Star Seller Status message response rate being effected by purchasing message response

[Teaselcards]

Hi,

I've just seen my star SELLER message response is down to 93% as I hadn't responded to 1 message for something I bought as a BUYER.

How and why should that effect my SELLER status?

I could understand it effecting a Star BUYER status if that existed, but not that of a Star SELLER

Have messaged Etsy support who have asked me to add this here.

What's the chances this will be put right?

[AutumnHollowStudio]

All new messages must be responded to within 24 hours, regardless of who it originates from. If a seller you purchased from sends you a message about your order, then respond to it. If you receive an unsolicited message from someone, then mark it as "spam" so not responding won't count against you for star seller.

https://www.etsy.com/starseller

[VINTAGEbytheMAGPIE]

you have misunderstood part of the Star seller criteria , id recommend checking the requirements again.

[NanaLetha]

You need to read the criteria for star seller 

[audreytherese]

If you don't want your messages as a BUYER to count towards your SELLER stats, then you need to create a second BUYER ONLY account and keep the messages separate. Etsy does not separate our accounts, it's all one message system, so anything coming in requires a response according to their program. Plus for all they know the seller you bought from looked at your profile after your purchase and saw you had a shop and now has a question about one of your products, because many sellers are also buyers and use the same account (like you did). 

[BagmakerSupply]

@Teaselcards: "How and why should that effect my SELLER status?" Because Etsy says so. As it says right on your Star Seller page and elsewhere, you need to reply to the FIRST message of EVERY NEW INCOMING THREAD within 24 hours. 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.

"What's the chances this will be put right?" Unfortunately, there is nothing to put right. The Star Seller metric for messages is very simplistic and binary - either you replied to (or marked as SPAM) that first message of a new incoming thread within 24 hours or you did not.

If the unanswered new thread is not a Help Request, at least for the time being, it appears that marking an unanswered new thread 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 (but not retroactively). Note that subsequent messages from that account may go directly to the SPAM folder.

[BootifulLabels]

Etsy does not read our messages.  It is stated quite clearly in the SS guidelines that ALL new messages count, regardless of who they are from or what they are about.  If you choose to make purchases from a seller account, you need to own that decision, and accept that you will be dinged for not replying to messages from sellers about those purchases.  If you don't want this to happen, the solution is in your hands.  Create a separate account for buying purposes only and use that for your purchasing activity.  If you are not prepared to do that, you will need to ensure you either respond to, or mark as spam, any messages from sellers about your purchases (or forego the badge).

[FallenAngelBrass · Accepted solution]

---

@Teaselcards wrote:

Have messaged Etsy support who have asked me to add this here.

---

Oh man, that's Etsy's way of putting our complaints into the circular file. 

Solution: Many sellers have separate buying accounts that keep their buying and selling activity apart.