Response to Messages to Qualify for Star Seller

[PaperMoonStudioUS]

Not sure if anyone has run into this, but I was reviewing my current progress toward Star Seller and noticed two things about the message response rate:

1) One of the messages I received was from a vendor I purchased from, not a customer.  Why should this affect my progress toward Star Seller when it doesn't have anything to do with my Etsy shop?  A reply wasn't indicated anyway, as the message was a notification of a delay in shipping.

2) I did reply to a message I received but wasn't given credit for it.  The buyer messaged me from the Messages platform and I responded to her from within the Orders platform.  Why are the two platforms not connected?

Lynne Fredricksen

[CraftyCornishMaids · Accepted solution]

1. etsy doesn't read the messages, sellers can also be buyers.
You have to respond to each new message thread - etsy highlights them in blue, so it's difficult to miss.

2. They are not connected
You have to respond to each new message thread - etsy highlights them in blue, so it's difficult to miss.

[DreamGreatDreams]

it’s a ludicrous program, and the “rules” say you have to respond to every message. is it a waste of the precious little time we all have?  absolutely. 

i’ve read in *some* cases you can mark a message as spam (like the one you received notifying you of a shipping delay) and the SS program will rectify itself in a day or two.

full disclosure - i have never done this and knowing how etsy works, can only assume there are limits to how far back this would work, or if it even works at all. i would think it’s worth a try since it wouldn’t negatively impact your SS rating. 

[CraftyCornishMaids]

@DreamGreatDreams 

it's not each new message, it's each new thread

the new threads are highlighted in blue.

don't ever mark a buyer message as spam, because if they message later about a problem with an order, you only have 48 hours, before they can open a case, you really do have to see, and answer those, or it will be more than the blue badge you lose