Message

[SunshineHeartDesigns]

Hello, my ranking for messages went down from 100% yesterday because of a message I received from a seller asking me to leave a review. At the time I received the message I had not even opened the file I purchased. Since then I did work with the file and left a 5 star review for that shop.  Now, I'm being penalized for not answering a message that has nothing to do with my business or business practices. I feel this is very unfair since I have maintained 100% response rate since opening my shop.  Please help. Thanks.

[UniqueGiftOrnaments]

Re-read the star seller information. Every message has to be answered or put into spam. Bots don't know the difference between seller and buyer.

[SunshineHeartDesigns]

Ok, that’s annoying that I’m being penalizedas a seller for something that I bought. Thanks for answering. 

[CatsWhiskersCurios · Accepted solution]

From the info on the star seller page 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. You can also now find a breakdown of your message response rate score by downloading a CSV."

This is the way it's always worked. Respond to every first message, regardless of who it's from, or send to spam.

[SunshineHeartDesigns]

Thanks for answering. I didn’t think that as a buyer I needed to respond to a seller to leave them a review.