2 messages from same buyer - no Star Seller?

[EliteDesignsJCL]

Hi,

a customer sent me 2 messages with the same question within 1 minute. I responded to 1 of them within 24 hours. Now Etsy says I didn't send an answer to the other message fast enough... please delete that cause otherwise I won't get the Star Seller in February.

Thanks!

[UppNorthCo]

etsy won't delete it but the good news is you can.  mark it as spam and you will be restored.

[LeCordons]

@UppNorthCo I marked it as spam and it did not change anything

[BagmakerSupply · Accepted solution]

@EliteDesignsJCL: Probably almost everyone on this forum can sympathize with you but a quick search would show you innumerable threads about your exact issue. As it says right on your Star Seller page, you need to reply to the FIRST message of a NEW INCOMING THREAD.

It does not matter who sent it, the subject matter, if it is a duplicate or blank or anything else. If it is SPAM then it should be marked as such. Those have always been the rules.

Unfortunately, Etsy has made it clear that they will not manually adjust Star Seller data. At least for the time being, it appears that marking an unanswered message as SPAM (even after the 24 hour deadline has passed) will cause your reply percentage to change in a day or two if the original message was within the current star seller period. Note that subsequent messages from that account may go directly to the SPAM folder.

[EliteDesignsJCL]

Ok, right, that's how I did in the past. But Etsy said that they'd combine messages from the same customer. That's why I only replied to one of them...

[PristinityJewelry]

Etsy will not.  But mark as spam.

*Every* message must be answered.

When a customer doubles up like that, or starts multiple queries, I answer with a simple, "...(Responded in subsequent email)..."

[WildCrockophile]

What happened to combining conversations?  Did they take that away as soon as they gave it to us!?  

[BagmakerSupply]

@WildCrockophile: MOST subsequent messages from the same account are appended to an existing thread. There are a few exceptions over and above glitches - for example a Help Request ALWAYS starts a new thread.

[WildCrockophile]

Uggggghhh... I knew about that exception, but it doesn't sound like that was the case with the OP?  FFS.   ::sigh:: 

[EliteDesignsJCL]

That's what I thought.... they told us they'd combine messages from the same customer. So I only sent an answer to one of them.

[bohemians]

Curious ... if you mark a second message from the same buyer as spam, does it only affect the one message or do all future messages from that specific buyer go to spam? 

[BagmakerSupply]

@bohemians: Subsequent messages from that account may go directly to the SPAM folder.

[BootifulLabels]

Subsequent messages from that account may go directly to the SPAM folder.

Which is why it is better to utilize the Snippets tool in messaging to create a range of short messages you can use to respond quickly to duplicate messages, or messages that you feel don't really require a response.

EG.  Create snippets that say:

Thank you 

See my previous message

Answered on your other message

etc.  This way duplicate messages can e dealt with in just 3 clicks - SNIPPETS / SELECT / SEND.

[NoFrogsAllowed]

@BagmakerSupply 

Have you tested this?  I don't believe it is true.  Help used to say subsequent messages would go to spam, however it no longer says that.  You have to report harassment, etc. directly to Etsy now.  When you spam something now, it just goes into your spam folder and you can dig it back out if you want.  It doesn't get reported to anyone.

[WitticismsRus]

@bohemians @BagmakerSupply @BootifulLabels  

@NoFrogsAllowed is correct 

In my experience dealing with a very unpleasant user who was harassing me via messages the only subsequent messages that will go to spam are messages in that message thread that was marked as spam. If the same user sends another message in a new message thread it will NOT go into spam. I  marked their first message as spam thinking that it would put any message from them in spam but it didn't. It only put that message thread in spam. The 14 other messages they sent in individual separate message threads all came to my inbox. Even if I spammed all those 14 other messages they could just start a whole new message thread and it would go to my inbox and not automatically to spam. The only way to make that sort of thing stop is to contact etsy and they handled it within hours and I never received another message from that lovely person.

[BagmakerSupply]

@NoFrogsAllowed: The very few true SPAM messages that we have had were attached to an existing thread and went right to SPAM. I am sure that someone could circumvent that by using one of the contact methods which Etsy considers a Help Request and which therefore always starts a new thread.

[JJewellerySuppliesUK]

The bots can't tell one message from another.  It just saw two messages and one unanswered.  Even if you buy something and the seller messages you, you must respond to it.  

[CartersJewels]

I had a widow maker heart attack 2 weeks ago. When I was released days later, I learned hat same day someone had asked me a question on their phone app, "what is the size ring?" Of course I didn't know of any question...because I'd had a Heart Attack and was a bit busy dealing with life and death. Etsy dinged me which made me lose the "star seller" badge. I contacted Etsy to ask for it to be removed. They said it's a bot that does the calculations and cannot be reversed. Just moving on and letting my reviews do the work.

[EliteDesignsJCL]

Ok... I'm not sure but the Star Seller now says 100% message response rate (and it's not the end of the month yet). So I guess, it helped that I marked the second mail als spam.

[CraftyCornishMaids]

I hope you didn't mark the "help request" message as spam, as that's the one you have to answer, or if a case is opened the bot automatically refunds

you should only mark spam as spam, or you can get into all sorts of bother

[LeCordons]

I had a customer order a doll dress then in about 20 minutes later she sent a message asking to cancel the order. I responded within 5 minutes explaining I was not at my desk and would do it as soon as I was able, which was about 2 hours. I sent her another email telling her it was done. She responded with a thank you.  Now I have gone from 100% answering emails to 89% because for some reason there were 2 messages which I was unaware of. This system still has flaws!!!!!! Etsy referred me to the community area WHAT!!

[BagmakerSupply]

@LeCordons: eMails DO NOT count for Star Seller, only Etsy messages (aka Convos). There is no way for Etsy to link an eMail you sent to a new thread (or any message) which you received. If the new message thread from the customer was not a Help Request you may still be able to mark it as SPAM. This will cause your reply percentage to change in a day or two if the original message was within the current star seller period. But be aware that doing so may cause other messages from that account to go directly to the spam folder. Have you checked the applicable CSV file to make sure that there are no other message Etsy thinks you answered late?

[LeCordons]

@BagmakerSupply I think that is what happened to me, but I did not notice it. This is so wrong

[LeCordons]

@BagmakerSupply after I had gone down to 89% this was like a week ago, but just found out today I marked her help question as spam (today) so the one that is showing looks like I sent her a massage without her question. I do not know how that happened because I got the notification on my phone, and I messaged her back. I found out there were two today. One was the help question and the other was my response to her. This is stupid! smh

[BagmakerSupply · Accepted solution]

@LeCordons: Because they start the clock ticking on a possible claim, Help Requests always start a new thread. There are a lot of posts in this forum about issues with the Etsy apps and eMail notifications so the consensus is that a shop needs to check orders and messages at least once per day via a browser.