Communication Stat incorrect

[ThatEFFENdogCrafting]

I am getting a negative effect to me not replying to a message that there was nothing for me to respond too.  It was an order I placed and the seller confirmed my order.  I did not need to respond AND I was the buyer.  Why does that effect my stat?

[UniqueGiftOrnaments]

All new messages must be answered or put into spam. It doesn't make any difference if it's a seller or buyer.

[ChillwolfArt]

Hi, The way the S Seller Metrics work is, every Message where you are not the Initiator, must be Responded to or Marked as Spam. Not too long ago, as a Buyer, I had a Message from the Seller re: my Order. I replied Thank You, which is what I did before the S Seller came out. I use the same account for both Buying and Selling.
You may receive a Message from a Seller whom you are friendly with (How's it going, for example). That still counts as requiring a Response or Mark as Spam. I don't consider a Message from a Seller about my Order, to be spam. But should I receive a Message such as "Buy my gems, 20% off", into spam it goes.

I hope this is helpful to you. 

[hopeandjoystudios]

Under Star seller stats on your dashboard  and  Questions we got answers > What messages count towards the message response rate?

Your message response rate is based on just the first message in a conversation, not ongoing conversations. This means you just need to respond to the first message within 24 hours. This applies to messages both from buyer and seller accounts. Messages from Etsy staff do not count toward your response rate, and neither do messages that you mark as spam. You can also now find a breakdown of your message response rate score by downloading a CSV.

Yes they could make that clearer/easier to find.

[BagmakerSupply]

@ThatEFFENdogCrafting: "Why does that effect my stat?" The Star Seller metric for messages is very simplistic and binary - either you replied to (or marked as SPAM) that first message of a new incoming thread within 24 hours or you did not.

You may want to reread the Star Seller rules so that you are not surprised by anything else.

If the unanswered new thread is not a Help Request, at least for the time being, it appears that marking an unanswered new thread as SPAM (even after the 24 hour deadline has passed) will cause your reply percentage to change in a day or two (but not retroactively) 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.

[BootifulLabels · Accepted solution]

The rules clearly state that all new messages require an answer or to be marked as spam within 24 hrs in order to qualify for SS. It doesn't matter who they are from or what they are about, no-one reads your messages, the system is automated and simply compares the time-stamps for receipt and response to determine compliance. If you mark that message as spam now, it should update your stats within a day or two, but it will not help with the badges already awarded.

If you don't want your purchases to affect your SS status, you have a couple of options.

1. You can use Auto reply to send a "thank you" or an "I'll get back to you shortly" message. This counts as a response for SS, but needs to be reset every five days.
2. You can create a few snippets with various messages and send quick responses that way in just 3 clicks, Snippets/Select/Send.
3. You can create a new, buyer only Etsy account and keep all your purchases separate from your shop.

Number 3 is the easiest option, once your buyer account is set up it requires no ongoing maintenance and you never have to worry about messages from sellers interfering with your SS rating.

[ThatEFFENdogCrafting]

Thank you for clarifying.