A Toxic Marketplace Review

[Extraneousnomenclature]

I have a small product on the MP that has been selling like hotcakes.
Yesterday I noticed there were no sales. Sure enough, when I checked, I found a bad review:
" The picture dont fit with real item ..."
Naturally I took umbrage at this and sent an IM (which I also posted as a comment to the review) to the reviewer:
"Hello [Name redacted]. I'm sorry that you found my product disappointing.
Although I did my best with it, and like to think that most people find it satisfactory, I understand that it is not perfect.
The product is, however, exactly as pictured. Your review gives the impression that it is not.
I hope you will reconsider what you posted and revise your review.
Disparage it if you like, but please don't suggest that i am misrepresenting my product.
Thanks."
She has yet to reply.
I decided to flag the review.
Doing this, I was presented with a drop down menu offering me a few choices; no space for comment.
Reluctantly, I chose "Inappropriate content" and "Hate speech, flaming" as the closest options.
I then resigned myself to no further sales of that product.
When I logged back in later, I was surprised to find that there had been one sale. Looking up the buyer, I found a thoughtful, articulate, and detailed profile. Obviously an intelligent reader.
I'm pleased to think that my product (cheap and sleazy as it is), now doomed to be dismissed as fraudulent by the casual shopper, will at least find the occasional discerning buyer.

[Pamela Galli]

A bad review, I have found, will have no effect* if you add a comment correcting the wrong impression.

 

*Actually it can have a good effect, because ppl are curious about what is wrong with the product so they look at it, which they might not otherwise. And they see that the bad review was stupid, so they often buy.

[Extraneousnomenclature]

Thanks for that advice, Pamela.
I agree with you, and already see happy results.
People's interest does get piqued, and many will make up their own minds in your favor.

[Rya Nitely]

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Extraneousnomenclature wrote:

She has yet to reply.

 

 

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One thing I have noticed is that so many people who leave bad reviews do not respond to IMs about it. I mean really, you would think if someone was that upset they would welcome the opportunity to discuss it with the creator.

I agree that reviews, good or bad, don't seem to have much of an impact on sales. But then I do think the more 5 star reviews an item has, the higher the expectations and that could be a negative effect - Just like movies that are over rated can be disappointing.

I have an item with just one rating and it is 1 star but it still sells as I made a comment about it.

[Madeliefste Oh]

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Extraneousnomenclature wrote:

Yesterday I noticed there were no sales. Sure enough, when I checked, I found a bad review:

" The picture dont fit with real item ..."

 

 

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I had something simular a few months ago. The pictures on my MP listing were taken in world, but someone gave a one star review saying: "It looks nothing how it looks on the pic! It just looks a mess."

This was a sculpty item, and sometimes sculpty maps seem not to load completely, so I thought that might have been the case. I contacted this customer, and apologized for the disappointment. Since I have the same item in a mesh version I offered her a mesh, and asked her to rez that to see if that looks better to her.

I'm not sure she did rez the mesh, because she answered almost immediately, something like: 'Don't bother, I have already deleted it from my inventory'.

When I started to explain that it could have been possible that the sculpty map had not fully loaded and I was willing to send her a new box she did not reply anymore.

Some people just don't want to be helped.

But I'm glad that we now receive an email when an item is reviewed, so we can at least try to help a dissatisfied customer.

It also happened several times that I could help a customer who left a bad review. In most of the cases they apologized for the review and told me they wanted to change it. However they were not able to write new feedback, after they had deleted the first review.

 

 

 

[Pamela Galli]

If a customer leaves a spurious bad reveiw without contacting me, I don't try to contact them. If they wanted assistance, they would have contacted me; I am available nearly all my waking hours. What they wanted was NOT help, but to vent their fury (usually because they did not read instructions, or a delivery failed). 

[Madeliefste Oh]

It depends for me, when a reviewer complains about something that I cannot do anything about, then I don't contact. But in case I think there is a problem that could maybe be solved with a little help, I always contact the customer, for several reasons. 

I like to make an unhappy customer happy. An unhappy customer will not return to my shop anymore, but a happy customer might come back one day. And not only that, it might also be the difference between possitive or negative word of mouth.

It is also a bit of designers pride. I feel the urge to defend my product when I think the review is based on misunderstanding or lack of information. I just want to make them see how it is ment to be.

But don't get many negative reviews, but when it happens I always consider if it could be possible to make this customer happier. And when I see possibilties I contact right away.

[arton Rotaru]

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Pamela Galli wrote:

If a customer leaves a spurious bad reveiw without contacting me, I don't try to contact them. If they wanted assistance, they would have contacted me; I am available nearly all my waking hours. What they wanted was NOT help, but to vent their fury (usually because they did not read instructions, or a delivery failed). 

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This^.

I had the pleasure to receive a 2 star review on one of my items lately. The day I saw that this particular person bought that item, I knew that such a review will follow. I have seen too many biased reviews and comments on the MP from that person already in the past, to take her/him too serious. It's just one of those fanboys of another merchant. :matte-motes-dead:

I considered to update this item by adding another adjustable option to it. I actually did that already, but I decided to not release the update, because the item works just great as it is.:matte-motes-sunglasses-3:

[Kenbro Utu]

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Extraneousnomenclature wrote:

I have a small product on the MP that has been selling like hotcakes.

 

 

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I had a look at your store, and I have to say (not wanting to miss the opportunity for a bad pun), that I would not worry; like they say, opinions are like these, every one has one, and most of them stink...

[Chic Aeon]

So I had a very nasty one star review on a product that is very popular. The person in question seem to be "the person" who wrote almost the exact same words on a previous version of the product (similar but the new one is much improved and with mesh). Since I have sold so many of these AND made special sizes for many folks who were absolutely thrilled I have to believe this was a competitor (I can see one when I look through the listings) who doesn't want my products too high in the listings.

When this happened before I didn't notice it, but DID notice that I wasn't selling these popular items near as much -- like hardly at all. I wrote a up a ticket today and was advised to flag the review. But there isn't a category for "this guy is a jerk who just wants to trash my product" LOL. Since there are many photos of said items shown with the listing AND you can see the exact product in world before purchasing there is absolutely no reason for someone to be unhappy with their purchase. I wrote back to the ticket agent and asked what category I should submit the flag under. Haven't heard back yet. 

I agree that many bad reviews are so transparently silly or just dumb that they are likely given no credence, but the stars DO make a difference when someone is searching -- depending on their filtering etc. So not a good scenario. I do feel kinda good that it cost him a lot of money in order to put in that bad review, but really. How mean and how silly.

 

 

[Rya Nitely]

That sucks. It's hard to be thick skinned about it. And yes, I try to tell myself, convince myself that it doesn't matter when you get that one star review and that people will buy it anyway, but it's not easy. Somehow it feels like a slap in the face and you are expected to just accept it.

[Pamela Galli]

I have someone who repeatedly buys something fairly expensive just to leave a bad review. She has never contacted me about an issue, so I know that what she wants is not assistance but to leave a bad review. I have gotten some of them removed for being off topic but she just put up another one (I don't know if that is possible now).  I leave a comment, and it does not seem to affect sales.

[Chic Aeon]

My note back from support was not helpful at all. I do have it on the record that I  DID ask. So going to see if they will take it off but I doubt it. Thanks for the commeseration guys.  So very not fair.

[Pamela Galli]

I never send tickets.  I thoroughly rebut in the comments, and if any elements of the review clearly have nothing to do with the product or my service, but are just a rant, I flag, and usually they are removed.