Drop of Star Seller badge for response rate

[VintageNorth44]

Hello - Over this past weekend we received two orders for crocks from the same buyer. A few hours later the buyer messaged us that they were debating the sizes of the crocks that they ordered.  We were in an active discussion with them about the dimensions and offering them suggestions for potential change to their order, and in the course of the discussion thread - agreed to refund the original items ordered and the customer placed a 2nd order for two different crocks that we had listed. 

The issue came due to the two requests for refund showing as "new messages" from the buyer. The buyer did the correct thing and submit a request to refund via the etsy process and we did submit the refunds right away and had kept all communications through the original message chain. The 11 messages exchanged between us and the buyer covered the discussion and their request to cancel the order and refund.  We acknowledged the refunds in the original message thread and the buyer acknowledged the message on the refunds.  We were penalized because we didn't click into the two refund request messages.  

While it states that Etsy support can't change a rating - could our current rating be changed/corrected with a review of the discussion with the buyer?

[UniqueGiftOrnaments]

We have to answer every message regardless. Put the unanswered one into spam and it should bring your rating back up.

[MaynardMillinery]

I’m sorry, just to clarify - you and the buyer had an open convo steam going, discussing changing the order, and the idea to refund the original order came up so that the buyer could purchase another two crocks - yes?

Then you said “The buyer did the correct thing and submit a request to refund via the etsy process” - do you mean the buyer then stepped out of your existing convo thread and opened Help Requests on both their open orders? 

Really, there was no need for that to happen, as you were already discussing refunding them to allow them to repurchase other items, all you had to do was go into their order and hit the cancel button, job done. Help Requests don’t unlock the transaction so that you can refund it, it adds another layer to your workload as Help Requests are separate to convos and no, they’re not linked to your original thread and do (both in your case) need acknowledging otherwise they go against your SSB score. Not sure why you advised your buyer to do that.

[VintageNorth44]

We did not advise the buyer to do what he did.  Under normal circumstances, in absence of an existing conversation, that would be the correct procedure, although in this case, the conversation was already taking place in an existing message string.  

[audreytherese]

There are 3 different types of message systems, and none of those 3 talk to each other. So answering within one system will not satisfy the response requirement in another. 

The 3 systems are the main inbox, a help request, and messages within the refund screen. 

Even if a customer sends 2 messages back to back, but one is a regular message and one is a help request, you have to answer both. Or answer the help request and send the other one to spam (you can't send help requests to spam, and should be warned future messages from that buyer will end up automatically filtering to spam, so shouldn't be used just to get a SS badge). 

Many times a customer will ask for a refund in a message. The seller will immediately go to refund the order and add a message in there as a response. These messages do not carry over to the main inbox, and will not satisfy the response requirement. Even if you did exactly what the customer requested and you technically sent them a response message, it will still be held against your account if not done correctly according to how Etsy has it programmed. 

I don't know what you actually received from your customer, but many people are not aware that these are 3 totally different and distinct messaging systems, so it often happens that they respond to one, but not all, or not in the right place. 

[VintageNorth44]

So, in other words, we as a seller took action to make the customer 100% satisfied, but due to a crude message system which does not consolidate messages onto one platform and one string, we fail. Isn't this supposed to be all about the customer?  Evidently not.  We expected much more from the Etsy platform with current technology.    

[BagmakerSupply]

@VintageNorth44: Not disagreeing with you, but the Star Seller metric for messaging is simply did you or did you not answer every new new incoming thread (or mark it as SPAM) within 24 hours. The intention may have been to measure customer service but how is using auto-reply good customer service, for example?

[audreytherese]

Yes, Etsy is a crude system that you have to learn to work with, not expect it to work correctly. 

Not sure why you expected more, this is the same company that says to 'keep commerce human' but runs the site almost entirely with bots.