Star Seller has miscalculated my message reply rate

[EverLastingFurniture]

I've had 14 messages (supposedly) in August and September and have replied to 13. Which is 92.8% (less than the required 95%). But the one message that I supposedly did not reply to does not exist in my messages, so how could I reply to it??? The mystery message is from 'Lisa' on August 23, but in my message feed there are no messages between August 15 and August 27. How can you call Etsy's attention to this problem since there is NO WHERE in the help files for you to write a message to ANYBODY!!! This Star Seller 'thing' is beginning to be a big farce!

Les, EverLasting Furniture

[hopeandjoystudios]

Did you delete a spam message by chance?

[EverLastingFurniture]

Don't really remember getting any spam, but ... So if I did , are we supposed to reply to spam to keep a good Star Seller rating?!?! Bogus!

[hopeandjoyhome]

(Still Hope) Yes you need to put spam in the spam file ( or reply eff off if you want) but not delete it until AFTER you spam it or reply to it. You have to now reply in some way or put it in your spam folder. Every single incoming message. Even if it is an admin announcement type message if it is in your message folder.( Probably would not tell an admin to eff off..just got it or OK or even spam it)

I think you can go to your trash file, move them to your inbox and then to your spam file. That might fix it.

[LorryPolizziVintage]

Having same issue.  I have wasted far too much business time trying to figure out how to reach someone... Etsy gets no badge from me!

[GlassyFields]

marking a message as spam seems to remove it from the stats - as if there was no message at all. It worked for me on at least one message. I still have a mystery message that is being counted though. And reading the forums there seem to be a lot of people having trouble with the message stats.

[GreenStreetMosaics]

At the end of the day, you will continue being a great seller. I hope you know that you don't need an arbitrary star on you page from etsy. Your shop is amazing. Etsy still can't get it's sh*t together in any sort of metric EVER so don't sweat it. 

[Havunome]

FYI;

IF you do not get the last say in customer messages, your message response rate is going to go down. You end a message and the customer responds "Thank you", you might want to respond again or else lol.

IF you have 1-2 Business days of handling or more and proceed to ship that same day, your shipping percentage will go down due to missing processing time.

IF the shipping service is late delivering and customer complains, then gives bad rating. Guess what goes down, which was not your fault.

IF you had more sales before the seller rating was implemented, you might want to spend more on the Ads.

From my experience anyways, end of rant.

[JMOldeVintage]

First off, link to report issues: https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?segment=selling#issue_sell_star_seller-contact_select

Second - There is now a CSV to download your Message Metric. I believe you have to go into the 'previous tab' to see how the October 1st Star Badge was calculated.

It's been stated that you Are Not required to have the last word in a message thread. Just be sure that a "new" message is attached to an "in use thread". 
If you purchased from an Etsy Shop, realize that Etsy has No Way to figure out that you were the Buyer. Your User Name - which you purchase under - is usually attached to your Shop. Messages thanking you for an order, confirming shipping, etc., Do need to be replied to in that thread.

If you get Spam, Mark It As Spam!! At the start of the SSP there were a ton of threads started by Shop Owners wondering why they couldn't use Etsy's messaging. (Yeah, too many Shop Owners out there sending out self promotional messages.) Shop Owners can go back in time & mark Spam for what it is & eventually their stats get updated. If you've already deleted any Spam without replying or marking as such, there isn't much you can do.

The only thing I do wonder about, are the Spam Messages that Etsy does seem to quickly delete - often these messages have attachments that contain malware, etc. being "registered", "deleted" but not "100% erased"? These messages are either reported &/or possibly a "bot" picks up on the attachments & deletes the messages & closes the account they were from? Again, this is something I wonder about - I have NOT seen any reports that this has been an issue. 

Finally, if there is ever any doubt that you'll be able to respond within 24 hours (yes, 24/7/365) set up the Etsy Recommended "Auto Reply". It's good for 5 days before needing to be reset. No, that doesn't keep commerce human, but it may keep a few gray hairs at bay. 

[SunshineVintagePhoto]

what's an "in use thread"? 

[JMOldeVintage]

@SunshineVintagePhoto - Must not have had enough coffee yesterday when I posted. Guess I should have said a "continuous" or "current" thread.
To me an "in use" thread is the one you & your buyer (or the Shop you purchased from) have been communicating in.
Some Buyers start separate threads - say you're discussing all the details on a custom order in one thread but they suddenly message you with yet another change - in a different thread. Even though it's from the same buyer & pertains to their one order, Etsy doesn't know this. I definitely understand that Shop Owners would confirm the change in the older, more detailed thread - the one they had been using.
But that new message - if not replied to with "see our previous messaging" - will go against the Shop Owner.