STAR SELLER in Jeopardy

[EnglishTraditions]

ETSY used to be a great place to sell then they got impersonal 

I am being punished on my seller account because of a purchase I made

I did not respond to a seller for something I purchased - 

All her message said was 

THANK YOU FOR YOUR ORDER

but because I didn't respond to this seller message - by saying - what?  "YOU'RE WELCOME"  

another bad policy on etsy

[ChillwolfArt]

@EnglishTraditions   I'm sorry, but that is the way the SS System is designed to work.  Just so you know, the same applies if you receive a friendly Message from another Seller, "How's it going"?  Or someone writes about something discussed on the Forum (just as examples).  Any time you are not the Initiator of a Message, you must respond to it or Mark it as Spam.  Before the SS Program came out, I would always respond "Thank You" in your above example, as I don't consider that Spam.  A Message saying "Buy my jewels" is.

Hope this helps you.

[dippeldiundscribble · Accepted solution]

I am being punished on my seller account because of a purchase I made

Then don’t use your seller account to make purchases.

Go to your Star Seller page and scroll down to the Q&A section.

https://www.etsy.com/your/shops/me/star-seller

Questions? We’ve got answers. -> Messages -> What messages count towards the message response rate?

Your message response rate is based on just the first message in a conversation, not ongoing conversations. This means you just need to respond to the first message within 24 hours. This applies to messages both from buyer and seller accounts. Messages from Etsy staff do not count toward your response rate, and neither do messages that you mark as spam. You can also now find a breakdown of your message response rate score by downloading a CSV.

Familiarize yourself with all the options provided by Etsy and use them to meet the criteria.

1. Set up auto-reply
2. Create and use saved replies
3. Mark as spam 
4. Set up a buyer account for your purchases
5. Purchase as a Guest

*1: How to set an auto-reply for Messages

*2: How to Use Saved Replies in Messages

[NancyQstudio]

Mark the message as spam and it will be fine.  The seller was trying to offer positive customer service.  This program is a very basic one and can not decipher one type of message from another.  

[MarioTreasureChest]

Mark it as spam and it will not count