About marketplace and thieves... !

[Luna Barak]

I have just now bought three meshes full perm from a girl called xxxx (I cant tell)  she was supposed owner of a brand named xxx (I cant tell). As soon as received the three boxes they showed to have inside only 2 notecards with no right to be read. I contacted the seller and she was online but she didnt reply, and suddenly has gone offline. I have gone to check the items pages on the marketplace and they were disappeared all of sudden.

BE VERY CAREFUL to buy expensive objects from seller you dont know, best to go checking if they have a shop inworld or if you can get info about prior buying anything at all.

I have learnt the lesson int he hard way, I have lost 18.500 lindens to get this lesson

[RubyRoja]

So sorry to hear this... sad

 

Fortunately, there are a lot more honest merchants, than shady ones in SL.  And you're right, inworld is a lot safer.

 

I guess just report the seller and hope that justice is served

[Ciaran Laval]

Abuse report the seller.

[Sidnella Riler]

Ask for demos before buying full perm, if they tell you, they dont give demos, go buy somewhere else

[Lexi Zelin]

Ew, this happened to me once too! Me being a dumbass -.- I found a BEAUTIFUL mesh jacket on mp and it was like 8000L ... No demo and I bought it anyways! Got a box with a notecard in it asking me to email them to get my items ... I emailed and of course got no response at all EVER... Reported them many times and every Linden told me there was nothing they could do, that it was a matter that had to be settled between me and the seller. .... I was PISSED! So, basically after going OFF on the lindens over this many times with no success I guess all that we can do when this kind of thing happens is file a law suit. But, how you would go about that I have no clue and who wants to spend thousands of rl dollars fighting over like 40 bucks -.- It sucks and honestly I don't know how LL get's away with letting these types of things just slide under the rug. 

My suggestion, IGNORE the stores that pop up out of nowhere. I hate to say that but alot of these random stores are bs! Shop with the full perm sellers you KNOW are legit and have been around for awhile. That's what I do anyways and havent been screwed over since that one time. Good Luck hun! 

[Meshes1488303295]

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Lexi Zelin wrote:

My suggestion, IGNORE the stores that pop up out of nowhere. I hate to say that but alot of these random stores are bs! Shop with the full perm sellers you KNOW are legit and have been around for awhile. That's what I do anyways and havent been screwed over since that one time. Good Luck hun! 

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I'm sorry these things happened to you, and the Lab is not doing anything about it when it happens.

But Í'm glad not all merchants follow your advice, because  I don't like it at all. When you just start with a marketplace store the only option you have is to pop up out of nowhere. And that is already hard enough for new merchants.

We have to compete with established merchants who have well filled inventories with merchandise, who are years ahead in gaining visibility on the marketplace and building up a customer base. They have much larger numbers in merchandise for sale, thus more visibility on the marketplace.

Not all new merchants are thieves or after misbuse of the system. There was a first merchant day for you as well. I wonder, when you were putting your first items for sale, how would you have received an advise like this.

 

[Lexi Zelin]

Okay, what I suggest was a bit harsh and what I meant by it was not to ignore every new store, but these stores popping up out of nowhere selling these very expensive meshes that just look AMAZING, almost TOO amazing for SL... Those are the ones I would def be weary of, ask for a demo, check to make sure they have payment on file and they are a seasoned avatar and all that. I just HATE to see this happen to people over and over again -.- It's getting really old and for many of us sl isnt just play money, its RL money and getting played like that can really hurt the pocket.  

[Pamela Galli]

Oh I had a marketplace store a few weeks before an inworld store. I sold vases.  98L I think. Then some little patio sets I think. Around 200L. 

 

I wasn't selling $10,000L items that would have taken weeks to create!  I'm still not. When I did start selling feature rich things that took weeks to make, I certainly had an inworld store by then.

 

So I agree with Lexi, if you are going to be dropping more than a couple of dollars, go with one of the many established merchants who have inworld stores and therefore have an investment, selling the same type stuff. 

 

Or not. Take a chance if you like but if you get burned be aware that there is no recourse other to come here and tell your sad tale. 

[Usive]

LMAO, you seriousely paud 18,500L for that? Man, if you'd shopped arround more that wouldn't have happened, I never have, nor never will get screwed liike that. Big purchases I always inspect in world first.

[Meshes1488303295]

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Pamela Galli wrote:

I wasn't selling $10,000L items that would have taken weeks to create!  I'm still not. When I did start selling feature rich things that took weeks to make, I certainly had an inworld store by then.

 

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You must be from the prims generation.

I don't want to talk anything good about people cheating on this marketplace, not at all! But mesh brings in new people. People who can have 10 years of 3D work behind them and made huge collections. For them it's not going to take weeks to make feature rich items. They only time investment is learning how to work with this uploader.

When your works sells well at 3D sites, and your price is there 40 usd for example, I don't see any reason to sell it for a cheaper price in SL. SL is more then a marketplace, and SL is fun, but that is no reason to devaluate your work. Being treated here like you are a thief because you know what your work is worth is just ridiculous.

[Madeline Blackbart]

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Meshes wrote:

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Pamela Galli wrote:

I wasn't selling $10,000L items that would have taken weeks to create!  I'm still not. When I did start selling feature rich things that took weeks to make, I certainly had an inworld store by then.

 

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You must be from the prims generation.

I don't want to talk anything good about people cheating on this marketplace, not at all! But mesh brings in new people. People who can have 10 years of 3D work behind them and made huge collections. For them it's not going to take weeks to make feature rich items. They only time investment is learning how to work with this uploader.

When your works sells well at 3D sites, and your price is there 40 usd for example, I don't see any reason to sell it for a cheaper price in SL. SL is more then a marketplace, and SL is fun, but that is no reason to devaluate your work. Being treated here like you are a thief because you know what your work is worth is just

ridiculous.

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I think the defrence between those 3d sites and sl here is that while sl is a game and the buyer is usally buying for playing a game a purchaser in a lot of 3d sites is purchasing the rights to use the item to make a profit more then the 300L  a pop most stores in sl charge in some way such as making an animated film perhaps. I also think those films and things have the chance of being bought by big name companies to which are not the same as in world basically guy working from his basment type. You gotta charge for your market.

[Meshes1488303295]

I think a lot of those models are made by 'guy working from his basement types'. And I don't think they are bought by big name compagnies. Those have their own 3D pipe-line with specialised jobs like 3D modeler, 3D texture artist, 3D animator, 3D character artist, sound artist, storyboard designer, and so on.

I don't see a difference with 3D modelers who sell on 3D sites or who sell their items in SL as with full perms. Both sell their product with a license for others to use it in a commercial way. For people with little shops in SL, it might not be interesting to buy a 10.000 L$ clothing piece for examples. But for brands that are populair and reach a large public it will be well worth the investment. When your quality is high standard and your UV maps are excellent I think a good market in SL for this kind of merchandise, where both 3D artists and SL artists can profit.

And that is why it is such a pity that there seem to be people active to spoil this, by cheating people. SL should do something about this. In stead of trying to lock the people with good intentions out, they should lock the cheaters out.

[Madeliefste Oh]

How about a creative action from merchants to make the lab aware of this problem?

For example: Take a biggest empty box you can find at your local supermarket home with you. Seal the box without putting anything in it. Write somewhere on the box in big letters: "We don't want empty boxes on our marketplace." Adress it to the receiver:

Linden Lab Headquarters
945 Battery Street
San Francisco, CA 94111

And bring it to your local postoffice.

We are with 50.000 or so. When each of us sends his box on the same day, it will sure have some impact in those headquarters.

 

[Amethyst Jetaime]

The TOS is very clear that you buy things at your own risk and that LL has no liability if you don't get what you pay for.

I doubt LL will ever change their policy of not getting involved in this type of thing.  They just don't have the staff that would be needed to police the inworld or MP market.  They would need to hire a lot of people to check each item that is sold to be sure that it is legitimate and then have a way to make it stay that way.  In other words prevent the merchant from changing anything. 

Even if they didn't do anything until they got a complaint it would take a staff person's time and effort to do the research necessary to get proof you were ripped off by the seller, and they would need that before taking any action. They just couldn't take your word for it.

It is possible that someone could buy something and give to an alt to hide it or do something that would cause it to be lost that is their own fault, then just claim to have been ripped off to get a refund of the money they spent.  I'm not sure if LL could verify that you did or didn't do something from the moment you bought it to the moment you complained to them.  It would mean checking a lot of data, even if they have it. 

It just isn't economically feasible to pay even one person a RL salary to determine if you were ripped off for 40 bucks even, and if they got involved, they would need a lot more than one staff person to work on this.  Its a shame, but that is the reality of it.

Your only recourse is to flag the time so it is removed from the MP and take them to RL court.