Star Seller message miscalculation

[planfantastic]

My messages csv shows I did not respond in 24 hrs to messages from sellers I purchased from (NOT buyers from my shop). These should have no bearing on my message response rate as a star seller. 

[BlackCatTheory]

@thePaperFramer   LOL, I never knew "every" (message) was such an ambiguous term!

[planfantastic]

I don't think it's "every" that's ambiguous in this context...it's "seller".

[MarioTreasureChest · Accepted solution]

Just put that message in the spam folder, problem solved! As someone who get the star seller badge on and off, I can tell you it’s meaningful! Does not have any impact what so ever! 

[planfantastic]

Thank you! I appreciate your reply! 

[BigiMini]

This is just my 2 cents. I'm not a fan of "Just hit the spam button". Just hitting the spam button to make things easier for you is not the way to go. Understanding the rules is the way to do it. I too learned the rules the hard way but it's not the end of the world if you don't get one of the badges.  I agree that you shouldn't have to reply to a message from someone you buy from, but marking that persons message as spam can hurt them. Hitting the spam button when it is not spam can hurt the other seller. If that seller gets too many spam marks that seller can temporarily loose the ability to send messages. And can take up to 3 days to get messaging back. Then they can't reply to messages so they loose their badge. Happened to me... Like I said I learned the hard way So please only hit the spam when it is spam not a workaround to get a badge.
Like some have said open another account one for selling and one for buying is a great idea but I feel its clunky. Etsy should look in to other ways. Letting Etsy know that this doesn't make scene and having enough people saying it, Etsy will make a change, they have in the past. 

[BagmakerSupply]

@planfantastic For all we may complain about Etsy they have been very clear and consistent about messages / convos from the very beginning. 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. Etsy is now putting a blue text warning / advisory on those messages they consider to be a "new message".

[planfantastic]

Thank you for your reply! I'm aware of the rules, I replied below to the other commenter re: my thought process in case I wasn't clear or seemed misinformed. (which could very well be, I've been doing professional development for 8 days haha)

[CarpetCollectionAU]

Miscalculation?? or Misinformation??

How to Become a Star Seller – Etsy Help

"The Message response rate only applies to the first message in a thread. Initial messages from both buyers and sellers on Etsy are counted towards the Message response rate. "

[planfantastic]

Thank you! I'm aware of the rule, but I do not think a Star SELLER score should be based on how I reply to my own purchases as a BUYER. That has nothing to do with my selling capability. Does that make sense? Thanks again

[CarpetCollectionAU]

OK! I get it. This was just a IMO post which required no response from any of the people who took the time to comment?

Perhaps indicate "No Response Needed" next time?

[planfantastic]

I don't think I meant my reply in the tone you seem to have read it. I apologize for that! I was directed to post in this forum by an Etsy support member to have it logged and potentially fixed. I honestly was trying to reply to everyone to thank them for trying to help. No sarcasm or ill will was intentioned! 

Thank you again! 

[CarpetCollectionAU]

OK. Understood. Etsy Support is renowned for giving incorrect advice. There is no way posting about SSP in "Technical Issues" Forum space will have anything corrected or "fixed". They do advise this in the Help Centre

ttps://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/articles/4403058372503?segment=selling

"Etsy Support can’t make changes to your Star Seller data or manually award Star Seller badges. If you think your Star Seller score was calculated incorrectly, you can let us know in the Technical Issues forum."

Your score was not calculated incorrectly (according to the SSP Rules) and that is what most here were pointing out.

I feel there is little chance of Etsy actually doing anything about your issue because, actually, it is not an issue in their eyes.

Whether or not one agrees with the way this works is irrelevant.

[planfantastic]

I completely agree with you that it won't be resolved. I was surprised about the forum link too, but I thought hey. maybe they're going to try?  I should have known they copied and pasted from the handbook! 

Thanks again, I hope you have a great evening (or day, depending on where you are!)

[TonsOfPaper · Accepted solution]

Hello there,

Kindly know that the Message response rate counts initial messages from all Etsy members, both buyers, and other sellers. This is because fellow sellers could be potential buyers for your shop. If it's not a spam message it requires a response within 24 hours. If it is a spam message you can mark it as such and it won't count towards your score. It will take up to 24 hours for this to be reflected in the Response rate score.

Thank you very much!

[CarpetCollectionAU]

@planfantastic Etsy Support is very skilled at the "Copy and Paste"method of Problem Solving.

I always have the relevant Handbook information to hand when communicating with Support and say

"Before you "Copy and Paste" from the Handbook, please be advised that I already know ................................" and I beat them to the "Copy and Paste" of what they were going to "Copy and Paste"!!!

[FallenAngelBrass]

@planfantastic 

"I do not think a Star SELLER score should be based on how I reply to my own purchases as a BUYER."

When you use your seller account to make purchases, everything reflects on you as a seller.  Some sellers have separate buyer accounts here that they use only for purchasing on Etsy.  This is how you would separate your buying activity from your star seller evaluations as a seller. The Etsy bots assume that everything you do in your shop is you as a seller.  A buyer account would separate your buying activity from your selling activity. 

[planfantastic]

That's a very smart tip, thank you! 

[CarpetCollectionAU]

Or.... Just use Guest Checkout?

That has two advantages.

1) No annoying messages to a Seller ,who is also a Buyer. from another Seller

2) No annoying "Leave a Review" reminders and no unwanted promotional Messages from other Sellers wanting you to Buy from them because they identified your Shop and Buying habits from the Reviews you left

[BagmakerSupply]

I think that to those of us who do try to help others in whatever limited way we can on this forum, when we see anything in the Star Seller Message Error our brains glaze over because we see it so often. Almost always these post are by people who are surprised that they have to answer all messages and who clearly made no effort to search the forum to see if the matter has been addressed before. So when someone like you @planfantastic makes a valid point of seeming unfairness we are already in auto pilot mode with a reply instead of properly understanding your point. But how is Etsy to know if the message is from a buyer or seller? Do you want a bot reading every one of your messages to make that decision? Why customer support tells people to post in a seller peer to peer forum instead of logging it and forwarding it on themselves to the appropriate team (who could then post in this forum with an official answer) is a mystery to many of us.

[planfantastic]

That makes perfect sense. I used to moderate discussion boards in a past life (ha!) and I completely get that description of ad nauseum / easy to find the answer questions.  I really am grateful that people read my message and tried to help. 

I think I have always interpreted the rule of "both buyers and sellers" was part of the same message (I.e. they measured time starting when the buy

[planfantastic]

I am so sorry my kitten hit enter! to finish... when the buyer messages and the seller responds. (Buyer starts the clock, seller ends it). I hadn't really thought of it being measured regardless of which role I am currently taking. 

Really though, thank you so much. 

[CarpetCollectionAU]

I have never thought that that sentence could be read in that way, but I can now see where you were coming from. As others have already said, it has now been 12 months and people are still unaware of the SSP rules. I can see now that you actually knew the relevant metric, but just interpreted it differently which, given the fact that we all have to translate EtsySpeak every day, is perfectly understandable

[ChicCraftWithLove]

I have just scrolled and read through this thread.  Having just achieved 5 star for the first time I was disappointed to see today my message response had dropped.  Evidently I did not reply to a message within 24 hours.   So I left a review to a seller as I was very pleased with my purchase.  The seller sent a message to thank me which was good.  However, this was the message I did not reply to!  i.e. I thank her for thanking me.  It is ridiculous .  We live and learn.  Etsy rules.

[HeatherJordanJewelry]

I just noticed a miscalculation in my own stats. Every single message, even from the same person, is answered well within 24 hours and anything that is spam, is marked as such immediately. Is this some kind of transient glitch/miscalculation in the Star Seller metrics that will right itself or do I need to do something to fix it? I KNOW it isn’t right.