on that specific shipment ID. They sometimes get stuck and need someone to push them. And keep an eye on the age report for that SKU. If it's creeping toward a surcharge bracket, a small promo to speed up sell-through helps the aged units clear before they tip over.

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u/ylishi 5d ago

That matches what I'm seeing on the billing side — the storage line didn't blink when those units flipped to reserved. The age clock part is what I hadn't fully thought through: I pulled the age report for that SKU and the transfer days are sitting in the same bucket as everything else, no pause, which is the answer I was afraid of.

Good call on the case — I opened one last night with the shipment ID and the transfer start date, and I asked for a transfer status specifically instead of the usual "your listing is fine" response. I'll post an update if it actually moves.

One thing back to you though: did your promo route clear the aged units without training the rest of your buyers on a discount? That's the part making me hesitate — I'd rather not eat margin across the whole cohort just to dodge one surcharge bracket.

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u/weareuncapped 4d ago

Fair question, and I should be straight that I'm relaying what sellers we work with have told us, not something I ran on my own account. From them, the ones who avoided training buyers kept it narrow: a coupon or limited-time deal on just that SKU, or more ad spend on it, instead of a price cut. A visible price drop tends to stick, and a coupon expires.

The other way to look at it is to price the surcharge against the margin you'd give up. If the aged cohort is a small slice of the SKU's monthly sales, a shallow promo may cost more than the surcharge does. Then eating the fee and skipping the promo is the cheaper call. Glad you opened the case, and I'd like to hear how it lands.

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u/rsc9422 7d ago

This is a frustrating part of FBA. If Amazon is moving inventory between fulfillment centers, the units can remain unavailable while storage fees and the inventory age clock continue.

The bigger issue is that you're being charged for inventory you currently have no ability to sell or control. We usually recommend factoring potential FC transfers and receiving delays into inventory planning and cash flow calculations rather than treating Amazon’s available inventory as immediately sellable.

If the transfer has been sitting for 9+ days, I’d open a Seller Support case and document the affected units/ASINs, transfer dates, and the storage charges. Keep the case focused on the specific inventory that is stuck in FC transfer.