Reviews used to harrass merchants?

[Ilyra Chardin]

So this is a new one for me...

A person, who I don't know, didn't know before today, bought an item in the middle of the night (in my time zone) and then within minutes wrote a scathing review.  Reviews are allowed.  I simply put a comment on the review and went on to start my day, knowing the review itself didn't make sense given the product and clear product description.  This person then IM'd me in the morning (my time) demanding money to remove the review.  I said that the review would stand along with my comment.  This person then deleted the review and wrote a new one.  Someone else that I don't know, posted a comment on her review.  She has subsequently deleted that review and posted a new one.  I suppose that she can keep deleting and posting reviews that are intended to harass with no recourse?

Then a one month old avatar bought a product, leaving an immediate 2 star review with no comment on the review.  I didn't think MP allowed people to just put stars and no comments?  there is no way to comment or even flag it when that is done. 

MP should enforce that any review contain the reviewer's comments, but apparently it doesn't and thus allows merchants to be targeted with, "give me money or else" demands.

I'm not terribly worried about the bad reviews.  I am concerned with this type of harassment and feel that something should be done to prevent things like this from being allowed. 

That's my two cents (L$5)

 

[Frawmusl]

I think the only thing to do is to flag the review, wait for LL to review it and take it down. Not sure if they do any sort of discipline to people reviewing like that

[Phoebe Avro]

I will keep reposting my comments to hers ^^ no matter how often she deletes them lol  this sort of person is basicly a scumbag!

[Spica Inventor]

It's kind of funny if you think about it. Merchants give peeps money to leave good reviews and now get extorted to not leave bad reviews. If one accepts one 'technique' to make money, then they got to accept the other the way I look at it. Personally I wish we could do away with all the deceptions and underhanded activity that seems to plague SL, but I doubt it is possible or possibly even desired for most for that matter considering that RL is the same way. :-)

[Luna Bliss]

I have been thinking about starting a thread on this topic and glad you did. Nobody has asked for money to remove a bad review, yet, but people are demanding their money back on copyable items, and when I refuse to refund they write a horrid review, embellishing it far beyond the reasons they originally complained about. Apparently this is some kind of ploy to get items for free. I'm starting to think HARP is shooting strange energies into the air...or something ;0

One customer even slammed me with a 1 star review and nasty comments over a skybox everyone else loves a lot, and that she had purchased over 2 months ago! I am certain she just decided she used the skybox enough and thought she'd try and get her 3k back for something else she needed atm. When I wouldn't refund she went on and on about how this was not good customer service and that she always refunds if a customer is not happy. Strangely, she removed her review.

Another flipped out because a treehouse within a skybox was not at right angles and this made it more difficult to position her furniture (I position homes in skyboxes to disguise the box and face a waterfall in the best way). No explaining would suffice, and her vitrolic review was the longest I've ever seen, filled with lies and distortions of our conversation and all sorts of supposed flaws regarding my skybox.

Here's another email IM I got just last night:
"I just bought prefab Sim Peaceful Valley... It's very lovely but I fall through it.... There is no moon/flower to ride on, and I can't delete it... Any suggestions will be appreciated... I will not be happy if I have to redo my entire sim to delete 143 prims and am not happy that I cant delete it. I normally dont bother to rate things... But this is getting annoying".

As you can see, first on their mind is to manipulate through giving a bad rating - can't they just message and describe the problem without making threats? Luckily this was resolved well unlike the others - it appears that rezzing a skybox the size of an entire sim (well larger actually as it had the surround too) is not a good idea after Tuesday updates..;0 Plus, as usual, they don't read directions.

I have even more examples of late but I won't go on - maybe it's not HARP but instead all the flouride accumulating in brains over the years ;0  I do wonder if the economy is getting so bad that this is the reason, or are customers finally discovering better how to manipulate through ratings?

I know some say people don't pay attention to ratings and comments, but some do and it's annoying all the same. Plus I don't want all this drama in my store. Also, from observation it seems good ratings do push items up in Search more too, so I wonder what bad ratings do.

I'm starting to be too affected by it inworld now. I've changed my policies so that I only respond via email and feel paranoid every time I see a message pop up - this is NOT good for creativity. Plus I'm saving chat records now so as to have proof of lies and intent when I flag their review.

[Gavin Hird]

I have experienced exactly the same, where a person demanded compensation to remove a bad review. 

I flagged it both in the marketplace and made an abuse report where I included threats that the person made in convo on my profile page. A few days later the bad review was removed. 

[Ilyra Chardin]

The LL Customer Support team has removed that review. I can't thank them enough for being so responsive.

In the midst of all this on the one product yesterday, a one month old av (as I said in my original post) bought and immediately put a 2 star rating on a product.  And then last night, around 8:30 PM SLT, an av bought a diff product and immediately placed a bad review on it. 

I am thinking of creating a 10L product called, Write Your Scathing Review Here with the description that reads: there is nothing that will get delivered.  This item provides you with a place to attack the merchant and write the most scathing review that you can think of.  Points are given for the most creative bad reviews.

Think it will sell?  LOL

 

[Amethyst Jetaime]

Definitely AR anyone that trys to extort money to remove a bad review.  Comment on the review and flag it too, even if they don't ask for money, and explain why it is factually incorrect.

I have also noticed that if I see an unreasonable bad review on another merchants products, things like delivery failures or obviously buying something not suitable or not reading directions, if I point that out in a comment and click NO where it asks if the review is helpful, it generally disappears within a day or two.  So everyone can help stem this by doing the same.

[Nefertiti Nefarious]

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Ilyra Chardin wrote:

A person, who I don't know, didn't know before today, bought an item in the middle of the night (in my time zone) and then

within minutes wrote a scathing review

.  Reviews are allowed.  I simply put a comment on the review and went on to start my day, knowing the review itself didn't make sense given the product and clear product description. 

This person then IM'd me in the morning (my time) demanding money to remove the review.  I said that the review would stand along with my comment.  This person then deleted the review and wrote a new one.  Someone else that I don't know, posted a comment on her review.  She has subsequently deleted that review and posted a new one.

  I suppose that she can keep deleting and posting reviews that are intended to harass with no recourse?

---

Retrieve your chat logs and file an AR: that is extortion and they cxan lose their account.

[Tari Landar]

I had this happen once, and only once. It was a while ago, I would hope the commerce team has gotten better since then(from the looks of it they have). I ended up removing the product. It was 100% retaliatory on their part because I had left a 4 star review after trying for two months to no avail at getting help with a product not scripted properly. I gave up.

Edited to clarify, lol....I had bought a product, had an issue, and after I left a 4 star review two months later, they bought something from me and immediately left a scathing review and decided to try and get into a verbal battle of wit that went downward fast. Unfortunately, they weren't armed well, but I got frustrated when I reported it repeatedly and nothing happened. So I removed that product from mp.

Personally, if a product has a problem, I contact the merchant. I don't go to reviews unless, or until I am either satisfied or they refuse. Even then I don't leave low reviews. I find it to be a pretty chicken poop move on people's part, lol.

[Nikkesa]

Well, I don't like the idea. Bad reviews means less people buying your stuff O_o

 

I once posted a bad review on an items that was kind of half-done and not nearly worth what I paid for it.

The person offered a refund if I deleted the review. I was very surprised.

It has never occured to me that people actually do this on purpose...

[SkyeRyder Varriale]

I gave a legit review to someone well-known on the marketplace. It was one star because I was greatly disappointed in her product.  It was not abusive or anything. She imed me and ranted for about an hour until I muted her. She also threatened me and then bought one of my products so she could leave an insulting review. So much for maturity and sanity in Second Life.