Responded to seller under existing conversation instead of new message thread = loss of star seller.

[GameShark3DPrints]

I started my business 6 months ago and sell exclusively on Etsy.  It took me all this time to finally grow my business to satisfy the revenue portion of the criteria for star seller.  I keep every other criteria maxed out at 100%.  Even have all 5 star reviews.  I was very excited to have finally made star seller, looking forward to it going into effect at the end of the month.

A customer accidentally ordered 2 items when they meant to order 1, this was discovered after I reached out to confirm they wanted 2.  So I asked them to request cancellation and place a new order.  They did, and the notification came through under a separate message thread for the same customer.  I went back to our original thread with him and let him know I received the formal request and would cancel and refund.  He thanked me and discussed the details of next order he was going to place with the correct quantity.  New order received; everyone is happy.

I get on today to find out my long-awaited star seller badge will not happen for 3 more months.  I was penalized for not replying to the other thread....     I only have 4 messages originating by customers in the past 3 months.  Failing 1 put my response rate at 75%.  At the rate I currently receive customer originated messages, it is impossible for me to make up for this one simple mistake until Jan 2023 when it will finally fall off the record/consideration period.

Please someone assist with this, because surely penalizing sellers for simple technical mistakes like this is not what Etsy is intending to do.

[UniqueGiftOrnaments]

Unfortunately, that's the way the star seller works. We have to answer every new message, or put them into spam. Putting it there should bring your star back up

[BagmakerSupply]

@GameShark3DPrints This is a seller peer to peer forum, not a way to contact Etsy, if that is your hope (although Etsy does sometimes post here).

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.

Just to clarify so people don't think they have to respond to every message and it will be a never ending loop: the FIRST message of a NEW thread must be replied to within 24 hours. It does not matter who sent it, the subject matter, if it is a duplicate or blank or anything else. If it is SPAM then it should be marked as such. Those have always been the rules. By the way, if you are creating a custom listing based on the message, 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".

If you have not yet done so, you might want to read https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/articles/4403058372503-How-to-Become-a-Star-Seller?segment=selling

Also, be careful about using trademarks and copyrighted materials (like "xbox"). Never know what the bots are looking for.

[maggiemaybecrafty]

SS is exactly what Etsy intended. Etsy does not seem to care how many of their ridiculous terms effect sellers in negative ways and makes Etsy look bad. Some of what Etsy does has negative impacts for sellers.

[DesertChains]

Let me see if I understand. You will lose the so-called customer service badge because you provided timely, efficient, and responsive customer service. Did I get that right?

Do what is right by your customers, and you will be rewarded.

[BeJeweledByDEBORAH · Accepted solution]

A very similar situation occurred in my shop recently. Simply mark the separate, unanswered message from the buyer as Spam, and it will clear your stats re message response within 24 hours.

[HtoHdesign · Accepted solution]

Hey There!

For the message response rate, we only consider messages initiated by other users. The new change in the messages is that we combine messages for the same user into a single thread. The only exception to the single-thread rule is when a buyer reaches out via the Help With Order flow, at which point a new thread will be created and clearly labeled as such. So if the buyer message a help request sellers need to reply to it within 24hrs as it will be separated from the original message thread.

Thanks!