Things that make you go Whaaaaat?!?

[Darrius Gothly]

About two weeks ago a customer purchased one of my higher priced items. It's the sort of thing that requires a bit of setup to get running. Well today he finally rezzed it and set up his account. All good right? Not quite.

He missed one (critical) step. Not wanting him to miss out on the full benefits of the product, I sent him an IM letting him know (very nicely) that he needed to do one more simple step. I gave him full instructions (all one of them) and watched for a bit to see if he got the message.

When I didn't see any change, I logged in and tried to TP to one of the device locations. If anyone just touches it, it will complete the step. That's anyone .. not just me and there's no "Back Door" at all. I figured maybe he got busy, missed the message and I'd help him out by doing it for him.

Ahhh .. but you see .. I can't. I'm now banned from the entire Region and my IMs to him are blocked. Well maybe he just misunderstood. So I logged in with one of my Alts (the public one) and tried again. Yup .. that one is banned too and IMs are blocked.

Sure hope he doesn't need any help in the future. I'm gonna have a REAL hard time answering any requests. ROFL!

[Pamela Galli]

Well just wait for a one star review now :-)

[Darrius Gothly]

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Pamela Galli wrote:

Well just wait for a one star review now :-)

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ROFL!! Probably so.

I did manage to have a friend pop over there and he managed to get the last step done. But when I asked him to check one more thing ... Bingo! Banned.

Yup, I think there's a slight difference of opinion on Customer Service between me and the customer.

 

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A Wise Man Once Said:

No good deed goes unpunished.

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[OzwellWayfarer]

I am not questioning your good intentions, but I have found the best rule to follow is "If people ask for help, then I help."

Some people in SL see even the friendliest unsolicited IM as harassment or spam. Its better (IMHO) to be reactive rather than proactive.

If someone buys something really complicated then I sometimes send an IM saying "If you need me, Im here, just get in touch". But I always check out the profile first to see if I think such a message would be welcome or not. A casual glance is usually all it takes to deduce

[Tamara Artis]

:matte-motes-big-grin::matte-motes-big-grin-squint:

I can imagine this person getting an IM and thinking...

"OMG who is this?? How did he know I just rezzed this product? Wow what if he's some kind of a stalker?"

then he opens Nearby people section to see who is around... 

"Hmmm he is not close.... but still HE KNOWS! My God what did I do, what did I got myself into.... I knew it was something shady when I saw a pricey product, I should have take that freebie my lover told me to..."

He thinks what to do and with the ninja speed comes to the conclusion!

"Just in case, I will ban him and see what happens. If he tries to come here it means he's a stalker."

 

Customer sits down, turns on Autorespon feature and pretends to be AFK... waiting for Darius to come...

 

[Darrius Gothly]

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OzwellWayfarer wrote:

I am not questioning your good intentions, but I have found the best rule to follow is "If people ask for help, then I help."

Some people in SL see even the friendliest unsolicited IM as harassment or spam. Its better (IMHO) to be reactive rather than proactive.

If someone buys something really complicated then I sometimes send an IM saying "If you need me, Im here, just get in touch". But I always check out the profile first to see if I think such a message would be welcome or not. A casual glance is usually all it takes to deduce

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ROFL! Yup, I can totally see that. I suspect I do tend to freak people out sometimes when I respond to problems immediately, provide solutions as we talk .. and generally answer every IM within minutes. It's a practice that people aren't expecting, so they're just really confused by .. y'know .. responsive customer service.

But I can't help it! I'm totally obsessed by making sure when people pay hard-earned money for something, they get their money's worth. I probably will need an intervention some day. *grin*

I have encountered situations where people are confused by the fact that I do answer and help. There have been a number of times where their initial contact has been aggressive, almost combative .. having steeled themselves to deal with a typical angry reply. They're so set for what they expect to be a difficult time that it takes them a few moments of typing angry stuff before they realize .. I'm helping and being nice.

Saddest part? I run into VERY few Merchants that are angry immediately. Almost everyone I deal with is happy, friendly, responsive and anxious to make things work right. But the expectation, the myth, is that every Merchant is either going to blow you off or instruct you on another type of "off" .. and people won't let go of that preconception sometimes.

The product's target are people that make their living in SL dealing with angry people, unreasonable people, and they usually spend a LOT of their time answering questions with obvious answers. So I try and make sure they spend very little time resolving their own issues. More than likely the customer, upon the first receipt of "Thanks for buying ... welcome to the team" IM immediately reacted negatively. And I admit, my obsession to help before being asked probably did nothing but exacerbate the situation.

But .. this is the first time I've been banned and blocked from a "Thanks for buying my stuff" automated IM.

BTW: His profile does have a certain egotistical flavor to it. Something about being a gift to women. Maybe I just didn't have the proper accessories attached. LOL

[Darrius Gothly]

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Tamara Artis wrote:

:matte-motes-big-grin::matte-motes-big-grin-squint:

I can imagine this person

getting an IM and thinking...

"OMG who is this?? How did he know I just rezzed this product? Wow what if he's some kind of a stalker?"

then he 

opens Nearby people section to see who is around... 

"Hmmm he is not close.... but still HE KNOWS! My God what did I do, what did I got myself into.... I knew it was something shady when I saw a pricey product, I should have take that freebie my lover told me to..."

He thinks what to do and with the ninja speed comes to the conclusion!

"Just in case, I will ban him and see what happens. If he tries to come here it means he's a stalker."

 

Customer sits down, turns on Autorespon feature and pretends to be AFK... waiting for Darius to come...

 

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Mwaahahahaaaaa!! You have revealed my diabolical plan! I will hunt you down, torment you with information and guidance .. and eventually drive you insane with all the time you have left over by not wasting time messing with something you don't quite fully understand.

(hangs head in shame) I've been found out .. BLAST!

*maniacal cackling*

*GRINZ*

[OzwellWayfarer]

Oh yeah, been there and have plenty of T-shirts to prove it.

One guy once bought a full perm item from me and then went BALISTIC because a script inside was just Copy/Mod. 

One star review, posted angry stuff all over my "wall" on the SL website. Before even bothering to contact me.

So I got in touch with THEM, requested that they calm down and gave them the script free of charge (if they had spent 30 seconds googling particle scripts he could have found it himself. It was really nothing special). He still was not very friendly but at least removed the review.

Lucky for me this is the only really HORRIBLE person I have had to deal with.

Saddest thing? He was a merchant too. 

[OzwellWayfarer]

Maybe it was the "auto-IM" thing? Perhaps he thought "Oh god, now I am on a mailing list".

[Darrius Gothly]

Gadzooks! I wonder ...

After two years of staring at a one-star review on one of my products, given for exactly the same reason (no-mod script in a full-perm product .. also fully documented in the Description) I asked that it be removed. It was. (Thank you LL!) The buyer was furious that they couldn't rip the script out of the product and use it in their own stuff. In my case the script contains the secrets of how and why it works so good, so there was no "giving a copy for free" solution. But everything leading up to that point is the same.

Like many others here, I suspect we could spend a few hours trading stories about people going off the deep end because they weren't able to get something for free .. AND without effort. But then again, I recently had a RL experience standing behind a very enraged man at McDonald's .. screaming at the poor cashier because he got exactly six nuggets (as the product states) and didn't get any extras like he wanted. *sigh* With all the eye-rolls going on in the others waiting their turn to order, it's a minor miracle the clerk didn't give one of her own.

Ahhh yes .. if it wasn't for customers, being in business would be SO much easier, eh? LOL

[Darrius Gothly]

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OzwellWayfarer wrote:

Maybe it was the "auto-IM" thing? Perhaps he thought "Oh god, now I am on a mailing list".

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I often wonder if some of my customers do that immediately. The product does send "Error and Warning" messages when it detects configuration and operational issues that could have a negative impact on the customer's use. Many of them get totally ignored .. even though the messages are simple to understand (I think?) and are intended to prevent loss of money or wasting of time by the customer.

Many customers have IM'd and told me they LOVE receiving them because it saves them finding out "after the damage is done". But I guess some leap to the conclusion that they're now the target of my Spam Attacks too.

Odd thing though .. I get blocking and banning me for it. But the customer in this case went the extra step of looking up my public alt (listed in the product Group .. which is also provided in the "thanks for buying" IM) and banning/blocking that Avi too. That just seems a bit like overkill .. especially since the product has a one-click method of shutting off all of those messages. And then .. banning/blocking my friend's Avi just for visiting the Sim?

Yeah, I know, I'm obsessing about this. But it just "feels" like there's more to this story that what is readily seen on the surface.

[Pamela Galli]

Initially all banning is IP. So for a while alts will be banned.

[Darrius Gothly]

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Pamela Galli wrote:

Initially all banning is IP. So for a while alts will be banned.

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Interesting. Didn't know that. Certainly explains why my Alt was banned. But why would my friend get banned for visiting? That's the part that befuddles me.

[Pamela Galli]

Are there scripted security devices that auto eject and ban?

[Darrius Gothly]

My friend didn't get ejected. He just wasn't allowed to TP back. He also said his Media stuff is turned off so it would be pretty much impossible for an Avatar-owned device to ban by IP. Not to mention that he attempted to TP back within a few minutes. So apparently the Sim Owner did some rapid edits to the Ban List.

I'm still leaning toward the "wrong attachments" theory. Any female Avis wanna do some spying? *giggle*

[Spica Inventor]

Don't let it get to you. I'm quite convinced that alot of peeps in SL just like to go around and ban and block other peeps. That's how they get their kicks in SL. Many peeps come to SL for that empowerment thing, and usually those same peeps almost always fall under the category of 'uptight control freak' and usually 'drama creators' as well.

The problem with these types of peeps in SL is that they also cause many many many other peeps to leave the game who would otherwise stay and spend more of their marbles in it. They create a hostile environment, and most peeps don't want to be in hostile environments, so they leave and take their bag of marbles home with them, effecting us merchants negatively along with it.