Starseller response rate calculation

[SoulmateOrSolo]

I received an order that the buyer only put one letter in the personalization section. I immediately messaged the buyer and asked if she really only wanted the single letter. She replied that she placed the order by mistake, cancel the order. I do not accept returns or exchanges but immediately canceled the order. At the same time or right after I cancelled I received a message asking to cancel the order. I had already cancelled the order and she already received notice I had cancelled the order. I did not respond to the second message because she was already notified. When I saw it was negatively effecting my star seller status I posted cancelled. I do not feel like I should be penalized, can this be corrected?

[VintageRescueSquad]

For the initial message, you were the initiator, so that doesn't factor in. However, the second one was generated by her (possibly through the resolution notification), so that is something you had to respond to.

Etsy has repeatedly told us that we either have to respond to all initial incoming messages no matter what or it dings us. Depending on when you got that second msg, you may be able to mark it as spam, and it might go away. However, etsy has repeatedly also told us that they will not manually "correct" or mediate in the calculation.

Loads of us are learning all this the hard way.

[audreytherese]

This can not be corrected. Most times when the cancel request comes in it comes as a help request, which is separate from the normal messaging system, thus requires a separate response (and these can not be sent to spam as normal messages can). Following through with the cancellation does not void the message, and neither does adding a note within the cancellation. Many sellers thought the message they could add when cancelling would count as responding, it doesn't. 

I recently had someone send me a message with a question about sizing. As I was writing a response, she placed an order, then immediately sent me a help request with the same question to make sure I saw the first question. Even though it was the same question in both messages, I did need to respond to both, if I wanted to keep my message rate up. 

[OmasFabricStash]

You received a new message and didn’t respond to it. There is nothing to fix, all messages must have a response within 24 hours or you get dinged for it.