Message Response Rate was not calculated correctly

[Ziatacraft]

I know I have responded to all messages quickly, within hours, and yet my percentage dropped and I'm no longer a Star Seller. There is an issue with Etsy's bots and it's costing me.

[WitticismsRus]

@Ziatacraft 

"There is an issue with Etsy's bots and it's costing me."

I'm a bit confused. What do bots have to do with your message response rating? Are you perhaps talking about spam messages? If so then you need to mark spam messages as spam and your rating will not be impacted. 90% of the messages I get are spam and I mark them as such. Etsy provides tools to deal with these things, it's up to us to use those tools.

If I'm totally misunderstanding what you mean by bots then disregard the above. 

Have you downloaded the csv to see what messages it's saying you missed? If not then you need to start there to figure out what messages you missed. 

[Ziatacraft]

Hi WitticismsRus,

I answer every message I receive quickly. I guess "bots" is what I mean by the way Etsy's system keeps track of our message response rate. I cannot see any messages I missed. I'm not a big business, it's very easy to keep track of messages. I've been a Star Seller since they began the program and it makes a difference to my little business. I'm suddenly not a SS for no reason I can see.

Thank you for your response, Nunzi

[NanaLetha]

How do bots figure in?

[Serrelynda]

I agree with you @Ziatacraft  my message response was not calculated correctly either.  I have many (answered) messages that aren't showing up on the CSV.

[WitticismsRus]

@Serrelynda 

Were those messages from the last few days of the month? If so then yes, that's a known issue with the star seller thing. It seems to stop counting 3 or so days before the end of the month. Unfortunately there is nothing that can be done about it according to etsy.

[hopeandjoystudios]

I think they only count first messages...or did you mean first messages? I have seen they get a bit hinky about what they count in the last day or 2 of the month...at least what some have reported but who knows if they didn't answer messages to them where they were the buyer.

[BagmakerSupply]

@Serrelynda  What counts is the FIRST message in a NEW thread. If your customer sends you a message on a new topic but it is attached to an old thread it is NOT considered a new message for Star Seller. If it is not in the CSV file than the message is probably attached to an old thread. You can easily check by looking at that nessage and seeing what is earlier than your reply. The new blue warning / advisory should show up on those messages that Etsy considers new.

[ArtDollsbyJD]

You responded to all first messages?  Did you spam any messages?  Did you ignore any message you thought didn't need an answer.  If it was a thank you message you need to spam it or answer.  

Were any messages close to being overdue depending on where the message was coming from?  Sometimes that can make a difference whether it was recorded answered or not.

If you look at the dates and times over the last three months and see nothing that wasn't answere you can contact Etsy and ask.  No guarantee they will change it.

[Ziatacraft]

Hi JDTotesnDolls,

I'm not a big business so it's easy for me to respond to ALL legit messages, including thank yous, well within the required timeframe.

Thank you for your response,

Nunzi

[Adorabilities]

Did you receive any that you don't consider legit? Because those have to be answered (or spammed) too.

Adding... You don't have to guess at what counted against you. Check the Message CSV for that time period (not the current period) to see what counted against you.

[GypsyByMelissaPike]

I'm having the same exact issue as Ziatacraft. So frustrating.

[BagmakerSupply]

@hopeandjoystudios    What counts is the FIRST message in a NEW thread. If your customer sends you a message on a new topic but it is attached to an old thread it is NOT considered a new message for Star Seller. The new blue warning / advisory should show up on those messages that Etsy considers new.

[hopeandjoystudios]

I don't think I have that yet..or it hasn't applied. No blue new message dots?

[Ziatacraft]

Hi BagmakerSupply,

I'm careful to respond to all messages whether it's new or not.

Thank you for your response,

Nunzi

[gipseegirl]

My message response rate is seldom ever accurate. I disregard the whole hype of being a "star seller". All that matter to me is that my customers are happy with my response. I am a "star seller" and I don't need the Etsy mark of approval.

[OldWorldWoodshop]

I have had the same Star Seller issue for two or more years. This is what happen in the last few days.

FIRST ISSUE:

Our STAR SELL BADGE has been incorrectly tabulated for the third time in three years. We are losing our August Star Seller rating because the ETSY Order Program and Message programs have not given me credit for all of my message responses.  I informed ETSY of this programing issue a year ago. I have been very watchful to see that order messages and ETSY messages were responded to. Now I find the customer generated two message streams and an order message stream. 18 messages between us from July 16th to 27 July and I still lost my STAR SELLER BADGE because the program says I did not communicate with the customer. I now find the customer was messaging me on three message streams, not the two streams I was guarding. Jim, OldWorldWoodshop

CAN ANYTHING BE DONE TO CORRECT/ PROTECT MY AUGUST STAR SELLER RATING?

ETSY Shop:  OldWorldWoodshop

CUSTOMER: Julie XXXXXXXXXX (Guest who placed an order on July 16th and in some manner was able to generate three ETSY message streams (The order, message streams 1 and a 2nd message stream.

Jim Harris, OldWorldWoodshop

[BagmakerSupply · Accepted solution]

@hopeandjoystudios: If I understand you correctly, your buyer contacted you via a number of new message threads. Normally, subsequent messages from an account are appended to an existing thread, but there is an important exception. Help Requests always start a new thread because they also start the clock ticking on a potential claim. It sounds like your customer contacted you by starting multiple Help Requests. Unfortunately Etsy has been very clear that you need to reply to the FIRST message of EVERY NEW INCOMING THREAD within 24 hours. It does not matter who sent it, the subject matter, if it is a duplicate or blank or anything else.

If an unanswered new thread is not a Help Request, at least for the time being, it appears that marking an unanswered message as SPAM (even after the 24 hour deadline has passed) will cause your reply percentage to change in a day or two if the original message was within the current star seller period (but not retroactively). Note that subsequent messages from that account may go directly to the SPAM folder.