Star Seller

[GwenAndAlmas]

I purchased something from an Etsy Shop and the seller sent me a message telling me the item had been sent. I am also a seller on Etsy. I didn't respond to this message as they were just telling me my purchase was coming. However, Etsy took this transaction as I ( a seller ) "did not respond within 24 hours to this message". I then had my Start Seller taken away for this month. There is no one with whom to contact about this error which was Etsy's error!

I've been very proud of being a  Star Seller for months but this mistake by Etsy took it away. Can anyone tell me how I can contact someone that will listen and fix this?

Thank you!

Sandy From Gwen And Alma's

[NanaLetha]

It’s not an Etsy error. You decided not to respond or mark as spam.

[NoFrogsAllowed]

You have to answer ALL first messages in some fashion.  Doesn't matter if you are the buyer.

[BagmakerSupply · Accepted solution]

@GwenAndAlmas: Probably everyone in this forum can sympathize with you but a quick search would show you the innumerable threads about the exact same issue in this forum.

The Star Seller metric is that 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. Subsequent messages from the same account (a buyer may have multiple accounts) are supposed to be combined into a single thread. Etsy is now putting a blue text warning / advisory on those messages they consider to be a "new message" but should semantically be called a "new thread".

Help Requests always start a new thread.

If you are creating a custom listing based on a new thread, you still need to reply to the message.

Cancellation requests in a new thread must be replied to in the actual message - replies using the cancellation form do not count as a response.

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. Note that subsequent messages from that account may go directly to the SPAM folder.

[audreytherese]

I know people get mad at me for saying this, but pretty sure it's stuff like this why we can't actually call them anymore. They literally can't keep the call center staffed just to answer calls and explain 300x a day that Etsy doesn't read your messages and know the difference, and it's your responsibility to learn how the program works if you want to be in it. 

[WitticismsRus]

@audreytherese 

Yes!! I agree with you 1000%.

[VintageRescueSquad]

Me too. I bet the vast majority of call requests are easy enough for the seller to learn themselves.

However, for financial situations, they really need to be responsive.

[audreytherese]

99% of these posts I see in here would have been answered by doing a quick search of the forums. If people can't do that before they post, of course they're not going to do it before calling (and often irate as we see by tones in here - I can only imagine the abuse the call center staff would have to endure)

[Jewels2at]

It is a nightmare searching through existing threads for an answer.  I have tried several times.

It is also interesting, as it is some of the really old ones that will pop up first...which is probably why some of the old threads get resurrected.

I am guilty of starting a thread when I think something has been answered in the forums...but for the life of me...I can't ever find what I am looking for when I search the forums.

[audreytherese]

I completely agree they need to figure out a better system so that they can actually be responsive when there's a real problem. Unfortunately I don't see them making that a priority (even though wasn't that one of the points of the last fee increase? Better customer service?). It can't be that hard to implement a better system than they have now, anything would help. Maybe if they started taking funds away from some of their little test projects (like putting the negative reviews on top), they'd probably have plenty money to fund a real fix. 

[w5wbfzaz]

100% agree. I can't imagine trying to work the previous 800 number. Days, weeks, months of people asking questions that are clearly documented. No thank you. 

[audreytherese]

There's so many about this subject though, it's a little different if it hasn't been covered quite as extensively. 

I just went to the forum search and put in 'star seller messages'. I then sorted by date. All the most recent first, there was 3 just from today about messages from buyers. If I go to the past month, there are 148 posts that come up. If I use the advanced search just for ones under technical issues (like this one, even though it's certainly not a technical issue), there's 118 just from the past month. 

Again, maybe some issues are harder to find using the search forums feature, but this has been covered so many times. 

[WitticismsRus]

Even if folks just tried searching the Help Center before even trying to search the forums it would help. The Help Center has sooooo much information instructions and is much easier to search than the forums usually. One thing that would make forums search better is if the default result was set to most recent not relevancy. That would solve a large bit of the zombie thread problem.

Also lets not forget the bazillion  support requests they get for things etsy support isn't meant to help with. You know things like calling etsy support to ask them why a shops sales are down or anything that etsy support isn't set up to deal with. 

[audreytherese]

Ha! I saw that the other day... 'I've tried calling them to see why I'm not getting any sales'. I would have never of dreamed of calling support over something like that.... not in a million years would it have even occurred to me to do such a thing. 

[VintageRescueSquad]

What they need is an automated chat that narrows down what the problem is. Recently, my verizon cable went kablooey. I went online, and the automated system walked me through it, with instructions.

Very few of these questions need a human to answer. The support center needs a series of drop-downs that subsequently point to the Help Center articles, or to escalate a true support ticket.

[mommawhazelsquilts]

I don't get mad at you for saying that - I have been saying it for years in the forum - if people would quit trying to call Etsy over trivial and unimportant things, they might consider having phone service again.

People think they should be able to call Etsy when they don't get as many views as they would like.

[ScrollSawArtistry]

I think it is ridiculous that Etsy does it this way. As a shop owner and buyer, I am glad I found this out, and am sorry that you got bitten by this. It seems to me a clear bug on their part. They didn't think it through, and have obviously decided it is too much work to fix. It encourages me to NOT buy anything on Etsy for fear the seller sends me a message that doesn't actually need a reply and I forget to respond with something meaningless. There clearly should be two roles (buyer and seller), and apparently they didn't think that through from the start. 

[audreytherese]

There are two clear roles, when you have separate accounts for them. Many sellers have chosen to create an account that's just for buying. Otherwise how would you suggest they determine what the message is about? I don't really need them scanning all my messages. And based on how well the bots identify problem listings, I wouldn't count on them to label them correctly if they did. And according to them another seller could be your next buyer - and I actually have an example of when that happened. I messaged someone I purchased from because there was a shipping issue. In our messages I mentioned that I understood as I was a seller also, so they in turn checked out my shop and made a purchase from me. So both accounts ended up being both the buyer and the seller.

[w5wbfzaz]

Every message must be answered or sent to spam. That is outrageously clear. 

[VintageRescueSquad]

To be clear, for future readers encountering this problem, if you care about receiving the SSB, read all the requirements.

[mommawhazelsquilts]

The rules have been clear from Day One.  

Etsy puts this stuff out there for us to read - if we don't, then it's on us - not them!

It's not a Clear Bug if you read (red) the rules when this SSB started.

[SeasideRoseCreations]

That's quite the alarmist thinking but if you fear this, you can always create a buyer account.

The SSP has been used by Etsy for over one year now, so this really shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone.

[GwenAndAlmas]

Thank you for understanding. I had not run into this issue previously so I was confused. I came on the forums because I hoped someone would explain. I realize now it was MY mistake and not Etsy's. I apologize to Etsy for this! 

Thank you!

Sandy

[maggiemaybecrafty]

Not a mistake on Etsy's part. It was a mistake on yours. As we have been told numerous times we must respond to every message within 24 hours as a buyer or seller. Try sending the message to spam and if that still works maybe it will fix your problem.

[GwenAndAlmas]

I apologize to Etsy and for all who are annoyed at me for starting a new thread on this.

Sandy