Star seller message response not accurate

[deannar03]

The one message I did not reply to was a message on an item I purchased from another seller. Yet that is being held against me. It shows up on my message report. That’s just wrong. It’s for star seller not star customer… 

[UniqueGiftOrnaments]

Instructions on the star are clearly stated. Every message must be answered or put into spam. Bots cannot differentiate between them.

[PillowDetails]

@deannar03   I had that happen once, too.  Now I know.  It was the rule since the beginning.  Luckily, now we get a blue banner - on desktop, and a blue dot - on mobile, for all first-time messages that require a response, regardless who sent them.

[EmmasHeritage]

I lost my badge because messages replying to the ‘Help with Order’ messages we get (just like a regular message) do NOT count and Etsy refused to fix.  They even had the time stamps of my replies and they still wouldn’t budge.

Ridiculous.  

[TheWhiteVioletNJ]

Just had the same happen to me - a seller sent me a coupon for a future purchase and I didn't respond. Lost my star seller badge. Very hard lesson.

[JunesShoppe]

I lost my Star because of the messaging. Once, I'd chatted back and forth about an item a customer was considering. Then she purchased it and sent me a one-word exclamation. Like "excellent" or something like that. I didn't respond. My bad, I guess.

Then a customer ordered something from a different time zone. I was about to print the shipping label when I got the message that the customer had changed his mind. I immediately went and refunded the order in full. I guess 24 hours passed - whatever. So I was knocked down on my message reply section even further. I can't waste hours trying to explain my predicament, so I just plug along without the "Prize".  I doubt it matters much, but it's the frustration of trying your best to be a good seller and not being rewarded as I should be.

[BagmakerSupply · Accepted solution]

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.

Help Requests always start a new thread. By the way, if you are creating a custom listing based on a new thread, you still need to reply to the message. 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".

Cancellation requests 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.

[SheWhoPlaysWithGlass]

I was under the impression, and I could be worn, but I thought that shops could lose their SS badge if the items they are selling are in violation of Etsy policies.

[deannar03 · Accepted solution]

Lesson learned I guess.