FIX THIS ISSUE ETSY

[ClementsCreationsCo]

Etsy is going to take away my star seller badge because I didn’t reply to a seller’s message saying “if you order again within 48 hrs you get free shipping”, which I was not interested in doing. This is bull crap. I shouldn’t lose my star seller badge for that! 

FIX THIS ISSUE ETSY.

[ShinyBeadArt]

You can mark this seller message as spam. Then it won't affect your star seller status.

[JackisJustVintage]

You have to either reply to any initial message or mark it as spam. It does not matter who sent the message or why. This is how it has always worked. The bots cannot tell if it was a message as a seller or a buyer. Just remember reply or spam all new messages. You can spam it now and your numbers should go back up.

[BootifulLabels]

The rules clearly state that all new messages require an answer or to be marked as spam within 24 hrs in order to qualify for SS. It doesn't matter who they are from or what they are about, no-one reads your messages, the system is automated and simply compares the time-stamps for receipt and response to determine compliance. If you mark that message as spam now, it should update your stats within a day or two, but it will not help with the badges already awarded.

If you don't want your purchases to affect your SS status, you have a couple of options.

1. You can use Auto reply to send a "thank you" or an "I'll get back to you shortly" message. This counts as a response for SS, but needs to be reset every five days.
2. You can create a few snippets with various messages and send quick responses that way in just 3 clicks, Snippets/Select/Send.
3. You can create a new, buyer only Etsy account and keep all your purchases separate from your shop.

Number 3 is the easiest option, once your buyer account is set up it requires no ongoing maintenance and you never have to worry about your purchasing activity interfering with your SS rating.

[CraftyCornishMaids]

you have to reply to all new message threads, or mark them as spam,

etsy highlights them in blue, so you don't miss them.

they won't know if it's about something you bought, or if they now found your shop, they are askng about an item the want to buy.

If you buy from your selling account, this can happen

[BagmakerSupply]

@ClementsCreationsCo: Almost everyone on this forum can sympathize with you but a quick search would show you innumerable threads about your exact issue. As it says right on your Star Seller page, you need to deal with the FIRST message of EVERY NEW INCOMING THREAD within 24 hours for Star Seller. 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.

The message you received is an example of true SPAM and definitely against Etsy's Terms Of Use and should be marked as such.

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.