Message response glitch

[HandmadeAt62]

Ongoing conversations are showing with the blue box "first time reaching out", despite me having replied. 

I hope this glitch won't affect star seller??

[BagmakerSupply]

@HandmadeAt62: "Ongoing conversations are showing with the blue box "first time reaching out" ..." Are you sure that each Message is not actually the first message of a new thread? If the sender is starting a new Help Request each time,  it always starts a new thread and requires a reply within 24 hours.

Subsequent Messages from the same account (a buyer may have multiple accounts) are supposed to be combined into a single thread - but there are exceptions, most notably Help Requests always start a new thread.

[CraftsIntuitCo]

I can confirm that this is indeed a glitch, as I am dealing with the same thing and have responded in new threads, but still the blue words still appear

[TheGnomeMakers]

Same thing happening to me. A message comes across that says it could effect my Seller standing. That makes me very concerned.

[GypsyyyTarot]

Same thing happening for me. 

[HandyNat]

Same thing is happening here! They were all fine earlier but suddenly some lit up in blue ! Something is WRONG HERE!

[wallcandyprinting]

when i contacted customer support they referred me to this forum as a solution. soooo by  reading how everyone else is experiencing the same glitch its  suppose to solve the glitch?? very reassuring... 

[DropsOfEarthShop]

Yes same here too, came to the forums to check!

[MaruPazLineArt]

Same here!

[Somethinks2Design]

Same here. Replied within 2 hours and now 2 days later it shows "new first message"

[GetFoiled]

I am having the same issue today. Came to help thread to ensure it was not just me. Hope Etsy fixes this thread soon and doesn't effect our Star Seller scores. 

[TylerGraceCo]

Same.

[PinkBirdCottage]

YES this is happening to me too. I had two customer messages, one from yesterday and one from today (different people). Only one question from the buyers which were answered yesterday and today. Both are still showing BLUE after they had been answered. Not possible it's on a different thread since they each had only one question that was answered. 

[Furries]

Same problem here! Even a new reply will not clear the notifications. 

[TCCTN]

I am experiencing this as well. Hopefully the glitch is fixed soon. Seeing this in the App and on the desktop version. 

[GlutenFreeMeAndTea]

Same as well. I keep continuing the conversations just to make sure at first, but they still send a 'great work etc' and then it's blue again with 1st time reaching out. Got nervous as well worried about 5 Star.  Thankfully it's obviously a glitch.   Hoping they fix it soon and it doesn't end up affecting us as sellers. Glad this post was started. Eased my mind a bit. Thank you!

[TGwoodworkingshop]

I'm having the same problem, it's infuriating.  No matter how many times I reply, it still says "customer is reaching out to you for the first time."   This has happened before, and actually caused me to lose my star seller status, and now it's happening with new messages today. I see Etsy changed something where on my desktop it says this-  "From a buyer account. This is the first message this person has sent you. Keep in mind, real messages from Etsy will have a "From Etsy" badge."  I've logged out and in and can't seem to fix it

[DreamCraftzOnline]

Etsy customer services have said it’s a new update to differentiate between scammers and buyers and not to worry. I mentioned it makes no sense, as there’s a dedicated message tab for Etsy messages and that it’s confusing sellers more having these blue notifications, but they gave no further explanation.

The blue messages don’t even match on the app and desktop. It states on app messages ‘first time reaching out’ but on desktop it states ‘from a buyer account’. I showed customer services the screenshots and they just said “we’ll take this as feedback” and closed the chat.

[SVGRox]

This has been happening for awhile. 99% of First time reaching out are not from serious buyers. The app doesn't shadow the activity of the full browser view of a shop due to its rushed design.

[wallcandyprinting]

still happening -- been experiencing this for 24 hours at least now. anybody know if there's a resolution? 

[PrintFanaticShop]

Is this a glitch or is this the new way to differentiate between scammers?

[SvgFilesTreasury]

Same here! Answered after 2 hours and after 12 hours still blue message. What the hell Etsy? Not enough that you are clamping and limiting sales, you carry on doing crap with other selfmade discriminatory add ons as well to make seller’s to feel crap and as lower class? I have much stronger vocabulary to address your way, but I will keep it to myself. Seller family on Etsy since 2015… seen a lot…

[PieceByNumberQuilts]

I’m not sure what all the furor is about with this blue message. The intent is clearly to warn people that a message is from a buyer account.  I.e. NOT from an Etsy staff person, no matter what the message may say, or if the account has “Etsy” as part of their user name, or an avatar that looks like an Etsy badge.  It’s a blue message ribbon - take it as a reminder to be aware, then move on with your day.

Lots of sellers, especially new sellers, don’t/ didn’t know about the “from Etsy” folder, or that it’s not available in the app. Because the scammers focus on brand new sellers who hardly yet know up from down here, flagging individual messages like this is one of the few ways to alert new sellers that all may not be what it appears to be.

It’s not linked to Star Seller. You won’t get dinged unless you ignore the VERY FIRST message from that account by not responding or sending it to spam.  I was part of the initial test last week and had several threads with customers where this blue ribbon displayed.  I did not always write the last message on those chains, and my on-time message response rate is still 100%

Could the implementation have been a bit better? Probably, but at least they’re trying to rein in these scammers a bit.  There seem to be far fewer distressed newbies lately coming to the forum with sad tales of being scammed.

[BagmakerSupply]

The easy way to check if this is negatively impacting Star Seller is to check the applicable CSV file.

[HandmadeAt62]

That's the problem.  It DOES treat every message in an ongoing conversing conversation as the first one. It's not a blue ribbon stating it's from a buyer account, it's the one that tells you this is the first time a customer is reaching out & encouraging us to reply quickly.  When we do, the "nice work blah blah" green banner reverts BACK to the blue one, telling us it's the first message. Which it clearly isn't. Hope this explains the glitch a bit better!