Message Response Rate Below 100% Because Of Spam

[SupplierStudio]

I was unable to maintain a star seller status because my message response rate fell below 100%. Upon investigation, the messages that I did not respond to right away are messages from other Etsy sellers asking me to purchase their merchandise outside of Etsy. I reached out to a rep and was told that they were unable to do something about it, and all messages (whether you are a buyer or seller) count against the message response rate. How is this fair? Frankly, I dont think Etsy should allow folks to message other users about selling their products particularly if the sale will happen outside of Etsy's platform. And why will a non-response/late response to a message as a buyer counts against a Star SELLER ranking?

[HallelujahTree]

I believe that if you mark those messages as spam your SS status would be adjusted (not sure how long it takes).

[WitticismsRus]

Etsy is pretty clear about how the message response rate is calculated in help center here https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/articles/4403058372503-How-to-Become-a-Star-Seller?segment=selling

There is a highlighted bit under message response rate info that says "The Message response rate only applies to the first message in a thread. Initial messages from both buyers and sellers on Etsy are counted towards the Message response rate. "

The info is also right there on the Star Seller page in shop manager. Just go to shop manager > star seller. Once there scroll toward the bottom until you find "Questions? We've got answers." Then click messages. The very first question there says

"What messages count toward the message response rate?

Your message response rate is based on just the first message in a conversation, not ongoing conversations. This means you just need to respond to the first message within 24 hours. This applies to messages both from buyer and seller accounts..."

That means ALL messages. It also means each individual message thread so if someone sends you 5 different messages with 5 questions instead of putting them in the same message chain you need to respond to all 5 of them.

The system is completely automated and doesn't know if the message is from a buyer or another seller. It isn't reading every message and making a decision if it's from a seller or a customer or what it's about. It's a computer program that calculates data. It just sees a message and calculated the response time. That's just how it works
If the star is important to you then it may be a good idea to read or review all the info Etsy provides about the star seller program.

Bottom line...you have to either reply or mark as spam.

It takes just a few seconds to mark spam as spam or send a quick thank you reply for nonspam messages.  Or you can set up an auto-reply every 5 days.

Etsy provides tools for sellers to use , it's up to us to use them.

[ExtremeCreation]

Those messages you mentioned are more than likely scammers and should be marked as spam. They should know that it is against Etsy's policy to try to get sales to be moved outside of Etsy's platform.

Mark those messages as spam. Marking them as spam will not affect your star seller badge. I would mark them as spam today (even if the messages has passed the 24 hours response window) before the month is over and your rate should be adjusted.  

[ChillwolfArt]

Good advice from others.  Just to let you know, you may receive a Message from an Etsy Seller whom you are friendly with ("Hi, how's it going?", for example). Because you are not the Initiator of the Message, it works the same way; you must Respond or Mark as Spam.

Hope this helps.