Star Stellar --wrong calculation

[BluestockinggirlsCo]

I could not believe my shop failed the Star Stellar badge last month.  Investigating the issue, I was penalized on the "message" badge because I did not respond to a message within 24 hours.  This message was from a fellow Etsy Shop thanking me for a purchase made from them. Not from a customer!!  I WAS the customer!!  

Geesh people--What the heck!!!

[Former_Member]

That's how it works.  It's ALL initial messages, no matter who they come from.

[BagmakerSupply]

@BluestockinggirlsCo: Unfortunately it was not a wrong calculation. While almost everyone on this forum will sympathize with you as it says right on your Star Seller page, 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. Those have been the rules since day one.

If the unanswered new thread is not a Help Request, 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 (but not retroactively). Note that subsequent messages from that account may go directly to the SPAM folder.

[CatsBeadKitsandMore]

Read the rules again. As stated on the rules  ALL new messages (buyer, seller, friend, etc.) have to be replied to. It's been this way since this program started a few years ago.

[BootifulLabels]

The rules clearly state that all new messages require an answer or to be marked as spam within 24 hrs in order to qualify for SS. It doesn't matter who they are from or what they are about, no-one reads your messages, the system is automated and simply compares the time-stamps for receipt and response to determine compliance. If you mark that message as spam now, it should update your stats within a day or two, but it will not help with the badges already awarded.

If you don't want your purchases to affect your SS status, you have a couple of options.

1. You can use Auto reply to send a "thank you" or an "I'll get back to you shortly" message. This counts as a response for SS, but needs to be reset every five days.
2. You can create a few snippets with various messages and send quick responses that way in just 3 clicks, Snippets/Select/Send.
3. You can create a new, buyer only Etsy account and keep all your purchases separate from your shop.

Number 3 is the easiest option, once your buyer account is set up it requires no ongoing maintenance and you never have to worry about pesky sellers interfering with your SS rating.