Urgent Help Needed: Messages Wrongly Blocked and Star Seller Badge Eligibility Issue

[MockupFits]

Dear Etsy Support Team,

I am writing to urgently address two pressing issues that have been significantly affecting my Etsy shop's performance and reputation over the past week.

Issue 1: Messages Disabled for 5 Days

For the past five days, a critical issue has plagued my ability to respond to customer inquiries. When I attempted to reply to messages, I was met with the message: "Bummer, your message has been temporarily disabled. Please contact support to have them reactivated." This situation has been both highly frustrating and detrimental to my shop's image.

I reached out to Etsy's customer support chat to resolve this issue and was told to wait for a response by email. While I appreciate their acknowledgment of the problem and the efforts of the Trust & Safety team, the fact remains that it took five days to resolve this issue. During this period, I was unable to respond to my customers, which not only goes against my commitment to providing excellent service but has also resulted in a drop in my response rate. As a consequence, I am no longer eligible for the star seller badge.

I have recently received a response from Venus, a specialist on Etsy's Trust & Safety team, who confirmed that my Messages feature has been reactivated. She also explained that this issue was related to measures taken to combat spam on Etsy, but it was an error that caused my messages to be disabled. While I appreciate the explanation and resolution, the five days of downtime have had an adverse impact on my ability to achieve the star seller badge, which is essential for my shop's credibility.

I urgently need assistance with pertains to my eligibility for the star seller badge. Prior to encountering the aforementioned problem, I consistently maintained a response rate of over 95%, meeting the requirements for this prestigious badge. Due to the forced downtime, my response rate has plummeted, making me ineligible for the star seller badge. Please reverse this because it was out of my hands and the team on the chat forwarded me to this technical issue forum since they can’t change it manually.

Issue 2: Star Seller Badge Eligibility

The second issue I encountered is that I specialize in selling digital products, including custom orders. I have diligently fulfilled these orders, marking them as completed. However, I have observed that they are not being reflected in my star seller counting, even though they meet all the criteria for the badge, except for the recent response rate issue. This inconsistency is impacting my shop's reputation and growth.

It's worth noting that I have noticed other shops that exclusively sell digital products, similar to mine, have obtained the star seller badge. This raises questions why it is not possible for me and accuracy of the criteria applied to my shop.

I kindly request your immediate intervention in resolving both of these issues promptly. My shop holds great significance to me, and I am wholeheartedly committed to providing the best possible service to my customers.

I understand that technical glitches can occur, but it is imperative that these issues are addressed swiftly to ensure fairness and transparency for all sellers on Etsy.

Thank you for your understanding and assistance. I eagerly await your response and a resolution to these pressing problems.

Warm regards,

Robbie

[WitticismsRus]

@MockupFits 

You aren't reaching etsy support here.
Etsy changed this to a peer to peer support forum a few years ago so it's just us sellers here sadly. Occasionally an admin will pop in if there is a major issue going on but generally it's just us sellers.

If you need more help from etsy support you will need to contact them again but this time use the email option. That is the only one that will get you to an actual etsy employee vs the call center folks that man live chat and phone call back support. 

[MockupFits]

Dear WitticismsRus,

Thank you for your response and the insights you've shared. It's helpful to have an understanding of how this forum operates, and I value your advice.

Regarding my situation, I wanted to mention that the Etsy chat support team actually guided me to the Technical Issues forum themselves and send me the link 3 times as an answer to my questions. They suggested that this is the appropriate channel for addressing the specific issues I've been encountering.

Your suggestion to contact Etsy support via email is certainly appreciated, and I will follow your advice by sending them an email with my questions and concerns.

Thank you for taking the time to offer your guidance, and I hope to get any progress in resolving these pressing concerns soon.

Warm regards,

Robbie

[michellepatterns]

It's an appropriate channel for talking to other sellers, seeing what others think about varying topics, and keeping up with etsy changes. That's really all it is and it's where etsy sends you when they can't/won't help.   

[PlatypusDream]

"Regarding my situation, I wanted to mention that the Etsy chat support team actually guided me to the Technical Issues forum themselves and send me the link 3 times as an answer to my questions. "

That's because they can do nothing for you.

WE are the ones that have to tell you that there is nothing you can do but wait, making US the bad guys.

There is literally nothing you can do. Buckle down for a mute of anywhere from a week to a year. Most sellers have reported 2 months.

Here is the appropriate section of the Seller Policy:

https://www.etsy.com/legal/sellers/#community

c. Communication Standards

i. Messages

With Etsy's "Messages", you have the ability to communicate directly with your buyers or other Etsy members. Messages are a great way for buyers to ask you questions about an item or an order.

Messages may not be used for the following activities:

1. Sending unsolicited advertising or promotions, requests for donations or spam;
2. Harassing or abusing another member or violating our Anti-Discrimination Policy;
3. Contacting someone after they have explicitly asked you not to;  
4. Interfering with a transaction or the business of another member;
5. Exchanging personal contact, financial or other information for the purposes of evading the checkout process on Etsy, including phone number, address, email, social media handles, external URLs, instructions for money transfer, etc.

[JDTotesnDolls]

Yes, chat does that but us longtime sellers just shake our heads when this happens. And sometimes that is a way to bow out of an issue that has no resolution by directing the seller to the forums. Seldom can we help other than offer commismeration.

Did you send messages to others before you were muted?  If these messages were not response messages then the system muting comes into play to stop spamming as best as can be done.  

As to star seller if your items are digital then there is nothing for you to mark complete.  The purchase automatically marks the digital purchase complete. Since there is nothing to ship, digital sellers are not subject to this part of the star seller.  

The star seller for digital is messages and reviews.

[JDTotesnDolls]

Like to add that to have a complete shop, you need your about page and shop policies plus your location.  These things are important to Etsy.

[heavyistheheart]

Cannot speak for the first issue but re star seller. . .I cannot ship to my Canadian customers at a price that is fair using etsy tracking so bollocks to it

[TBQSC]

Do you have an auto response set up in your messages?  If not, now would be the time to do so ... it greatly helps in keeping your SSR in good standing!

[ChristmasMemory]

Marking those messages as SPAM (even after the fact) might help you in this case. 

[PrevntProducts]

any advice for getting this fixed? Can I set up auto reply notifying people my messages are temporarily blocked?