Star Seller Error

[littlepearco]

I'm a seller on Etsy and I'm also a customer as well (I purchase things off Etsy too). However, when I make a purchase and the other company just sends me shipping information in my messages and I don't reply to that....I get dinged. How does Etsy determine if it is a CUSTOMER asking My Shop a question vs my own Private Purchase? Or am I just to respond to every single message no matter who it is from?? 

This has happened a couple of times after I have made purchases on Etsy and the seller sends shipping updates, and my score has dropped from 100% to 67% because I didn't respond to a shipping notification!!

[NanaLetha]

You must reply to all messages or mark as spam 

[DeonReidDesigns · Accepted solution]

Etsy doesn't make any distinction between messages. They're very clear that all messages must be responded to. I'd suggest just sending a quick thank you going forward to shipping updates to keep your messages in good standing. 

[ChillwolfArt · Accepted solution]

Hi, The SS Metrics require that you respond to every Message where you are not the Initiator, or Mark as Spam. You may get a Message from a Seller whom you are friendly with ("How's it going"? for example).  Still counts as you did not Initiate the Message. I've always had the same account for both buying and selling.  And when I receive a Message about my order (in fact I received one recently), I've always responded "Thank You", or something similar. This was before the SS came out.

Hope this helps.

[BagmakerSupply · Accepted solution]

@littlepearco: Almost everyone on this forum can sympathize with you but a quick search would show you innumerable threads about your exact issue. As it says right on your Star Seller page, 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 message 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.

[littlepearco]

Thank you for your response. I didn't search my exact issue. I got caught up reading other star seller threads. Thank you for letting me know. I guess when I read the rules...I figured it applied to only customers not every message. Lesson learned!