Response to customer through messages not recognized by Etsy

[BellaPaperGreetings]

My ETSY dashboard says I have not met the criteria for speedy replies for August. It is citing a message sent to me on 7/11/23. Customer asked me if she could add another five items to her order. I immediately responded to her message by sending her a private listing for those five items through Etsy Messages. This is a reply. It is contact. The customer quickly purchased the private listing. On my message history, it is saying that I didn’t reply to this message within 24 hours.

[NanaLetha]

You must reply to the message not just create a private listing.

[VibeEnvy]

Technically you didn't contact them, you clicked a button that took you to an Etsy page where you interacted with Etsy, when you finished on that page "Etsy" generated a link and contacted your customer with it.

[BagmakerSupply · Accepted solution]

@BellaPaperGreetings: Probably almost everyone on this forum can sympathize with you but as it says right on your Star Seller page, you need to reply to the FIRST message of EVERY NEW INCOMING THREAD in that thread. 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.

If the unanswered message is not a Help Request, 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 not retroactively). Note that subsequent messages from that account may go directly to the SPAM folder.

[bradgoodell]

When you get a request, you must answer in that thread.  A simple "Thanks, I'll get on it", and then set up the customer order.  Sorry you were blindsided by this.  If you ever get a cancellation request, it works the same.  Respond, then cancel.