Incorrect star seller rating concerning message response time

[BusyHands4Learning]

Hi,

I had a customer email me the same question from two separate email threads. I responded very quickly and resolved her issue on one of those emails threads. I did not respond to the redundant email because the issue was already resolved. My star seller dashboard is now counting this against my rating for May. Can this be corrected?

[Former_Member · Accepted solution]

Mark the second message as spam.  It should fall off and your score should improve within a couple of days.

eta, if you do mark it as spam, keep an eye on your spam folder.  I believe any future messages from this buyer will go to spam.

[hbhill]

The rating isn't incorrect. You need to respond to ALL first messages even if they are redundant. Read this article on how the Star Seller program works. https://www.etsy.com/starseller

[audreytherese]

Etsy doesn't know that it's a redundant message. All their system sees is a message with no response. 

Although it was recommended to mark as spam, I've seen it more recently that you now have to mark the message as spam within 24 hours, the same time frame you have to respond to the message. They used to do it retroactively, but I think people were taking advantage of this just to get the SS, so it appears Etsy has changed how it works (this was seen in a comment from a mod in here, I have not had any messages to mark as spam to test it myself). 

[hbhill]

@audreytherese You make a valid point about marking messages as spam. Etsy's isn't very good about informing sellers when they make a program process change. Etsy did say when a customer sent multiple emails Etsy would combine all the emails to avoid not having to respond to each new email, yet that doesn't appear to be the case for all messages from the same buyer.

"Messages from the same buyer will now be consolidated into fewer threads. To help keep track of messages you should prioritize for Star Seller metrics, new threads now have notification badges showing if a message is a buyer’s first time contacting you, or a new help with order request. Both of these types of messages need to be responded to in 24 hours to be counted positively toward your Star Seller score."

"What happens if I receive a message that I consider is spam? Messages marked as spam don’t count towards your response rate."

That's why I like to point to an Etsy article even if it may not be up-to-date. If I do mention a fix I'll state this worked for me, but may not work for everyone. Too many programming variables for a 100% work around. 

[audreytherese]

Ya, they definitely don't like to give clear definitive answers as often as possible. I know for a long time you could mark messages as spam at any point, and after a few days the report would update. Then more recently people have said this isn't working. I didn't save which post it was on, but I do remember a mod coming in and giving the normal spiel about how messages need to be responded to or marked as spam within 24 hours (before they used to say it had to be responded to within 24 hours or marked as spam). It was just that quick swap of the order in which they said the words that caught my attention. Of course I only remember seeing it in here one time and there's no more clarity on the subject, like a timeframe you need to mark it as spam within, in the rules. 

[ArtDollsbyJD]

The information on star seller indicates taht all NEW messages must be answered or spammed.   If you get the buyer sending duplicate new messages, answer one and spam the other.

[FringeVintageShoppe]

Does anyone else find it kind it crazy that you have to respond multiple times to basically the same message in order not to be considered unresponsive? Etsy now has two apps and I get messages through both and I respond to one, but not the other and I get bad marks for not responding?

[audreytherese]

What? Are you saying you have to respond in both apps? I don't, but I normally respond from a computer anyway, not an app, and only have to respond once. I know they are trying to phase out the old app, so it's possible they are not syncing that one anymore. Have you tried only responding from the new app? 

[BusyHands4Learning]

Thank-you for all of your insights! I do realize that technically the star seller rating is correct in this particular situation, but the spirit of what a star seller represents is definitely not reflected in my example. But, star seller is an automated calculation and is definitely not nuanced enough for situations like these. I did previously see the solution of marking a message as spam, but was unable to do so from either seller app and thought that my window had closed. Fortunately that wasn't the case - I was able to mark as spam using my desktop computer. So thank you all for clarifying which situations were appropriate for marking a message as spam! It made me try again, and that 3rd time was the charm.