Star Seller Stats on response calculated unfairly

[FreshCuttery]

I had a message from a customer come in and then they messaged me again separately via help with an order. Both threads were the same question and same person. I replied to the first thread and didn't think I had to reply to the same person on the other thread. Then I find out that Etsy didn't count my reply to the customer because I didn't respond twice. Why did I have to reply twice when it is the same customer asking the same question? Is there a way to get my response counted since it was the same person I answered within the 24-hour period?

[UniqueGiftOrnaments]

Re-read the star seller info. Every new message must be answered or put into spam. It's been that way for over a year.

[FreshCuttery]

Thanks, I finally found where it said that after my question here, and I haven't been on Etsy long enough to know what rules are new vs. old. I know now. 

[HazelsSewingSupplies]

Soon to be two years...June, I think it will be 2 years.  I believe you can put the second message in spam and it will go away.  Never tried it, but I have read in the forum that it works.

[BagmakerSupply · Accepted solution]

@FreshCuttery: It may be unfair, but that is irrelevant. As it says right on your Star Seller page, you need to reply to the FIRST message of a NEW THREAD.

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. Those have always been the rules. And Etsy is even putting putting a blue text warning / advisory (blue banner on desktop, and a blue dot on mobile) on those messages they consider to be a "new message" but should semantically be called a "new thread".

Help requests always start a new thread because they start the clock ticking on a possible claim.

"Both threads were the same question and same person." Do you want Etsy reading every one of your messages and guessing? How many threads would there be in this forum that "some bot incorrectly classified my message"?

If the unanswered message 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. Note that subsequent messages from that account may go directly to the SPAM folder.

[FreshCuttery]

Okay okay, thanks! I'm officially schooled and won't look for community guidance until I read everything first. 

[FreshCuttery]

I wasn't expecting animosity to the question here. I ended up finding the area eventually where it said the rules but it was worded strangely like they know it's a problem and are working toward updating. I don't think I'm going to ask another community question after that response, lol.

[UniqueGiftOrnaments]

@FreshCuttery   Nobody is being nasty. Every 3 months the forum is saturated with sellers stating the same situation as yours. Unfortunatly, people just don't read the information thoroughly.

[HazelsSewingSupplies]

Actually @FreshCuttery it's the first of every month that we get these posts...sadly, not just from newer shops.  Shops that have been here for years never bothered to read the rules.

Some people just don't understand why that Dashboard is here and they totally ignore it.