MERCHANT - ABUSE REPORT ?

[BHUDEVA]

OK so I purchased a bed inworld, prior to purchase I followed a vendor board with a hyperlink to a blogspt site for the merchant where I saw that the merchant offered a warranty. That warranty said if you are not happy with your bed for any reason please return it for a full refund within 30 days. Confident in this, I purchase the bed.

Next I also read in the enclosed notecard the same warranty. Basically something along the lines of - I want you to be happy with your bed, so if you are not please return it to me within 30 days for a full refund. So I immediately notice upon trying the animations that I really am not very happy with it, I read the merchant's profile & it stats that for any questions or concerns "just IM me". So I do IM him, he isn't online a few days go by we finally touch base.

When we do I explain I am not happy with the bed and would like to return it within the parameters of his warranty. He tells me that he decided he is not going to honor that because some other avatars abused the policy. Now I am no stranger to "Caveat Emptor" however, what type of business ethic is it to advertise a warranty under false pretense to potentially gain clientelle to than renig on said warranty if and when a client calls upon you for it?

After a long drawn out conversation he tells me he will exchange it, I try other beds there are none I like. Once again I tell him in IM I tried the others there are none that suit me or what I am in the market for. He just ignores my messages at this point. For at least two hours I send periodic messages, please let me know if you are there I would like to return your bed to you I tell him. His profile indicates he is online. However no forthcoming response, in fact until now 3 days later still no response. So I contact LL support online chat & they advise me that I must file an abuse report.

So I file it, although I feel terrible about doing so because I find it extremely insulting to file one on someone I consider a respectable business man. Although I can not comprehend why he is behaving so unethical in my given dilemma. So several days have elapsed, several thousand linden dollars have not been returned to me, I would like to just return the bed and recieve my currency in return and be done with this. Does anyone have any experience with this type of situation ? Does LL actually investigate or assist with this type of concern or am I up the creek in a canoe without a paddle so to speak ?

[Madeline Blackbart]

As far as I know thisis typical considered a resident dispute and LL won't help...at least that's been the general consencious ont he forums.

[Griffin Ceawlin]

I think you're probably up that creek.

Hang on to the bed and give it to someone that you don't particularly care for when they get married.

And tell your friends!

[Sassy Romano]

You said it yourself "Caveat Emptor"

What frustrates me most about this sort of thing is that it just exacerbates the negative feelings towards merchants.  There are many merchants who go out of their way to exceed customer expectations yet time and time again we also encounter dysfunctional merchants who bring it all into disrepute and give customers a preconceived expectation that they will be abused in one form or another.

 

 

[Sassy Romano]

---

Griffin Ceawlin wrote:

And tell your friends!

---

Studies indicate that a bad experience is shared with at least 20 people compared with the handful that get to hear of a good experience.  Aim to exceed that, tell 40.

[Ariel Vuissent]

You're up a creek, sadly. Unlike in RL, SL has no "Better Business Bureau" you can go to when a merchant reneges on a warranty. Tell your friends and get word around. If you can still find that blog and it allows comments, comment on the fact that the warranty is, in fact, a lie - you don't get one.

It's always advisable to try before you buy, for this sort of thing. Don't rely on offered warranties or supposed full-time customer service. If you can try it, do. If you can't...Well, frankly, there are a lot of furniture stores in SL that DO allow you to try the furniture. If you can't try, don't buy.

He should definitely update the blog and his notecard to remove the promise of a warranty. Honestly, most merchants have a no-return policy because people take advantage of being able to return things. If he chooses to adopt that, that's all well and good, but he shouldn't promise something and then refuse to honor it.

Count this one as a lesson learned, make a note not to buy from him again, tell all your friends, and move on.

(Shameless plug for one of my favorite merchant - LAQ has a fantastic bed, and a few other pieces, in their new decor store. Gorgeous, great animations, and they have demos in the store to try.)

<--------This avatar is in no way paid by LAQ to advertise their products. I just like them

 

[BHUDEVA]

Thank you for your quick responses, I would typically think it would be a resident issue. The only reason I took it to LL support live chat is because this particular merchant not only has vendor boards which when clicked upon open external links to a blog whithin which a warranty is described, but also as part of the contents of my purhcase is a notecard with details of my purchase also including my warranty.

It all just seems so deceptive to me even beyond the rule of caveat emptor this seems to deal with a matter of ethics and principle and perhaps this isn't such a hard blow to me. But unfortunately there might be someone out there that needs to save a while before they can put together a few thousand linden. Typically my expectation is not so high where warranty is concerned, as it is often non existent in SL however since it was expressly stated it created a false sense of confidence. Separately this is a individual who is well known and perhaps considered one of the leading creators of beds in the gay community in SL. That  alone would prompt me to believe as a matter of proffesional etiquette he would either not display a false warranty and include it with his products, or honor his warranty as he loses nothing in the process.

It is a sad day when Ego replaces Integrity.

[BHUDEVA]

Thanks Ariel, Yes LAQ does have lovely mesh products ) 

[Monti Messmer]

Another example of forcing people to MP.

On the marketplace you could flag it - not as advertised.

Why is there no way to do this ingame ?

This is not just bad behaviour it is pure straight fraud - end of.

Monti

[beethros Karas]

That's why unlike real world, in virtual worlds;

reputation -reputation- reputation

is the 3 things you need to have a successful business.

-I have a bed with 1000 animations , could do a 6some thinky and have so many other options...

Its a bed with "clean seeds" LOL... I mean I never used it

a friend gifted it to me, cause I have rentals, so he thought I could offer it and get more tenants that way.

Unfortunately (for me) no one asked for it so far..

So that's why I was thinking to let you have it for a while if you wish.

You can give me a tag... I rez it and then I say good buy 

And we both be happy... You with a many thousands bed for free to use for a while and me

happy because FINALLY  someone is going to use that special bed

 

TC

Always try b4 you buy,

IM me in world if you want that bed,

thanks,

beet.

[Amethyst Jetaime]

---

Monti Messmer wrote:

Another example of forcing people to MP.

On the marketplace you could flag it - not as advertised.

Why is there no way to do this ingame ?

This is not just bad behaviour it is pure straight fraud - end of.

Monti

---

How could this be done in game?  You would need to have a website for reviews as you certainly can't expect a merchant to pay tiers on a store and then have negative reviews about their product displayed above it. Keep in mind that most merchants feel they got a negative review anytime they don't get at least 4 stars.

You couldn't have a web site for people to just post reviewers without verifying that they did in fact purchase the product and that it was identified accurately, or there would be a lot of false reviews and abuse.

Some have said connect inworld purchases with MP listings, but not every merchant uses MP.  Second you'd have to force merchants to use a special vendor tied to MP to have this happen.  You could not rely on transactions because the name of the product in world may be different than on MP.  Forcing the use of approved vendors would put a lot of people who make vendors out of business.  It would force a merchant to use a vendor with features that possibly doesn't fit their needs and add  to a sims sever load with the possibility of increasing lag.

The bottom line is that LL would have to completely overhaul the way items are purchased in world.  We saw what happened when they bought XStreet and turned it into MP.  A perfectly functional sales website has turned into a nightmare for many.  Do you really want them to mess with inworld sales?

Finally, tons of people don't read notecards of information that are dispensed in world or that a merchant may pack in the box with the product.  Other's can't open a web browser in SL without crashing.  Add to that most people don't even review products on MP as it is.  So even if a review web site were available, the number of people using it would be low and probably not worth all the effort and expense on the Merchant's and LL's part to have it.

Buyer Beware is the best policy at this point.  If you want to see something before you buy go inworld to the store and hope that its not just a picture that is selling it and that the actual product is rezzed.  If there is no inworld store, I find that a legitimate merchant has no problem meeting with you to show you the item in world.