Message from a seller I bought from counted against me

[InspoCornerDesigns]

I just looked and my stats went down to 93% because it said I didn’t respond to 1 message within 24 hours. I looked and it was a message from another seller that I purchased an item from, not from any of my buyers. I always respond to buyers immediately, so I feel it’s unfair that a message from another shop I purchased from should count against me. Please help!

[InspoCornerDesigns]

This is specifically about my Star Seller eligibility - not sure if that was clear in my post 

[PatCahillMetalworks]

Yes that happens, Etsy expects you to answer the first correspondence or mark as spam whether it is from a buyer or a seller.  You might be able to mark it as spam if it was very recent and Etsy should recalculate the % replied in 24 or 48 hours.  

[PlatypusDream]

You must answer or spam EVERY MESSAGE on your seller account. Those are the very firm, binary, inflexible rules of the Star Seller program.

Live and learn. Better luck next time.

[GlassyFields]

Lesson learned by many sellers.

Mark the message that you're dinged for as spam. It will be removed from your star seller stats. It can take a few days.

Then in the future, reply to that type of message with a thanks or :).

[BagmakerSupply]

@InspoCornerDesigns: "... so I feel it’s unfair that a message from another shop I purchased from should count against me." Unfortunately Etsy disagrees. As it says right on your Star Seller page and elsewhere, 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 it is SPAM then it should be marked as such.

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

Unless something has changed recently, you can only mark a message as SPAM using the buyer app or a browser, the option is not available in the seller app.

[InspoCornerDesigns]

Thank you for your help. I feel bad marking the other seller's message as spam, but will do so if that will rectify the issue with my response rating.

[ChillwolfArt]

@InspoCornerDesigns  Hi, Just wanted you to know. You may receive a Message from another Seller whom you are friendly with ("How's it going"? for example). That still counts as needing a Response (or Mark as Spam), because you are not the Initiator of that Message.

Hope this helps.

ETA: Also (I hope you don't get this), but you may receive a Message from a scammer (plenty of those fools flying around). Just Mark each one as Spam. Unfortunately, we don't have the option to mark as a scam.

[ChantillyAvenue]

Spam folder.  I don't know how many spam messages a seller can send without getting in trouble, but if they send a lot of messages on a new conversation tree, it's on them to know that and be careful.

[OneEyeCatStudio]

It would be nice if sellers would, if they really feel the need to contact buyers, at least have the courtesy to inform the buyer that if they are sellers they need to answer or Spam the communication or be penalized.

[CatsBeadKitsandMore]

Go to the star seller info on your dashboard. All the rules for getting and maintaining the badge are right there.