Did not qualify for Star Seller based on Message return to an Etsy Seller

[TrinityCreByMaryBeth]

I thought we were not counted against if we received a message from another seller and did not respond. I was dinged for not responding to an Etsy seller on a personal order and did not make Star Seller this month.  I feel cheated as I have worked very hard to consistently meet all goals.  This message was a follow up on a purchase I made for my personal use and did not feel I needed to reply.  Now I am told that all messages even from another seller are counted because, "sellers are also considered as buyers at some point".  

I believe this needs to be reviewed and taken into consideration in calculating our standings.

[moonbeamgifts]

You are dinged no matter what if you don't respond in the first messages -- after you've exchanged those, then you're fine - but Etsy isn't aware of which are buyer and which are seller discussions so it's on everything across the board.     

Long ago, I started a second buyer only account for myself and when this system was rolled out, I was so very glad I did.    I get a lot of "advertising" over there and if I don't reply or mark it as spam, it doesn't matter.   It's also handy around tax time to keep everything separate - our accountant has enough on her plate to not have to pick through my non-business purchases, LOL.

I know it won't help you this month because Etsy will not modify a current month's seller status but perhaps next month or at the new year if you want everything on one calendar year?

[byLaurieB]

       Etsy is quite clear and always has been that ALL messages must be replied to - " initial messages from both buyers and sellers on Etsy are counted towards the message response rate".

[bradgoodell]

Etsy has always said "All messages".  Since sellers can also be buyers, and buyers sellers, ALL messages count.  Etsy doesn't know if the message was about your purchase, or a purchase the seller wanted to make in your shop, or your bestie wanting to talk, or some random spammer.  Either respond to the message or send it to spam.

This has been Etsy's policy since day one, it's unlikely they will make that change now.  

[BagmakerSupply]

@TrinityCreByMaryBeth: "I thought we were not counted against if we received a message from another seller and did not respond." Probably everyone in this forum can sympathize with you but a quick search would show you the innumerable threads about the exact same issue in this forum.

Etsy has been very clear and consistent about messages / convos from the very beginning of the Star Seller program. The Star Seller metric is that the FIRST message of a NEW thread must be replied to within 24 hours. 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.

Subsequent messages from the same account (a buyer may have multiple accounts) are supposed to be combined into a single thread. Etsy is now putting a blue text warning / advisory on those messages they consider to be a "new message" but should semantically be called a "new thread".

Help Requests always start a new thread.

If you are creating a custom listing based on a new thread, you still need to reply to the message.

Cancellation requests in a new thread must be replied to in the actual message - replies using the cancellation form do not count as a response.

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.

If you have not yet done so, you might want to read https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/articles/4403058372503-How-to-Become-a-Star-Seller?segment=selling

[HazelsSewingSupplies]

Don't know why, but I feel compelled to say this again, so here goes.   It always helps to read the messages that Etsy sends us via the Dashboard.  It's put there for a reason.  Sometimes it doesn't apply to all of us, but we never know until we read the messages.

I can't believe that after 1-1/2 years, we are still being deluged (maybe not quite that bad) with posts from sellers that apparently didn't read the rules of the game.

[audreytherese]

Unless you have separate accounts for your selling and your buying, Etsy doesn't know the difference, messages are messages.

[GlassyFields · Accepted solution]

mark the messages that you didn't respond to as spam. In a day (or several), the star seller message stats will update w/o including the messages that you didn't respond to within 24 hours.

And the initial message of all threads counts.

Once I got a message from Etsy inviting me to participate in something ... and if I was interested to click on the link and fill out the form. I clicked on the link and filled out the form and THAT message counted against my message response stats. Lesson learned.

[HotChaiCreations]

Thank you for the suggestion, @GlassyFields.  

[HotChaiCreations]

I agree with you, @TrinityCreByMaryBeth.

I made a personal purchase from another Etsy seller and received a notice from the seller that my order had shipped. Unfortunately, this notice went to my business account and Etsy dinged me for not responding to a canned shipping message from the other seller.

This dropped my message response rate from 100% to 83% and I too lost my rating. We work very hard to keep our metrics at the required level for the program only to have an algorithm in the software determine we are not meeting the goals. VERY disappointing. 

[HazelsSewingSupplies]

The rules from day one have stated that we must reply to the first message whether from buyer or seller.

Nothing hard about that.

[WhatsNewPussycat1]

Did you know a help request from a buyer informing you a item arrived damaged if you instantly go in and issue a refund and then go back and tell the buyer you're sorry and a refund is on the way that doing it out of sequence results in a late message ding...

[audreytherese]

A help request starts a new thread, so yes, most of the people that regularly read the forums are very aware of the fact that you need to respond directly to the help request on top of any other direct messages. 

Last week I had a buyer place an order, then immediately send me a message with a question. While I was typing a response, she sent another message, this time through the help center. I was well aware that I needed to respond to both messages, even if they could be answered together, if I cared about the program.