Star Seller badges calculated incorrectly - please fix

[MagpieJewelryStudio]

So, it said at the bottom of the page when I click on my star seller page that if I think my star seller badge numbers were incorrectly calculated to come here. So I guess I'm just supposed to open a new thread??

Anyways, it says I didn't have tracking for a package and that messed up my tracking and ontime delivery badge. I'm a Canadian seller and it says in the policies that only US sellers are required to have tracking on all their shipments so this is most definitely a mistake. The package was going to France so there was no way to add tracking anyways. 

Second, for the messages badge, I realized that there was one single message that didn't get answered because it was spam. Apparently when I was on the app, I went to try to mark it as spam and it deleted it (because on the app, if you start trying to slide to see more options the only option is delete and all of a sudden the message is just gone). I now realize that spam message was the one message messing up my badge and I have gone in on my laptop to the recycling bin, found the message and marked it as spam.

This is not the time, right in the middle of holiday shopping season, to let shops lose their star seller badges over stuff that is either just a mistake in Etsy's software or actually has nothing to do with providing good customer service.

Someone from Etsy please fix this!

Thank you.

[UniqueGiftOrnaments]

Where does it says tracking is only for the U.S.?

[MaynardMillinery]

What was the value of the package going to France? The minimum value for tracking to be required for Canadian sellers is $15CAD.

I'm afraid the message thing is a user error issue that can't/wont be corrected. 

[MagpieJewelryStudio]

I think the value was like $60. Is that requirement new? I thought tracking was only required for domestic and US orders?

And how is that a reasonable requirement in any way? Tracked shipping to anywhere overseas from Canada is like $30 or more... I offer $10 untracked shipping to international customers so that they might actually want to buy from me. No one in their right mind would ever pay shipping that's 50% of the price of the item.

[MaynardMillinery]

Since its inception, to maintain the shipping element, all Canadian sellers have had to add tracking to orders over $15. It doesn't matter where the package is going to.

I have international buyers (very) regularly paid shipping at 170% of the item price. I haven't shipped internationally without tracking since I restarted after travel bans were lifted and flights started again after Covid. 

[MagpieJewelryStudio]

I guess it also depends what you're selling and what those prices are. 170% percent isn't too bad if the item is $10 and they're paying $17 shipping.

And that is of course your prerogative if you want to offer that, but it is not at all fair that Etsy would require those kinds of high shipping prices to maintain a star seller badge when I can offer my customers the option of untracked shipping at a much more reasonable price.

And while there might be people out there willing to pay that, there's no denying that most sellers would lose lots of sales if the customer was required to pay $30 (some country's are more like $40) on any item over $15. 

If this is Etsy's policy, and they're unwilling to fix it, it's very discriminating to countries outside the US where shipping prices are much higher.

[MaynardMillinery]

It's not the item price at $15, it's the sum total of the order.

You could sell a $12 item with $3.10 shipping and that will push you over the $15 minimum.

Maybe you should read through the Star Seller requirements again to reacquaint yourself with the requirements. Then decide if the program is worth it for your business or not.

At the end of the day, it appears that buyers aren't paying all that much attention to it so you may find that not having it won't affect your sales as much as you thought. 

[CappuccinoLace]

@MaynardMillinery 

It's not the item price at $15, it's the sum total of the order.

They've updated the article to state that "order total" is actually item price before discounts and shipping & tax.

So if the item price was CA$15 on sale at CA$10, that order would still require tracking.

[MagpieJewelryStudio]

well then shipping alone would almost always push it over this amount unless the item is like $2. The last time I read through it the requirements they did not have that stipulation but that must have been changed at some point in the interim.. so yes I'll have to read through them again.

I'm really glad they don't seem to affect sales too much, however, if this star seller thing is something Etsy wants to keep doing they should at least update the policies so that it's not biased towards being much harder for international sellers compared to US sellers to receive due to large differences in the price of tracked postage. International shops are already at enough of a disadvantage when trying to compete with US shops

[CraftyCornishMaids]

@MagpieJewelryStudio 

the requirements have not changed, it's £10 if you list in £, it's $15cad if you list in CAD

if you are a canadian shop, and list in USA$, it's 0

only 4 currencies have a limit higher than 0

it's done by total order value, including shipping, any before and discounts

.... if you buy labels on etsy, you don't need tracking for star seller

....... from star seller
https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-gb/articles/4403058372503-How-to-Become-a-Star-Seller?segment=selling

Orders of a certain value will need to have tracking or a postage label purchased on Etsy.
The requirement values are based on currency. 

GBP	£10 and above
EUR	€10 and above
CAD	$15 and above
AUD	$15 and above
All other currencies (inclusive of USD)	Tracking or a postage label purchased on Etsy required for all orders.

[CappuccinoLace]

@CraftyCornishMaids 

It's not total order value.

It's item price before discounts, shipping or tax.

It's just under the bit you've copied and pasted.

"We use the total value of the items purchased before any discounts, not including postage and taxes."

[AJugglingEweWoolens]

No tracking = no SS…at least for Canadian shops.  95% of my domestic orders go LetterMail…so no tracking.  I will never achieve the SS cause I use regular old stamps at $1.94 and not the $22.00 Expedited cost (with tracking).  Ridiculous…yes. But it’s also a liability to Etsy for the buyer protection program cause they can’t confirm delivery.  I’m ok with the risk.  I’ve had very few refunds or non delivery issues with domestic orders.  

International orders are a crap shoot. Without the tracking, you’re basically throwing it out the car window and hoping it gets there.  I’ve actually just increased my shipping for international orders to discourage -not encourage - orders.  I’ve had more issues with international orders per volume than I have with anything else.  Buying the label through Etsy helps somewhat with the refund protection, but absolutely no way of guaranteeing delivery.  
I still accept them…cause they’re exciting, but bite my nails the whole time waiting for the “I didn’t receive it” message.  
Losing one or two caps isn’t a great deal…I can absorb it.  But if you’re sending higher value items - or ones you’re not willing to risk - I’d look closer at international orders from Canada. 

That didn’t solve your issues, but maybe put some perspective on them.