I didn't respond as a purchaser

[VioletApothic]

I made a purchase and the seller reached out to me and I didn't respond it time. I had a 100% with message response rate and this has brought me to an 83%. Surely this shouldn't count towards my star seller badge.

[bradgoodell]

I'm so sorry, but Etsy has always said the first initial message from either a buyer or seller.  So yes, it counts.  

[audreytherese]

If you are using the same account to both buy and sell on, then yes, all messages count. Nobody but you know what the message is about. Even if it is from a shop you purchased from, there is nothing to say that person is also using the same account to both buy and sell from and didn't check out your shop in the process and have a question about one of your items.

If you don't want to have to worry about this in the future, I highly recommend opening a second, buyer only, account. That way you can keep all your purchases separate from your sales, and you don't have to worry about responding to messages sent to that account. 

[hopeandjoystudios]

Put it in spam and it should come off in a day or 2. Live and learn.  In the future respond Thanks. You may consider setting up a buyer account so this sort of thing won't ding your sellers account. Or add a message at checkout to please not contact you.

[HazelsSewingSupplies]

"Surely this shouldn't count towards my star seller badge."

I would suggest reading the rules in case you might have missed other important things.  Rules say first message from buyer or SELLER.

[BagmakerSupply · Accepted solution]

@VioletApothic: Probably almost everyone on this forum can sympathize with you but 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.

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.

[michellepatterns]

That message counted towards your score.  By "all" initial messages etsy really does mean all of them.  If you read the Star Seller rules and then follow them you can earn it back in time.