Star Seller Message Response Rate Issue

[AllThingsRosyArt]

Hi,

I have an issue with the  logic for calculating the message response rate, A message I received about a purchase I made which didn't require response was counted towards my star seller and because of the low number of messages I get this cause me to fall under the threshold which is gutting because even I know there is no real gain from star seller I have been trying to work towards it but because of this one issue I failed.

There needs to me some way to not include message that require no response (purchases or spam messages) as otherwise I have to just make a empty response just to prevent this happening which doesn't seem right.

I would love this to be resolved and change for this month if possible but at least some solution put in place for future.

[PristinityJewelry]

It's quite simple. Messages that don't require a response, mark as spam.  They then will not be figured into Star Seller metrics.

[NanaLetha]

It's an automated program - no one is reading the messages - reply to all or mark as spam.

[NancyQstudio]

This is a simplistic program which does not read messages.  Sending the message to spam if a response is not desired will work.  

[bradgoodell]

Unfortunately, there is nothing to resolve.  Etsy's Star Seller rules say "all new messages from buyers or sellers".   You either needed to respond or mark as spam.  Since you did neither, you were dinged.  Etsy does not make exceptions or adjustments on Star Seller.  Sorry.

[VintageX2]

I’ve had the same problem. Because I didn’t respond to another seller’s spam message, I’m being penalized. This really is unfair. Another reason I am no longer growing my business on Etsy

[BagmakerSupply · Accepted solution]

@AllThingsRosyArt @VintageX2 : Almost everyone on this forum can sympathize with you but 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.