Sad :( Going to lose my star seller status and it's Etsy's fault

[#1]

I know this isn't the be all and end all, and the relative importance of star seller in the algorithm is questionable, but a situation I am in has made me cry this morning. 

A major cross stitching company contacted me via Etsy about a feature and Etsy automatically marked it spam, so I didn't get any emails. I have had several emails with this company in the past that I have responded to. I noticed it today and unmarked it as spam to reply, but I didn't notice it was more than 24 hours old... I don't get many emails, so this one mistake by Etsy is going to cost me my star seller status. I tried to mark it as spam again to avoid getting dinged as it takes months to get my status back, but it is not spam and never was. Etsy's crappy algorithm that identified this email as spam in the first place is going to cost me my star seller status, and has now meant that I have had to block a major company that emailed me about a promotional feature in an attempt to not lose my status.

I am just frustrated. I don't check my SPAM folder for over 24 hours and I could lose my star seller status. The conversation algorithm is too tight. One missed email takes months to recover from :'( I have explained all of this to the company and shared how difficult it is to work around this system in Etsy, so they contact artists by email in future. But the whole thing is crappy and upsetting. I should be excited instead of crying right now :'(

[CarpetCollectionAU]

@FuzzyFoxDesigns It is my understanding that the "exemption" from the 24 Hour Response rule is only applicable if the second and subsequent Messages are in the same Thread.

For example, a Help Request from someone who has message dyou previously is considdered a New Thread and requires a 24 Hour response.

Even this person may have contacted you via messages previously fromm the same account but, if this Message began a completely new Thread, then the 24 Hour Response rule will apply.

Unfortunately, I think that, this time, you are out of luck as far as SSP is concerned, but CSS should be OK.

[TheMagickalNeedle]

It should not affect your star seller at all since it was spam at first. Congrats on magazine. Similar thing happened to me. I was contacted by a magazine editor for my quilted art purses and it went right to spam. I didnt think of checking spam at all. I found it a few days later and I reached out to the editor. I unspammed the message and it was fine. It didn't affect my rating and I was featured in the magazine months later. The editor found my purses on Etsy and loved them. Yeah. 

[CarpetCollectionAU]

@TheMagickalNeedle As long as the "Spam" message remains in the "Spam" folder SSP WILL NOT be affected.

If the "Spam" message is moved to "In_Box" and replied to BEFORE 24 hours have passed , SSP WILLNOT be affected

If the "Spam" message is moved to "In_Box" and replied to AFTER 24 hours have passed, SSP WILL be affected.

I suspect the message you moved and replied to was received and replied to within the 24 hour window.

Either that, ot it was received some time ago, when it was possible to move Messages back and forth without penalty. It is apparent that this is no longer a possibility.

[FallenAngelBrass]

We have seen many seller reports in this forum that messages moved from the spam folder to the Inbox are evaluated as regular messages, not as spam, when they are moved.  

[ArtCollectioVonErika]

Ugh, thanks to you I went to check my spam and really, I had two messages there and I didn't even know about them. So I moved them to normal messages, but when I want to send a message, it says that the nickname I'm using doesn't exist... this is nonsense.

[CarpetCollectionAU]

@ArtCollectioVonErika " it says that the nickname I'm using doesn't exist."

This indicates that the messages were, in fact, "Spam" and Etsy has closed the accounts from which they were sent.

In time, Etsy will clear them from your "Spam" folder.

[TBQSC]

@FuzzyFoxDesigns --

The best thing to do is to set up an auto reply message ... it counts as a reply towards your Star Seller messaging score (even spam) ... set it and forget it!

https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/articles/115015654988-How-to-Send-Messages-to-Buyers?segment=selling

[pHashIONpassION]

FFD,

Thanks so much for your post.

I, just checked my SPAM folder. And, I had a reply from a Shop Owner from 7 days ago. I sent her an e-mail via her shop link, and both messages were in SPAM. 

Lesson Learned: Check your SPAM folder daily.

MM

[BigXStudio]

I had the exact same happen a few months ago. When i moved the message out of SPAM it counted against me. So I moved it back to spam, and the next day my response rate went back to 100%.

[CarpetCollectionAU]

@BigXStudio It seems, from reading Forum posts that this moving out of Spam and replying, then moving back to Spam no longer works if the response was made later than 24 hours.