Star Seller Status Lost Because I Made a Purchase!

[20thCenturyGlass]

As an Etsy seller I make sure to meet all the requirements in order to keep my Star Seller status, even though I'm not sure how much it actually matters right now. So I was disappointed to see that I recently lost that status, apparently for not replying to one message within 24 hours.

When I downloaded my message history and checked the link for the one message that I apparently didn't reply to, it was a message from another seller that I had made a purchase from. The message was clearly linked to my order, and was just an update from them to let me know it had been posted.

Why on earth would Etsy expect me to reply within 24 hours to a message that wasn't even a question, just an update about an order I had placed, and nothing at all to do with an item I was selling?? It seems like it should be a really easy thing for Etsy's automated processes to look out for and ignore when calculating the Star Seller stats.

[AutumnHollowStudio]

All messages must be responded to within 24 hours - that has always been a requirement and etsy doesn't know the difference between messages from sellers you bought from and your customers.

If you receive a message from a seller regarding an order update or something else related to your order - reply to it. If you receive an unsolicited message from anyone (sale / coupon codes, or anything that seems spammy), mark it as "spam" and not responding won't count against you for star seller.

Read this: https://www.etsy.com/starseller

[RueDeLouvain]

Etsy does not monitor your messages to see who sent them. You have to answer all message in 24 hours, the rules are clear. Or you can send them to spam and it won't count. 

[TinTeddy]

The rules for Star Seller are that one must reply to all new message threads within 24 hours. All of them.

"It seems like it should be a really easy thing for Etsy's automated processes to look out for and ignore when calculating the Star Seller stats."

How could it be easy?

What if you bought an item from someone, then they messaged you a few days later asking about one of your products.

How would Etsy know that this "message from someone you bought from" is actually also a "message from a potential customer"?

Unless they read every one of our messages, they couldn't possibly accurately do this.

So they leave it to us.

You either reply to every new message, or mark it as spam if relevant.

[PinkLemonadeDuxbury]

You didn't lose your Star Seller status because you made a purchase.  You lost it because you didn't meet the criteria outlined to earn it.  A message is a message.  No one at Etsy sorts our mail and personally I'm grateful for that.  If you're making purchases from your seller account, any messages that go unanswered will ding the Star Seller rating.  Either create a buyer account from which to make all of your purchases or when/if purchasing from your seller account and you receive a notification from them, perhaps just thank them for their message.

[CraftyCornishMaids]

You lost star seller, becuase you did not reply to ALL new message threads,

Etsy says you have to do it, whether it's a buyer or seller account

and they also highlight them in blue, so you can't miss them.

..... it's nothing to do with the fact you bought from your seller account, it's because you didn't reply to the message

[mommawhazelsquilts]

@20thCenturyGlass  The good news is that you only need 19 replied to messages to offset that 1 not replied to in order to get your SSB back.  Now might be the time to read the rules (which are clear and precise) in order to avoid other pitfalls along the way.

In this particular case, the rules do make it clear that we have to reply to all 1st messages in a thread whether it's from a buyer or a seller.  It's been that way for about 2-1/2 years now.

[20thCenturyGlass]

Well, lesson learned and noted for future. Just seems odd to me. Every message I receive from buyers have a link at the top, to the listing of mine that it is regarding. The message I received from the seller, had a link at the top of the thread to the item I purchased. I still think it would be very easy for Etsy to tell the difference simply from the item the message is regarding. I'm not saying they should have someone go in there and read all the messages, of course not. I'm talking about a simple bit of code along the lines of: "If item in question was a purchase by the seller, disregard message." 

[CraftyCornishMaids]

the buyer could have been alerted to your shop, as you bought from them, and contacted you about something in your shop,

without reading the message, etsy doesn't know

that's why they say to reply to each new message thread, or mark as spam

[CrackpotCrewe]

I understand that this is the rules and the rules must be followed but doesn't this mean that if one seller purchases from another seller the two of them are now stuck in an endless loop of replies forever or am I missing something here?

[20thCenturyGlass]

No, they only have to reply once in the thread, but it's still a bit silly to have to reply if a reply is not needed.

[AnnaleasFinest]

@CrackpotCrewe 

the first reply satisfies the system.

[OmasFabricStash]

Open a buyer only account for anything you buy and don’t use the shop account for anything to do with buying. 

[addictedtomermaids]

I know, I keep saying this, but I had the star seller status I didn’t even know what it was, but I lost it too. I’m not sure why, but I don’t care and neither do my customers. When I am shopping on Etsy, which I do all the time I don’t care if a shop has stellar status or not I couldn’t care less. I feel like we get graded by Etsy with the star seller badge and that isn’t right. You should feel good about your shop just because you give excellent customer service and have an excellent product not because you have a little purple star.

[MoragsVintagePieces]

The same thing happened to me when I made a purchase. I contacted Etsy to dispute it, but only got referred to the seller rules. The rules do not state anywhere that as buyers we should also be replying to messages - so no, it is not really clear.

Etsy needs to put in their seller rules that it also applies to us as buyers.

[mommawhazelsquilts]

The rules clearly state that you must reply to all first messages in a thread - whether from buyer or seller - how much clearer or plainer could they express that?

[CatsWhiskersCurios]

I don't know how much clearer they can make it. They say:

"What messages count towards 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."

[CraftyCornishMaids]

Etsy needs to put in their seller rules that it also applies to us as buyers.

They do.......

This applies to messages both from buyer and seller accounts. 

[BeaconwoodDettman]

All the responses above are correct about responding to all messages. However, I wonder if there's a way to program this so Etsy's system differentiates between buyer and seller messages, even when the seller is a buyer. 

So if I am a "seller" and I get a message from someone, I need to follow the requirements of responding to that message within 24 hours. 

However, if a "seller A" makes a purchase from "seller B", any messages from "seller B" to "seller A" after that purchase are not subject to "seller A's" message response requirements. In this case, "seller A" essentially becomes a "buyer" and is not subject to message response requirements. 

Any programmers or developers out there? How would you code this?

[CraftyCornishMaids]

@BeaconwoodDettman 

If you made a purchase from a shop, and they contacted you, unless you read the message, you only know if it's about the purchase, or since, now your shop is on their radar, they are asking about buying something from your shop.

only reading the message will work, and etsy isn't going to do that,

so either answer, or mark as spam

or don't use your business buying account to buy things

[CatsWhiskersCurios]

Any attempt to do this would make things way more complicated and open to dispute than the current system. What we have now is simple, easy to understand and not open to (mis-) interpretation. 

[WantableDesigns]

I've decided I'm not going to respond to these daily threads on this subject any more.

I feel like a solution might be like what sellers have on Amazon, a box to tick to say 'response not required'. But I guess if people don't read the rules, they probably won't know they can tick the box either.

[mommawhazelsquilts]

Not a programmer or developer, but as an octogenarian who knows nothing about either of them, I don't understand what people can't understand about this program.

If you are a seller and you buy from another seller and they send you a message "your package is in the mail", how hard is it to reply "ok" or "thank you".  Trust me, it's not hard at all and it's the polite thing to do.  As I have stated numerous times before, if that seller was standing in front of you and says something to you, are you just going to ignore them as if you didn't hear them?  My guess is No - that you will reply to them - just because you CAN hide behind a computer doesn't make it right.

What the rules clearly state that is that if you buy something from another seller and they send you a message you have to reply to it or if you think it doesn't need a reply (IT DOES) then hit the spam button and risk "p-----g" off the seller.

It's not really that hard to do and Etsy does do you a service by highlighting those message in blue and putting a 1 in the little orange circle to alert you that you have a message.  When you go to messages and that message doesn't have the blue highlighting, feel free to ignore it.  If the blue highlighting is there - reply or send to spam.  

It's really not that hard folks, and it's really just good manners.  I haven't seen a seller yet that has complained about getting a lot of these messages - in fact, it's always ONE message that trips them up and they lose the SSB.  One little tiny message highlighted in blue and yet some sellers cannot be bothered to reply or send to spam.

As stated, I am an Octogenarian (many times over) have 3 active shops on Etsy and I have never failed to reply to a message except for the first month when a buyer bought 7 items and all separately and sent 7 or 8 messages and I missed one of them.  At that point, the program had just started and there were no blue highlights.  If I can do it, so can everyone else.

As stated before many times, this is really the only phase of this program over which we have Complete Control - It's disheartening to read over and over "it didn't require a response" - Well, Yes, it does require a response because the rules say it does.  Here's the sad part about this whole thing -

It takes much longer to post in the forum about losing your SSB because "I made a purchase" - "It didn't require a response", etc., than it does to actually respond to the message.

[BeaconwoodDettman]

@mommawhazelsquilts But wouldn't it be better if there was a solution? Buyers don't have a message response requirement (they don't have Star Seller either). Sellers have a message response requirement. So when a Seller becomes a Buyer, they are exempt from that requirement. 

[CraftyCornishMaids]

anyone can open a buyer only account, if you just want to be counted as a buyer, do that, or buy as guest.

keep your selling account, for selling.

Unless etsy reads the message, they will not know if the person you bough from, is asking you about what you bought, or if they are asking you about something in your shop, they want to buy.

reply to the messages highlighted in blue, it takes about 5 seconds