Given poor message response score for soam

[EatYourGreensFarm]

Looking at my Star seller page. I was given a poor rating due to not responding to a spam message. Are we required to respond to something like this to get star seller?

[VINTAGEbytheMAGPIE]

you have to reply to ALL messages within 24 hours and / or send to spam .Info explaining this can be found in your dashboard under the star seller heading . Its been this way since the start of the programme

[mommawhazelsquilts]

Now might be the time to read the rules connected with the Star Seller Badge.  There might be other things that you might run afoul of without knowing the requirements.

We can't control the number or dollar amount of sales, how fast the package is delivered or the reviews we get.  Answering messages is the only thing we can control so we need to stay on top of it.

[Adorabilities]

If you believe it's spam, then mark it as spam. You don't need to respond to messages that are actually (marked as) spam.

[audreytherese]

As others stated, you must either respond or mark it as spam in order for it to not count against you. Etsy doesn't filter out spam messages for you, so it's up to you to mark them accordingly.

Just note this can not be done in the seller app, but instead has to be done in either in a browser or the buyer app. 

[BagmakerSupply · Accepted solution]

@EatYourGreensFarm: "Are we required to respond ..."  As others have mentioned, and as it says right on your Star Seller page, 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. If it is SPAM then it should be marked as such.

A controversial workaround : 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.

Unless something has changed recently, you can only mark a message as SPAM using the buyer app or a browser, the option is not available in the seller app.

[ArtDollsbyJD]

All new messages need to be answered within 24 hours.  Spamming is answering the message.