Star Seller unfairly removed

[KarinasCrystalGarden]

My own Star Seller status was just removed for January because I failed to respond to an unsolicited message from another seller whom I purchased an item from. The message seemed auto-generated, reaching out to thank me for ordering from them. I didn’t know I had to respond since it was not a personalized message so to speak. Also, it has nothing to do with my customer service in my shop, as they were not my customers. Can this be fixed? I would like to keep my star seller status. 

[stuartroadvintage · Accepted solution]

You have to respond to every first message, or mark it as spam if you don't want to respond. Those are the rules so it can't be fixed.

[AAANativeArts]

That's not unfair. That's on you. It says right on the star seller page that you have to answer ALL CONVOS at least once OR MARK AS SPAM. This program is over two years old, and it is up to you to eductate yourself on the terms of service. Someone posts almost word for word what you said in your post on this forum nearly daily and have been doing so for a long time now. It is up to  you to keep up.

That having been said, if it was recent, go mark it spam now and it may fall off your record in a few days.

[GrandGear]

Just move the message to spam, you may find your star seller ratings go up again.

[mommawhazelsquilts]

But not this month.

[ThePurplePuppy]

never mind

[mommawhazelsquilts]

Ditto

[BagmakerSupply]

@KarinasCrystalGarden: As it says right on your Star Seller page and elsewhere, you need to reply to the FIRST message of EVERY NEW INCOMING THREAD 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.

A controversial workaround : if the unanswered new thread is not a Help Request, at least for the time being, it appears that marking an unanswered new thread as SPAM (even after the 24 hour deadline has passed) will cause your reply percentage to change in a day or two (but not retroactively) if the original message was within the current star seller period. Note that subsequent messages from that account may go directly to the SPAM folder.

Incidentally, there us no official or supported way to automate sending Messages on Etsy.

[NorthernBuzzCreative]

@KarinasCrystalGarden, I have also had my Star Seller Status removed, after having it for two continuous years.  There were two messages I hadn't responded to during December.  One was a scam message, that claimed it was from Etsy Support, when clearly it wasn't, the other was from a seller that I'd bought a Christmas gift from, and they were merely thanking me for buying from their shop.  Both messages should not have affected my Star Seller status, as they were nothing to do with my customers or my shop.  I don't buy in to the 'You should respond to every message within 24 hours'. Why should you respond when they are nothing to do with your customers?  Surely this is down to Etsy IT to sort out what is clearly a technical messaging flaw.  You would hope that whatever technology Etsy uses, that it is sophisticated enough to tell the difference between a scam message not being replied to by a seller, or a seller responding to another seller they have bought an item from.  I tried finding some technical help about this on Etsy, and after clicking on 'Technical Issues', it led me to the forums, not an Etsy employee.  Sometimes, the forums are ok, but sometimes I find a lot of negative comments that are not helpful.  You are not at fault at all, this is a technical issue that Etsy need to address. I have emailed Etsy Support, rather than looking for answers on the forums.  I don't expect they will do anything, but at least it has been brought to their attention.  

[mommawhazelsquilts]

Do you really want Etsy reading our messages.

Whether you "buy into" the rules, they are what they are and probably 99% of the Etsy population knows the rules and follows them.

Etsy will not (and should not) change the rules to pacify those that choose not to follow the rules.

The messages portion of the star seller program is the only component that we can control and it's such a simple thing to do.  Reply or spam.

[JenniferMRamos]

Agreed, @NorthernBuzzCreative

The negativity asserting new sellers should have read every bit of Etsy info by now and should know better, is discouraging. 

what I found helpful was composing an automated message that says, in short, I will reply asap, unless you’re a a seller from whom I’ve made a purchase (in which case, consider this your reply). The automated message has to be renewed periodically.

[PriddeyThings]

It's not a technical issue. The rules are very clearly set out on the star seller dashboard. If sellers don't read them, that's not on Etsy. 

[Vintorious]

I don't see 'negative comments.' I see people repeating information that is readily available. Have you seen how many sellers post in the forums to ask for help to get their statistics 'fixed' because they failed to reply to messages that they did not believe 'count' as messages?  It isn't something that can be 'fixed:' it can only be prevented in the future. Being unhappy with the existing rules  is not something that anyone can help them with, other than commiserating. It's unfortunate when this happens, but it isn't Etsy's fault. That may be a hard lesson (I've had this happen, as have many others), but if we don't learn from our mistakes, we'll just end up repeating them.

[howtobooksandmore]

Before the star seller program was instituted, there were buyers coming into the forums to complain that they had contacted multiple sellers and not received an answer from any of them.  The complaints were more numerous than the ones from sellers now complaining about losing the star seller.  I prefer that sellers do the complaining. And there is nothing wrong with expecting sellers to know all the rules.

[VINTAGEbytheMAGPIE]

@KarinasCrystalGarden @JenniferMRamos @NorthernBuzzCreative

I'm going to be blunt here, no i'm not being negative as @JenniferMRamos suggested, sometimes the truth isn't what people want to hear.

You have misunderstood how the measuring metric works.

This is not a technical issue ( that is just what support are told to say to get you off the phone they then refer you to the forum, to get the truth)- other sellers have been telling us that this is what support told them since the start of Star Seller some years ago .

 .....this is the way the Star seller messaging measuring metric works on Etsy. It is a data driven automated measuring system.

You may not agree with how it formulates the measurement , Etsy don't care if you believe it to be fair or not.

Etsy change Etsy all the time, maybe at some point this will change again. Until then, if you want to be part of the Star Seller programme it is in your best interest to understand how it works now !

Id recommend reading the star seller requirements again.

Etsy do give us tools so that we can manage our messages, if you had activated your automated messages, or sent the message to spam this wouldn't have happened to you.

[NorthernBuzzCreative]

@Vintorious It's funny how most people that have commented, have mentioned how you must follow the rules.  This has got nothing to do with the rules, it is to do with the technology.  I rarely use these forums, but I was directed them because I was looking for technical info, but it just directed me to this forum, which is when I noticed this thread and decided to comment, although I'm beginning to wish I hadn't bothered. It's technical info I want, not info about rules.  @mommawhazelsquilts I am not questioning the Etsy rules, I am questioning the lack of simple messaging technology. I do not expect the rules to be changed for me.  My gripe is that Etsy should have the technical know how to identify when a message received by a seller is a scam message or a message from another seller thanking you for buying something from their shop. @PriddeyThings Again, this has nothing to do with the rules, it is the lack of a simple messaging system. @JenniferMRamos thank you for your help.  I will await a response from Etsy Support.

[Vintorious]

I am sorry you feel this way, but no: it is not a 'technical flaw.' It is how they system works. The only way to know for certain that messages are from potential or actual buyers is to read them, and no one is clamoring for that, to my knowledge. Show me a platform that can block all spam and scams, and I will show you a platform that is extremely limited in allowing legitimate interactions.

[PriddeyThings]

I really don't understand what the need is for any new technological change. The current system could not be any simpler. 

[BagmakerSupply]

@NorthernBuzzCreative: I think there are two separate issues here. One is how we would like to see something implemented by Etsy and the other is how it is actually implemented.

Not really disagreeing with your comments, but clearly the messaging metric is not a technical issue - it is a design choice. Yes, bots could "read" every message and decide if it should be included in Star Seller or not, but if one looks at all of the false positives that are reported for other Etsy bots would it be an improvement? What if the message is from someone who is both your seller and buyer? Do we really want some bot reading every one of our messages and guessing? How many threads would there be in this forum that "some bot incorrectly classified my message"?

[HazelsSewingSupplies]

Again @NorthernBuzzCreative DO YOU WANT ETSY READING OUR MESSAGES TO DETERMINE WHAT IS IN THEM?

I THINK 99.99999% OF ETSY USERS DON'T WANT THAT.

[VINTAGEbytheMAGPIE]

@NorthernBuzzCreative if you do receive a response from Etsy support, please do report back. Any updates may be of help to others who have issues complying with the measuring metrics.

[LunaEssence]

It’s a failed program that should be removed. Etsy habit of not fixing what is wrong or broken and creating more problems in the meantime is not the answer us sellers need. We need better leadership in this company 

[VINTAGEbytheMAGPIE]

@LunaEssence 

Etsy is just one route to market. Like any other route, it will have its own idiosyncrasies. However if the negatives outweigh the positives, then the route in this instance , Etsy would then become unsustainable for the business  Not all platforms and formats will be suitable for all.

[hopeandjoystudios]

Not stating this in a scolding way BUT there is no way Etsy is going to scan our messages to separate other sellers messages or spam from our "regular" messages. It is not feasible. They put that on our plate and expect us to handle it. Sellers are also buyers so if they skim off all seller messages their I have a question message will go potentially unanswered unless it is a help request which is a path to opening a case which for most questions I do not want to foist on a fellow seller. COULD etsy put a banner in about it? Yes but at this point the program is 2 years old. The rules are clear in the SS criteria area that seller messages count. It is unfortunate that some still get caught up in the misconception that they don't but that is not Etsy's issue. That chat calls it a "tech; issue and send people here about it is shameful. Just tell them That is how it works here is a link to the rules. You can mark it as spam and it will come off your SS stats but it will not retroactively give you a January star. But it won't count against you for 2 more months.

There are a lot of things I don't like about Etsy's way of doing things. I don't like even though my shop star average is 5 it shows my SS average of 4.9 in search under my listings because someone gave me happy comment 4 stars that pushed me into losing an overall star point. Nothing I can do about it but suck it up and hope it rises soon.

[VINTAGEbytheMAGPIE]

@hopeandjoystudios same thing happened to me  Got a 4 star review ( in another shop ) with a I loved it message. No reviews since so no chance of the Star. It's just the nature of the beast and  an example to explain that getting the Star really is out of our control.