Message Response - Star Seller

[McKeoneSoapWorks]

I believe there is a glitch in the 24-hour response requirement to message replies. I received a help request to cancel an order. I replied immediately "Your order has been cancelled" in the comments section of the cancellation window. The buyer responded with a "Thank You", and I again replied with a comment "I hope you come back again sometime". I would call this a message within 24 hours.

FYI for sellers: Etsy does not consider this a message response.

I was dinged on my star seller rating for not replying through the actual message window to the "help request". I am posting this to alert sellers that any replies to buyers, must be through the etsy message window, not through a comments box.

I found this frustrating, since the message string does appear in my messages box, but it does not count as replying within 24 hours.

I asked etsy to look into their software to account for valid conversations and be able to merge, or verify that a particular buyer was replied to in any of their message windows, so that busy sellers are not scrambling to be sure the reply is accounted for.

To be clear. The buyer sent me two different threads. The first was a direct message, the second was a "I need help with my order". I replied to the buyer through the first through the comments box in the cancellation, but not the second thread. I was dinged for not replying to the second thread.

Etsy will not help you out on this. They asked me to post this situation on this Discussion board in hopes that it may help other sellers keep their Star Seller Status, and also in hopes that the Etsy App/Software team can fix this glitch.

As I type this I think, "well, now you know. You have to reply to every single message, what's the big deal?" But I believed I was doing that. That is my point. Since I am hyper vigilant with my etsy shop, I truly believed I had handled that situation with the buyer perfectly. It makes me wonder what other glitch I don't know about that might impact my rating. I'm a reasonable person, but I find this scenario to be unreasonable and in need of a technical update.

[audreytherese]

There are 3 places to message with buyers and none of those 3 places talk to each other. Yes, it's bad programming, but it's still better then it used to be, so who knows, maybe some day Etsy will 'fix' it even more than they already have. In the meantime, we can only work within how it's set up now. So you are correct, a response in any one of those places doesn't satisfy the response requirement in any other place (only 2 of the 3 require a response). 

Those are:

1. Regular messages
2. Help requests
3. Messages sent inside a refund

It's prudent to always remember that these 3 systems are all separate from each other. At least for now. 

[McKeoneSoapWorks]

Thanks for all of the replies. It's nice to get feedback and validation that this is not just an issue for me.

I've been selling for 2 years, and I am only just learning that these 3 message routes are not inclusive to each other, and that I must check on the main message platform to be sure I did not miss a message that came in from an alternate route. This is tricky if you are away from your desktop view that includes all of the platforms, whereas an iphone view makes it difficult to backtrack to be sure incoming messages came from different message platforms.

[QuirkyAntiquesStore]

That doesn't count I'm afraid. You have to respond in the message center not on your cancel or refund forms. The bots just track whether or not you respond to MESSAGES. I did the same thing and it cost me a badge for a few months. You also have to respond to every thread a buyer starts, even if they start a second one.

[BagmakerSupply]

@McKeoneSoapWorks: "I replied immediately "Your order has been cancelled" in the comments section of the cancellation window." Agreed that either there needs to be better integration or better wording on the different "message" options. As it stands, "messages" in the refund form do not attach anywhere, the "message" in a cancellation form is appended to the default message thread you have with that (buyer) account only, It does not append / reply to the Help Request.