Getting double messages from customers and then being penalized in star seller

[Witchsgardencrafts]

I'm getting duplicate messages from customers who request assistance.  If I don't answer both, I have found out that I am penalized in star seller.  It's weird for our customers to answer the same question twice.  Is there a way to fix this? 

[zeynNY]

just apologize to your customer in the first message for the inconvenience and  reply the second message just with " thank you " 

I believe that Etsy will find a way to fix it. Until then we have to keep doing what we need to do 

[MixieAndMoxie · Accepted solution]

Nope.  Etsy has not addressed that issue.

It's a pain in the you know what, isn't it?

I answer the 2nd message:  "See my response to previous message".

[Donobob]

Or mark one of the identical messages a spam.

[CuriousityShop]

If you mark any as spam you can't get messages from that buyer again.

[Adorabilities]

Is Etsy sending you multiples of the same message? If so, that's annoying, but you still have to answer or mark as spam. I wouldn't mark anything as spam that isn't actually spam, so I'd answer them.

If it's the customer who is sending you multiple question threads, I can't imagine they'd be bothered receiving multiple answers. I'm not sure why sellers seem to feel badly answering them all -- it's not like we are spamming the customer, simply answering messages that we've received. I just let them know that I've answered all of their questions in another thread.

[OneEyeCatStudio]

Isn't this fun?

All the old bugs and glitches that Etsy never fixed are coming home to roost in the Star Seller fiasco!

[Donobob]

Fix a bug

WHAT'S THAT ????????

Etsy is, after all, a tech company. You can't expect big tech companies to fix every little glitch - especially if it makes them money and costs you time and grief.

Good grief Charlie Brown...

[TrouvaisVintageTable]

I had the same problem, and now I won't qualify for Star Seller. A customer sent me two separate emails about the same issue. I answered one of the emails, and since the other was about the same issue, I didn't answer it. Etsy then lowered my response rate to 88%, (it has since gone up to 92% because I have answered other questions since, but not enough to make it to 95%). Which means I won't qualify for Star Seller, even though I answered the customer in the time frame required. Very disheartening.

[SnappyBaby]

I'm in the same boat.  I have never missed a message, but had someone send me 5 different messages with a different link in each one to set them up a custom listing. I obviously only responded to one of them, so 4 went unanswered.  This was back in June, so of course I didn't know Etsy would punish me for being a decent human being. Now, I respond to every message with either the same exact response or add in that since I have multiple messages, I'm just making sure they get a response in case the messages are not working.... like yesterday, when they weren't working for my customers!

[AlmostHeavenLiving]

It got my Star Seller also, i didn't want to annoy the buyer with multiple responses.

The only solution is for a support system to "help" bring your numbers up with messages. I only need a couple more messages to get mine up to 95. I have tried to get more messages by having a shop announcement for a special promo code for messaging. Good luck Tina

[LaylaBeckDesignCo]

Me too! So annoying!

[CuriousityShop]

Just do what MixieandMoxie suggested. Just write "See previous message." I had triplicate messages from a particularly odious person and answered all of them with just a few words.

[WhimsicalFig]

A week ago I had a customer send me exactly the same message 6 times!  She was asking if I had something I don't stock so didn't make a purchase.  I obviously replied to her first message, and didn't even think about the other 5 as they were identical.  My rating has plummeted now     I've contacted Etsy help but not too hopeful of getting any help there.  I'm sorely tempted to mark the excess 5 as spam in a last ditch attempt to solve it.    Has anyone tried that?  Would it work a week later?

[Donobob]

After the fact, caught as you are, I would mark them spam. That is basically what those 5 messages are anyway.

Maybe do as Bootiful suggests and get a snippet ready for next time(s).

[BootifulLabels]

This is what we have snippets for.  Create a snippet that simply says 'answered in your previous message" or similar.  When a buyer sends a duplicate message (and it is easy to do on "touch" devices if the touch screen is very sensitive) it is just two clicks to send the snippet in response to the duplicate.  

[Things4YorOtherHouse]

that's all well and good, but since it is past the time for responding and I had responded to the duplicated message, now what? 

Being a star seller is not worth the ulcer I am going to get over petty non-sense like not answering the same question sent twice.  My customer wanted to cancel the order, which I did and refunded the money, now my messaging has a 93%

I asked to have this resolved, however reading this thread it looks like it wont be.

[BootifulLabels]

You won't get a resolution from Etsy here in the forums, they are only for peer to peer support, we are all fellow sellers who share our knowledge and experience.

There is probably nothing you can do if the 24 hr deadline for responding has passed, it is too late and Etsy will not change ratings based on duplicates.  For the future you can watch out for duplicate messages and make sure you either answer both (with a short message or snippet) or mark the duplicate as spam and it will not count, but you can't do either retroactively.

[RoseTintedNuance]

I’m thinking, maybe this is because of problems with double Apps - as a seller and as a buyer? Why doesn’t this site make one APP for all cases, like on any other site? Is it that difficult? I had to remove the buyer's App, I hope this will solve the problem of duplicating messages. It's so so so disempowering. 

What’s most frustrating is this obsession with a "star seller" when you don’t strive for it, but it’s always looming before your eyes, why isn’t there an option to turn it off completely?

No more buying here, sorry - delete my buyer's App today. The reason - duplicated messages.

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