Amazon has cut the window for seller-fulfilled (FBM) merchants to file SAFE-T reimbursement claims in half. Effective February 16, 2026, the SAFE-T claim filing window for US seller-fulfilled orders changed from 60 days to 30 days. SAFE-T stands for Seller Assurance for E-Commerce Transactions, and it is the program that lets you request money back from Amazon when a buyer return goes wrong, like receiving a damaged, used, or completely wrong item back.
The 30-day clock starts from either the return delivery scan at your warehouse or the refund date, whichever is later, while lost shipments are counted from the last scan event. If you miss that window, you cannot file a claim at all.
A Related Change Already in Effect
Your refund processing window has been extended from 2 business days to 4 calendar days before automated refunds trigger. However, there’s an important trade-off. If Amazon issues an automatic refund, you lose SAFE-T claim eligibility except for specific situations like items lost in transit. That refund-processing change took effect on January 26, 2026.
Put together, these two changes mean you have 4 days to inspect a return and process the refund yourself, and then 30 days total from that refund date to file a SAFE-T claim if something was wrong. Current claims already in progress are not affected, so ongoing reimbursement requests can continue without disruption.
What to Do Now
If you sell on Amazon and handle your own fulfillment, tighten up your returns workflow. This is not just a shorter deadline. It changes how sellers should operate day to day, making it essential to tighten workflows around returns, refunds, and carrier tracking so you can identify eligible cases quickly, document them clearly, and submit a SAFE-T claim within the new window.
Practically, that means inspecting every return as soon as it arrives, photographing items that come back damaged or wrong, and running a weekly review of open returns to catch anything that needs a claim. Amazon recommends using the Guided Refund Workflow to grade returned items, apply appropriate restocking fees, and upload evidence when items are returned in a condition different from shipment.
Sellers must also respond to information requests from Amazon investigators within 7 days, and only refunds issued by Amazon, not by the seller, are eligible for reimbursement. That second point is easy to miss and can cost you a claim you’d otherwise win.
The full details are available on Amazon’s Seller Central forum post and in EcommerceBytes’ coverage. The policy is already live, so there is no waiting period left. If your returns process runs on a monthly cycle, consider switching to weekly before a missed deadline costs you real money.
