Star Seller Issues

[EchoBaseVintage]

Apparently my pervious post was removed. So, I am going to post again to explain why I think parts of the Star Seller Program are flawed.

Back in July I had a customer buy items from me with 2 different Buyer Accounts. The buyer sent me a message asking me to change his delivery address. I replied to one of the messages right away. I thought the second message was a glitch because it was identical to the first. Gmail put both messages into the same thread in my email. Thinking it was just a duplicate I did not respond to the second message.

In not replying to the second message from the buyers second Buyer Account, my Message Response rate dropped from 100% to 96%. Not a big deal really until today when my Message Response Rate dropped from 96% to 93% because I did not have many messages in the month of August. So, with no fault of my own, because the rating is based on the previous 90 days, I am at 93%. I am sure I will get more messages and the % will go back to over 95% by the end of the month but this is an issue that I do not think was intended by Etsy when they created the Star Seller Program.

I have been a Star Seller every month since the program started. I missed one message response. I honestly think that this pretty unfair to sellers. I want to bring this to Etsy's attention. It needs to be looked at. Sellers are getting double punished for single mistakes. It does not matter if you 'do the right thing' after a mistake if you don't have enough messages to reply to. And since it is nearly impossible to actually talk to anyone who actually works for Etsy to explain the problem I am posting here.

[anythinggoeshere]

@EchoBaseVintage   The procedure is working the way it is designed.  You have to answer every first message or mark it spam.

[anythinggoeshere]

Bring it Etsy’s attention by sending them an email.

[EchoBaseVintage]

@anythinggoeshere I guess you did not read or maybe understand my post.

[anythinggoeshere]

What didn’t I understand?

[CarpetCollectionAU]

Pretty sure your original post was read and understood!

The rules for SSP are pretty clear.

[EchoBaseVintage]

@anythinggoeshere Thank you again for your expert opinion.

[bradgoodell]

Thank you for acknowledging @anythinggoeshere's correct assessment.

Star Seller is worked exactly how Etsy designed it.  Nothing has changed since the introduction regarding messages.  Etsy has always said "All new messages, from buyer or seller."  This applies to even duplicate new messages.  Contacting Etsy will do you no good, Customer Service cannot change or adjust your mistake.

Sorry you are disappointed with how Star Seller works in this case.  I hope your day improves for you.  

[anythinggoeshere]

@EchoBaseVintage  You are most welcome. 

[EchoBaseVintage · Accepted solution]

I don't know why I even bother trying to explain things.

[bradgoodell]

No need to explain further, we all understand your frustration with the issue.  

Unfortunately, Etsy will not adjust Star Seller mistakes.  You aren't the first to feel this is unfair, and won't be the last.  However, in the 2 years since introduction, no one has ever successfully convinced Etsy to  adjust their Star Seller score after they've made a mistake.  

Of course, you are free to try.  But all you will accomplish is further frustration, while tying up Chat for sellers who truly need help for urgent things like hacked accounts or missing deposits.  

[anythinggoeshere]

I totally understood your explanation and Etsy is not interested in changing anything.

[bradgoodell]

I know you feel we are being unhelpful, but the facts and advice given is solid.  We can all sympathize.  

[CarpetCollectionAU]

It looks like you explained yourself very well

" I thought the second message was a glitch because it was identical to the first". - When is doubt, double check Shop Manager to see if there are 2 separate Threads

"Gmail put both messages into the same thread in my email". _Never rely on the email notification of Messages. How these appear in your gmail will depend on how you set up your gmail inbox, not your Shop Manager Inbox

"Thinking it was just a duplicate I did not respond to the second message". So, one message, requiring a response, was not responded to within 24 hours. Depending on the number of messages received in 90 days, this may well lower your metric below 95%

[NoFrogsAllowed]

@EchoBaseVintage 

In your original post, which was probably reported, I told you to try marking the duplicate message as spam (which it kind of is) and after a few days see if your % improves.  (Since this was July it might be too late.)  It won't help you for SS this month, but if Etsy accepts it as spam it will help next month.

[CarpetCollectionAU]

@NoFrogsAllowed Apparently, this still "works" but, IMO, marking as "spam" should have the same 24 hour timeframe limit as any other Message. After all, if one has the time to look at the Message and decides not to respond because it is not a "real message", one certainly has the time to hit the "Spam" button. Retrospective "Spam" actions are a clear "get out of jail free" ticket.

[NoFrogsAllowed]

@CarpetCollectionAU 

I 1000% agree with you.  I only brought it up because most people seem to not realize that spamming spam takes care of the problem.  If you take the time to discover the message doesn't need a reply, if you knew, why wouldn't you spam immediately?  Makes no sense to me, but little that goes on here makes sense.

[BagmakerSupply]

@CarpetCollectionAU: "marking as "spam" should have the same 24 hour timeframe limit as any other Message" Completely agree with you - just like I don't understand how having auto reply always on is "good customer service". Both just seem like hacks to reduce the number of Star Seller complaints that Etsy receives.

[bradgoodell]

@EchoBaseVintage Is the the previous post you were talking about?

https://community.etsy.com/t5/Technical-Issues/Problem-with-tracking-affecting-Star-Seller-status/m-...

[NoFrogsAllowed]

@bradgoodell 

That isn't the post.  I replied to the one that got removed and it's a good thing for the OP that the post removal was all that happened.

[CarpetCollectionAU]

@BagmakerSupply Pretty sure Mesages will be more closely monitored in future.

[bradgoodell]

@NoFrogsAllowed Interesting.  After reading that one, I wondered....  About many things. 

[CarpetCollectionAU]

@bradgoodell I think the OP had 2 issues with the same Order - shipping tracking numbers and messages. The "disappeared" post related to Messages and the information in this, replacement, post omits quite a lot of what was in the "disappeared" one. Hence, the comments here.

[SmudgePlant · Accepted solution]

Was the OP acting like a "stuck up, half-witted, scruffy-looking nerf-herder"?