Message sent to me....

[#1]

I got a new message a few hours ago, but it was a message that I had sent to a buyer thanking them for the order and estimated shipping time. And the message I originally sent was on the 14th, not today. I am going to get dinged on star seller for not replying to this message, I feel if I reply to the message it won't make sense to the buyer. Has this happened to anyone else? I've been having some really strange things happen lately and doesn't seem that Etsy is there to help at all.

[WildWestFrontierArt]

I am having this same issue.

[veryDonna]

yup! 3 today. Some kinda weird glitch.

[RuncornWax]

Had this the last few days, same issue.  Surely to god they aren't going to penalise against star seller for it?  The message shows it was days ago.  I must have had 7 or 8 of them and not thought to actually reply to them as it would be very confusing for the buyer.

[TagTeams]

Yep, it just stared for me this morning, Sat. 26-April-2025

[ThePurplePuppy]

And if you spam these instead of replying then that buyer will NOT be able to contact you again thru messages.

[DOKOcreations]

I got one of those today, too! I did not want to spam it, since as @ThePurplePuppy mentioned, that could block the customer from contacting me in the future. So I just replied with a brief explanation, to avoid further confusion:

Strange Etsy glitch - I just received a copy of my own message that I had sent to you a while back? If you were trying to contact me about something, please try again. Etsy messages have been acting up lately.

[ThePurplePuppy]

@DOKOcreations 

I guess you do not need reply unless you wish to retain your star seller but if you do I think your response is great! 

[3DFilessShop]

Hi! Yes, I've experienced something similar before. It could be a glitch or bug in Etsy's messaging system. Sometimes, messages appear as if they've been updated or replied to, but in reality, there's no new activity. I’d recommend checking for any other notifications or updates in your shop dashboard. If the issue persists, reaching out to Etsy support might be a good idea.

Hope this helps! Let me know if you find a solution.

[SugarTaffySoap]

@EDCCollective  Does the buyer have a Gmail email? I had this happen. It would seem to me that the message is returned because the message did not go through to the buyer, for whatever reason. I could be wrong. It's a wild guess. I like the idea of knowing if a buyer does not receive a message from me so if I'm contacted in the future I can deal with the buyer appropriately.  If it's a glitch it would be nice to know. 

In any event, I replied to "my" returned message to the buyer just in case, so it doesn't affect Star Seller.

We really need clarification if this is not a glitch. 

[DOKOcreations]

@SugarTaffySoap  Interesting theory! I just checked, but the buyer whose message boomeranged to me did not have a gmail address (it was aol.com, I had forgotten those still exist!)

[BagmakerSupply]

@SugarTaffySoap: I would doubt that any glitches within the Etsy Messaging system would be affected by the eMail address / domain of any of the parties.

[EDCCollective]

@SugarTaffySoapNo, it was not a gmail.

[SilverGroveHandmade]

My email said I had 2 messages and then one didn’t show up in the app or website and one did but when I tried to reply to it it didn’t work, then it disappeared and I haven’t seen it since. This glitch may have lost me my first sale ever as well as any freaking  chance of star seller anytime soon, and I am NOT HAPPY!

[BagmakerSupply]

@SilverGroveHandmade: True glitches notwithstanding, usually when a Message 'disappears' it was scam Message (aimed primarily at new and incomplete shops such as yours) and Etsy deleted the scammer's account and offending Messages.

You can still see what the original Message was via the eMail notification. The text of the Message is still embedded and can be seen using the 'view source' or 'see raw text' or equivalent of your eMail client.

[SugarTaffySoap]

@SilverGroveHandmade  Your message glitch is different then what this post is about. Sellers are receiving their own message they sent to a buyer returned to their Inbox. 

[SugarTaffySoap]

@DOKOcreations  ah yours was Aol. Mine returned was a buyer with Gmail.

[TillyOnlineUK]

I've had three. Two were gmail and one was hotmail.

[SugarTaffySoap]

@BagmakerSupply  I agree.  I was curious if there was a connection that's why I asked.  Maybe just a bug. I don't know if their account was suspended; I don't think my message was flagged and returned, because it was a simple shipping message with no links or odd keywords that the system would flag. 

[SugarTaffySoap]

@EDCCollective I just clicked on my Order Message that I sent buyer and it says:  "there seems to be a message glitch" YAY a notification !!!  

[EDCCollective]

I don't have a note, however the message no longer shows as unread.

[SugarTaffySoap]

@TillyOnlineUK  I just clicked on my Order Message that I sent buyer and it says:  "there seems to be a message glitch" YAY a notification !!!  @DOKOcreations , @EveScottLighting, @WildWestFrontierArt 

[DOKOcreations]

@SugarTaffySoap  Hmm, interesting, thanks for the update! I just checked mine, but it does not have that notification. At least your notification suggests they are aware and actively investigating.

[LittleMonarchStudio]

Same here, I received two this morning.

[WinterNightStudio]

I have the same bug happening with the message sent after a sale. I do not think we have to reply as the original message wasn't sent by a potential buyer and even if the 'ghost reply' was actually a reply from a buyer then it would be part of a regular conversation. It could also be a complete bug with our original message not reaching the buyers at all and just bouncing back to us as the 'ghost replies' came from messages that had not been replied to (in my case).

I think a reply from Etsy would be much appreciated here so we can know for sure if this will affect our star seller status or not. This is causing extra stress to many people and is a bit concerning if our messages aren't reaching our customers.

[WildWestFrontierArt]

Today is the 2nd day that I receive notice that I have multiple messages and when I look, it is just from a sale I had where I sent a message to the buyer confirming their item has shipped.

Come on Etsy, fix this!