Most sellers looking for Seller Investigators alternatives do not need another commission service — they need to know whether they need one at all. Seller Investigators charges a 25% commission on the reimbursements it recovers (its own terms page, data checked 2026-09-29), and when Amazon later claws a reimbursement back, Seller Investigators reverses its fee as a credit on your next invoice rather than a cash refund. If your annual recoveries are small, or you or a VA can file cases, filing yourself keeps 100% of the money; a commission service earns its cut only when discrepancy volume is large and you have no one to do the paperwork.
This page is the decision layer: what Seller Investigators actually charges, why the reversal credits cause the loudest complaints, and how the alternatives compare. The step-by-step filing process is not repeated here — it lives in our Amazon FBA reimbursement guide.
Quick answer: which route fits you
| Your situation | Best-fit route | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Small catalog, a few claims a month | File yourself | No commission; Amazon now reimburses many warehouse losses automatically |
| Mid-size catalog, you or a VA can file | Flat-fee audit tool + self-filing | You pay a fixed subscription instead of a share of every recovery |
| Large catalog, nobody to file, high discrepancy volume | Commission service | The time saved can outweigh the cut — if the reversal terms are acceptable |
| Already with Seller Investigators and leaving | Settle the credit balance first | Fee reversals are applied to future invoices, which only help if invoices keep coming |
What Seller Investigators is and what it charges
Seller Investigators is a done-for-you FBA reimbursement service: it audits your Seller Central data, opens cases with Amazon, and bills a commission on what Amazon pays out. Its parent company, Carbon6, was bought by SPS Commerce — SPS announced the deal on January 2, 2025, describing Seller Investigators as “a solution that helps third-party sellers recover lost revenue occurring from fulfillment errors” (GlobeNewswire release), and SPS now runs a page titled “Carbon6 is now part of SPS Commerce” (spscommerce.com). As of 2026-09-29, sellerinvestigators.com still loads as its own site rather than redirecting.
Commission (official, data checked 2026-09-29): the Seller Investigators terms state: “We charge 25% of all refunds from the day you sign up for all cases we open.” The same section says customers get “a bill twice a month” charged to the payment method on file. The homepage repeats the rate: “only pay a 25% commission fee when your money is back with you.” There is no monthly subscription fee.
Third-party context: the 25% figure also appears in the review corpus. A 2022 Trustpilot reviewer quoted a range — “18-25% for something that can be done by sellers themselves” (Trustpilot, 2022-11-19). That range is one customer’s account, not a published price list; the rate Seller Investigators publishes today is a flat 25%.
Cancelling: per the terms page (checked 2026-09-29), you cancel by email and “There are no other means of cancelling Your account.” Keep that in mind for the credit issue below.
Reversed reimbursements: what the dispute is about
A reversed reimbursement is Amazon taking back money it already paid you. An Amazon staff reply on the Seller Forums puts it plainly: “Amazon may reverse a reimbursement if a reimbursement was made in error, or if a reimbursed item is later found and returned to your inventory” (Seller Forums thread, TaylorR_Amazon). The same reply says a disputed reversal can be raised with Seller Support within 60 days after the reimbursement was issued.
Reversals are routine for lost-inventory cases: a unit reported lost gets reimbursed, then turns up during a later count. For a seller filing their own claims, a reversal just nets out — the money came in and went back. With a commission service, a third party already billed you on the original payout, so the question becomes what happens to that fee.
Seller Investigators answers it in its FAQ (checked 2026-09-29): “When Amazon reverses a reimbursement, Seller Investigators will reverse the fee on the next invoice.” In other words, the fee comes back as an offset against future commissions, not as money returned to your card.
That mechanism is exactly what the recent one-star reviews are about:
- A long-time customer wrote: “They have now changed their policy and don’t refund for Reversed reimbursments [sic]!!!” followed by “I was owed over £1,000” and “They use it as a credit!!! Insane.” (Trustpilot, 2026-03-17)
- Another reported: “Over £4k of their reimbursments [sic] have been reversed which I now have to manually request a refund for,” adding, “I’ve also been told they don’t actually refund this only credit it.” (Trustpilot, 2026-02-10)
Why a credit hurts more than it sounds: a credit on the next invoice has full value only while you keep generating invoices. At 25%, £4,000 of reversed reimbursements corresponds to roughly £1,000 of fees already paid. If you are winding down, switching providers, or Amazon’s automation is now catching most of your losses, future Seller Investigators invoices may never be large enough to absorb that balance — which is why both reviewers describe the money as owed rather than refunded.
Other recurring complaints: slow replies and the paperwork load
The reversal policy is the 2026 flashpoint, but the older reviews point to two steadier themes.
Response times. The 2026-02 reviewer said they had “been waiting for over £1k to be looked into for over a week with no clear response from them, just generic replies.” Earlier reviews say similar things: a 2023 trial customer called “the replies to my emails quite slow” (Trustpilot, 2023-04-14, 3 stars), and another wrote “The communication from their team has been terrible” (Trustpilot, 2023-03-29).
You still do much of the work. Managed services need proof of ownership — invoices, packing lists, signatures — and only you have those documents. The 2022 reviewer put the complaint bluntly: “All the invoice uploads and paper work still needs to be done [sic] the sellers, which is 95% of the work.” The percentage is that reviewer’s estimate, but the point holds for every commission service: it runs the audit and files the case, and you supply the evidence.
Automation is shrinking the job. The 2026-03 reviewer added: “Amazon now does this job automatically so there’s little need to use them but they owe me so much money.” Amazon has reimbursed many warehouse-loss cases automatically since November 2024 (details and dates in our FBA reimbursement guide), so the pool of claims a service can find and bill on is smaller than when most of these contracts were signed.
The math: when a 25% commission is worth paying
The trade is simple: a commission service turns your filing time into a percentage of every payout. Here is a worked example with assumed numbers.
| Assumption | Value |
|---|---|
| Recoveries a year that need a manual case | $6,000 |
| Commission at 25% | $1,500 |
| Cases a year | 60 |
| Your time per case (find, document, file, follow up) | 20 minutes |
| Total filing time | 20 hours |
Paying $1,500 to avoid 20 hours of work works out to $75 an hour. If your time or a VA’s time costs less than that, filing yourself wins. If recoveries are $1,500 a year, the commission is $375 — still meaningful money for work a VA can do in a few afternoons.
Add the reversal effect. If 15% of those reimbursements are later reversed, $900 of payouts come back out, and $225 of commission sits as a credit rather than cash. For a seller staying with the service that credit eventually gets used; for a seller leaving, it may not.
Our rule of thumb:
- Under roughly $2,000 a year in manual-case recoveries: file yourself. Refunzo, itself a commission service, makes the same point on its own pricing page (checked 2026-09-29): “below roughly $2,000 a year the commission usually isn’t worth it compared with filing yourself.”
- Between that and five figures a year: run a flat-fee audit and file yourself or through a VA.
- Five figures and up, with no filing capacity: a commission service can pay for itself — negotiate the rate and get the reversal terms in writing.
Seller Investigators alternatives compared
| Option | Pricing (checked 2026-09-29) | Who files cases | Reversed-reimbursement handling |
|---|---|---|---|
| Seller Investigators | 25% commission, billed twice a month | Seller Investigators | Fee reversed on the next invoice (credit) |
| Refunzo (managed filing) | 15% commission, capped at $5,000 per account | Refunzo | Not stated in the pricing text we checked — ask before signing |
| ReimburseOps | Free tier; Pro $19/month flat, no commission | You or your VA | No commission, so nothing to reverse |
| File it yourself | $0 | You or your VA | Reversal simply nets out of your payouts |
Refunzo. The pricing page lists managed filing at “15% commission on recovered funds, capped at $5,000 per account.” The cap is the notable feature: a large account stops paying commission once the cap is reached, which a flat 25% never does.
ReimburseOps. A self-service audit tool: you upload the Seller Central reimbursements report (plus an optional sourcing-cost sheet), and it flags missing costs, under-reimbursed payouts, and inconsistent valuations. Its homepage (checked 2026-09-29) says “No commission, ever” and “Flat $19/mo. Cancel anytime,” and its comparison table lists claim filing as “You file (or delegate to VA).” That is the honest limit: it tells you what to claim, and you submit the case.
Filing yourself. Seller Central’s own reports are enough to reconcile a small account by hand. The workflow — claim windows by case type, the sourcing-cost rule, and how to open a case — is in our Amazon FBA reimbursement guide.
Other commission services. GETIDA, Refully, Eva and others are compared side by side, with commission rates and clawback terms, in our FBA reimbursement services roundup. Recheck any rate there against the vendor’s current page before you sign; commission terms change without notice.
Questions to ask any reimbursement service before signing
- What happens to your fee when Amazon reverses a reimbursement — cash refund or invoice credit? Get the answer in writing.
- If I cancel with a credit balance, is it paid out? This is the gap the 2026 reviews fell into.
- Do you bill on reimbursements Amazon issued automatically? Seller Investigators’ terms bill “all cases we open”; confirm the service is not charging on payouts it did not generate.
- Is the rate negotiable or capped? The 2022 review’s 18-25% range and Refunzo’s cap show terms vary.
- What documents will I have to supply, and how fast? If you are gathering invoices anyway, a flat-fee tool may do the rest.
- How do I cancel? Seller Investigators’ terms allow cancellation by email only.
Before you sign any recurring contract, the patterns in our guide to seller software subscription billing traps apply here too.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does Seller Investigators charge?
Seller Investigators charges a 25% commission on reimbursements from the cases it opens, with no monthly fee, according to its terms page (data checked 2026-09-29). Bills are issued twice a month and charged automatically. One 2022 Trustpilot reviewer described an 18-25% range.
Does Seller Investigators refund its fee when Amazon reverses a reimbursement?
Not in cash. Its FAQ (checked 2026-09-29) says that when Amazon reverses a reimbursement, “Seller Investigators will reverse the fee on the next invoice.” Trustpilot reviewers in February and March 2026 complained that this left them with credits instead of refunds.
Is Seller Investigators still in business?
Yes. Its parent company, Carbon6, was acquired by SPS Commerce (announced January 2, 2025), and sellerinvestigators.com was still live with published pricing and terms on 2026-09-29.
Should I file FBA reimbursement claims myself instead?
If your manual-case recoveries are under roughly $2,000 a year, or you have a VA, yes — you keep 100% and Amazon already reimburses many warehouse losses automatically. The filing process is covered in the FBA reimbursement guide.
Conclusion
Seller Investigators does what it advertises — audits, files, and bills 25% of what Amazon pays — but its reversal policy turns clawed-back fees into invoice credits, and that is the root of its sharpest 2026 complaints. Before switching to another commission service, do the math on your own manual-case volume. Small and mid-size sellers will usually keep more by filing themselves, with a flat-fee audit if reconciliation is the bottleneck; large sellers with no filing capacity should pick a service on its reversal and cancellation terms, not only its headline rate. Start by pulling last quarter’s reimbursements report and counting how many cases actually needed a human.