I responded appropriately to all conversations.
But you didn't. You left a note in the refund window, but you didn't respond in the actual message, nor did you mark that message as spam.
Don't kid yourself that you are being singled out, none of us are that important that Etsy would bother to single us out. The fact is, there is no living being at work here at all, the whole SS process is automated. It looks at all first messages you receive and compares the receipt time with the response time. If they are more than 24hrs apart, then you get a fail for that message. It is a harsh way to learn a lesson. Even if you don't consider that a message requires you to respond, the system does. You need to answer within 24 hrs, even if it is only to say "see my note on the refund page" or "all done, thank you", or you can spam the message and it will no longer count against you. It is too late for the badges just awarded, but if you go back and mark that message as spam now, it may not count against you next month.
The Help staff are only there to handle simple questions with simple solutions. Anything complicated like SS and they don't know the answer. They sometimes sympathise, but they will inevitably refer you here to the forums where other sellers with more hands on experience will help you.
