Ask how many open cases they are handling right now and how long the oldest has been open.
Case management is a workload question before it is a skill question, and an agency carrying
too many accounts cannot chase cases that need weekly follow-up for a month.
The short version
- Ask for current open case volume and the age of the oldest.
- Cases need persistence, not brilliance. Follow-up cadence is the skill.
- Ask who chases, by name. Cases die when nobody owns them.
- Ask what they escalate and when. Most cases need re-opening at least once.
- Caseload governs this. We run about 1.4 brands per operator.
Why case management is a capacity question
I run Flapen with 50 operators managing about 70 brands, at about 1.4 brands per
operator. That ratio matters more here than almost anywhere else in an agency relationship.
Amazon cases are not solved by one excellent submission. They are solved by a correct
submission followed by disciplined follow-up, sometimes over weeks, occasionally with a
re-open and a fresh escalation. Every step is small and none can be skipped.
An account manager carrying twelve brands will handle the urgent case and let the two-week-old
reimbursement claim lapse, not through negligence but through arithmetic. Which is why the
right question is about volume rather than about expertise.
| Question | What you are testing |
|---|---|
| How many cases are open across your accounts right now? | Whether they track it at all |
| How old is the oldest? | Whether anything has been abandoned |
| Who chases, and how often? | Named ownership and cadence |
| When do you escalate? | Whether they know the path |
| How do you decide to re-open? | Persistence discipline |
The first question does double duty. An agency that can answer it immediately has a system. An
agency that has to check has cases living in individual inboxes.
The categories of case, and who is good at which
Not all cases are alike, and agencies are rarely equally good across them.
Reimbursement claims for lost and damaged inventory. High volume, low complexity, real
money, and the most commonly neglected because nothing breaks if they go unfiled. Ask how
often they are run. Quarterly at minimum.
Listing suppressions and flags. Time-critical, because ranking erodes every hour. Needs
same-business-day response.
Account health and policy notices. Highest stakes, needs a proper plan of action rather
than a support ticket.
IP and brand complaints, both filing them against infringers and defending against them.
Requires Brand Registry and a different process.
Category and gating approvals. Slow, documentation-heavy, and best handled before
inventory ships rather than after.
Ask which of these they handle routinely and which they refer out. A candid split is more
useful than a claim to cover everything.
What to ask for in writing
- Response time by severity, with business days defined for their time zone.
- A named owner for case management on your account.
- Reimbursement claims run at a stated frequency.
- Open cases reported weekly, including status and age.
- An escalation path when the standard route stalls.
Point four is the one that changes behavior. A weekly line listing open cases with their age
makes neglect visible, and visibility is most of what keeps small cases alive.
What most agencies will not tell you
Reimbursement recovery is real money that goes unclaimed constantly. Amazon loses and damages
inventory routinely, claims have deadlines, and if it is nobody's explicit job the deadlines
pass quietly.
Some agencies charge separately for it or take a percentage of recovered funds. That is a
legitimate model and worth knowing about in advance, because it is one of the few places
where the incentive aligns with effort.
The second thing: case outcomes depend heavily on persistence and somewhat on luck, and no
agency controls Amazon's decisions. Be skeptical of anyone claiming a high success rate on
appeals without describing what they count. What you can reasonably require is speed,
documentation quality, and follow-up discipline, and those three are what the questions above
test.
Related answers
- How agencies handle suspension appeals and compliance
- Questions about inventory forecasting and ops support
- How to avoid Amazon suspension when starting out
- Questions about brand protection and review strategy
- Hiring an Amazon agency: the complete guide
Ask us how many cases are open right now. We can tell you, at Flapen.
