Star Seller Status

[LilyandMeadow]

Once again feeling frustrated with the inability to contact Etsy directly for customer support. My star seller status has been miscalculated (orders and monies not up to date on the previous review period) and my communication was dinged because I didn’t respond to another Etsy seller who messaged me a pattern update because  there was an error in the copy I purchased from her?

I can certainly understand technical issues but it would be lovely to be able to contact someone working for Etsy to resolve issues. 

[ButtoncandyStore]

Totally agree, I wanted to talk to someone from Etsy to see why I do not have star seller status, when I have had 625 5star sales that have been dispatched on time and I always communicate well! And yet I saw someone with just 6 sales has star status!!!

[BootifulLabels]

As far as the communication issue goes, Etsy has made it very clear that ALL messages require a response ( or a spam notification) within 24 hrs of receipt.  That means ALL messages, regardless of whether they are from buyers, other sellers, or spammers.  The whole system is automated, the bots do not read our messages ( and many of us would be outraged if they did, as that is a definite privacy issue), they just check the time received and the time responded to.  

Not sure what you mean by "orders and monies not up to date on the previous review period", but if you mean the minimum sales and $ value, that is sales revenue only, it does not include shipping charged separately.

EDITED TO ADD:  If you mark that seller message as spam now, it should correct it for the October badge, but it won't retroactively give you the September badge.

[BlackRockVintage]

"...Etsy has made it very clear that ALL messages require a response ( or a spam notification) within 24 hrs of receipt. That means ALL messages, regardless of whether they are from buyers, other sellers, or spammers."

I did not know this and lost my star for not responding (or marking) SPAM. Lesson learned.

[LilyandMeadow]

I did not know this so really appreciate your response. Thank you!

[PrimFun]

@BlackRockVintage  @LilyandMeadow   The information is listed clearly in the section on Star seller in the shop manager.  It's a good idea to read the information there.

[TreasurePeek]

  Wait a minute, so if a seller messages another seller, the seller who receives the message must respond within 24 hours. Now does that mean when the seller who receives the response within 24 hours must then respond to that message within 24 hours or do the bots know that is a response email and therefore does not need to be responded to. You see where I am going. It would be a never ending loop of messages. Like some bizarre game of hot potato. Last seller not to respond gets dinged.

[dippeldiundscribble]

@TreasurePeek 

Go to your Star Seller page and scroll down to the Q&A section.

https://www.etsy.com/your/shops/me/star-seller

Questions? We’ve got answers. -> Messages -> 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.

Questions? We’ve got answers. -> Messages -> What happens if I’m getting messages from the same user through multiple message threads?

If messages are appearing in separate threads in your inbox, then as it stands today you’ll need to respond to the initial message of each thread. One idea to help mitigate this in the interim is to set up an auto-reply or to create a Saved Reply for multiple messages from the same user that don’t need individual responses.

[NoFrogsAllowed]

It takes a couple of days for SS to update, so never count on sales during the last 2 or 3 days of a month to be added in time to make you a Star Seller.

[BlackRockVintage]

@PrimFun 

No need for your reprimand. I was thanking BootifulLabels for the information.

[BagmakerSupply · Accepted solution]

@BlackRockVintage @TreasurePeek  :  All messages DO NOT need a reply. Just to clarify so people don't think they have to respond to every message and it will be a never ending loop: the FIRST message of a NEW thread must be replied to 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. Those have always been the rules. Help Requests always start a new thread. By the way, if you are creating a custom listing based on a new thread, you still need to reply to the message. Etsy is now putting a blue text warning / advisory on those messages they consider to be a "new message" but should semantically be called a "new thread".