Star Seller Rating for Message Response is Wrong

[StoneRidgeEmporium]

My star seller rating has been lowered to 89% from 100% because Etsy says I did not respond to one seller within 24 hours.  Please check your information because I responded the same day to the buyer and we exchanged email messages back and forth because she listed the wrong address for her item to be delivered.  I gave her advise on how to contact her postman and or post office to let them know this and in the end, she received her package.  The date was December 20, 2022 - please check your records or I can send you all the copies of our correspondence back and forth.  I would like my 100% message rate to be reinstated.

[NanaLetha]

Emails don't count for star seller.

[StoneRidgeEmporium]

I have my store set for automatic response so this should never happen. And most of my responses were sent through my shop.

[LeParisMetro]

I am confused by your post.  So, you did not respond to a seller’s message? If so, that is a ding against your star seller. All initial messages have to be responded to whether from a buyer or a seller. It has been that way for over a year and a half.

Not sure on your second part but if they were emails, without a reply through Etsy messaging, that is also a ding as already mentioned.

So, based on what you wrote, there is nothing to correct even if Etsy was open to doing it, which they have said they are not.

[BirdsongEmporium]

Like other posters, I am confused whether the communication was through Etsy messages or email. Only the responses through Etsy messages count towards the star seller metrics. If there were multiple messages, is it possible you missed responding to one?

[StoneRidgeEmporium]

My shop is set for automatic responses to every message. Most of my messages to this buyer were through my Etsy shop. The buyer and I sent about 10 messages back and forth as she gave me the wrong house number.

[BagmakerSupply]

@StoneRidgeEmporium: Did Etsy Support or the Help Pages send you here? This is a seller peer to peer forum, and should not be considered a way to contact Etsy, if that is your hope (although Etsy does sometimes read and reply to posts).

As mentioned, eMails are not counted for Star Seller, just Etsy messages (aka Convos). You should look at the applicable CSV file from your Star Seller page to see which messages Etsy thinks you did not reply to within the 24 hour window (the CSV file is in UTC not your time zone).

[StoneRidgeEmporium]

There was only one that they counted. And since I have my shop set for auto responses, this should never been an issue. And I responded the same day as I received the seller's first message.

[StoneRidgeEmporium]

Oh This gets better! On Jan. 1st, my rating dropped even lower with no new messages!  

[BagmakerSupply]

@StoneRidgeEmporium: As of January 1st, the stats displayed are for the February Star (for the period of November, December, and January).

[OmasFabricStash]

This might be a dumb question but did you check to make sure the auto response is still on and hasn’t expired?

[CraftyCreativeGiftGB]

If you message Etsy support they will look into it as nothing a forum can do to help you.

[StoneRidgeEmporium]

how would I message them? I couldn't find anything for them.

[secondarycreations]

You contact Etsy through Shop Manager > Community & Help > Contact us. 

I'll ask the same "dumb question" as OmasFabricStash. Is it possible the auto response has expired? I believe it can only last five days, unless that has changed recently. 

[StoneRidgeEmporium]

Thank you. I will have to check my auto-response as I did not know it expired after 5 days. That makes no sense.  I live in the country and sometimes because of storms or snow, we lose electric so we also lose the internet.  And that is why I selected auto response.  Etsy does not take into account that there are times they need to take into account that their system may not be always accuate.

[BootifulLabels]

Autoreply only stays in place for 5 days and then you have to reset it.

If you message by email OUTSIDE the Etsy message system  Etsy cannot see these messages so they cannot count them.

ALL messages between Etsy messages, regardless of whether you are the buyer or the seller, require a response within 24 hrs, or to be marked as spam.

If a message in your Etsy inbox has a blue notation in the header it must be replied to within 24 hrs, regardless of who it is from or what it is about.

After each month badges are awarded, the data page changes to the new assessment period which will often cause a drop in ratings because you are just starting the third month in the new review period.   The data for the next badge award on Feb 1 is based on Nov, Dec and Jan.  Since Jan has just begun and Oct is no longer counted you naturally have less data and ratings will drop until Jan data starts being added.

[StoneRidgeEmporium]

Thank you for your response. I did not know the auto-reply expired in so short of a time.  I still don't understand how this works but will be more careful in the future.  Happy New Year!

[WitticismsRus]

https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/articles/115015654988-How-to-Send-Messages-to-Buyers?segment=selling#...

"There are two different types of auto-replies you can set for your shop: 

• Temporary auto-replies: This option is for when you’ll be away from your shop for a set period of time. Auto-replies are sent in response to messages you receive over the duration of time you select, from an hour to a maximum of five days.
  
  If you need to set an auto-reply for longer than 5 days in a row, consider putting your shop on vacation mode"

[StoneRidgeEmporium]

Sorry I didn't mean emails but we corresponded through Etsy.  And now for January they lowered my response rate to 80% when nothing new was added.  There is something wrong with their system.  And there is no way to directly contact them.  Does anyone have any information on that?

[BootifulLabels]

There is nothing "wrong" with the system, it works exactly how Etsy set it up to work. 

If you are looking at the data on the SS page today, you are looking at the data for the next badge due to be awarded Feb 1. 

There are two tabs above the criteria boxes, one for the previous months assessment, and one for the current assessment on Feb 1. 

Once the Jan badges were awarded, the data for Oct dropped out of assessment and the data for the Feb badge is assessed on Nov, Dec and Jan, which has only just begun so naturally the data at this point is incomplete as January data will be added as it occurs.

If you believe the data used to decide the January badge was incorrect, you may be able to correct some errors yourself, such as messages you failed to answer within 24 hrs because you didn't think they needed a response, you can mark these as spam now and it MAY fix them for next month.  However Etsy has stated more than once that they will not retroactively award badges, corrected data will only affect the next badge assessment.