Star Seller message response portion not calculating correctly

[ModelsforLife]

Hi There - I received a message from another seller in December thanking me for a purchase I made prior to the holiday.  At the time, I was setting up my new Etsy shop, but didn't push my shop live until a few weeks later in January. 

On my star seller section of my shop manager, I can see the dashboard is counting my lack of response to this previous message (a message that was completely unrelated to my business and prior to its launch) against my star seller response rate, which doesn't make sense?  Can someone from the Etsy technical team please remove this message from counting against my 24hr response rate?  Thanks!

[NanaLetha]

You must respond to all messages or mark as spam. The star seller criteria is very clear.

[GieseDeseiGns]

Bots check messages, they do not read our messages they just see ones not responded to, and mark not answered.  So ALL initial messages must be responded to either by answering with just a . or emoji, or thanks, or whatever and or sent to Spam. So any message from a buyer another seller saying thank you, or sending you a coupon, or a fellow seller saying hi, or a duplicate thread, still must be answered. If you would like to keep sales separate then set up a buyer only account to take your personal sales off your bus. account.

[audreytherese · Accepted solution]

It was a seller account, so still in the stats. The good news? If you were just setting up then than even if you check off all the other marks, it sounds like your shop isn't old enough to be eligible for the SS anyway. The clock starts with your first sale, and you are eligible starting 90 days after that. By the time it is 90 days from your first sale, it's most likely that will already be wiped off your message response record. You also have to make at least $300 in the 3 month period. Looking at your shop, even if all sales were your most expensive item, you haven't met that criteria either. 

Going forward now if you want to be eligible you do need to respond to all messages, doesn't matter if it's from another seller about a purchase you made. Good to learn when you're just starting out, so once you've been around long enough, and meet Etsy's minimum criteria, you'll already be aware of how it works.