Star Stellar Review Issue

[EmmyLouChildrens]

I am currently at 94% for message response rate for not replying to a seller in 24 hours.  The message was from a seller regarding something I had purchased. The message had zero to do with any items I was selling. It seems unfair that my star SELLER review rests on a message that has nothing to do with me selling!  

curious if anyone has any insight on how to appeal or correct this   Thanks

[CarpetCollectionAU]

The short answer is "No". There is no way to "appeal or correct"  a missed message response. Since implementation of SSP (nearly 2 years ago) it has always been the case that you are required to reply, within 24 hours, to every initial message in a Thread, from both Sellers and Buyers. The system has no way if differentiating between a Buyer Message and a Seller Message

"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"

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

You can, however, set up an "auto response" which will reply to any messages you miss.

[audreytherese]

Yes, for the future create a separate account that you make all your purchases from, so that way your messages as a buyer and messages as a seller aren't lumped together and you will only need to monitor the one.

[VintageRescueSquad]

Re-read the stipulations for star seller. Any new message, regardless of who it's from or what it's about counts. Etsy doesn't read them to check.

And they have said they will not manually alter star seller metrics. We all learn the hard way

[AutumnHollowStudio]

If a seller you purchased from sends you a message regarding your order, just reply with "thanks". Or do as @audreytherese suggested and make a second account for buying to keep things separate.

[BagmakerSupply]

@EmmyLouChildrens: "It seems unfair that my star SELLER review rests on a message that has nothing to do with me selling! " Unfortunately Etsy disagrees. As it says right on your Star Seller page and elsewhere, you need to reply to (or mark as spam) 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.

[UppNorthEh]

Just had an idea.  Maybe etsy could rebrand this program as "Etsy Star."  You are an etsy star!  yay. 

Would it possibly help with this issue that seems like it is never going to go away? 

[MaryaMadrid]

The same thing happened to me once

[GalleryAntiques]

Etsy has been clear that you must respond to every first message within 24 hours, whether from a buyer or seller. An easy way around it in the future is to open a separate buying account.

[HazelsSewingSupplies]

Or to actually read the rules.

[FruteJuce]

It does seem unfair, but as others have mentioned, thems the rules!

I am about to lose my star seller for the first time since it was implemented. My items are pretty low cost and I am not a big seller so it is always touch and go whether I will sell the required amount. I was bothered yesterday being a bit sad about losing it, but to be honest, it doesn't really matter to me now, I am not going to sweat it. 

[TandemElementsShop]

hi there, as other posts have mentioned, the issue will not be reversed by etsy. what you MIGHT try, if you want to, is mark the message as spam again right now. this MIGHT trigger a recalculation of the star seller data and bump your average back up (possibly), but it will block your ability to contact that seller again. So you need to decide whether the gamble is worth it to you. I don't know how big the window is to re-classify it as Spam but if you don't care about communicating with that seller again (from this account), you may as well give it a try. Otherwise all you can really "do" is be sure to reply to new messages going forward so your average comes back up. And create a separate buying account so you dont have to worry about this again ♥

[moonbeamgifts]

No appeal but you know for next time now.     If I don't have a response to a short conversation, sometimes I'll just send back a smiley face or 'have a great evening/weekend/holiday".   I don't especially care about the star seller badge in general but I don't want buyers to think I don't reply when I do - it's just that sometimes the conversation doesn't require more than one message yet Etsy doesn't count that way.

I highly recommend a buying only account.    I've had mine (documented, don't worry) since the whole reciprocal feedback debacle happened a few years ago.    It's great to have all of my purchases in one place, especially when tax time rolls around.    

[JansenStudios]

Good morning. I think the only thing you can do is contact them and request it.

You may want to create a second account for purchases and personal stuff. It helps a lot!

Erika