Star Seller Message Response Rate lowered because I did not response in 24 hours as a CUSTOMER

[AngelsNeverland]

I made a purchase on Etsy from my account.  In the notes to seller, I put, "thank you" to be polite.  When the store shipped my order she wrote a note that came to my message box saying, "You are so welcome!  It will ship tomorrow!!!"

This was not the initial start to the conversation.  That occurred within the order and the seller was actually replying to me reaching out to her (technically).  I've reached out to chat, and email and no one will help me fix this.  

It happened to me once before closer to when Star Seller began and I was assured by Etsy it was a temporary glitch and it would be getting fixed.  I guess not.  This should not lower my score as a shop owner because of not answering the continued conversation where I was the shopper to begin with.  

I was told to address it here.

Beats me.  Anyone else have this happen?

[ThePurplePuppy]

PErhaps she did not "answer" your original message but started a new one. This can happen when the threads are separate messages. For that reason even if I initiate  a message  if they reply in any way I just throw back a thank you or you're welcome. I even have snippets for those so takes little time.

And neither Etsy nor anyone here can/will "fix it" . Yo just have to wait the time for it to drop out of the mix.

[WitticismsRus]

@AngelsNeverland 

"I was told to address it here."

I know that the phone support and live chat support folks tell you to post here for help but it's just us sellers here. The live chat and phone call back support people are just call center folks. They are very very limited in the issues they can help with and pretty much just repeat what's in the help center articles. Unfortunately the Help Center article says the same incorrect thing- to post here.

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

it says "Etsy Support can’t make changes to your Star Seller data or manually award Star Seller badges. If you think your Star Seller score was calculated incorrectly, you can let us know in the Technical Issues forum."

But they changed this to a peer to peer support forum a few years ago so it's just us sellers here sadly. Occasionally an admin will pop in if there is a major issue going on but generally it's just us sellers. If you need more help from etsy support you will need to contact them again but this time use the email option. That is the only one that will get you to an actual etsy employee vs the call center folks.

Keep in mind that the above quoted bit from help center also says "Etsy Support can’t make changes to your Star Seller data or manually award Star Seller badges.." so don't be surprised if they tell you it can't be changed.

[AngelsNeverland]

Thank you for your advice and reply I appreciate it. I’ve reached out both on chat and email no one’s listening. They keep saying I was the seller and chat insisted that this wasn’t just a Community in Board. I absolutely hate all the runaround the mixed messages and out in Out lies because I was told months ago that this was something they were going to fix.

[dippeldiundscribble · Accepted solution]

@AngelsNeverland 

„I made a purchase on Etsy from my account.  In the notes to seller, I put, "thank you" to be polite.  When the store shipped my order she wrote a note that came to my message box…“

A note to an order is not the same as a message. It’s attached to the order in an orange box and doesn’t appear in your sent folder or the seller’s inbox folder. There’s no way to respond to these notes directly. If a seller wants to answer he has to start a new message thread. That’s what happened here.

You did start the conversation with your thank you note, but you did not start the message thread.

Edit:

„This should not lower my score as a shop owner because of not answering the continued conversation where I was the shopper to begin with.“

Your shop is connected to this account, which makes it your seller account. That’s why you need to respond to messages both from buyer and seller accounts.

[HazelsSewingSupplies]

@dippeldiundscribble 

That's an excellent way to explain this to posters...the messages on orders and messages in "messages" are not the same

[audreytherese]

Same with messages in refunds. I've seen a fair share not understand responding in the refund doesn't count as a response to the message. 

[hopeandjoystudios]

Just spam it..it will drop off in a couple days.

[AngelsNeverland]

What do you mean ? I know if I get more messages and respond how I always do immediately .  It will increase my % but I don’t control who messages me . Lol feel free to send me one 

[WitticismsRus]

@AngelsNeverland 

Spam it means mark it as spam. Spam messages do not count toward your percentages but you need to click 'mark as spam'. If you 'mark as spam' now it will drop off of the messages calculation in a couple of days and no longer be counted toward messages percentage.

There is an option to 'mark as spam' in messages. Note that it's only there on the PC full site, the old sell on etsy app (white with orange text) and mobile browser. It is not available option on the new blue sellers app. 

[AngelsNeverland]

Someone explained what that means, but won't that hurt the seller?  If I say she is sending me spam?

[WitticismsRus]

@AngelsNeverland 

No. 'mark as spam' just moves the message to your spam folder. It doesn't send any sort of report to Etsy. 

I'll see if I can find the help center article with more info. 

[AngelsNeverland]

What do you mean?