Fix it - Once AGAIN another star seller error

[BlackRabbitNYC]

My free, on time shipping with included United States Postal tracking information (youre welcome) was incorrectly calculated with the post office having received the item on time and I was embarrassingly rewarded with a shipping badge removal thereby showcasing my shop as no longer a star seller during this pivotal time of March for my category.

I was told by customer support that my following two orders being shipped on time would rectify the error in calculation and to patiently wait 24 hrs.

After speaking with not one but 3 customer service reps I was shuffled off to the forums where I was guaranteed I would receive outreach from support. 

I am a stockholder and am an original etsy member who has had a 5 star rating since the unethical program began. Fix the problem, in this time of quick decisions made by the consumer and a flood of unqualified products on the etsy platform, there should be flexibility in cases such as these. Unacceptable.

[ThePurplePuppy]

Unfortunately both of these apply. Tech support never ever reads these forums--the only ones of us here are other sellers like yourself.  Chat will send you here when they want to be rid of you and get rid of you on chat.

The other things is Etsy has said they will NOT "fix" anything about the star seller program. It is run entirely by bots and is not subject to appeal or any kind of "fixing".  It can also work both ways. I got a very bad 1 star review one month on the last day of the month. The following month I still had star seller because it came in "too late to be counted".  The following month I also had star seller bu because it was counted but by the end of that month I had enough 5 stars to offset it!  It took me quite awhile to figure all that out but I was not going to complain. LOL 

Sorry this happened to you but speaking form experience I think we just have to live with it.

[BlackRabbitNYC]

You can build flexibility into a bot. Thanks.

[ThePurplePuppy]

@BlackRabbitNYC 

I can't-

-only Etsy can, and they probably won't. This star seller thing started in Sept 2021 and they have said since the getgo they will not "fix" any mistakes--be it theirs or ours.

I don't know why they haven't put that in "Chat" script.

[BootifulLabels]

"You" probably could, but Etsy tends not to.  The rules are clear enough (if not equitable) but the whole program is automated and works on triggers the bots are programmed to look for.  Miss a trigger and you could lose your badge.  

The end of the month is often the danger time for many.  If you get a sale in the last two days of the month, the bots won't count that sale for the current month (so as not to penalise sellers for orders that are not yet due to be shipped), so it is rolled over to the following month.

Star Seller is an aspirational program, it is designed to "encourage" sellers to up their game to meet Etsy's arbitrary standards.  They never intended EVERYONE to meet it every month, it's designed to make sellers try harder.  

Don't make the mistake of thinking that the loss of Star Seller will have any significant effect on your shop, it rarely does.  My shop is small by design, and I rarely manage to reach all the criteria (5 months in total in over 3 years).  It really doesn't matter, I have never seen any significant increase in sales when I have the badge.  Don't sweat it, it is really not worth the stress.

[TheVintagePineapple]

Are you sure the problem is because of whatever the PO miscalculated?   I've created a couple of labels the day before the due dates but couldn't get them to the PO for 2 days past the due dates because of a snowstorm.  I wasn't dinged for that delay since I created the label in time.

[BlackRabbitNYC]

No label printed just shipped an on time package with tracking.  I believed this irl fact would have auto corrected for any perceived hallucination of delay

[TBQSC]

"I am a stockholder ..."

You are?  Really?  I don't see your company name listed as a stockholder!  One would think you would have a lot more pull with Etsy if that was the case.   At any rate, sorry you lost the SS shipping star!  Check your CSV to see which ones were affected.  The good news is you can earn it back quite easily.  Best wishes!

On a side note ... your shop is missing a lot of info required for Etsy seller protection ... currently it is not Etsy legal for all the Worldwide locations you ship to!  

[PrimFun]

Was your item accepted by USPS within your processing time frame?  For US sellers it is inportant that the item is accepted by USPS and in transit by the time processing time frame ends. Otherwise the item is deemed not shipped on time even if it gets tracked later on.

Check the CSV.

The low star does count but not for the month coming up.  For example a feb 28 low review will not count for March but will for April.  Sounds like you got enough reviews that the low star did not matter.

Etsy is quite clear they won't change the metrics or how it is applied.  There are many sellers that have similar issues and never got it corrected yet went on to get star seller back with some saying it had no impact on sales.

[BlackRabbitNYC]

Was your item accepted by USPS within your processing time frame?

YES and that should be the extent to which the matter should be discussed anything else is double speak coming from support.

[PlatypusDream]

Etsy can not, and will not, retroactively adjust your Star Seller metrics.

It is all run by robots and cannot be "fixed".

Support sent you here because there is nothing you can do. We are here to say "better luck next time".

It doesn't matter if you are a stockholder, a long time seller, or the pope. This can't be "fixed".

Better luck next time.

[CraftyCornishMaids]

It has to be marked as shipped on time, by the date you select on the ship day for the label

or mark it as completed on time.

If you mark it as complete, a day late, it doesn't matter what the tracking says, it uses what you input.

If you download he csv, you will see which of the 3 categories your order/s failed on

[PristinityJewelry]

^^^This!

[BlackRabbitNYC]

@BagmakerSupply  The default when entering shipping data is for the following day. I entered 2 shipping confirmations and only one had a resounding no on the csv. I was told that the following 2 orders would auto correct the ratio. I have a memory of there being an auto correct for orders entered late but shipped on time but perhaps thats just too much to ask for a bunch of calculating numbers and dates to figure out. In anycase, I reached out to support when i saw that my shipping stats of 94% with the one resounding no had now lowered to 92% with my 2 following on time ship/entry orders. The entire experience of reaching out to support, the failure of star seller for not having overide on baseline matters that negatively effect our marketing of ourselves on their platform. Delay the evaluation on fuzzy data intersections, change the default date to the actual date. These are not difficult things to do and there is an enormous outcry for it here on the forums and perhaps a mountain of support tickets having heard the same conflict.

[BlackRabbitNYC]

Its not like I'm sitting here w 11:59:59pm I entered the data on the date of which the order was to be shipped and WAS shipped. 

[CraftyCornishMaids]

Star seller stats does not go on tracking information

it goes on the time you mark as complete

what does the CSV say?

[BagmakerSupply]

@BlackRabbitNYC: Our experience is that the default date for completed is 'today' until late evening when it displays as 'tomorrow' but can still be changed back to 'today'.

I don't know how support came up with the "will auto correct" answer but it takes 19 marked as completed (shipped) on time orders to offset each completed late order to be at 95%. That is just the way the math works out.

[BlackRabbitNYC]

Also I want to say that being a stockholder and opening my shop in 2006 does fn matter. Etsy would not have had all the start up money it had if it weren't for us and a fun fact: folks werent too keen shopping on the internet back then and us crafty makers help get a helluvah lot of ppl over that hurdle again, you fn welcome.

[LaRenaissanceGirl]

Who are you even talking to? We (forum members) are not “Etsy” smh

you need to email Etsy

[BlackRabbitNYC]

@CraftyCornishMaids the tracking number and the post office receiving the item are not the same thing from what I understand.

[BlackRabbitNYC]

• @LaRenaissanceGirl change your tone w me young lady. Im stating for the record my experience.  Perhaps you will benefit at some later date. Do you or do you not believe that should you ship your item on the ship by date with tracking evidence and an entry log on the date you should not be experiencing a badge removal thereby sending the consequential message of an inconsistent and unreliable shop owner? 

[LaRenaissanceGirl]

I don’t disagree with your plight, but I also don’t care for your aggressive attitude towards other Etsy sellers who are not your subordinates, however much seniority you have. 

“change your tone w me young lady“

And you don’t tell me what to do.

Again. You need to contact ETSY directly. Good luck with your mission.

[BlackRabbitNYC]

@BagmakerSupply every order, I have had, in every instance in this 'period' has been shipped on time. 

[CarpetCollectionAU]

@BlackRabbitNYC Question 1 "Was your item accepted by USPS within your processing time frame? YES"

Question 2 "Did you mark as Complete AND enter the Tracking Number within your processing timeframe? XXXXX"

Question 3 "Was ths Order due to ship 27/28 Feb or any date after?"

To minimise back and forth discussion with obscure or missing specifics, perhaps I will just highlight that the parcel may well have been received and processed by the PO but still be considered "late" for SSP Shipping with Tracking Metric because either

1) You marked as Complete and entered Tracking after the due to ship date? The CSV data is taken from when you enter it, either by purchasing an Etsy label or manually marking as Complete and entering a Tracking Number

2) The Order/s were due and Shipped 27/28 Feb, but data entered later. The Etsy system takes the date the data was entered not what the Tracking indicates.

3) The Order/s were not due to Ship until 01 March or later in which case the CSV for the March Badge will not recognize them, but the CSV for the April Badge will update. That is probably what Customer Support meant by "auto-correct"

[BlackRabbitNYC]

The order was due on the 24th I shipped it on the 24th I entered the tracking information on the 24th but may have relied on the current date of the 24th to be what was at default (which it sure a st should've been) the us post office states it received the item on the 24th. I did not create a label, there is no label on which to speak, I used a sharpie pen, my 2 feet to walk to the post office and handed my handmade item to my same postal worker on my corner in Brooklyn NY as have done on countless other orders shipped at my expense after having increased my turnaround to compete with the factories that sell on etsy. I was ping ponged like a pachinko ball in support and am now getting it sideways in the forums. Take a hint tech support fix the program its not flexible enough to accommodate basic reality.