Message glitch

[ToxicSelfCare]

I had a customer reach out with a problem on her order. I refunded her with a message attached to it. Etsy automatically put that message on an entirely different thread, so it looked like I never responded to her. I lost my star seller status for April for no reason.

[ChillwolfArt]

Yes, sorry you got hit by that.  All Messages which are not Initiated by you, must be Responded to or Marked as Spam. If Messages are on a different string, you could respond to the first one, "Heading on over to your other Message".  Then address that one.

I had a Help Request shortly after an Order.  The Buyer was simply asking a question however, and thought they were supposed to use Help Request.  I think this can be confusing.  I recently made a purchase, had a question; Seller responded.  There was a Message about a Help Request right under her Response (I have no intention of using it, but nevertheless).  Under that was the regular Reply Message box.

Hope this helps.

[GalleryAntiques · Accepted solution]

It is not a glitch, you added a message to the refund, not a reply to the message the buyer initiated. To keep your message rate above 95% you have to reply to each message that is initiated or mark it as spam (you do not have to keep replying, just the first response).