Star seller response error

[FringeVintageShoppe]

I have been hurt in message response ratings because I did not respond to a spam email from another seller. I don’t feel this is fair. I always respond to customers in under 24 hrs and other sellers when a response is warranted. I do not feel sellers should be punished for not responding to spam or messages that do not require a response. I have tried to reach someone at Etsy, but cannot find anyway to reach Etsy even by email. 

[NanaLetha]

Etsy support will not help you. The criteria is very clear - respond to ALL messages or mark as spam!

[hopeandjoystudios]

Mark it spam now and it should come off in a couple days (If not months old) You need to mark spam as spam not ignore or they will ding you. Messages from sellers you bought from also count.

[audreytherese]

Etsy gives you the tool to mark messages as spam so you are not required to respond, but you have to use that tool. They don't know what the message was about and don't just disqualify messages unless you mark them accordingly. 

It says right on your dashboard in the SS details:

What messages count towards the message response rate?

Your message response rate is based on just the first message in a conversation, not ongoing conversations. This means you just need to respond to the first message within 24 hours. This applies to messages both from buyer and seller accounts. Messages from Etsy staff do not count toward your response rate, and neither do messages that you mark as spam. You can also now find a breakdown of your message response rate score by downloading a CSV.

[After9Marbles]

Just mark it as spam and play the game. It will update in a few days. I am still curious if not responding to the Esty messages will count against us.

[audreytherese]

"Messages from Etsy staff do not count toward your response rate"

Also while marking as spam now may void it off the list for next month, Etsy will not recalculate for the current month. 

[BagmakerSupply]

@FringeVintageShoppe: "I do not feel sellers should be punished for not responding to spam or messages that do not require a response." Unfortunately Etsy disagrees 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.

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 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.