Etsy counting two messages from exact same buyer 4 min apart as separate messages. WHY?

[siriousdesign]

Etsy reduced my Star seller response rate, despite two messages 4 min apart from THE SAME BUYER where answered in one message thread. WHY? This is an Etsy glitch and I'm held responsible?

[NanaLetha]

Mark one as spam 

[ThePurplePuppy]

You have to respond to ALL "new" messages. They probably messaged you thru the regular system and then thru the help request. You need to watch those carefully. Nothing you can do now except possibly put the unanswered one in your spam folder. If it is not too late that may go off your record of unanswered.

[Former_Member]

As already suggested. Mark one as SPAM and wait 24 hours.

Your previous response rate will then be restored.

[BagmakerSupply · Accepted solution]

@siriousdesign: "This is an Etsy glitch and I'm held responsible?" If the customer messaged you via two separate threads it is not a glitch. Unfortunately Etsy has made it clear that you need to reply to the FIRST message of EVERY NEW INCOMING THREAD within 24 hours. It does not matter who sent it, the subject matter, if it is a duplicate or blank or anything else. 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".

If the unanswered new thread 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.