Loss Star Seller ranking due to a technical error.

[CartoonguyShop]

I lost my star seller rating for this month. I got a message from a customer named Jeanne stating that she could not download an image she had just bought. I emailed the image to her and she acknowledged that she received the file. Later I received another message that was a duplicate of her original message. I initially ignored it because I had resolved the issue. I then thought I'd better just check to make sure she was okay with the file. Everything was fine. However, I was outside of the 24hr window. I take pride in how I treat my customers and feel this was a glitch on Esty's part. I got the same message twice. Please resolve this for me.

Thankyou.

[NanaLetha]

Not an Etsy glitch. You must respond to all messages before 24 hours.

[IllGoWithYouOrg]

Were you able to confirm the duplicate message was not a glitch? 

And can you assure people the customer won't get annoyed by the seller replying to both messages, when the buyer may have only been aware one message was sent, risking a bad review for sending "too many" messages?

[HazelsSewingSupplies]

There's nothing technical about no responding to a message.

Believe the rule says ALL.....

[PaperThoughtsbyGaye]

Same thing for me. I take pride in answering my messages right away at all times. I am sure they have miscalculated my message response.   I’ve been doing this since 2017a way before star seller existed. Etsy rep told me set up auto reply to catch any you may inadvertently miss. And Now in a email from Etsy they tell me that auto reply is only temporary??   Then what is the point. I give up.  There is no getting any kind of help from Etsy any longer. Not like in years past. They simply do t care 

[audreytherese]

Even if it was a glitch that it was sent twice, you acknowledge that you saw it come in and ignored it. 

You could have reached out and told the buyer you just received the same message again and wanted to confirm that there wasn't still an issue. You eventually did do this, at least reach out to make sure they were satisfied, but it's on you that you did it after the 24 hours. 

[moonbeamgifts]

If I get multiple messages from a customer, I write once and then copy/paste to all of them - and not necessarily for SS rating.    You never know when a system has glitched and maybe the original message went into the atmosphere so they wouldn't even get the reply.   

I don't like to mark legitimate inquiries (even duplicates) as spam because I don't trust that Etsy can tell the difference in the future.   Solicitation messages - I don't care if the future ones go straight into the spam bin but I don't want to take a chance that it is an all/nothing from a particular account.

[TonsOfPaper · Accepted solution]

Hello @CartoonguyShop,
 

Messages from the same buyer will now be consolidated into fewer threads. However, when a buyer reaches out via the Help With Order request, a new thread will be created which needs a response separately. These types of message threads need to be responded to in 24 hours to be counted positively toward your Star Seller score. New threads will now have notification badges showing if a message is a buyer’s first time contacting you, or a new help with an order request. 

For more information about this, you may check out the Message Response rate section in this Help Article.

Thank you very much!

[CartoonguyShop]

Got it. I have taken measures to assure this doesn't happen again. I have set up auto-reply and have created a message to respond to any duplicates. I should be good going forward. It's been a bit of a learning curve. Thanks.