Message response - inaccurate and unfair

[BluOliveDesigns]

I received two messages, both from people I ordered FROM, not customers of mine.  One of them was letting me know they are no longer selling on Etsy and giving me information for their new platform.  I had no interest and this and it was unsolicited, so I ignored it.  The second one was from another Etsy seller who was thanking me for leaving them positive feedback and sending me a coupon.

I don't feel I should be penalized for not responding to two unsolicited messages from other sellers, especially one who is sending me a message telling me, hey, I'm no longer selling on Etsy, but find me on this other platform.

[NanaLetha]

How would the automated program know what the message is about? 

[BluOliveDesigns]

That's my whole point.  This should not be automated.  It is perfectly reasonable for me, as a seller, to assume that if I am asked to respond to my customers in a timely fashion, that this does not include other sellers on Etsy sending me unsolicited messages.  How does the fact that I did not reply to someone I ordered FROM change my customer service?  The fact is, it does not, and Etsy should have made it crystal clear in the Star Seller information that sellers need to reply to all messages, not just messages from their customers.  I can see that I am one of MANY with this complaint, so asking me how would an automated program know what the message is about is not a valid question.  The question should be: How can Etsy help their sellers maintain their Star Seller status when misunderstandings or simple human mistakes occur, especially when a quick check of the records show that, in fact, customer service wasn't affected in any way? 

[UniqueGiftOrnaments]

Information on the star seller clearly states that all NEW messages must be answered, or put into spam.

[dippeldiundscribble · Accepted solution]

@BluOliveDesigns 

Go to your Star Seller page and scroll down to the Q&A section.

https://www.etsy.com/your/shops/me/star-seller

Questions? We’ve got answers. -> Messages -> What messages 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. You can also now find a breakdown of your message response rate score by downloading a CSV.

[AAANativeArts]

It's  been stated many times that you must either Reply or Mark as Spam any message you receive, regardless of whether it is another seller or just unsolicited. This applies to ALL messages, whatever they are about or who they are from.

[BluOliveDesigns]

Many times? I read through the Star Seller information at the beginning when it was rolled out and have had no reason to re-read.  Perhaps it has been updated since, as other sellers have most likely had the same issue as I have, but I certainly did not receive any updated information or notification that I should re-read.

[bradgoodell]

@BluOliveDesigns 

It's always been "every new message".  If you weren't aware of that, you missed that detail when it was rolled out.

It is sometimes hard to keep up with changes, but this isn't a new change.

[NanaLetha]

@BluOliveDesigns  "This should not be automated"! Do you have any idea of how many messages are sent on Etsy each day. You think each one should be read by an Etsy employee? 

[BagmakerSupply]

@BluOliveDesigns  :  This has been addressed so many times in this forum. How is Etsy supposed to know the nature of a message? Do you want some bot reading every one of your messages and guessing? Etsy they have been very clear and consistent about messages / convos from the very beginning of the Star Seller program. The Star Seller metric is that the FIRST message of a NEW thread must be replied to 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. Those have always been the rules. Subsequent messages from the same account (a buyer may have multiple accounts) are supposed to be combined into a single thread.

Help Requests always start a new thread. By the way, if you are creating a custom listing based on a new thread, you still need to reply to the message. Etsy is now putting a blue text warning / advisory on those messages they consider to be a "new message" but should semantically be called a "new thread".

At least for the time being, it appears that marking an unanswered message as SPAM (even after the 24 hour deadline has passed) will cause your reply percentage to change in a day or two if the original message was within the current star seller period.

[bradgoodell]

You could have simply marked the first message as spam, and the second one with "thanks".  "Unfair" doesn't pay into it.  Etsy has policies for Star Seller, and they are pretty clear.  Every message.

Of course it is automated. It would be illogical for Etsy to have someone read all the messages, sent and received, every single day.  Or waste precious customer service time by debating where it's justified or not when a seller fails to follow the simple guidelines.  If Star Seller is important to you, jump through the hoops Etsy has laid out for you.  If not, don't.  

I'm really sorry you were blindsided by this.  But now you know, and hopefully others read this thread and won't make your mistake.  Good luck.

[NancyQstudio]

Many have expressed the same frustration here on the forums.  As shared the messages can be sent to spam and they won't count against a star.  The Star program has had this information documented and it is available on our dashboards for review.  

It may help to check out on Etsy as a guest when making purchases?  This way messages from sellers won't impact the selling account.

I recently had an issue on Amazon where I sent a seller a message.  They had 48 hours to respond rather than 24.  I felt this was a reasonable amount of time and the seller did accommodate me within it.   It might be nice if Etsy opened up the reply window slightly.  Especially since this has been problematic for sellers in different time zones and countries.