Customer started 2 threads

[ChiGardensInc]

I contacted customer about an order for an item out of stock. That thread continued and we agreed to cancel the order. But the customer had trouble cancelling the order so she started a second thread which I didn't realise was not connected to the first thread even though it was for the same order So I cancelled the order for her and updated her on the first thread. and now I have been penalized for the 2nd thread which I didn't reply to since I had already ended the conversation on the first.  So how is this a fair calculation of message response rate by Etsy when it lets customers open multiple conversations about the same order??!!!

[CraftyasElleUK]

Because Etsy is basic and cannot tell the difference. A new thread is a new thread. It's down to us to either reply to it, or alternatively, mark this 'duplicate' as SPAM.

[ChiGardensInc]

Thank you. Yes, so I've learnt that is the case now after this experience. How do I get someone to manually correct this? Seems unfair especially when I was that close to getting all 3 badges.

[BagmakerSupply]

@ChiGardensInc: 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 auto adjust in a day or two if the original thread was within the current star seller period. But be aware that doing so may cause other messages from that account to do directly to the spam folder.

[TheArtfulTwig]

@ChiGardensInc 

I had exactly the same thing happen, and I was under the impression (clearly thought I had read) that Etsy was merging threads from order convos and messages for a single buyer.  Apparently  not!

Like you, the buyer wanted a refund and wanted to buy something else. I even issued the refund without the return in hand (something about the way Etsy sent the communication made that seem warranted, but I"m re-thinking that one).  I did it with minutes.  

Then, I got the same message from the other thread saying I hadn't responded. It will knock my shop out of star seller status if I can't raise it, and I don't get a high volume of messages.  I was totally bummed as I've kept up star seller status since the beginning.

I wouldn't recommend marking something as spam, for sure.  But it seems invasive to the buyer to have to reply to both threads just for star seller stats.

[BagmakerSupply · Accepted solution]

How is Etsy supposed to know the nature of a message? Do you want some bot reading every one of your messages and guessing? How many threads would there be in this forum that "some bot incorrectly classified my message"?

@TheArtfulTwig: It is probable that the customer send you a second message as a Help Request which ALWAYS starts a new thread.

Subsequent messages from the same account (a buyer may have multiple accounts) are supposed to be combined into a single thread but we have had a few incidents where we sent a "regular" message to someone where there was an existing thread and the system still started a new thread. Etsy is now putting a blue text warning / advisory (blue banner on desktop, and a blue dot on mobile) on those messages they consider to be a "new message" but should semantically be called a "new thread".

[TheArtfulTwig]

@BagmakerSupply  You are correct. 

I learned this the hard way!  My mind just went with the other communications from Etsy around combining threads.