Star Seller Badge- 24 hour reply to customers

[RRCraftyAdventures]

I am getting dinged for not replying with in 24 hours to one message that was actually regarding a purchase I made, not from a customer. How do I correct this so it does not affect me keeping my star seller badge??

[PlatypusDream]

You can't correct it. It is all automated - Etsy staff cannot change your mistake.

The rules state you have to reply to ALL new messages. It doesn't matter if you were the buyer or not.

https://www.etsy.com/your/shops/me/star-seller?ref=seller-platform-mcnav

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.

[UniqueGiftOrnaments]

We have to reply to all new messages regardless or put it into spam. Bots don't know the difference between buyer and seller.

[OwlAlwaysKnit]

Some info below

https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/articles/4403058372503-How-to-Become-a-Star-Seller?segment=selling

The Message response rate only applies to the first message in a thread. Initial messages from both buyers and sellers on Etsy are counted towards the Message response rate. 

To help keep track of messages you should prioritize for Star Seller metrics, notification badges are displayed on messages which are: 

• A buyer’s first time contacting you
• A new help with order request

Both of these types of messages need to be responded to in 24 hours to be counted positively toward your Star Seller score.

[whatanovelidea]

I don't think you can do anything about it. You'll just have to wait for next month and hope you get a lot of initial messages from customers to bring your percentage up. I haven't had my star seller badge for three months because of one missed message. It was just someone cancelling an order and I forgot to reply to that message in my inbox and wrote to her on the cancellation form. One missed message = 3 months of below 95%. This system is ridiculous. 

[ChillwolfArt]

Hi, Just so you are aware; you may receive a Message from a Seller whom you are friendly with ("How's it going"? for example).  That still counts because you are not the Initiator of the Message. So you must Respond or Mark as Spam.  Recently as a Buyer, I received a Message about my Order, and I replied "Thank You" (I've always used the same account for both buying and selling). That Message from the Seller wasn't spam, but if I received a Message "Buy my gems 15% off" for example, into Spam it would go.

Hope this helps you.

[BagmakerSupply]

@RRCraftyAdventures: "How do I correct this so it does not affect me keeping my star seller badge??" There is nothing to correct. The Star Seller metric for messages is very simplistic and binary - either you replied to (or marked as SPAM) that first message of a new incoming thread within 24 hours or you did not.

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.

A controversial workaround : 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.

You may want to reread all of the Star Seller rules so you are not surprised by something else.

[DiamondMForge]

Yep, Just learned I was getting dinged for an order cancellation request (my first!). I cancelled and refunded the order as soon as the request was made, but since it came through Messages and didn't reply, I'm still in the wrong.
I was going to respond with a simple "no problem," even though I had just finished the product and printed the label. Figured that refunding was going to take care of it, guess not

[BagmakerSupply]

@DiamondMForge: The message in a refund is appended to the default message thread you have with that (buyer) account. It does not append / reply to the Help Request most likely because there could be multiple Help Requests and it might "reply" to the wrong one, and possibly because a Help Request starts the clock ticking on a potential case against the seller.

[ThePurplePuppy]

The OP said :24 Hour Reply To CUSTOMERS. This is incorrect.  Remember it is 24 hour reply to EVERYONE

[MountainlilyFarm]

Star seller badge makes absolutely no difference in visibility. I've had it and not had it. Actually trying to lose it to see if that makes any difference in the terrible views and sales the past two months.