Unable to Answer Customer Questions

[BrightBladeLaserLLC]

My messaging has been disabled for over a week and I am unable to answer both buyer and potential buyer questions.

The message I receive is:

 "Bummer, your messages have been temporarily disabled. Please contact support to have them reactivated. Also, see the FAQ and Community Guidelines for more info about Messages."

• I opened a support ticket but have not heard back anything from Etsy Support except for the initial "How to report scammers" email.  The support ticket is still open with no additional information from Etsy.
• I've read through the FAQ and Community Guidelines, and I can't see where I've done anything wrong nor what I can do to fix things. 
• I haven't been spamming potential buyers from within Etsy.  I only answer messages that have been sent to me first.  
• My shop isn't disabled, as I've been able to add listings, edit listings, and make sales.  Etsy still makes their fees from me.

What I can't do is respond to any questions buyers or potential buyers send me.  I've also had a friend test this with me to verify.  My shop can't message.  My personal account can.

I know I can at least answer buyer questions externally by looking up their email from their order, but it's a round-about fix that doesn't reflect on my response time within the Etsy platform, so I'm sure it will negatively affect a star rating down the road.

How long does it typically take for Etsy Support to respond to and address Technical Issues?  (Apart from the canned responses I mean.)

[PlatypusDream]

Etsy's rules:

https://www.etsy.com/legal/sellers/

"i. Messages

With Etsy's "Messages", you have the ability to communicate directly with your buyers or other Etsy members. Messages are a great way for buyers to ask you questions about an item or an order.

Messages may not be used for the following activities:

1. Sending unsolicited advertising or promotions, requests for donations or spam;
2. Harassing or abusing another member or violating our Anti-Discrimination Policy;
3. Contacting someone after they have explicitly asked you not to;  
4. Interfering with a transaction or the business of another member;
5. Exchanging personal contact, financial or other information for the purposes of evading the checkout process on Etsy, including phone number, address, email, social media handles, external URLs, instructions for money transfer, etc."

If you were contacting potential customers that favorited your items, or contacting people in other shop's feedback, or sending coupon codes to previous customers... your messages would be disabled.  It can be up to 2 months (or more) for your messages to be restored.

If you were giving your email address in messages, directing people to your website to purchase... also potential problems.

It can happen in error as well.

It can take a few days, to a few weeks, to get a response from Etsy.

If you have received a canned response already, go back to that email and reply "I STILL NEED HELP", or they will assume that your problem has been resolved. DO NOT start a bunch of new support tickets with them - they will close your other ones and kick you to the back of the line.

[BrightBladeLaserLLC]

Within the Etsy platform there is an option for sellers to automatically send coupons when a buyer leaves something in their cart unpurchased.   

Do you think the automatic Etsy Coupon program is accidentally flagging my account as a spammer and disabling my messaging? 

The only other thing I can think of is I don't offer customization services so maybe they don't think I need messaging?

I've responded to the automated email message previously, and I post updates in the support ticket to keep it open.  I have not created duplicate issues.  I haven't received anything from Etsy except the automatic reply.  Plus the issue still shows as open in the Support area.

Today I have someone with questions about a purchase that I've had to answer outside of the platform and I just hope my response didn't go to their spam folder since I'm sure my email address isn't known to them.

Maybe I'll have to add a note to all my listings and receipts that includes my email address for folks to email me directly.  That seems like something Etsy would frown on as it directs customers away from their site.

[BrightBladeLaserLLC]

I have buyers who are messaging me with questions that I can't answer within the Etsy platform.  To provide excellent customer service I've been answering by sending them email outside of Etsy since Etsy Messaging doesn't work for me.  Is that further complicating things?  It seems like a terrible idea to ignore customers.

[JDTotesnDolls]

You can send emails to the buyers that have purchased from you.

As to potential buyers, take the email you have received and respond back that you still need help. You could also try and clean out cache and cookies to see if the problem resolves itself.

The other issue maybe preventing contact is the designs you are using.  Have you checked to see if the license plate designs are copyrighted?  

In addition your shop is incomplete.  About page and shop policies are needed.  While usually not a factor, it can be.