Docked for not responding to a message from someone I bought something from!

[WhatsinanameByAlicia]

Is there any recourse if you are knocked down to a lower percentage for next month’s star seller, if you just did not  answer a message from someone you bought something from? 

[AutumnHollowStudio]

Messages from sellers you purchased from must also be responded to within 24 hours in order to meet SS metrics for message response rate.

Editing to add: if the seller is messaging you with an order update, be sure to respond. If the message is unsolicited (sale event, coupon code etc) then mark it as "spam" and not responding won't count against you.

But there is no recourse, unfortunately, as the rules are stated.

[WhatsinanameByAlicia]

Thanks! 

[WitticismsRus · Accepted solution]

@WhatsinanameByAlicia 

There is no recourse as it's calculating things as intended. 

Etsy is pretty clear about how the message response rate is calculated in help center here https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/articles/4403058372503-How-to-Become-a-Star-Seller?segment=selling

There is a highlighted bit under message response rate info that says "The Message response rate only applies to the first message in a thread. Initial messages from both buyers and sellers on Etsy are counted towards the Message response rate. "

That means ALL messages. It also means each individual message thread so if someone sends you 5 different messages with 5 questions instead of putting them in the same message chain you need to respond to all 5 of them. The system is completely automated and doesn't know if the message is from a buyer or another seller. It isn't reading every message and making a decision if it's from a seller or a customer or what it's about. It's a computer program that calculates data. It just sees a message and calculated the response time. That's just how it works.

The info is also right there on the Star Seller page in shop manager. Just go to shop manager > star seller. Once there scroll toward the bottom until you find "Questions? We've got answers." Then click messages. The very first question there says

"What messages count toward 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...."

If the star is important to you then it may be a good idea to read or review all the info Etsy provides about the star seller program.

Bottom line...you have to either reply or mark as spam.

It takes just a few seconds to send a simple 'Thank you'. Or you can set up an auto reply every 5 days. Etsy provides tools for sellers to use , it's up to us to use them.

[CommonInk]

This is not true. 

Not responding to Spam messages will affect your message rate response. 

Etsy has identifying a series of messages we received as spam. As we missed those messages, they are now affecting our response rate. 

Etsy support just stated to us that this is a technical issue and cannot be resolved and not responding to spam messages will impact your response rate. 

[Former_Member]

Sorry, OP.  I didn't mean to derail your thread.

[JudyStalus]

Etsy doesn't read the 1000s of messages that are sent every day. Sellers are often buyers. So Etsy has no way to distinguish between a message you were sent from the seller and a message that same seller sent to you inquiring about one of your products.  Hence all must be answered to count for the algorithm.  Marking as spam counts as answering if that makes it easier. 

[CommonInk]

This is not true. 

Not responding to Spam messages will affect your message rate response. 

Etsy has identifying a series of messages we received as spam. As we missed those messages, they are now affecting our response rate. 

Etsy support just stated to us that this is a technical issue and cannot be resolved and not responding to spam messages will impact your response rate. 

[audreytherese]

Since you are using the same account for both buying and selling, as are many other sellers, Etsy will not distinguish between the messages. As far as they're concerned they believe anyone messaging your seller account is a potential buyer. I've actually had it happen where I bought from a shop and we exchanged messages about the order, then they ended up buying from me. So both of us were both the buyer and seller in that conversation. 

If you don't want to worry about responding to messages from sellers you buy from you can create a second, buyer only, account. That way you can keep your sales and purchases separate, as well as you know which messages require a response (any message to your seller account).

[FabioMcMustache · Accepted solution]

Hello!

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Since this thread is indeed a bit older and the information contained here may be outdated, it will now be closed.

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