Message response rate affected by a purchase I made

[ThatSeam]

I am a seller at ETSY, but I also buy on ETSY from other sellers. So it came to my surprise when I see my store message score affected by messages I received when I purchased items. 

Has anyone had the same issue? It makes absolutely no sense that our personal purchases get mixed up with our sales.

[bradgoodell]

Etsy has always said "All messages".  As you well know, sellers are also buyers on Etsy.  So that message could be from a shop who now wants to purchase from you.  No human is reading messages and deciding what they are. 

So all new messages should either be responded to, or sent to Spam.  it's that simple. 

Sorry you were blindsided by this.

[CatsWhiskersCurios · Accepted solution]

From the star seller information in shop manager:

"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."

[AAANativeArts]

About a zillion people. Someone posts on the forum about it almost every day. In fact, this is the 2nd message about it I've seen just today.  It says right on the Star Seller page that you either have to answer ALL messages at least once, or mark them as Spam.

[ThatSeam]

All messages as a seller, a message I receive as a buyer should not affect my store. Sorry, but it is not that complicate for Etsy to figure out if the message was addressed to me as a buyer or as a seller.

[Amaradorn]

@ThatSeam since all sellers could also be buyers they don't know the context of the messages. We only have one message account so if you want to keep your buying messages separate to your shop then you need to use a separate Etsy account.

[mommawhazelsquilts]

"it is not that complicated for Etsy to figure out if the message was addressed to me as a buyer or a seller" -

Maybe...but neither is is that complicated to simply reply to a message with a "you're welcome" or a "thank you" especially as a reply (or spam) is indicated by the rules that have been in effect now for almost two years.

I would never ignore someone standing in front of me, nor would I hide behind the internet to be rude which in my opinion is what is happening when we fail to respond to a message.

It's really not that hard to be polite nor is it hard to follow the rules as set up by Etsy.

[ShimmyBoutique]

Mark it Spam & you will regain your Star Seller right away, not the next revive period.

[ThatSeam]

I don’t want to cause an issue to the person that sold to me. It’s not her fault that this is ver badly done by Etsy.

[ThePurplePuppy]

@ThatSeam 

IT will not cause her an issue.

[ShimmyBoutique]

Marking Spam will not affect her!

The rules very clearly state "All Messages".

Have a separate account for purchases!

[ThatSeam]

Thanks everyone for your answers/responses. It just does not make any sense. And it’s not that difficult for Etsy to determine if a message was sent to the store or to me… I really think they should change it, and really think they chose the easier way to calculate that stat.

[ShimmyBoutique]

@ThatSeam

Did you mark it Spam to get your Star Seller back or not?

[PlatypusDream]

I personally don't want to have Etsy spend a bunch of money on staff to read my personal messages to determine whether I was buyer or seller.

Nor do I want them to spend a bunch of money trying to figure out an algorithm that determines it automatically.

I just answer all my messages. If they are sent when I'm a buyer with this account, I answer them with the same speed and courtesy as I do as a seller. If they don't need a reply, I just say "Thanks!"

[Donobob · Accepted solution]

Etsy is a tech company, by their own description, and it is not difficult for them to differentiate messages that are definitely from a purchase you made vs a purchase someone else made. Obviously messages outside the purchase process would be unknown.

Etsy could easily cut down the frequency of this problem if they wanted to, or conversely if they stopped changing colours and lay-out and put their money into something that is a problem.

For now your work-around is the only way.

[ThatSeam]

Etsy does not need to have someone read messages, this can all be done thru code, software code could easily solve this. 

[TheAtticRooms]

@PlatypusDream  Totally agree with you. It's so easy to drop a quick reply!

[CatsWhiskersCurios]

@Donobob The easiest solution to this is to read the star seller rules that have been clear and in place in shop manager for almost 2 years. 

[LastCentury]

"software code could easily solve this"

um... ok.

Idk... Microsoft is a pretty big company & I still go through my junk folder & find missing messages. I can already hear the daily uproar about missing messages in the etsy forum.

[ZenCatPottery]

Yes.  I found this out the hard way too.  Try marking them as spam and check your response rate. When a seller messages me now, I just respond “Thank you.”

[dippeldiundscribble]

@ThatSeam 

Please do this first before complaining about Etsy:

A. Go to your Star Seller page. Scroll down to the Q&A section and read all the info.

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

B. Familiarize yourself with all the options provided by Etsy and use them to meet the criteria.

1. Set up auto-reply
2. Create and use saved replies
3. Mark as spam 
4. Set up a buyer account for your purchases
5. Purchase as a Guest

*1: How to set an auto-reply for Messages

*2: How to Use Saved Replies in Messages

[AutumnHollowStudio]

I am curious why anyone would advocate for marking all messages from a seller you purchased from as "spam"? if they are messaging you about an order update or something else related to your purchase, then those should be responded to and not marked as "spam".

If it's a promotional message of some sort that you didn't opt in to, then that's different.

[bradgoodell]

No one is really suggesting to mark all seller messages as spam.  My suggestion would be to respond with a simple "thanks".  

The reason people are telling her to mark it as "spam" now is because it is past the 24 hour response window for Star Seller.  Replying now does nothing.  However, marking it "spam" now allows it to adjust and restore Star Seller.

It all has to do with Star Seller rules and workarounds.

[AutumnHollowStudio]

@bradgoodell a "thank you" is what I normally reply if it's an update on shipping/tracking from the seller.

Marking it as spam after the 24hrs makes sense, but some advocate for doing that immediately and that's not cool imo, but that's just me.