Someone please explain how this Message Response Rate is possible

[voxintra]

For the current review period, it says I have 1 of 9 messages where I answered after 24 hours.

I've had a total of 15 message threads active in this review period.

Of those 15 messages, there are only 4 where someone messaged me. I checked the time stamps and I responded same day for each of those 4 messages.

The rest were either 1) I messaged someone else 2) an old thread from before the review period, which has continued on into this review period.

I checked my spam folder and there's only one possible message that could be affecting the response rate...I never replied to it but it went straight to spam, so I never saw it. And it's from Feb 2021.

What the heck is going on?

[StitchyFrood · Accepted solution]

Etsy only has one messaging system. Every message counts toward Star Seller. 

[HomeDecorByCarol]

This is ridiculous because they don’t all pertain to our shop. I had a seller messageme a thank you which did not require a response, so I didn’t. I had no idea this would affect my star seller because it had nothing to do with my shop! This makes your programTotally obscure and makes me lose interest in it altogether. If you aren’t collecting accuratedata, don’t rate a shop based on it

[AAANativeArts]

It doesn't matter what the message pertains to. If it comes into your convo system, you only have two options 1)Answer the first message in a thread or 2)Mark it as spam.

Even if you answer every message within the 24 hours, mostly within the first hour like I do, the Star Seller Rating is still 89% for message responses.

I'm over it already. I accept I won't get a silly badge that affects nothing else important, and I don't really care. I will just go about my business as usual.

[Ghialover]

wish I could help numbers are fleeting u know u did deal with issues in a timely fashion the stats will catch up,,,

[SpottedOctopusShop]

The message requirement is ill-conceived, along with tons of other crap that's going on these days, as stock reaches new lows hourly. If your customers are happy and your descriptions are effective, you won't have a lot of messages. To find the message you failed to respond to, that's going to cost you your big orange carrot, click on the message response rate and download message history. Hunt the errant message down and put it in spam. I hope that works for you.

[KiefferKollectibles]

I agree!  It is RIDICULOUS to have a 24 hr. response rule.  So if you should just happen to respond in 25 hrs.,  rather than 24 hrs. Etsy feels at liberty to take away your 5 star rating, even should they take the time to see how quickly you ship, how well you pack, what quality your goods are, but an hour difference on just one occasion makes them feel GOOD to take your 5 star rating away.  Isn't Etsy really only hurting themselves by lessening their percent of profit by hurting their hard working, quality, sellers???????

[CraftyCornishMaids]

etsy sprinkles badges like confetti, if you loose the total star seller, you can still have the badges for rave reviews, and smooth shipping.

but as none of it has any affect on search or sales, I wouldn't worry about it.

[NoFrogsAllowed]

if you loose the total star seller, you can still have the badges for rave reviews, and smooth shipping.

Not necessarily true.  If you can't make the 10 sales (newly lowered to 5) or the $300 (unfortunately didn't change) you can't get the individual badges.

[CraftyCornishMaids]

they are worried about losing star seller because of the response,

if they didn't have the 10 or $300, they wouldn't have it to lose