Star Seller and messaging - urghhh

[DamselFarmVintage]

Just aggravated.  I lost my star seller badge because I purchased something with my seller account (I must have been in a hurry, I usually log into another account) and the seller messaged me 'Your shipment is on it's way'.  Did not respond.  Didn't really need a response. And of course that bumped my message response rate to 94%.  Went a few rounds with Etsy support to no avail, of course.

Oh well.  Lesson learned

[BagmakerSupply · Accepted solution]

@DamselFarmVintage: Almost everyone on this forum can sympathize with you but as it says right on your Star Seller page, you need to reply to the FIRST message of EVERY NEW INCOMING THREAD within 24 hours for Star Seller. 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.

Etsy is now 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".

If the unanswered new thread 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 (but not retroactively). Note that subsequent messages from that account may go directly to the SPAM folder.

[anythinggoeshere]

This is just the way it works.

[NanaLetha]

@DamselFarmVintage  all messages do need a response or you can mark as spam.

[CraftyCornishMaids]

Etsy doesn't know if the person was messaging you about a purchase you made, or, since they found your shop, a purchase they may want to make

...unless they read millions of messages each day to see what they say, which they aren't going to do

so reply to each new message thread, even with just an emoji

[mommawhazelsquilts]

I love that line "didn't really need a response".  Well, yes, according to the rules, it does need a response.  Since Day 1 it has said "first message from buyer or seller" and those message even have a big blue banner telling us just how much it does need a response.

On the other hand, the seller was trying to be helpful and do good customer service...In my opinion, that deserves at the very least a heart, or an OK or even, going overboard, a simple "thank you."  How hard are any of those?

I realize that buyers don't like getting that message, but sellers are kind of like reviewers - they are allowed to do it just as reviewers are allowed to express their opinions.  If the seller insists on doing that, the only recourse is to answer it.

[CraftyCornishMaids]

or send them a new message, saying thank you, that they will have to answer, and mark theirs as spam