Losing my Star Seller badge due to Spam box

[WallohaWalls]

Hi,

I have a question. Two messages from actual customers got marked by Etsy as spam, and accidentally ended up in my Spam folder. I didn't see the messages in time, so failed to reply within 24 hrs - causing me to probably lose my Star Seller badge for next month.

Is there something I can do about this? It seems unfair to me to lose my badge this way.

Thanks,

Mariska

[cutebutton]

i had this happen but it didn't affect my star seller.  What I did was I replied to it but then immediately moved it back to the spam folder.

Doing that might keep them from messaging me again but in my case, yes it was a potential customer, but what they were asking was if I could ship an item in a ridiculously short period of time so I am fine if they move on to another shop LOL. 

[TheMagickalNeedle]

Do not move it to inbox at all or it will affect your star seller. I had a message that went to spam. I replied back when it was still in spam. Then the next day I moved it to inbox and it affected my star sell. I did contact etsy support a few times and got a random reply back. Another forum told me to move it back to spam and I did that and my message rate went back to 100 percent. So I don't know if it was the message moving back to spam or Etsy fixing it or both. If it is in spam it won't affect your message rating. 

[cutebutton]

you can move it to the inbox but you just have to make sure that it's final resting place is in the spam folder.

I moved a message to the inbox not knowing that it was over 24 hours old.  Responded and then realized it was sent the previous day.  Immediately moved it to the spam folder and it caused no issue at all. 

[WallohaWalls]

Thanks for thinking along!

I just had a chat with Etsy support (didn't know I could do that). They were very helpful and told me that this is a common issue, and you won't lose your Star Steller status because of this - even though my message response rate isn't at 95%. So I'm curious to see what with happen tomorrow.

[cutebutton]

@WallohaWalls 

I hate to tell you this.  Etsy chat support is, how do I say this nicely, useless.

ALL.THE.TIME they give inaccurate information.

Basically what you need to do is make sure that you move the message back to the spam folder.  That should take care of it.  If you leave it in the inbox it will count against you (regardless of what chat said)

[Adorabilities]

Why risk it? Support often doesn't give out the right answer. Move the thread back to spam if you want to be sure. (Although it might already be too late, as it's the end of the month already.)

@cutebutton Exactly!

[cutebutton]

@Adorabilities 

by often you mean never right HAHAHA.

I know that at the end of the month it gets weird with messages so you could be right that moving it to spam today wouldn't make it register.  I still am a little cloudy on how it works on the last day of the month. 

[Adorabilities]

@cutebutton 

There's some weirdness about the last few days of the month, and then there's also the 24 hours needed to register any change. (Rephrasing: the stats only update once per 24 hours.)

It's still worth trying, though!

[InkyLetter]

I havethe same issue. Also looking forward to see what’s to happen with my badge. And it’s sucha stupid reason - a customer sending two messages and one ending up in spam 

[JMOldeVintage]

Response posted by an Etsy rep. in this older thread:

https://community.etsy.com/t5/Technical-Issues/Non-spam-ends-up-directly-in-Spam-folder/td-p/1451063...

"Thank you for reporting this! We’re dedicated to keeping your accounts and the Etsy marketplace safe and secure. 

We’ve been making improvements to help you better identify authentic messages from Etsy. Recently, we’ve worked to reduce the noise in your Inbox by automatically moving potentially suspicious messages to your Spam folder (which you can only check on desktop right now). 

As a result of this, some of your messages may have been moved to the Spam folder in error. We’re working to improve the accuracy of these measures and we apologize for the confusion and inconvenience this may have caused. 

We’ve also heard your questions and concerns about how this might impact your Star Seller eligibility, which we wanted to clarify. Messages marked as spam by Etsy will not impact your Star Seller eligibility. If Etsy has marked a message as spam that you subsequently move out of the folder, we’ve ensured that also will not impact your Star Seller eligibility."

Now whether or not this 'reassurance' holds remains to be seen. Tomorrow is May 1st so we'll know soon. 

[cutebutton]

@JMOldeVintage 

I trust that zero HAHAHA.

It would be true that if you saw a message in spam and moved it to your inbox within the 24 hour period and responded it shouldn't count against you.

However what they said doesn't address if you remove it after the 24 hour time frame.  

Plus the  OP said that the message caused their percentage to drop so obviously it did affect it, at least while it remained in the inbox.  HAHAHA. 

[Adorabilities]

If they've figured out a way to have those particular messages not count against sellers -- you'd think they'd have found a way to calculate the percentage correctly on the star stats page.

[JMOldeVintage]

@Adorabilities  - I wonder if the May Star will answer any questions?

The link I posted was from March. Logic would (should) dictate that a message automatically sent to Spam would not count against the shop. It's in the spam box so nothing left to do.

But as more & more shop owners became aware that real messages from buyers or potential buyers were being sent to spam, things may have changed? 

I don't know what to expect but do hope that the tech corrections have been made. 

[BCNIcons]

I can confirm that that statement of Etsy support is absolute bull*.... I had one message from legit customer that was erroneously marked as Spam by Etsy (so I was able to replied to the message only after 24h) and I then moved it to "inbox" folder. Today my Star Seller badge for messages is gone because of this one message and Etsy has penalized my shop because of their own mistake... :(( 

[GoldDoorVintage]

Obviously NOT resolved since a bunch of us have the same issue! 

[Adorabilities]

Not really surprising, though.

Put those threads back in the spam folder, and they won't count against you next month.

[TBQSC]

Set up an auto response message ... star seller metric saved ... problem solved!

[JMOldeVintage]

@TBQSC  - Asking out of curiosity - Does auto-reply kick in on messages that Etsy automatically sent (sends) to the spam box?

Prior to the changes Etsy made in their effort to curtail spam/scam messages, everything went to the shop's inbox. From there they had to place in spam.
If they used auto-reply yes, the spam/scam message received a reply and then the shop owner had to read & decide where the message truly belonged. 

[TBQSC]

@JMOldeVintage "Does auto-reply kick in on messages that Etsy automatically sent (sends) to the spam box?"

YES!  When I was recently dealing with a harassing issue, all her messages went to my spam folder, and every one of them had my auto reply message attached. 

It is unfortunate that sellers are receiving valid messages in their spam folder, but if they set up an AR message, they won't get dinged.  I would encourage all sellers to check their spam folders daily via browser to ensure they are not missing out on valid messages.  It is hoped this recurring issue is fixed soon!

[GoldDoorVintage]

Same issue and customer support offered no solution and was not able to connect me to the technical team or forward my issue directly to them. Was told just to post here. Hope someone sees it and fixes the issue!

[ArtfulBeginnings]

Did not ruin my Star seller rating, but I did probably lose two very large orders because of it. My point is, Etsy loses out on these mistakes, not just sellers. They should take our concerns seriously.

[RichTexFabrics]

After spending 4 hours trying to work with Etsy help chat I still have the same issue. So frustrating and disappointing.

Anyway, it sounds like marking legit messages as spam again may be the solution. But in trying to mark the messages as spam, I got this message, "Message moved to Spam and sender blocked." How is blocking an actual customer considered good customer service? This is terrible!

Etsy, please fix.

[HomeworxDesigns]

This is all an Etsy issue that hasn't been resolved. Part of the problem is, you don't get notified of spam messages. 

The other issue is when you see it and notice it's not spam, then move it to your inbox, you will loose your badge.

Once its moved to inbox, the original post date will show you was late replying.

[ByLittleDi]

Hello, I just came across 6 legitimate messages in my spam folder (over 12 days ago). I was wondering if this issue has now been resolved? I have a Star Seller badge and am concerned it might affect my Star Seller status...