Query regarding Star Seller status calculation

[ManualArtsDEpt]

Hello to the team at Etsy!

We have not been awarded the Star Seller badge for November, for not replying to a customer message. (Date: 20.10.22).

However, we would like to request a review of this decision, due to the fact that the customer was simply providing some feedback on the item she had received and had entered it as a new message.  We had been communicating with her in a previous thread already (starting on 16.10.22) so we did not think a reply to this last message was necessary.

Could you please look into this for us?

Many thanks,

David & Carol

Manual Arts DEpt.

[ChillwolfArt]

Hi David and Carol,

Yes, that is how it works, sorry about that.  Your Customer started a new Thread; one in which she was the Initiator.  So it would require a response or you could Mark as Spam.  *You'll need to quickly remove the Customer's Name; a Forum Moderator will come and delete it.

[BagmakerSupply · Accepted solution]

@ManualArtsDEpt: Probably almost everyone on this forum can sympathize with you but a quick search would show you innumerable threads about your exact issue. Unfortunately, Etsy has made it clear that they will not manually adjust Star Seller data. And this is a seller peer to peer forum, and should not be considered a way to contact Etsy, if that is your hope (although Etsy does sometimes read and reply to posts).

The Star Seller metric is that the FIRST message of a NEW thread must be replied to (or marked as spam) within 24 hours. 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".

Cancellation requests must be replied to in the actual message - replies using the cancellation form do not count as a response.

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. But be aware that doing so may cause other messages from that account to do directly to the spam folder.