Star seller message rate

[BubbyBums]

My rate dropped below 95% and I always reply within the 24 hour period. I have received a message with a blank message bubble. I didn't reply to that. Wondering if you're dinged when they send more than one message before you can even reply. Such as (1) can you make this in red? (2) in a size x? (3) how long before it ships? I'm going to send a reply addressing all 3 questions. Finally, do you have to have the last word in a lengthy message dialog in order to keep your reply rate positive?

[anythinggoeshere]

@BubbyBums  Mark that empty message as spam.

[JJewellerySuppliesUK · Accepted solution]

Only the first message counts so if you reply to that one, the rest in the same thread don't matter.  If you get 3 separate threads, you need to reply to all 3.  I got some spam the other day and before I clicked Spam, I responded and said No Thank You just in case!

[valleycreativedesign]

Unfortunately they do count against you. I was just investigating my own message history, trying to figure out why the percentage had gone down and that's exactly what had happened. I'm not sure if I should just delete the empty ones? Will that count against me?

[FallenAngelBrass]

@valleycreativedesign 

Don't delete them.  Mark them as spam and then your score will rise back up. 

[valleycreativedesign]

Ooh okay. I sometimes get ones where the buyer has sent multiple repeat messages. I've just been responding to the latest one and ignoring the rest. If I mark "spam" on the extras, that won't affect the legit messages from that buyer will it? 

[SolCrystalJewelry]

My message reply rate keeps going down even though I too respond with 24 hours, usually within an hour!!  I'm not receiving any blank messages or anything like that.  This is very frustrating and I have to try to contact Etsy about this.  My response rate should be 100%.  It seems like the more messages I reply to, the more my percentage drops. There has to be a glitch in their system.

[anythinggoeshere]

Are there any messages sent to you from a seller you have not replied to?

[SolCrystalJewelry]

No, none!!  I was at 94% a few days ago, received some buyer messages, answered them immediately, and now I'm at 92%!

[TrooperTrent]

I lost my rating due to a similar issue. The customer starts a new message with me every time he replies.

So instead of one conversation, it's 4 or 5.  For example, I had a conversation with him about the shipping time to the UK and I sent him tracking details.
He started a new message to tell me "ok"
and then later a new message to say "I'll look at it later today"

and because I didn't respond to either of those, thinking they were just replies to our conversation, I was dinged for them.

I think this calculation should be revised to ignore follow up messages in a separate thread by the same user.

[ElyanoraArt]

• Same situation happened in my store.

I replied to all messages.