Seller and Buyer messages need to be separate - star seller

[PawsandCelebrate]

I have done everything for a star seller badge. The one thing that I have "failed" is that I apparently did not respond to a message. I have not received to many customer messages and all of them were responded to more or less immediately. As a BUYER I purchased an item, and to support that seller I reviewed that item. The seller messaged me to say "Thanks for your review". There was no need to respond to that message. But my SELLER star status is now impacted by that one message. I was the BUYER not the SELLER. The Etsy system needs to identify messages that are received as me the seller and me the buyer, and not let one impact the other.

[bohemians]

I’m not sure how Etsy could monitor the content of your emails because they will all come through what is essentially your business account.

The best way to avoid this is to set up a buyer account for purchases only or check out as a guest.

[anythinggoeshere]

@PawsandCelebrate   The rules say we have to reply to all first messages or put them into our spam folders.  Read the rules on your star seller dashboard.

[Arcalliq]

If Star Seller purple blob is so important to you, please read the rules. Or perhaps search the forum because this question was addressed here about zillions of times.

[PinkLemonadeDuxbury]

purple blob LOL!!

[PinkLemonadeDuxbury]

As @Arcalliq states, this has been beaten to a pulp in the forum already.  However, for as many times as I've seen this same gripe, I can't help but find myself more dismayed by this . .

"The seller messaged me to say "Thanks for your review". There was no need to respond to that message." 

Maybe it's me, but when someone says "Thank you",  don't we typically respond with something more than silence?  Is it really that difficult to respond with "you're welcome, I really enjoyed my purchase"?

Why would we want Etsy to start bending and twisting to accommodate what appears to be several dozens of sellers who want to earn and maintain a "status badge" so deeply, yet can't seem to accept (or bother reading) the criteria?

[Vintorious]

There are nearly as many forum posts about the silence of buyers when critical information is missing for processing orders as there are about the unfairness of counting all messages for the "Speedy replies" badge.  

As others have already pointed out, sorting buyer/seller status in messages would involve proactively monitoring content, and that's not something that most people would be comfortable with.

[howtobooksandmore]

This is the way the system is set up.  But then the system is useless as a means separating good sellers from bad ones and always has been.  If you are so worried about the star seller badge, then go back and mark the message as spam and hope the system catches up to it before it resets.  The star seller badge will not get you more sales, most sellers who buy ignore it and most buyers don't even know it exists or notice it.

[Vintorious]

I absolutely agree that buyers don't pay that much attention to the badges/SS designation. As a potential buyer, I find out who is good at replying to messages quickly by actually messaging them!! I've had messages that I pose sit for hours, days, weeks...even for supposed Star Sellers.

[CarnevalMefisto]

1. I would NOT want Etsy to monitor my Etsy messages [I extend private messages with other sellers too, including some complaining about Etsy]

2. Rules were clear from the very beginning

3. There's always a chance shop owner from whom you purchased, may come back and purchase from you, so the seller can become a buyer.

4. Star Seller does not mean much. Buyers don't pay attention to it. I find it annoying, I had it removed from November and felt great (my sales were better too, and that ended when I got ss badge again). I wish for a bad review again to free myself from that ridiculous thing, lol.

[hopeandjoystudios]

Buy as a guest  or make a buyer only account

[OmasFabricStash]

 Etsy needs more people to read the rules. You get a message and you either reply or spam it. This is kind of like all the buyers that don’t read the descriptions, 2 star review because they thought it would be bigger.  Most people don’t read what they need to read and then puts the blame on someone else, in this case Etsy. Like others have said, set up a buyers only account and there won’t be a problem. 

[VintageRescueSquad]

As stated above, this has been beaten to death. The requirements have been in place for nearly 2.5 years, so they are not going to change it. It's done by metrics—a human doesn't read the messages to determine the content, sender, or intent).

If star seller is important to you, familiarize yourself with the requirements.

[EccentricHandbags]

A better idea is to just take care of all of your messages.   

[EccentricHandbags]

If Etsy adjusts or fixes things something worse can happen.

[PiecesOfMePaperCraft]

The last thing I want is for Etsy to start reading my messages.

Like several others have said, this topic has been beaten to death in the forums. Every complaint is the same almost word for word - "I lost my star seller because I didn't respond to a message that was from a shop I purchased from." 

It takes 2 seconds to respond with "you're welcome" or a quick smiley emoji. If you're feeling grumpy that day you can mark it as spam, though I don't suggest doing that if it's a shop you've purchased from. 

[BagmakerSupply]

@PawsandCelebrate: "There was no need to respond to that message." Perhaps,  but as it says right on your Star Seller page and elsewhere, you need to reply to the FIRST message of EVERY NEW INCOMING THREAD within 24 hours. 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.

We always consider a message from a seller is an opportunity for you to convert them into a buyer.

If the unanswered new thread is not a Help Request, at least for the time being, it appears that marking an unanswered new thread 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.

[howtobooksandmore]

I think if you mark the message as spam, wait a while and then delete it, the system acknowledges the the message as responded to and then doesn't block other messages from the  same account.

[bradgoodell]

It is highly unlikely Etsy will change this anytime soon.  On Etsy, sellers and buyers are interchangeable.  It is much easier for Etsy to simply make a flat rule:  "All new messages, from buyer or seller".  This costs Etsy nothing, and it is fairly easy for sellers to either reply with "Thank you", or even "THX, or mark as spam.

The alternative is Etsy paying programmers to come up with a fool proof system to make this work.  And since nothing is actually fool proof, this is easier and less costly to Etsy.  

[ChillwolfArt]

Sorry you were caught by this. Just to let you know, should you receive a Message from another Seller whom you are friendly with ("How's it going"? for example), the same rules apply. Because you are not the Initiator of the Message, you must Respond or Mark as Spam. As a Buyer, I've received (and recently), Messages from the Seller (Thank You and info about the Order). I've always replied "Thank You" (that isn't spam to me). And I use the same account for both buying and selling, so nothing has changed on that end. Should I ever receive a Message, "Buy my gems, 20% off", into Spam it goes.

Hope this helps.