Response rate fell because of a solicitor

[OzzieDesignsAndGifts]

A few months ago I had someone inbox me on my Esty shop. It was someone wanting me to pay them to help me with my shop. I asked him lots of questions but in the end I didn't take him up on his offer. I quit responding to him and my response rate fell quite a bit because of this. If it was my customer I would have a good response rate but it was a solicitor. Is there anyone I can talk to about this to have this changed on my shops response rate?

[VintageRescueSquad]

No. From its inception, etsy has said that all new incoming messages (whether to you as a buyer or seller) need a response or marked as spam. They have also said that they will never manually adjust the response rates.

Many of us learned this the hard way.

[bradgoodell]

If you had a continued conversation with the person, only the first response counted.  You don't need to have the last word, just reply to the first request.

Unless they opened a new conversation?  But then, all you needed to do was send it to Spam.  Sending conversations to Spam works for Star Seller.

[OzzieDesignsAndGifts]

Thanks!

[artbyjocelyn]

You said you replied, so that means that message is not the one causing your reply rating to be down, unless there were separate new messages from that solicitor that you didn't reply to? Mark any and all from them, as Spam, it should correct the rating if it was any of those messages.

[OzzieDesignsAndGifts]

I replied for awhile and then I just stopped replying. So even if I did reply just mark as spam and it should fix it?

[BagmakerSupply · Accepted solution]

@OzzieDesignsAndGifts: Are you sure that the thread you refer to is the cause? As long as you initially replied within 24 hours tot he first message it should not count against you. You should check the applicable CSV file available on your Star Seller page (previous period for September Star) to make sure. When you look at the file remember that that the dates / times are in UTC (not your time zone), only the first message of a new incoming thread is included (all that counts for Star Seller), and usually a new incoming thread is not included until after the 24 hour reply window has passed regardless of when you replied. Star Seller stats (and the CSV file) seem to be updated only once per day so there may be an additional day's delay. There is also a link to the actual message thread so you can verify if the data is correct or not. Keep in mind that the Star Seller metric is NOT all new messages but only the first message of all new incoming threads.