Star seller calculation error

[LilBeanQuilting]

I was dinged on message response time in December. The 2 messages I did not respond to were "thank you for your business" messages from other Etsy sellers I had purchased from! No response was necessary... you don't thank a thank you note! Anyone know how to dispute this?

[UniqueGiftOrnaments · Accepted solution]

They have to be answered or put into spam. There is no difference between seller and buyer. There is no dispute. Etsy will do nothing

[BagmakerSupply · Accepted solution]

@LilBeanQuilting: "Anyone know how to dispute this?" There is nothing to dispute as you made the decision to not follow the published Star Seller rules. The Star Seller metric for messages is very simplistic and binary - either you replied to (or marked as SPAM) that first message of a new incoming thread within 24 hours or you did not.

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 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.

[LilBeanQuilting · Accepted solution]

Thank you.  I appreciate you taking the time to respond.  Very helpful. 

[audreytherese · Accepted solution]

You could have said 'you're welcome'. 

And I agree with others, it's spelled out in the program and nowhere does it say messages like this are excluded. The program is extremely basic. It reads something like:

There was a message received

Was there a response within 24 hours

Yes or No

That's it.

There's no 'Was the message from a shop that this seller purchased from and should it be considered for exclusion?' or any other criteria for it to look at. 

[LilBeanQuilting · Accepted solution]

Got it.  Thank you. 

[TastefulArtisan · Accepted solution]

"No response was necessary... you don't thank a thank you note"

Was there a blue highlight that told you to reply in 24 hours? That is the indication that a response is indeed necessary. 

I've never agreed with the just mark it as spam because I didn't want to bother with it until it actually had an adverse effect on me approach but you do you.

Next time if saying thank you is too much, slap a smiley in a reply. 2 seconds and done. SS metric happy. 
The message part of the SS program is the only part we, as shops, have ANY control over. Etsy provides the tools to satisfy the basic metrics for those unwilling or unable to comply but who still want that star.

The blue line indicating a response is needed.
An auto-responder so you can either answer at your leisure or not, your choice.

I'm sorry you were blind-sided by that but the good news is that it's unlikely to happen again!

[LilBeanQuilting · Accepted solution]

Lol.  You are correct about that.  Thanks for your insight! Very helpful.