Emails from sellers counting against Star Seller Rating

[CustomMadeFast]

Typically I purchase on a personal Etsy account, but there was a situation where I purchased from a seller on my shop account. The seller sent a message which linked to files - I didn't respond, because I left a review instead.

This counted against my seller score, which seems like a pretty significant oversight - I would have Star Seller status this month otherwise. Shouldn't there be a conditional check to apply here?

[ChristmasIsLove]

The rules are explained on your Star Seller dashboard. ALL messages count. It's not an error or oversight. How is Etsy supposed to know whether a seller or buyer sent a message? User names are both. Do you expect them to read and interpret your messages? That's not going to happen.

There have been 1000s of Forum threads just like yours since the program started. The rules have always been the same.

[WitticismsRus]

@CustomMadeFast 

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. You can also now find a breakdown of your message response rate score by downloading a CSV."

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.

[michellepatterns]

That's how it works.  Be sure to read the rules and follow them going forward and you'll be able to earn it back.  

[BagmakerSupply]

@CustomMadeFast: Probably everyone in this forum can sympathize with you but 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"? 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 EVERY NEW INCOMING 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.

If the unanswered message is not a Help Request, 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 (but not retroactively). Note that subsequent messages from that account may go directly to the SPAM folder.