Star seller status incorrect

[TwistedTulipsGifts]

I have recently placed orders for holiday shopping. There was one thank you message from someone I PURCHASED an item from that I did not reply to within 24 hours and it is now impacting my star seller status (dropped me to an 80%)  despite me contacting all buyers/potential buyers within a couple of hours (previously had 100%). It seems odd to me that messages to shops I’m buying from would impact my star SELLER status. 

I reached out to support and they were NO help and directed me to this forum for additional help. 

I’ve been on Etsy for less than a year and don’t have a high volume of sales or messages so this really hurts my star seller status - it took me quite a while to achieve it and I was really happy to finally have that badge, so this really hurts me and my shop unnecessarily. 

[NanaLetha]

All messages count. It’s an automated program. You either reply or mark as spam 

[JJewellerySuppliesUK]

All messages no matter who they are from must be answered within 24hrs.  The bots don't know who sent it, they just see an unanswered message.  If it was a recent message then mark it as spam and your score might recalculate. 

[ChillwolfArt]

Sorry you were caught by this.  It's as NanaLetha stated; when you are not the Initiator of a Message, it must be Responded to or Marked as Spam.  This also includes if you receive a Message from a Seller whom you are friendly with ("How's it going?" for example). 
I've always used the same account for both buying and selling.  And as a Buyer, I respond "Thank You" (or something similar).

Hope this helps.

[TwistedTulipsGifts]

Thank you for the kindness and patience in your reply. I know now and will be more mindful going forward. I appreciate your advice. I tried the spam route so hopefully that will change the score. 

[BootifulLabels]

The rules clearly state that all new messages require an answer or to be marked as spam within 24 hrs in order to qualify for SS. It doesn't matter who they are from or what they are about, no-one reads your messages, the system is automated and simply compares the time-stamps for receipt and response to determine compliance. If you mark that message as spam now, it should update your stats within a day or two, but it will not help with the badges already awarded.

If you don't want your purchases to affect your SS status, you have a couple of options.

1. You can use Auto reply to send a "thank you" or an "I'll get back to you shortly" message. This counts as a response for SS, but needs to be reset every five days.
2. You can create a few snippets with various messages and send quick responses that way in just 3 clicks, Snippets/Select/Send.
3. You can create a new, buyer only Etsy account and keep all your purchases separate from your shop.

Number 3 is the easiest option, once your buyer account is set up it requires no ongoing maintenance and you never have to worry about messages from sellers interfering with your SS rating.

[BagmakerSupply]

@TwistedTulipsGifts: "Star seller status incorrect" Unfortunately, based on the information you provided it is not. 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.

[TwistedTulipsGifts]

What I don’t understand is why messages unrelated to my items I sell are dictating my seller status when I am acting as the buyer. 

[BagmakerSupply]

@TwistedTulipsGifts: "... why messages unrelated to my items I sell are dictating my seller status ..." Basically for two reasons - one is that because Etsy says so, and the second is that because a new thread from a "seller" could actually be a inquiry as a buyer, so instead of trying to determine the intent of any message all new incoming threads have to be answered.

[mommawhazelsquilts]

@TwistedTulipsGifts 

If all else fails, read the instructions (in this case, read the rules).

ALL MESSAGES from BUYER or SELLER.

[dippeldiundscribble]

@TwistedTulipsGifts 

"What I don’t understand is why messages unrelated to my items I sell are dictating my seller status when I am acting as the buyer."

Because you used your seller account for this purchase.

To add another option to @BootifulLabels reply:

4. You can purchase as a guest

[Amaradorn]

Sellers buy from each other here. Etsy messages doesn't know who is the buyer and who is the seller - it's not that clever. Therefore they count ALL initial/opening messages. 

[PHAG]

I agree with you completely regarding the issue you are describing @TwistedTulipsGifts .  In an age when technology is so sophisticated it is truly difficult to read all the replies from sellers jumping on the bandwagon of saying the issue is yours to solve as a seller, rather than holding the business who controls the calculation accountable for actually creating an algorithm that incorporates only appropriate items in the formula for a badge award.  The number of people who, in one way or another, have told you the "machine" is not "smart enough" to determine buyer vs. seller in a scenario like the one you described are clearly not up-to-speed on machine learning and AI.  The problem is not the "machine."  It is the code and/or coder- in this case, Etsy.  After seeing all the posts in this form, I just thought it was important for someone to say, I see your issue, your rationale is completely logical, and I'm sorry to see you aren't receiving more support from the "community" pushing Etsy to improve their Star Seller calculation, rather than making excuses for its shortcomings and accepting the status quo as all there is to offer.  Etsy can, and should, do better for the sellers driving its success as a selling platform!

[cutebutton]

self edited

for now these are etsy's rules and if you want the badge you have to do it.  At least the OP knows what to do and can mark the message as spam and update the stats. 

[dippeldiundscribble]

@PHAG 

So you're saying that Etsy should make it easy for anyone to become a star seller?

But what's the point in that? This would lead the whole thing ad absurdum.

[cutebutton]

@dippeldiundscribble 

actually I think it's interesting because the message metric IS easy to meet because as a seller you have complete control over what you choose to answer or not.

The way I look at it, if someone sends me a thank you message for something I purchased, that's an easy way to get an extra point on the message metric because it is a very easy response that takes 2 seconds and no thought.  Those are the messages that a person should in some ways be thankful for because they HELP your stats as long as you say a quick you are welcome! The messages that people consider "required" are actually the ones that take longer to answer because they typically do require some thought.  If a person is monitoring their messages then they shouldn't miss any messages, even ones from other sellers because if they want star seller it seems like a person would be doing that anyway.

The review metric is the one that is not necessarily easy because the seller doesn't have control over what another person chooses to do. 

[BagmakerSupply]

@PHAG: Not disagreeing with you in principle, but a major purpose of this forum is to help fellow sellers within the existing rules and confines until (and if) the time comes when they change.

Do changes need to be made? Most sellers will say yes. Could Etsy read every single message and infer if it is a buyer, seller, or best friend message? Of course they could. But how many threads would there be in this forum that "some bot incorrectly classified my message"?

[dippeldiundscribble]

@cutebutton 

That's exactly the point. The messages are one of the easiest Star Seller metrics to meet.

And yet there are many sellers who cannot meet this metric because they have not read the rules (carefully). That's ok, because everyone is allowed to make a mistake. But it's one thing to make a mistake and admit it, and another to make a mistake and then blame Etsy and expect the rules to change for your convenience.

It is irrelevant whether Etsy is able to distinguish between messages received as a seller and messages received as a buyer. They decided not to. 

[cutebutton]

@dippeldiundscribble 

100% agree! 

I know I've made many many MANY mistakes on the road to running my business LOL.  But as you said I do try to own them and learn and move forward. 

@BagmakerSupply 

Etsy actually did make some changes to star seller when people complained about the review metric.  Remember how over the top ridiculous it was when 4 star reviews were treated equal to 1 star reviews LOL.  So etsy does at times listen and make adjustments. But I agree as far as messages go that bots are probably not to be trusted and would constantly mess stuff up HAHAHA. 

[BagmakerSupply]

@cutebutton: "Etsy actually did make some changes to star seller when people complained about the review metric." No doubt that Etsy does make changes based on seller feedback. But they also "fixed" the messaging portion by lumping all subsequent messages into a single thread - absolute chaos for those of us with repeat customers where we might have multiple conversations about different products going on at the same time but which are now all intermixed in one thread.

[cutebutton]

@BagmakerSupply 

Oh I totally agree.  I have customers who send me images and many times it is way easier to have the images in separate messages so I don't have to scroll back and forth.  Now it is way confusing because all the past messages that were sort of organized are now all lumped together and it makes it take a lot of effort for me to figure out where images are LOL.  

[TwistedTulipsGifts]

I appreciate your support! I agree that technology is advanced enough to be able to set some sort of code to determine seller vs buyer messages and count only buyer messages to the score not be up to the seller to set up two accounts or mark them as spam (seems inconvenient to me!). I did mark it as spam so hopefully that helps. Again, thank you for understanding my point and frustration. As someone new to Etsy and simply forgetting part of the rules, I greatly appreciate your kindness and patience in your reply. 

[WitticismsRus]

@TwistedTulipsGifts 

"how does that not turn into a never ending loop of “thank yous” 

Because as the star seller page says "Your message response rate is based on just the first message in a conversation, not ongoing conversations" 

And The Help Center article linked below says "The Message response rate only applies to the first message in a thread...."

That means just what it says...the FIRST message received. It doesn't mean all replies received forever. Just the FIRST message. 

So in your case, the seller sent you a message which was the first message in the conversation. You need to reply to that one since it was the first message in the conversation. Your reply back to the seller would not be the first message in the conversation, their initial message to you would be the first in the conversation. Now if you didn't reply to their initial first message and instead started a whole new message thread to reply then that would be the first message in that message thread and the seller would need to reply. 

Here is a link to the Help Center page with info about Star Seller https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/articles/4403058372503-How-to-Become-a-Star-Seller-?segment=selling

There is also more helpful info right on the Star Seller page in your shop manager. 

[cutebutton]

Here is the info copied and pasted from etsy about messages and star seller requirements

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.

[GlassyFields]

All first messages in a thread ... 

just mark the message that you failed to respond to as spam. Your SS stats will recalculate - it can take a few days.