Star seller status was not awarded due to not replying to someone I purchased from within 25 hrs

[ItsSoPawfect]

I am very diligent regarding customer service. I was not awarded star seller status because I didn't reply to a message of someone I purchased something from (not a customer of mine, but someone I was a customer of) within 24 hours. The message was their shipping notification and other info for my purchase. My replies to my customers were all within the 24 hours. This is very disappointing and hard to reason why this would affect my star seller status. Anyone else had issues wth this?

[NanaLetha]

Did you read the star seller criteria? You must reply to all messages or mark as spam. I have never had issues with that because I know what I need to do.

[ItsSoPawfect]

I have marked several messages as spam, when they are spam, yes, but that wasn't spam. Is the system not smart enough to determine when its my customer vs. someone I'm a customer of?

[hopeandjoystudios · Accepted solution]

No it is not. Which is why you have to answer "Thanks" or put it in your spam folder.

[audreytherese]

Yes, there's been thousands of posts exactly like yours, so others have experienced the same. 

Please read the SS rules, it clearly states that messages from both buyers and sellers are included in the metrics. 

The program is simple. It reads like

A message was received

Was there a response? Yes or no

It does not take into account who the message is from or what it is about. 

If you don't want to worry about messages from sellers affecting your SS, then create a buyer only account. 

[ItsSoPawfect]

I don't come to these forums ever so didn't realize this was a thing. Now I know.  Thanks!

[audreytherese]

It may behoove you to check out the forums once in a while, might help you avoid other issues like this that you may otherwise be unaware of. 

[TutuSister]

Audrey is right. I ended up in reserve because I did not care to get star seller. I had no idea this was happening until it happened to me. It was all over the forums but I didn't come here. I come once a week to see what's happening. Just a peek!!

[bradgoodell · Accepted solution]

Yeah, that are Star Seller rules.  It is pretty basic.  You must reply to ALL new messages, from buyer or seller.  If it's spam, mark it as spam.  

[ItsSoPawfect]

Well, now I know. 

[NancyQstudio]

@ItsSoPawfect Send the message to spam now.  It may readjust tomorrow depending on how long ago this occurred. It's worth a try.

Yeah, it's a very basic program.  I'm sorry this happened.  

[FeltOnTheFly]

I understand the conundrum of marking something as spam when it isn’t actually spam. 

same thing happened to me the very first month of the star seller program. 

I think sellers should do other sellers a favor and reconsider sending unnecesssry messages under the guise of ‘good customer service’. 

[NoFrogsAllowed]

@FeltOnTheFly 

I agree 1000%.  Most after sale messages are duplicates of ones already sent by Etsy anyway.

[DragoninKnots]

At least we didn't have Star Seller back in the days of Treasuries, lol.

[NancyQstudio]

It's so sad that this is now a factor.  I've never considered a polite message about my order spam.  I value good customer service regardless of how a seller chooses to do it.  I respond to these types of seller messages because I appreciate their efforts. And sometimes the messages have been thoughtful and enjoyable due to the personal connection.  Unfortunately these messages can also be cumbersome when I'm having a very hectic day.  And the duplicated received messages (convos) is a pain! This has happened several times this month already.  

What I don't like is because of this program I now check to see if a buyer is also a seller.  If so, I make attempts not have any communication so I don't cause them problems.  Fortunately I don't need to contact buyers often so far this hasn't been a problem.  But I still don't like it.  I do understand why sellers are creating separate accounts for ordering.  It helps with this issue and keeping business and personal separated.  

[audreytherese]

NancyQ - Since all our orders have the customer's direct email address on them, I'm pretty sure I've seen cindylouwho2 say that if a buyer is also a seller then she emails them instead of sending a message through here. Just a thought you may consider, if you'd still like to send a note to buyers without having to worry about disrupting their stats. 

[bradgoodell]

Very few of my buyers have shops.  But I've changed my messaging to only go to buyers who are ordering personalization.  All too often, people enter the wrong name or date and it isn't until they get my message that they notice this.  So I'll continue to message buyers with that confirmation.

It's gotta suck for supply sellers though.  

[DragoninKnots]

You may want to save a snippet that says something along the lines of "thanks for the update" for these sorts of messages.

[ItsSoPawfect]

Yes, great idea. 

[TBQSC]

Set it & forget it … weekly auto reply … works great for preventing lost stars!

https://help.etsy.com/hc/en-us/articles/115015654988-How-to-Send-Messages-to-Buyers?segment=selling#...

[LynnsLittleShop]

@ItsSoPawfect  and be aware that if someone wants to cancel an order, don't take advantage of the message on the cancel page as it doesn't count for star seller either. Learned that the hard way, too.