Star seller messaging

[KTMayWhimsies]

I actually refunded the buyer and messaged through the refund box in less than a day. Since I didn't message back through the thread of messages it showed up I didn't answer in a timely fashion.

When he replied back, I answered through messages.

Not only did I answer the buyer in less than a day but I resolved his problem as well. 

Need to check and include refund messages as well. 

[AnniebelloPaper]

Etsy has repeated advised that the metric requires a reply in the message thread. Anything that is outside of that thread cannot be attributed to the thread and therefore won't be counted. In your case, Etsy can only see that the first message (assuming it was asking for the refund), wasn't answered. It's a bit of effort but I would suggest (for the future), just refunding and then sending a reply in the message thread letting the buyer know you have refunded. This will also help you keep track if that buyer comes back to ask about their refund. The note you send when refunding will appear to the buyer in a separate email/message and they might miss it.

[BagmakerSupply · Accepted solution]

@KTMayWhimsies: The problem is how would Etsy know which refund goes with which message thread? The buyer could have started multiple Help Requests, each of which would have started a new thread. Just keep in mind that the Star Seller metric is that the FIRST message of EVERY NEW INCOMING 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.

If the unanswered message is not a Help Request, at least for the time being, it appears that marking an unanswered message of a 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.