Star Seller Incorrectly Calculated

[FoxandIvyCollective]

Hello!

I noticed the percentage for my items shipped on time went from 100% to 90% and I don't understand why. I always ship my items out on time and provide tracking. I recently synced my etsy up to my square account for inventory management at a market I did this past weekend, so I'm not sure if there was a bug that decreased my percentage from that? Is there anything I can do?

[FallenAngelBrass]

What does your Order History CSV say?  That will show exactly which orders are either shipped late or have no recognizable tracking. 

Customer Service Stats > On Time Dispatch & Tracking box > Star Seller Target > Download order history 

[BagmakerSupply]

@FoxandIvyCollective: "... I don't understand why" You need to check the applicable CSV file on your Customer Service Stats page to see what Etsy thinks is late or otherwise has something wrong with it. In particular make sure that *Had processing time?* = yes, *Ship by* has a date, *Tracking/label date* has a date, and *Shipped on time?* = yes. Remember that Star Seller dates / times are in UTC not your time zone.

[CottageJournal]

Hi! My *Had processing time?* says "no" but I set processing time for all my listings, I'm not even sure that it's even possible to set your listings without it, lol.

Maybe someone know how to fix it? It's affecting my shipping stats so badly...

[Rachillu]

@CottageJournal  it's a known glitch, exact same issue has been bugging me since the very beginning of the year and Etsy say they are "working on it".

[BagmakerSupply]

@CottageJournal: If you see *Had processing time?* = no, then unfortunately this is a known glitch were some listings seem to spontaneously 'lose' their processing time.

There is a November 2022 response ("solution") from an Etsy Admin to this issue at https://community.etsy.com/t5/Technical-Issues/Missed-star-seller-due-to-apparently-missing-processi...

Based on other posts in this forum, the ability to have this corrected by support seems to be rather hit or miss depending on who you get.

[Rachillu]

@BagmakerSupply oh god, they've been looking into it for at least two years??? I have all but lost hope. Have just opened an eBay store and will be prioritising my own website shop next year because I can't trust Etsy anymore. About to dip below the 80% Standard Service due to this glitch. Assuming it will impact my shop's ranking in search at that point.

[HazelsSewingSupplies]

@Rachillu   This glitch has been going on since the beginning of SSB.  I got hit with it the first month of SSB on about 5 listings.

@CottageJournal  You are right you can't publish a listing without the processing time but that doesn't seem to make a difference when Etsy "loses" them.

[Rachillu]

@HazelsSewingSupplies  can I ask if you've fallen below the 80% 'Standard service' at any point and if so did that have any consequences? I see it is the only measure still in Beta testing, I wonder if this glitch is why.

[HazelsSewingSupplies]

@Rachillu   Busy weekendl.  Just saw your question.

No, after that first time 2+ years ago, I never had any problems.

Thought they had that "no processing time" thing fixed a long time ago.

[MountainlilyFarm]

I lost the message badge his month.  Once I checked there were two marked responded to late that were not responded to late. I could see my response to the customer. At this point with all the crap Etsy throws at us it is picking and choosing battles. I had the star seller badge since the beginning. Lost it a few months ago and now lost it even further. Makes no difference in sales. I'm actually a little busier than I've been in a whole year. 

[truMECollection]

I find it pretty amazing that Etsy is not holding themselves to the same standard. I lost the SSB for November for customer service, not responding within the timeframe. I'll try to make this brief. Customer contacted me on 10/11, I saw the message tried to respond however got an error message that I was blocked. The customer followed up a week later, thankfully and for whatever reason I was able to respond. I have an auto reply so this doesn't happen even though I always respond within hours. I started my attempts to contact support via chat. It says wait time is less than 1 minute, joke. Over the weekend I waited more than an hour and still didn't get anyone. I get an email where they acknowledge the no response and if the issue was resolved to reply to that email. GOT NOTHING. Today I attempted again, waited 20 minutes but finally did get a CSR, worthless. They said that they could do nothing and gave me this link. Based on her message I thought the link was to a technical page to report the bug.....................nope, this board. So much for this being short, so sorry.

[TBQSC]

@FoxandIvyCollective -- Star Seller metrics are only counted & applied from the PAST 3 months metrics.  For instance, in order to qualify for November's Star Seller, you have to meet &/or exceed all 4 metrics from the past 3 months (August 1 - October 31).  So if your metrics went down, it is possible either some metrics fell off somewhere and were no longer accountable for the current SS month.  Example ... July metrics do not count towards the current metric month of October, only the past 3 months metrics are accountable.  Also, if you do not meet the Standards, your listing visibility will be lowered.  I have consistently earned SS for most months, until recently when I failed to meet the Reviews metric.  Most buyers do not leave feedback reviews, and it is taboo to ask them to do so, so for that reason, I don't always meet its SS Review metrics, which royally sucks.  It's as if Etsy punishes you by taking your Stars away for not meeting the metrics, and then they punish you even further by reducing your listings visibility, thus making it hard to make any sales, thus making it even harder to attain / maintain Star Seller status at all.  The SS program is definitely a double edge sword that hurts you in all ways possible. 

@MountainlilyFarm -- if you set up an "auto reply message", it greatly helps with attaining & maintaining the Star Seller metric for Messaging.  Go to your messages and at the top right hand side there are 2 options to choose from ... temporary and weekly ... be sure to set up the weekly option as the temp is only good for 5 days max and will need to be reset (nobody actually remembers to do so) ... the weekly is a set it & forget it kind of thing.  Best wishes!

[MountainlilyFarm]

The messages were answered on time. That's the problem- there's a glitch in the system

[SaxonBlueInk]

We have a glitch in calculating, too. It happened last month too, and it went into circles to try and get someone in "Technical Issues" to address it. It clearly says we did 100%, 99%, and 5.0 stars: no Speedy replies badge and no Star Seller. How do we fix the glitches? Or is it more insidious algorithm than that?

[Rachillu]

I just went looking on the reddit forums and found this interesting tidbit from 2 years prior - user reports same issue being experienced, and Etsy staff provides this as an explanation:

"Upon checking, the order is not showing processing time even though you have added to your listing because the buyer placed a multiple order at the same time (buy different items from different shops) "

Which would explain why there seems to be no pattern as to which orders glitch. Going to retire my corkboard and string now.