what to do next

[Ceri Michigan]

Hello,

I just wanted some advice....about 2wks ago i bought a product from MoDesigns, the product at the time failed to be delivered to me, so i did as the customers support suggested made a note card dropped it to the owner showing the transaction history which i got off this site....and waited.....and waited....i heard nothing, so i sent her an IM and nothing, I resent the note card 4days ago now i think and still nothing. I can see from her group that she has been online today and was online last week as well, but i haven't had anything. 

Now the money has been taken but i dont have the product, and its been over 2wks, so what do i do next?

 

Ceri

[Ceri Michigan]

Yeah i was wondering if there was anything LL would do, but if not then i will have to keep bugging her then.

 

Thanks for the advice, it is annoying because the customer group everyone keeps telling me how helpful she is which makes it more frustrating because shes obviously just ignoring me.

[Trinity Yazimoto]

well, as a lot of merchants she has surely her ims capped and note card eaten by sl aswell.

it happens to me a lot.

so maybe she has a mailbox in her store. u should go and check and if there is one, drop ur note card in it. that way sl wont eat it.

you can see also if she has a partner or friends mentionned in her profile and try to contact her through them

btw i wish u good luck.

[Couldbe Yue]

assuming you bought it on the marketplace, I'd put a support ticket in and include the transaction details from your marketplace transaction history and request a resend (there's actually a specific ticket type iirc).

They used to resend within a few hours but I think it could be days now, so don't get too excited about a prompt redelivery but at least they will redeliver it, no matter if the seller ignores you (edit:it may not be ignoring in a bad way, they may not be getting your missives)

[nikita Jefferson]

I know it's frustrating and LL will not get involved with customer / merchant disputes.

Looking inworld at the owner profile, she has a customer support group,so i would join that group ,it costs nothing,

Go inworld and bring up her profile and then go to her profile picks, then click on the customer support one, then click on the group link then join, then send a message to group about your failed transaction

[nikita Jefferson]

So much for the customer support group.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr it burns me up when merchants treat their customers like that, ,,,,,this I'm s capped and notecards capped is a little tireing, no one is that popular they constantly can't be gotten too

I had a merchant who ignored me years ago, it just made me furious, i tried for months to reach him, he never did respond so i put a bad review of him and his products in my profile picks, then whenever anyone searched his name or product my review showed in searach because i had his name in my picks.

I got messages from quite a few people thanking me for the heads up, and also from others who could not get an answer to their notecards and IMs either.

If a merchant cannot be gotten to because of capped IM s and notecards then that tells me that merchant is dealing with a lot of complaints.

As a merchant myself i am always available to my customers

 

[Charolotte Caxton]

The few times I have had items not delivered to me I have opened a support ticket for redelivery. The items have always been redelivered. The wait time for me was less than 24 hours.

Help > Contact Support > Support Case > Marketplace > Failed Delivery

https://support.secondlife.com/create-case/

[Couldbe Yue]

I can understand your frustration but I'd just like to remind people of a few points..

A lot of merchants in here are here because they're sick or incapacitated or otherwise mainly confined to the home (including those caring for others or for children).  I remember reading a long time ago that sl had a higher proportion of people with disabilities (I don't know how to lump them all together since the reasons are so disparate, even if the result isn't) than most online games.  Therefore the chances that something in rl has overtaken them is a very real thing. For example,  I've met more creators in here with cancer down the years (and I believe them, certainly some of them are no longer with us) and other disabilities than I ever have in rl.

I also know a fair few creators who have effectively walked out of sl but left their items up and they make no effort to do even basic customer service, they just take the money.  although I do know a couple who don't even cashout, they've left sl that much.  There's nothing anyone can do about them and that's the chance you take, particularly if you buy any stuff that's from a creator that hasn't released in the last 6 months.

I suppose the rule of thumb to reduce the chances are to check to see how recent it has been since their last release (anything with an item number over 2.5mil has been released in the last year I think), to see if they've moved over to DD (which means they were at least around in march) and to check product reviews for complaints.  It might help or it might not.

[Josh Susanto]

If you never expect to receive satisfaction from the merchant, one thing I can suggest is to talk to some competitors or potential competitors about finding a way to offer other customers an even better product at a nominally lower price. 

 

[Darrius Gothly]

You are very correct about SL having a higher proportion of disabled/challenged members Couldbe. I'm one of them. SL affords me and many others a chance to actually participate in a "real life" of sorts without having to actually engage in those things that would otherwise be impossible. (Such as running a load of packages to the shipping depot or making twice daily stops at the post office, or handling any of the other duties that typical online retailers must do.) But nevertheless it doesn't absolve us from at least providing good customer service.

In her first post Ceri mentions that she saw the Merchant online just that day. So clearly the Merchant is online and able to communicate, so any disability or challenge can't be used as a vaild excuse.

From my own personal experience I have learned that I can set the option to send IMs to email. This way I receive every single IM, even after enough have been sent to cap them and well beyond. Even more helpful is the fact that I can REPLY to those IMs simply by replying to the email. All I have to do is erase ALL the previous content in the body of the email reply then type in what I want to say .. hit send and Presto!! The customer gets my reply. (Usually in about 4 seconds. It's that fast!) This negates the "my IMs are capped and I can't log in to get them" excuse.

I specifically ask my customers not to send notecards ... primarily because I can't always log in to get them. But also because they're a pain to reply to. I usually edit the notecard with my response and drop it back on the customer. But I also usually send the same text back to them as an IM. Several times I've received notecards, done both replies .. and heard nothing again. WTH!?

I know that some Merchants request you send a notecard, but I think that's because they don't realize they CAN get every IM if they want. The IM to email feature is incredibly reliable, and with the ability to reply to them it's a fantastic feature for customer support.

I'm afraid that I have little patience for Merchants that are SO buried in IMs and notecards (so they say) that they cannot respond to everyone. Especially with an issue as simple as a redelivery. It takes so little time to look up the order, click the Redeliver button and reply to the customer that NOT doing so is just thoughtless and disrespectful IMHO. Even if they are diabled, challenged or just plain swamped .. good customer service is something that cannot be given short shrift.

[Trinity Yazimoto]

i dont want to defend this merchant, since i dont know her and since i know from my experience that some dont behave correctly at all. But the thing about im capped isnt wront at all.

indeed, i know i can have my ims in my mailbox. and i do.

but this works only for the first ims u recieve after being offline. SL doesnt save ALL ur ims because it would need a huge memory.

So when u log off, ur first ims are saved and they can indeedly be sent to ur mailbox. and of course,you can answer witouth logging in sl, but from ur mailbox. but after a few ims, depend their size, the following ones are lost.THATS WHY A LOT OF MERCHANTS ASK PP TO SEND NC, bec these ones are normally saved.

But this doesnt work sometimes. I often see that pp have sent me objects or nc and when i log, there is nothing. Well, since i had a notification in my mailbox, i ALWAYS contact the sender and ask him/her to send again.

i dont think sm1 can say my custom support is bad, since i log as soon as i see smth in my mailbox about an issue with my vendors or products. i often check my marketplace aswell, and check if smth hasnt been delivery, or if sm1 bought 2 times the same items without purpose.

but the fact is that my ims are OFTEN capped and my nc not delivered in my inventory. Thats why i bought and rezzed an info shop sign where my customer may leave their nc. No need to tell that i check it EVERY DAY. And saying we can have all the ims in our mail box is not true.

first i was like you and thoutght that that was false and purely pretentiousness. But from my experience, its not.

you can see ur ims in ur malbox, but let me tell u this works only for the first ones u recieve after logging off. And since u didnt recieved the following ones bec they got capped, u dont even know they have been sent.  So you cant say that ALL ur ims are saved in ur mailbox. And if u know the secret for SL deed you all its memory and save ALL ur ims, let us know, bec i think we are a bunch to be interested.

So Ceri, keep checking the support group, ask for the merchant in it, check often her store, send nc, again and again.. and if she doesnt answer soon, i would leave a bad review in her marketplace. At least it will aware the other potential customers.

And... dont forget that we are on summer, so a lot are on holidays and so off sl. and even sl merchants do need some vacations smtimes :catwink:+

Good Luck anyway.

[Darrius Gothly]

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Trinity Yazimoto wrote:

[snip] ... you can see ur ims in ur malbox, but let me tell u this works only for the first ones u recieve after logging off. And since u didnt recieved the following ones bec they got capped, u dont even know they have been sent.  .. [snip].

---

I get them all Trinity .. not just the first ones. I get ALL of them. We can argue this point till the virtual sun sets and rises again, but every single IM sent to me comes through to my email when I'm offline. I know this because I've been offline for up to 2 weeks at a time. I get IMs from many automated devices every day. Those IMs count toward the cap the same as IMs from people. And yet after two weeks of being offline, I still got every one of them AND IMs sent by people. That's somewhere in excess of 2000 IMs sent to my email.

I can't explain why your emails get capped same as your IMs, but I can state without the least doubt that the system is not designed that way nor does it operate that way for me. In fact, quite a few other Merchants have stated plainly that they get every IM to email.

[Trinity Yazimoto]

well... so sl does it for some residents and doesnt for some others.

but mine get capped after smth like 3 ims. And if there is a way for this doesnt happen ill be more than happy to be aware.;-)

[Deja Letov]

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Trinity Yazimoto wrote:

well... so sl does it for some residents and doesnt for some others.

but mine get capped after smth like 3 ims. And if there is a way for this doesnt happen ill be more than happy to be aware.;-)

---

Mine actually does this as well. I get a few IM's to email notification after I am capped, which happens daily, and then they stop after anywhere from 1-3 IM's. I actually tested this once with an alt because I thought it was weird that I didn't get a single IM all night once when normally I do, and sure enough my alts message never came through to me via email.

[Czari Zenovka]

---

Darrius Gothly wrote:

 

From my own personal experience I have learned that I can set the option to send IMs to email. This way I receive every single IM, even after enough have been sent to cap them and well beyond. Even more helpful is the fact that I can REPLY to those IMs simply by replying to the email. All I have to do is erase ALL the previous content in the body of the email reply then type in what I want to say .. hit send and Presto!! The customer gets my reply. (Usually in about 4 seconds. It's that fast!) This negates the "my IMs are capped and I can't log in to get them" excuse.

<snip>

I'm afraid that I have little patience for Merchants that are SO buried in IMs and notecards (so they say) that they cannot respond to everyone. Especially with an issue as simple as a redelivery. It takes so little time to look up the order, click the Redeliver button and reply to the customer that NOT doing so is just thoughtless and disrespectful IMHO. Even if they are diabled, challenged or just plain swamped .. good customer service is something that cannot be given short shrift.

---

This^^  Gosh...I thought all merchants had this feature turned on.  I've had it on since pretty much Day 1 in SL to receive IMs from friends and could go online to hang out with them.  As a merchant, as Darrius said, it's invaluable.

When I first began posting on these forums again, about 4 months or so ago, and stated that I had taken a break from SL for about 6 months, I was "questioned" about my customer service.  Using IM to email I was *always* notified if a customer contacted me. (I also came in world at least every two weeks, usually more often, to pay rent so if I had received any notecards I would get them at that time. Interestingly, in my 4 years of being in SL business I have received maybe only a handful of customer questions.  I'm the one who sees that Resident X purchased 4 of a copiable item and I contact THEM to see if the multiple purchases were due to a MP glitch, they didn't realize the item was copiable (although both in world and on the MP this particular product is WELL documented as having copy perms) and I always refund their money for the extras - which cuts into my profits a bit since I sell the item for $100L on the MP and receive $95L, but I reimburse the customer the full $100L.  After awhile this adds up; however, it is extremely important to me to provide the best customer service possible as that is what distinguishes me from the next merchant who sells similar products, possibly even better ones.

As a customer, if I'm interested in a product and read the merchant's profile (which I always do, being a longtime profile-perveyor) and it's filled with, "Don't contact me between these hours; my IMs are capped; first read all my profile picks on possible questions about the product and ONLY after contact me if your question is not answered; absolutely no refunds, etc." - and some are phrased almost like they're trying to scare off business - I make note of that and never purchase from them. (ETA: If just one of these are present, it's understandable...but I have seen profiles that, to me, just seem to be merchants with an inflated sense of self-importance.)

Just to amplify the "Don't contact me between these hours" - of course we all have a SL (and RL!!) as well as being merchants.  Even those who are solely content creators need time to be creative.   But I state in my profile and the notecard sent with each of my products to contact me any way they wish (IM or notecard) and if they have not heard from me within 48 hours that means I did not receive their communication and to please resend.  That covers time I'm not online or the rare time I'm in the middle of something I can't leave at that second to answer a customer.

[Trinity Yazimoto]

ok,.

so to avoid any misunderstanding.

i ve the ims to mailbox feature on since my first day in sl. 

nevertheless, one day my ims started to get capped after something about 3 ims. since the start of the year, ive also noticed that some nc or objects sent to me while im not online are not delivered either.

Also : i know i can answer ims with my mailbox and i do. but i mostly come online and fix online with the customer, even if its full night for me, even if im not at home, (i do it from my rl work pc or from my mobile with the mobile client). i also check often my mp orders to see if smth has not been delivered, and refund everytime when sm1 did a multiple purchase by mistake, even if i know LL will refund aswell. 

And well, im never afraid to refund sm1 that made a normal purchase while it was supposed to be a gift card puchase.

i gift, a lot......

i refund pp when they buy the group gift ....

i refund them when they buy the item that is in the meantime on the MM board....

and yes, on my profile i tell to not leave ims bec they are capped....

and they are... and till now, i never found a way to fix this....

so well.....im bad and pretentious.... ok....

as for my picks and store policy... do u think i will tell publicly that i gift often ? do u know how many times pp pop up in my store and ask for free stufs. ? i never say no.... but no need to tell it in my profile either... this is yet enough....

there s a difference between being a good person and being stupid... i think im part of the first ones, and i try to not be part of the second ones... is this so bad and pretentious ?

[Deja Letov]

Same issue here. I have the notification turned on to email me as well but I'm experiencing the same thing with not receiving them. Honestly, the only solution I have come up with is to try and not get capped. I sign in twice a day, not to play, but to get messages.I sign in once when I get work in the morning, I'm on for maybe 2 minutes, grab messages and log. I sign on again that night, grab messages and log again...or stay on and work, it varies. But signing on and grabbing messages seems to be my only solution to ensuring I don't miss any.

[Czari Zenovka]

Did I ever say YOU were "bad and pretentious?"  No I did not.  I was speaking in generalities and I did also add that one of the items I used as an example is understandable, but I have seen merchant profiles that basically say, "I'm too important to be bothered."

I have never seen your profile but it doesn't sound like what I'm talking about.

[Couldbe Yue]

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Darrius Gothly wrote:

 

Even if they are diabled, challenged or just plain swamped .. good customer service is something that cannot be given short shrift.

---

I do agree with you that anyone who is running a business in here should do that.  However, there are a lot of merchants that don't take it that seriously and deliberately ignore customer service and to pretend otherwise is disingenuous.  Some have what I consider valid reasons and others don't.  That's humans for you.

As for the IM to email issue.  I have had them capped by DD deliveries where the email isn't generated and I have had it where I only get a couple of responses to an email-im conversation before the email isn't generated.  As this is sl, it's to be expected that some people will claim there's nothing wrong with a particular feature whilst others know there is.  The only absolute is that LL will continue to take money from us for this substandard bit of kit of theirs and there'll be those of us that keep paying them, despite knowing that some of their behaviours would land them in serious trouble if usd rather than "game tokens" were used.

hey ho

 

 

[Deja Letov]

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Czari Zenovka wrote:

"I'm too important to be bothered."

---

 

This is totally the case for me. lol just kididng.

In all seriousness...i do have one thing in my profile that is a beef of mine and maybe it comes off as rude, I dunno. People seem to always want to add me to friends. I love if my actual friends add me, or even people here on the forum that I talk to or about on a regular basis. What I don't like is random people who may have just a question and send me a friend request, or even worse, an IM that jus says "hi". I don't respond to either of these.

But I do ask for people to send me an IM and a notecard both in case one gets eaten by SL. All we can do is try to do the best we can but sometimes SL takes it out of our control.

[Czari Zenovka]

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Couldbe Yue wrote:

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Darrius Gothly wrote:

 

Even if they are diabled, challenged or just plain swamped .. good customer service is something that cannot be given short shrift.

---

I do agree with you that anyone who is running a business in here should do that.  However, there are a lot of merchants that don't take it that seriously and deliberately ignore customer service and to pretend otherwise is disingenuous.  Some have what I consider valid reasons and others don't.  That's humans for you.

As for the IM to email issue.  I have had them capped by DD deliveries where the email isn't generated and I have had it where I only get a couple of responses to an email-im conversation before the email isn't generated.  As this is sl, it's to be expected that some people will claim there's nothing wrong with a particular feature whilst others know there is.  The only absolute is that LL will continue to take money from us for this substandard bit of kit of theirs and there'll be those of us that keep paying them, despite knowing that some of their behaviours would land them in serious trouble if usd rather than "game tokens" were used.

hey ho

 

 

---

Great post, Couldbe - as always the voice of reason.   And you're absolutely right about one person experiencing something others don't in SL.  Such as the people who have had absolutely no issues nor sales slumps converting to DD and others have had some minor to major issues.

As for the disability/illness issue, if a merchant knows they will not be able to attend to their SL business for a time (generally something one is aware of ahead of time - surgery, etc.) it is good business practice to notify their group members and place something to that effect in their profile but, as you say, not everyone will do so.  Then there are situations that are bonafide emergencies (ie. a heart attack) and the person is whisked off to the hospital and doesn't have the time to post anything.

There is a merchant who used to send out regular notices and it is known via her profile she was going through treatment for cancer but was still running her business, releasing new designs, etc.  She came to mind the other day because I haven't seen a notice from her in ages so I checked her profile - that is the same...went to her store...that is still there...but I'm concerned about the sudden stop in notices and hope all is ok.

 

[Trinity Yazimoto]

lol, u didnt said i was bad and pretentious indeed.

its ok.

but u talked in generality and from what i know, this is never good. We all will agree on the fact that a merchant owe to his/her customers a great custom support. Indeed. (And, lol, even if some doesnt have one, they wont never claim that a merchant is able to not pay no mind about his/her customers support.... ). 

so all you will have here is pp that will say 'oh yes, of course, a good customer support is a must !'... Like they are in the right side and all others are in the wrong side.

Of course we will all agree on this. This is the less we can do for our customers. And even if some doesnt do it by generosity or careness, they do bec otherwise a sl business cant work without such service.

But the real question is how do we do this and what is possible to do .....

If my ims are often capped and i swear they are, how can i be aware about an im i never had, neither in sl, neither in my mailbox ? 

i tell on my profile that if pp want to be sure ill be aware about their pb, they have to come to my store and drop their nc in my info shop sign (inworld mailbox). But...... how many of them do read what is wrotten ? and how many will come and drop their nc there ?

im not pessimist, but i think they wont be a bunch... So they will keep sending me ims that i wont never see neither in sl, neither in my mailbox.... and since im not God (who ?).... i wont be aware.... and if i wont be aware i wont be able to fix... etc.....

I think it will be useless to talk about why SL does cap some ims to some of us and dont to some others ones... its like trying discuss about why there are stars in the sky.....

i know we are trying to do all our best. for our interest and/or our customers 's interest.

But the thing that is more annoying me, is that the OP asked for advices to fis his problem. Then i saw post condamning the merchants. I dont know this one and i wont judge her. This wont be fair... we dont know who is she . how does she plays her sl and run her sl business ? does she has rl pb ? is she on holidays ( we are in summer, rem) ? and does she simply has the im about the issue. ?

we dont know the answers .... at least I dont know... so i wont judge and start saying she has not a good custom support (i rem you that the OP said that the group testified about a good custom support from her .... so maybe, she has a good reason for not having answered yet. (the im capped was imo the more obvious one, that's why i told about it).

This is why i adviced Ceri to not give up, check her profile often to see when she's online, go in her store to see if she has assistant or inworld mailbox; drop nc again and again, join the support group and ask again and again in it... and at last, if this doesnt work after all these tries, to leave a review on the mp.

Another thing : a lot of merchants have an account in Facebook or Google + and even flickr or Twitter... what about trying if she has one and contact her by this way .?

After all ... the goal of Ceri is to get the item bought not to slog away the merchant. So i think that advices to Ceri would be more usefull than discussing about those evils of merchants lol.

[Czari Zenovka]

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Deja Letov wrote:

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Czari Zenovka wrote:

"I'm too important to be bothered."

---

 

This is totally the case for me. lol just kididng.

In all seriousness...i do have one thing in my profile that is a beef of mine and maybe it comes off as rude, I dunno. People seem to always want to add me to friends. I love if my actual friends add me, or even people here on the forum that I talk to or about on a regular basis. What I don't like is random people who may have just a question and send me a friend request, or even worse, an IM that jus says "hi". I don't respond to either of these.

But I do ask for people to send me an IM and a notecard both in case one gets eaten by SL. All we can do is try to do the best we can but sometimes SL takes it out of our control.

---

I think the type of profile to which I was referring got misconstrued or I didn't explain it well enough, etc.  The kind I'm talking about are extreme.  Every pick screams - "Don't dare contact me...ever."  Actually, I'm thinking of really just one I saw like that and it was obvious the person had a 'tude.

I don't like friend requests even socially if I don't know the person at least a bit.  Some people love having long friend lists; I like to keep it pared to people I actually speak with on a regular basis.  Neither is right or wrong.  But anyway...no Deja, what you mentioned is not at all what I'm talking about.  Nor anyone that I've ever seen post here.

I used to have on the front of my profile that I would always accept a dance, at least the first time, unless the person used letters to replace words as I have an affinity for complete sentences and that an IM that just says "Hi" is unimaginative.  I've had several people, including a close friend, tell me they thought that was a bit much, but it sure weeds out guys I would have nothing in common with.   So yes, the "Hi" thing annoys me as well.  I took mine off because I needed the space to say something else...lol.

[Couldbe Yue]

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Czari Zenovka wrote:

---

There is a merchant who used to send out regular notices and it is known via her profile she was going through treatment for cancer but was still running her business, releasing new designs, etc.  She came to mind the other day because I haven't seen a notice from her in ages so I checked her profile that is the same...went to her store...that is still there...but I'm wondering why the sudden stop in notices and hope all is ok.

---

 

This is what always gets me. We're actually quite a small community and whilst we may not know everyone to sit down and natter with, we do "know" a lot of people through the forums, groups, merchandise etc.  When people go silent and I know that there's health issues I will hope they're ok but somehow it always seems inappropriate to ask - yet it comes from concern and goodwill more than ghoulish prying.

It a tough one - if the worst has happened, it's only rare cases that the next of kin ever think to get in here and update the profile, not surprising really since I doubt anyone outside of sl understands our sometimes dysfunctional little community and how there are bonds where we least expect it.

[Czari Zenovka]

Totally agree with your post, Trinity, and I'm sorry I gave the impression to you that I meant you..or anyone here.

Re: the IM to email thing...as Couldbe pointed out, with LL one just never knows...lol.

And you're right...the OP was about a particular person trying to contact a particular merchant.  I'm known to veer off on "streams of consciousness" often.