My messages are disabled

[NaturaHomes]

My messages were restricted for no reason. I haven't been able to reply to my customers who have been sending messages for days. I sent messages to Etsy help many times, but no one responded.

[TheWestcountryWitch]

Etsy restricts messaging when they have flagged a seller as sending spam. Were you sending a lot of messages to people who had not bought from you?

[NaturaHomes]

No, I've already received messages from 4 people so far. I just replied via message to someone who purchased the product.

[givemeacrown]

If you're using a computer browser, go in to Shop Manager > Orders & Shipping, click on the buyer's name and a drop-down menu will appear. 

The last option on the drop-down menu is their email address. You can right-click it to copy the email address, or click on it if your browser is setup to start a new email when you click on an email address link.

[CraftyCornishMaids]

Did you actually send a message, without them messaging you first,

or did you actually reply to a message they sent you?

[NaturaHomes]

Thanks for your response. The same things have been written many times to everyone who has the same problem. 

I never write to a customer who doesn't write to me, and I spend the time I would spend on them on social media, photos, developing my products, etc.

[CraftyCornishMaids]

If you are sending the same thing, to many people, then that looks like spam to a bot.

If you are having the same questions, from a lot of people, then your listings are not clear, so I would work on ensuring they are clear enough, not to get the questions in the first place

[BagmakerSupply]

@NaturaHomes: "My messages were restricted for no reason." What error / advisory message are you getting?

[NaturaHomes]

There was no reason. I wrote to etsy help many times. Opened the messages 8 days later. They said was the system's fault. 2 months have passed and my response rate to messages still appears to be 58%. I can't be a star seller. I wrote to Etsy help again,
Even though it was a system error, they said they couldn't fix it. My efforts went to waste.

[GlassGrownAquatics]

How long did it take them to fix the issue? It's been nearly two weeks, and we've been trying to get Etsy to fix the issue. They keep saying they'll pass it on to their expert team and send an email, but we haven't heard anything yet.

[GlassGrownAquatics]

Hi @NaturaHomes did Etsy resolve your problem? We are also facing this problem right now.

[CraftyCornishMaids]

@GlassGrownAquatics 

there problem was resolved, if you look, you can see they have the speedy reply badge

[BrightBladeLaserLLC]

I have the exact same issue, going on a week now.  Buyers message me and I can't respond. 

I have not sent any unsolicited messages to potential buyers so I know I'm not locked out due to spamming.  I'm just trying to reply to messages customers have sent me.  I can't look up their email unless they buy something, so I'm losing out on potential sales because I can't answer questions.

I opened a support ticket and got a generic reply about scams and how to block scammers.  This was last week and there's still no resolution.  To double check, I had a friend send me a question about one of my listings.  I couldn't answer them either.  

I realize I'm a new shop and my star seller rating hasn't kicked in yet, but it's super frustrating to pay for a service and not be able to use it as intended.  I can create new listings and pay listing fees.  I can sell my existing stuff and have selling fees deducted.  Clearly, my shop isn't disabled as Etsy is still making money off of me.  But with no answers I feel like Etsy just doesn't care.

If there's a reason I can't answer customer emails I just want someone to explain it to me so I can fix it.  I'm happy to comply with whatever I just need to know what that 'whatever' is.

Sorry, I don't have answer...  and I sort of hijacked your question to rant.  But hopefully it's helpful to know you aren't the only one experiencing this issue.  

[GlassGrownAquatics]

Same goes for me, was just replying to customer's inquiry then suddenly a message popped out as I was about to send a reply that says "Bummer, your messages have been temporarily disabled.". Asked for help from Etsy Support by sending a ticket. They replied that they will escalate to their Expert Team but not heard anything from them. Its been two weeks now.