Got dinged on Message Response for this?

[MelodysGiftDepot]

This was a help request where i believe i refunded the customer who purchased an item but found another that she said was in better condition- my reply was ..no worries..blah blah...than she said thank you ..and uh i got dinged for not responding to a thank you?  That's  generally agreed as a point where the conversation can end. So as a seller do i need to ALWAYS make sure i have the last word?  That seems ridiculous.  Not the most important thing on earth... just thought this was extreme. 

Oct 1, 20222:38pm EDT

Message:No worries.. i shop online too.. and a lot of times once you purchase something they show you a bunch of others! Best wishes

Date:

Oct 1, 20224:53pm EDT

Message:Thank you!!!

[GalleryAntiques]

Was the customer's thank you in the original message or a separate one? if separate, then yes, Etsy expects you to respond to each new message. If it was within the original message thread, then no, you do not have to keep responding for it to be counted.

[MelodysGiftDepot]

• I checked and it looks like a separate message sent later- I’m gonna call this a bad algorithm. What’s curious is as far as I could tell there was no way I could see to send this question or appeal directly to Etsy from the star seller dashboard .. are they living up to their own standard?..thanks for the info!

[GalleryAntiques]

@MelodysGiftDepot   As it was a separate message, then you have two choices, reply or mark it as spam. Don't do either, you will receive a ding for it.

Etsy has no way of knowing that it is the same person whom you had already received messages from.

Just mark it as spam, your rate will go back up eventually.

[ShopOfSkullsStore · Accepted solution]

If the customers reply was a new message just mark it as spam and it won’t count against you.

[weekendjewelry1]

Or if you don't want to mark it as spam (not sure if the customer would see that and be offended) - just post a smile emoji ... hey, it works!

[AAANativeArts]

You need to respond to the first Convo or Mark As Spam, no matter what it says. If the customer writes back in the same convo, you do not have to have the last word, as long as you responded at least once.

If they start a new convo just to say thank you, you  can mark it as spam or write back to say You are welcome. You have to respond just once to each individual convo.