Inaccurate Message Response Rate Impacting My Customer Service Stats

[AMPressAndPrints]

I am experiencing less-than-optimal customer service stats for the second month in a row based on inaccurate data. For September, my message response rate was low because of spam messages that I ignored in August. Now, my October rating is being negatively impacted by those same August numbers. Is anyone QAing this information?

[Adorabilities]

Did you actually mark those spam messages as spam? They would stop counting against you.

[PlatypusDream]

You can't ignore messages.

Either answer with a short "no thanks" or mark them as spam.

Etsy can't tell the difference between real customers and spammers some of the time. It's up to you to either answer or spam them.

If you feel like you can't / don't want to deal with messages, set an automatic reply.

[BagmakerSupply]

@AMPressAndPrints: "... spam messages that I ignored in August ..." As it says right on your Star Seller page and elsewhere, you need to reply to (or mark as SPAM) the FIRST message of EVERY NEW INCOMING THREAD within 24 hours.

"Now, my October rating is being negatively impacted by those same August numbers." That is because the November 1st (current review period) Star Seller star and badges are based on data from August, September, and October.

[CatsWhiskersCurios]

It’s not inaccurate. I would suggest you have a read of the star seller and customer service standards criteria so you are up to speed going forward.

[NeedleFullofThread]

I have a situation where I could not respond to the buyer because they did not have an account. I would mark this as spam but it says they can no longer message or shop. A person by the same name had another order open that I could fill and could respond to so I didn’t want to block them. Emailed Etsy about the situation right away with no response. Was marked down significantly for not responding to the message that I was unable to respond to and also received no reply from Etsy, which seems ironic. How can they mark me down for not responding when they don’t respond to my messages?

[EtchedinTimeLLC]

@NeedleFullofThread  if they have a guest account, you can still message them, it just goes directly to their email.

[BagmakerSupply]

@NeedleFullofThread: "... I could not respond to the buyer because they did not have an account." If the buyer account has been closed, move it to spam. If it was a guest account you can still reply.

"... A person by the same name ..." But was it the same account? A buyer can have multiple accounts.