Star Seller Program messages

[LarpindarpaVintique]

I am a seller on Etsy and take the Star Seller Program very seriously.  I am proud to say that I have been a Star Seller for quite awhile.  I just checked my stats as it is the last day of the month and I am SHOCKED to see that I will not be receiving the Star Seller Badge for next month.  

I also purchase on Etsy whenever I can to support the other shops.  I made a purchase and the seller was very kind and sent me a Thank you message for the purchase.  I did not reply to this message.  

I feel that this message has nothing to do with MY SHOP.  I do not understand why this goes against my Star Seller rating.  Please explain.

Thank you,

Linda

[VintageRescueSquad]

The forums are filled with posts from people who had this happen to them too. However, it's spelled out clearly in the requirements. You have to answer every initial message. Etsy doesn't look to see whether it's for you as a seller or you as a buyer (and no one wants them spending time reading messages). 

Go ahead and mark it as spam and maybe it will fall off. If you don't want to receive these, create a separate buyer account.

[WitticismsRus · Accepted solution]

@LarpindarpaVintique 

Etsy is pretty clear about how the message response rate is calculated in help center here https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/articles/4403058372503-How-to-Become-a-Star-Seller?segment=selling

There is a highlighted bit under message response rate info that says "The Message response rate only applies to the first message in a thread. Initial messages from both buyers and sellers on Etsy are counted towards the Message response rate. "

That means ALL messages. It also means each individual message thread so if someone sends you 5 different messages with 5 questions instead of putting them in the same message chain you need to respond to all 5 of them.

The program is completely automated and doesn't know if the message is from a buyer or another seller. It isn't reading every message and making a decision if it's from a seller or a customer or what it's about. It's just a computer program that calculates data. It just sees a message and calculated the response time. That's just how it works.

The info is also right there on the Star Seller page in shop manager. Just go to shop manager > star seller. Once there scroll toward the bottom until you find "Questions? We've got answers." Then click messages. The very first question there says

"What messages count toward the message response rate?

Your message response rate is based on just the first message in a conversation, not ongoing conversations. This means you just need to respond to the first message within 24 hours. This applies to messages both from buyer and seller accounts. Messages from Etsy staff do not count toward your response rate, and neither do messages that you mark as spam. You can also now find a breakdown of your message response rate score by downloading a CSV."

If the star is important to you then it may be a good idea to read or review all the info Etsy provides about the star seller program.

Bottom line...you have to either reply or mark as spam.

It takes just a few seconds to send a simple 'Thank you'. Or you can set up an auto reply every 5 days. Etsy provides tools for sellers to use , it's up to us to use them.

[FeltOnTheFly]

"all" means all....  

If I had a free listing for every time a seller came to the forums for this exact reason, I'd have lots and lots and lots and lots of free listings!

So, know that you're not alone.  And I hear that if you go put that message into spam,  it will fall off your record and you'll soon have your star back.

[BootifulLabels]

You may think it is unfair, bit it IS specifically stated in the SS rules.  It is also within your power to avoid this happening again.  You have 3 options.

1. You can use Auto reply to send a "thank you" or an "I'll get back to you shortly" message. This counts as a response for SS, but needs to be reset every five days. 

2. You can create a few snippets with various messages and send quick responses that way in just 3 clicks, Snippets/Select/Send.

3. You can create a new, buyer only Etsy account and keep all your purchases separate from your shop.

Your best bet is option 3.

[ColourCoveArt]

I am an experienced Etsy seller with over 700 sales and all 5-star reviews.  I was absolutely mortified when I saw that I had been demoted because of a tracking issue which was not my fault, but the courier's equipment not working or being available when I dropped the parcels off.  My reviews often say, thank you for the fast delivery and I always enter the tracking number for the customer to see.  Phoning this through to the Helpline was no use at all, the operator said it is all to do with the computer set up and cannot be changed.   If the Star Seller program is meant to motivate sellers, it has had completely the opposite effect on me, and I have taken thousands of pounds worth of stock off my site in protest.  I do not want to be treated like a child by Etsy and instead plan to move my whole operation to my own website and not make so much profit for a firm that I am very disappointed with - this is no way to treat experienced and conscientious sellers.

[OneEyeCatStudio]

This is why it is helpful to at least glance at the forum on a daily basis.

[BagmakerSupply]

@ColourCoveArt: So are you saying that the applicable CSV file from your Star Seller page is saying that you never shipped the package even though you marked the order as complete with all of the correct tracking information entered? Or is it that the shipper or tracking number was not recognized as valid by AfterShip and the order is marked as shipped without tracking? A failure to scan when the package is received by the shipping company is not usually enough to cause problems for more than a day or two as eventually the package will be scanned.

Etsy has made it clear that they will not manually adjust Star Seller stats, but they can often fix the tracking status and then Star Seller stats auto update (but no retroactively). If the shipper is supported by Etsy make sure that the shipped date, tracking number and shipping company show correctly on the actual order and open a support request with Etsy.

[michellepatterns]

It's explained in the guidelines so if you want to earn the badge back and keep it you can read those so you don't make assumptions that end up being incorrect and cause problems.