Darrius Gothly Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 Tonight I was piddling around, nothing specific on my plate, when I happened to notice that one of my products had a lower star rating than I thought right. "Hmmm.." I thought, "why is that?" So I opened the product page and checked the Reviews tab and was surprised to see a one-star review. It was one of only two reviews posted, one from the early days and one from early this year (2011). The reviewer panned it horribly because it gave him nothing but errors. Well gosh, if it didn't work for him then by all means yes, he had a right to rate it only one star.But here is where I reach a frustration point and why I have taken keyboard in hand to post ... why did I not know about this? Yes, I could daily peruse each of my listings, comparing the current reviews against the ones that were there last time. Sure I could manually make these comparisons. But why should I need to? The Marketplace knows exactly when a review is posted .. it stores it in its database, so why can't it also send me an email? Or maybe even put up a nice red-boxed notice on my Merchant Homepage telling me that a product was reviewed?As I am Mr. Analogy, allow me to pull one out for this situation...I'm the owner of a small store. I have a rather eclectic product mix and one employee. That one employee (we'll call her Ms. Margret Place for lack of a better name) is responsible for handling all customers that come into the store. She rings up their purchases, takes their money, hands them their products and keeps the books. Basically she does an okay job.But then one day a customer comes in hopping mad. He's furious, not because he didn't get his product or because he got charged the wrong amount. No, he's angry because what he bought doesn't work. So Ms. Place hands him a form and lets him write down his complaint then sticks it on the display rack with the product the customer was unhappy about.What she doesn't do is tell me about it. Say WHAT?!?I am paying her a portion of every sale to make sure the store runs properly. When a customer comes along with a complaint (or a compliment), part of the store's operation is to notify me as the store owner of that event. If it's a problem with the product, it's up to me to fix it. Even if it's a problem with the store itself, it's still up to me to fix. But I cannot fix what I do not know is broken.So here I am two months down the road from that unhappy customer's review. I'm not the least bit upset at him for posting it ... he had every right to post his displeasure in that way. But I am unhappy with Ms. Margret Place for not telling me, the boss, that an unhappy customer came in and left a glaring negative review on my products.Please Brooke? Can we get this one fixed .. and soon? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Relm Foxdale Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 OK, first, am I the only one who has problems with the reply button taking me to the homepage the first time I click it? To my knowledge (key phrase, of course), I've had two written reviews. The negative one, which was from someone who didn't understand what he was buying, was e-mailed to me. That was back on XS. The positive one (on SLM), nothing. I happened to be discussing this item with someone and went and pulled it up and found I had a very positive, glowing review. It would have been nice if I'd been notified. By the same token, yes...someone could have a problem you could actually rectify, but how are you going to know if you don't know the review is there? Of course, I've gotten pretty darned used to the idea that there won't be any new reviews with the move now, as the few people who are inclined to review products don't even know how or that the option exists. How hard can this be to work in? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ai Velde Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 I agree so hard with this. lol. But it's not just notifications of reviews we need, but Ms. Margret Place doesn't notify us of ANYTHING other than sales. I've raised a minor kerfuffle here and there over items being taken down or delisted on the marketplace with no notification to the merchant. Reviews is another thing I'd like to receive notification for. I'm sure other merchants can list several more things that they would like to receive notifications for in regards to their store. For me, I check my listings daily for reviews. I've put in big all-caps letters for users to contact me in world ASAP if they have a problem, and so far it works, but every now and then you get a customer who doddles by, buys something, doesn't receive it (at the marketplace's fault), and leaves a 1 star DERP DIDNT GET IT review. And when that happens I want to know INSTANTLY and resolve it. Just as I'd like if someone left criticism to know immediately so I could work something out with the customer so that they feel more satisfied. It's a pain finding these things out 60 million years later. ETA: At the last office hour, Brooke did say that notifications were on the list, and the, I quote, "very long list ". Which is dandy, I'm sure they have a ton of stuff they need to do, I can wait, as long as it WILL get done. I think notifications are extremely important, they don't, so it's probably on the backburner. But if we keep pushing about it, maybe they'll upgrade the issue a bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Madeliefste Oh Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 I fully support this request. It is very annoying that complaints or compliments of your customers just don't reach you, unless you check all your items one by one on the marketplace. I have some other things among hands then checking for reviews. I also had a case where a customer asked for support by posting a review. I only saw that 2 months later. Because I was not notified by her in world, and I don't receive any messages when someone writes a review, I only could give her the support she had asked for after 2 months. I really felt embarrassed to IM her after such a long time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darrius Gothly Posted March 7, 2011 Author Share Posted March 7, 2011 (This reply is off-topic, but since I'm the OP .. I feel I can take that liberty...) Relm Foxdale wrote: OK, first, am I the only one who has problems with the reply button taking me to the homepage the first time I click it? Relm, I think it's because the "You are logged in" cookie times out while you are reading. Or it may not be keeping it if you haven't added community.secondlife.com to your Trusted Sites list yet. Try adding it to your Trusted Sites list and/or hitting Refresh before you Reply. Also make sure the line up top shows your name ... although I think the Reply button vanishes if you're not logged in properly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darrius Gothly Posted March 7, 2011 Author Share Posted March 7, 2011 Madeliefste Oh wrote: ... I really felt embarrassed to IM her after such a long time. Me too!! I did IM the customer anyway, but he was offline. Still I feel embarrassed about it. It looks sloppy and uncaring to take two months to reply to a customer .. and that's just not my style of Customer Service. If I flub up, I'll take the hit. But when it's something that should have been handled by Ms. Margret Place .. and I believe notification of Reviews (and delistings too) IS her job .. then I am doubly upset. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toysoldier Thor Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 Sadly dont expect this request to be considered by the Commerce Team. The SLM has been out since last fall and the SLM traffic / sales reporting is still utter trash useless. My items are still counting search views and sales from the day they entered SLM in August - with no value to a Merchant at all.... and SLM Traffic / Sales Reporting keeps being brought up over and over and NOTHING STILL. It doesnt even make the bi-monthly Commerce updates now. So.... I find it hard to believe that Brook and team will consider this request - as much as I do agree with it too. I think there is a lot more that still can be done with reviews then just that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ai Velde Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 This wouldn't be AS MUCH of an issue I think, if customers didn't so often use the review system as a support and Q/A system. Such as leaving 1 star reviews for failed deliveries and reviews that say "didn't get it", or low star reviews saying things like, "I'm not sure how to make this work, can you tell me how to..." and other requests for support or otherwise. This is an entirely different can of worms but it does tie into the problem. Honestly? I'mma just throw this ball out there... But customers need a way to contact merchants through the marketplace. There needs to be some sort of Private Message widget. Heck, even something as simple as putting a button on the listing pages and on the store main page that has that merchants' forum private message link. Like mine is http://community.secondlife.com/t5/notes/privatenotespage/tab/compose/note-to-user-id/88218 and that takes you directly to sending me a PM. Quick and dirty but efficient. The mindset of a customer is if they're shopping on the marketplace and not in world, then they are obviously choosing the marketplace over shopping in world generally, or for that particular product. Meaning, if they HAVE a marketplace related issue with a MARKETPLACERELATEDPRODUCT, they're going to want to resolve that marketplace issue with that marketplace related product o i dun no ON THE MARKETPLACE. >:[ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darrius Gothly Posted March 7, 2011 Author Share Posted March 7, 2011 Toysoldier Thor wrote: Sadly dont expect this request to be considered by the Commerce Team. Now that they've more or less gotten past the Maturity Ratings fiasco, and Brooke is getting a handle on the team, I have hopes that they will begin pounding out and sanding down these remaining bumps. I won't even go into the Reporting Tools as that's a soapbox I could stay on all day (and night and another day too). But it is among the higher priority fixes that the Marketplace needs .. desperately. Let's just call this my gentle nudge in the side to Brooke .. in hopes that these issues never leave her whiteboard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darrius Gothly Posted March 7, 2011 Author Share Posted March 7, 2011 Ai Velde wrote: ... customers need a way to contact merchants through the marketplace. Oh ABSO-tively YES! Even if they do it by means of sending an email with the customer's comments .. that will be fine. Just give them SOME way to put their words into our ears ... puh-leeze! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pamela Galli Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 Ai -- how did you ever find that link??? I looked and looked the other day how to send someone a PM but no luck. We had that function here for a while but then they realized that it was some security threat, along with siggys (so that was disabled for anyone wanting to make one who had not already). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ai Velde Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 @Darrius I think the fact we don't have some sort of message system, even if quick and dirty, on the marketplace is unacceptable. EVERY e-commerce website has a way for customers to contact the sellers. This may not be eBay but there is real money involved - our customers need a way to contact us on the marketplace platform so that they can report an issue such as a failed delivery, ask questions, constructive criticism or otherwise, and everything else. Can't wrap my mind around why we don't have this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ai Velde Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 @Pamela Click the name of the person you want to PM where the icons are, and on the righthand side of their page that it takes you to, you should see a link that says in the Contact box "Send this user a private message." It'll take you directly to sending them one. ;D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ishtara Rothschild Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 I completely agree. Every time I check on my product listings, there is another review with a one star rating that says "I did not get my item". This is so frustrating, especially since this is a screw-up of the Marketplace to begin with (I have several magic boxes in two different regions, so this is not a problem on my end). I'd like to be informed of reviews so that I can sort these things out with my upset customers and get a fair product rating. Also, when will it finally be possible to turn off sales notifications? This is both really urgent and very bothersome. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pamela Galli Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 Ohhh cool! Yes, there it is -- why it has no button like "Friend XXXX" I can't imagine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Catwise Yoshikawa Posted March 7, 2011 Share Posted March 7, 2011 Ai Velde wrote: @Darrius I think the fact we don't have some sort of message system, even if quick and dirty, on the marketplace is unacceptable. EVERY e-commerce website has a way for customers to contact the sellers. This may not be eBay but there is real money involved - our customers need a way to contact us on the marketplace platform so that they can report an issue such as a failed delivery, ask questions, constructive criticism or otherwise, and everything else. Can't wrap my mind around why we don't have this. Same thing I asked to myself when they change this forum. They should add the PM on the marketplace. Maybe is not the solution for bad reviews for non delivered items, but at least some customers would see that and write before going to search the well hidden rating place We are asking for a notification system since the beginning and they do nothing... Is there a technical problem? Because I don't really understand why they didn't make it yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darrius Gothly Posted March 7, 2011 Author Share Posted March 7, 2011 To put a "Final Chapter" on this story, the customer received my IM and replied overnight. Apparently it was a temporary issue (most likely when my web host was having "issues") and it now works just fine for him. He went in, deleted the old review and created a new one with 5 stars. To my customer .. Thank you! But to the Commerce Team, my original point still stands. This could have come to a faster resolution with much less time wasted had there been an immediate notification of Review in some fashion. It's Monday, time's a wastin' folks ... get to it! LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JodiLyn Jewell Posted March 13, 2011 Share Posted March 13, 2011 Whole-heartedly agree. We reeeeeally need this already. Bad. Please and thank you! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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