Customer Service by Amazon (CSBA): Could You Be Outsourcing Support for Free?
TL;DR
Customer Service by Amazon (CSBA) is an Amazon programme that handles your post-order customer service 24/7 by phone, chat and email. Your price depends on your contacts per unit (CPU). Keep CPU under 3% and the service is free. New sellers also get a 90-day free trial, so you can test it without risk.
CSBA in 30 Seconds: The Summary
- Free for the first 90 days when you are new to CSBA.
- Free ongoing if your contacts per unit stay below 3%.
- Also free if you are a low-volume seller shipping fewer than 30 orders per quarter.
Drowning in Customer Enquiries?
Selling on Amazon is relentless. Between sourcing stock, managing listings and fulfilling orders, the last thing you need is an inbox full of "Where is my order?" messages at 11pm on a Sunday.
Customer service is exactly where many small businesses lose time, sleep and money. Slow replies lead to negative feedback. Negative feedback drags down your metrics. Damaged metrics quietly throttle your sales.
There is a way to hand the whole job to Amazon itself. For many sellers, it is completely free. It is called Customer Service by Amazon, and here is exactly how it works.
What Is Customer Service by Amazon (CSBA)?
Customer Service by Amazon (CSBA) is a paid Amazon programme that lets Amazon handle customer service for your Fulfilled by Merchant (FBM) orders. FBM simply means orders you store and ship yourself, rather than through Amazon's warehouses.
Once you enrol, post-order customer contacts go straight to Amazon Customer Service. You no longer handle them yourself. Amazon answers your customers directly, 24 hours a day, by phone, chat or email, in their preferred language. Amazon says CSBA is trusted by over 300,000 sellers worldwide, supported by a network of agents across more than 130 locations.
If you are new to CSBA, you also qualify for a 90-day free trial. It is a low-risk way to see the difference for yourself.
What Are the Benefits of CSBA?
CSBA does more than clear your inbox. It hands your support workload to a specialist team and protects the seller metrics that drive your sales. The main benefits are:
- Reduce your workload. Hand off post-order queries and save time and money.
- 24/7 real-time support. Customers get help by chat, phone and email, in their preferred language, around the clock.
- Scale effortlessly. Support keeps pace automatically as your orders grow.
- Protect your metrics. CSBA helps reduce A-to-z claims and lower your Order Defect Rate (ODR), the key health score Amazon uses to judge your account.
What Changed in Amazon's May 2026 Update?
In May 2026 Amazon upgraded CSBA to give sellers more protection and easier access to the free programme. Three changes stand out:
- Fewer return-less refunds. Amazon now limits no-return refunds to genuine cases, such as items not delivered on time, damaged non-returnable items, or items unsafe to return. This protects your revenue and cuts the need for SAFE-T claims.
- Easier to qualify for free. Amazon removed the old 95% valid tracking rate requirement for the free programme.
- Free for low-volume sellers. The programme is now free if you ship fewer than 30 orders per quarter.
How Does CSBA Actually Work?
Enrolling is simple, and the process runs quietly in the background once you are set up. Amazon handles every enquiry in line with its own store guidelines. Here is the journey, start to finish:
- Receive your orders. You sell and dispatch your Fulfilled by Merchant units as normal.
- Amazon handles enquiries. All post-order customer contacts are routed to Amazon Customer Service.
- Track your performance. You get a monthly metrics report and can monitor the CSBA Insights Dashboard. When a contact needs your input, Amazon now flags it through Buyer-Seller Messages.
- Watch your business grow. Higher satisfaction and healthier metrics feed directly into more sales.
What Happens When a Customer Gets in Touch?
Most enquiries are resolved before they ever reach you. CSBA works in tiers. Automation tries first, a human agent steps in if needed, and only the small number that genuinely require your input are passed to you.
The takeaway: you are the final escalation point, not the first responder. You only hear about the issues that truly need you, while everything else is handled for you, 24/7.
How Much Does CSBA Cost?
CSBA is priced on how often your customers need help, not on how many orders you ship. The fewer contacts per unit you generate, the less you pay. Below 3%, you pay nothing. The current UK rates are:
What is contacts per unit (CPU)? CPU is the number of customer contacts (calls, chats or emails) Amazon handled per Fulfilled by Merchant unit you shipped over the previous three months. A low CPU means happy customers and a cheaper, or free, service.
CSBA Pricing Examples: John vs Sue
Real numbers make the pricing easier to grasp. These two examples show how the same programme can be free for one seller and a small, predictable cost for another.
Example 1, John gets CSBA for free. John's Shoes dispatched 400 units in the quarter, and Amazon handled 10 contacts. That is a CPU of 2.5% (10 divided by 400). Because John sits under 3%, his CSBA is free.
Example 2, Sue pays a small fee. Sue shipped 1,000 units and Amazon handled 95 contacts, a CPU of 9.5% (95 divided by 1,000). Her rate is £0.12 per unit. On 200 units shipped that month, she pays 200 x £0.12 = £24. Bring that CPU back under 3%, and she earns free CSBA again.
Take Action: 3 Things You Can Do Today
- Check your contacts per unit. Work out your CPU from last quarter to see whether you qualify for the free tier.
- Start your 90-day free trial. If you are new to CSBA, enrol and test the service with zero financial risk. Only the primary account administrator can enrol, so make sure the right person sets it up.
- Fix the root cause of contacts. Tighten up listings, dispatch times and product information to keep your CPU, and your costs, low.
Want Help Getting Your Amazon Account in Shape?
CSBA rewards sellers with low contacts per unit, and that comes down to tight listings, fast dispatch and clear product information. That is exactly what we do. Kangaroo UK manages Amazon accounts for UK sellers, from listing optimisation to PPC. If you want a hand getting your metrics into the free CSBA tier, get in touch with our Amazon team.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Customer Service by Amazon free?
It can be. CSBA is free for the first 90 days, free ongoing if your contacts per unit stay below 3%, and free if you ship fewer than 30 orders per quarter. Above 3% CPU, you pay a per-unit fee based on your tier.
Does CSBA cover FBA orders?
No. CSBA covers self-fulfilled (FBM) orders only. Amazon already handles customer service for FBA and Seller-Fulfilled Prime orders.
What does CSBA not handle?
CSBA covers post-order enquiries. It does not handle pre-order questions, and it excludes queries about invoices and product customisation. Those still come to you.
Who can enrol in CSBA?
Only your primary account administrator can enrol the account in CSBA. If you are not the primary account holder, ask them to enrol or to grant you access.
How is the fee calculated?
Amazon looks at your contacts per unit over the previous three months and sets your rate at the start of each month. The lower your CPU, the lower your fee.
Author
In my day-to-day work managing Amazon accounts, the biggest time drain I see is post-order customer service. CSBA quietly takes that off your plate, and for most of the sellers I work with it costs nothing. If your contacts per unit are under 3%, it is close to a no-brainer." - Laksh, Amazon Account Administrator, Kangaroo UK
Get Expert Help With Your Amazon Account
Kangaroo UK helps UK sellers grow on Amazon, from listing optimisation and PPC to keeping accounts healthy and customer metrics strong. If you would like help getting your contacts per unit down so CSBA stays free, talk to our Amazon team.
Call 01530 560177, or Contact Us today. We're here when you need us most.
