Message from a seller not a buyer

[SeamsSewCreative]

I got a message from another seller that u did not respond to. I purchased the product and it was a thank you message. Now my response time has been changed because of this. Can it be removed?

[leinweberstudio]

Can it be removed?

No, it can't. The rules have been clear from the get-go.

ALL messages have to be replied to, regardless of their origin.

The message system has no way to differentiate between seller and buyer messages; all it sees is a message that was not replied to.

[PriddeyThings]

From the star seller dashboard:

"What message count towards 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. Messages from Etsy staff do not count toward your response rate, and neither do messages that you mark as spam."

[AutumnHollowStudio]

You can always open a second etsy account just for buying so situations like those won't affect your star seller metrics for messaging if you don't want to respond to a message a seller you purchased from sent. If you do that, be sure to disclose the presence of both in the public profiles of each account per etsy rules.

[JDTotesnDolls]

All new messages must be answered.  Either answer or spam.  The system does not look at messages.  it does not determine if you were the buyer in this case.  

[ChillwolfArt]

Hi, Just wanted to add something, in case the following scenario ever happens. You may receive a Message from a Seller whom you are friendly with ("How's it going"?, for example). That still counts as needing a Response (or Mark as Spam), as you are not the Initiator of that Message.

I have always used the same account for both Buying and Selling (since 2011). And have received Thank You Messages from Sellers (one not too long ago). I always just Reply, "Thanks". So when the Star Seller Metrics came out, that part didn't change for me.

Hope this is helpful to you.

[AAANativeArts]

What @leinweberstudio said. This program is over two years old and it says right on the Star Seller page that you have to either answer ALL messages or mark them as spam. It is your responsibility to learn the rules.

This has been posted in the forums hundreds of times now.

[BagmakerSupply]

@SeamsSewCreative: Just to clarify, the Star Seller metric is NOT all new messages but only the first message of all new incoming threads. As you go forward keep in mind that the Star Seller metric for messages is very simplistic and binary - either you replied to (or marked as SPAM) that first message of a new incoming thread within 24 hours or you did not.

[VINTAGEbytheMAGPIE]

I really don't understand why this same query keeps coming up.

The messaging metric has been like this since the start of Star Seller, which is over 2 years ago. It's the only part of the whole metric which we as sellers can fully control. It's in our benefit to understand it if we want to be included in the whole Star seller RA Rah !.

Does this mean that sellers just don't check the criteria ?

This isn't meant as a dig at the OP 

[ZehOriginalArt]

@SeamsSewCreative

I understand where you are coming from. I have not had my stats affected because I know to answer from reading the forum. When the messages were included in the email from Etsy saying there is a message, it was so easy to just look at the thank you in the email and not think to respond. This almost caught me out one time as well even though I know better.

I am hoping that now that Etsy makes sellers go to the site to read messages, they will be more likely to see the banner saying you must respond to that message. One can hope! I see this change as a positive, though many sellers are not so happy about it.