Price Claim (Price Discrepancy)

A price claim is the deduction Amazon raises against a vendor invoice when the unit cost on that invoice does not match the cost on Amazon’s purchase order (PO), and the difference comes off the payment on that invoice.

What it is

The gap sits between two documents: the price you invoiced and the price Amazon’s PO specified for the same item. When the two disagree, Amazon settles the invoice against its own PO and raises a price claim for the difference.

Most price claims trace back to a mismatch between the invoice and the PO on cost, currency, unit quantity, or ASIN. The usual sources are a cost change that hadn’t rolled through to the PO before the shipment went out, catalog setup errors such as a wrong UPC or case-pack quantity, and invoice timing. Amazon’s own retail price can also move while its system assumes your cost should have moved with it.

A price claim reconciles cost per unit, while its sibling, the shortage claim, reconciles the number of units you billed against the number Amazon received. Both are settled on the payment side against a single invoice, so neither belongs to the Operational Performance chargeback categories, which score compliance defects on their own schedule.

Where it lives in Vendor Central

Price claims show up under Payments, then Invoices. You can open a dispute by selecting the claim from the list view, or by looking it up with the exact invoice number. Vendor Central’s navigation varies by region and account type, so check the labels in your own account before you write this path into a process.

Work from the invoice due date, not the day you happen to spot the claim. Disputes filed within about 30 days of the due date get the fastest resolution, and after that the claim moves into a slower settlement process.

Why it matters to a vendor

A price claim is cash taken off a specific invoice, and no scorecard records it as a defect, so it only surfaces if someone reads the remittance line by line and matches each deduction back to the invoice and PO behind it.

It’s also easier to win back than a shortage claim. The dispute comes down to comparing two documents you already hold, and it usually needs no supporting documentation. Because anything filed after the 30-day mark settles more slowly, work price claims on a fixed schedule alongside your shortage claims.

Related terms

• Shortage claim: the quantity-side counterpart, settled through the same Payments menu.
• Chargebacks: Amazon’s compliance deductions, scored through Operational Performance.
• Amazon Chargebacks on Vendor Central: the seven chargeback categories, which do not include price claims.
• Remittance advice: the payment document where price differences settle against your invoices.
• Glossary index: the rest of the Vendor Central terms and InsightLeap metrics.