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Posted

So the other day I went onto marketplace to buy a skin. I purchased it and an empty box was delivered to me with just a note card in it. I contacted the vendor hoping for a resolution but have received no contact. So I contact linden labs. Apparently you're able to sell anything you want and advertise it any way you want and they will not do anything about it. They claim to have no responsibility to any transaction that occurs on the marketplace(Despite them taking a cut of these fake listings.)

So I suppose you could really create anything make a picture for it, or steal someone elses picture.(Lets say a mesh body for 10k L$) Put it up for listing, and charge a lot of money for it and then linden labs would just turn their eye to it.  I have filed a support ticket for this, and I contacted live support and received the same answer from all of them. They do not regulate marketplace, all you can do is leave a review and hope that the vendor gets back to you. To dodge the reviews, just delete the store after its too negative, and make a new one... and just repeat this. I am sure people could even write bots to do it for them.

Posted

There is a REASON why lots of folks only buy from Marketplace sellers who have an inworld prescence. This is one of them.   Did you TRY THE DEMO?   Having a demo work would certainly be a first step.

 

And yes, things have always been this way.  Your profile says you are over a year old so I am surprised that you didn't know.

 

Now at least you can shop more wisely. There IS of course a chance that the skin maker might get back to you. Honest mistakes do happen.

 

Posted


Juliansanderson wrote:

So the other day I went onto marketplace to buy a skin. I purchased it and an empty box was delivered to me with just a note card in it. I contacted the vendor hoping for a resolution but have received no contact.

I agree with everything Chic said of course (I always do) but this particular case looks more like a honest mistake than genuine fraud so you shouldn't give up hope yet. Depends on how long you have waited for response from the seller of course. If you haven't from them for a week, contact them again - and remember send the message both as a notecard and as an IM. If you still haven't heard from them for another week, then it may be time to start worrying.

 

Two things you need to know:

It is quite common that items disappear from a  folder when you copy it from your regular inventory to the Marketplace. It's a bug in the MP software and something we just have to live with. That's what probably happened here, if it had been a fraud there wouldn't have been a notecard in the package.

Very few MP sellers make a living from Second Life, most don't even have a noticeable secondary income here. It's a hobby and that means they don't always have time to keep a watch on their store every day so it may take a while before they are able to reply. Also of course, as you know messages are lost all the time in SL, so you really should send it at least twice before you give up hope.

Posted

can you post the items link so we can check it out ourselves?

but i agree thats its disgusting that linden labs refuse to step in and help. if this really is a con then LL should help. shame on them for not doing so.

Posted

Marketplace fraud is *never* alright.

Linden lab has stepped in a few times, that I personally know of, to fix something that was proven fraud. However, I would consider those cases special examples, not the rule. We may not like it, at all, but the MP(and even inworld purchases) are caveat emptor=buyer beware.  Trust me when I tell you that most folks, don't like it either. Unfortunately, it is spelled out pretty clearly in the TOS that we all agree to, and periodically, when changes are made, we're presented with it again, to agree again. We just tend to not read the TOS fully (hey, we're all likely guilty of that, now and then, nto an excuse, but the truth).

I am by no means saying this *is* fraud though, for reasons others already stated. I had a similar experience with a product not sent. After some time I was able to get a hold of the merchant, we discussed, she apologized profusely(it really was just some weird glitch, and not her fault in the least) and we actually became friends. I was angry when it first happened, ok miffed is much better word. I was angry when she didn't contact me back after two weeks. I later learned why, though(again something out of her control-which was actualy the stepping stone to our friendship, it was something we had in common at the time, lol). 

I guess my best advice is to continue trying to contact the seller, because you just never know. Use whatever means you can to do that, too. That includes not just IMs(which can and do fail, not often, but it happens), but also notecards, if it's someone who posts here you can try messaging him/her here, even on mysecondlife.com. If it's been a bit, a review may help too. Please make sure the review is factual and not over-emotional, or you risk it being removed too-and also be aware that not all reviews cause the seller to get an email that a review has been left. I rarely get them even when a review has been left, and sometimes it can take me a bit to notice one has been left so I can't make it right if people don't use multiple methods to contact me. 

If after a few weeks you get no contact, personally, I'd chalk it up to a terrible experience. Perhaps your situation will be like mine, and the creator will come back at some point and make it right. If not, it was a hard lesson learned(one no one wants, but, it does happen).

It sucks, and I'm sorry if you did indeed run into a fraudulent seller. I may just be a bit more lenient and understanding when it comes to communication like that than others. I don't think most would wait as long as I did, lol. So, take that bit of my advice with a grain of salt. I'm oddly patient, most of the time. Because I understand that there are things that will keep a merchant away for days, weeks, maybe even months at a time, usually out of their control. As others have pointed out, for many SL creation/selling is really a hobby, not a job. RL always takes precedence(imo, others may disagree with that, though).

 

Posted


Chic Aeon wrote:

There is a REASON why lots of folks only buy from Marketplace sellers who have an inworld prescence. This is one of them.   Did you TRY THE DEMO?   Having a demo work would certainly be a first step.

 

And yes, things have always been this way.  Your profile says you are over a year old so I am surprised that you didn't know.

 

Now at least you can shop more wisely. There IS of course a chance that the skin maker might get back to you. Honest mistakes do happen.

 

I am glad that your initial response is to blame the victim. I suppose I am not surprised that this type of reply came up. Since even in RL it happens, when women get raped... well she deserved it she was dressed like a **bleep** mentality.

While I do agree some of those things can help, there are plenty of good items on the marketplace that do not have in world presence.

To the guy who mentioned the terms of service, ToS is actually not a be all end all when it comes to legal contracts. If the terms of service only protects the people who wrote it and offers no concessions to the other party. It often times is thrown out.

In the end it was 100L so I am not out a lot, which is part of the reason I didn't care for a demo, if it was a bad item. It would've been bad and who cares, but the fact is there was no item, it wasn't a bad delivery. It was the correct box delivered but only had a notecard in it. What gets me is linden labs will not take down listings like this. So I am just letting everyone know - why bother making actual content when you can just cheat the system - and anyone who says this is a case of buyer beware. It really isn't, it is a case of this could be managed and prevented. If you thought of this like an online marketplace similar to amazon marketplace(not amazon itself, but the one that allows third party users to sell on amazon.) Or e-bay. If you were sent an empty box from a merchant, with a piece of paper in it rather than an old book you ordered or something similar. Amazon would contact the vendor, get their side of the story, try to resolve it, and then if there was no resolution take appropriate action.

Posted

Juliansanderson wrote:

I am glad that your initial response is to blame the victim.

I don't think anybody blamed you for it Julian. If some of the replies seemed a bit rude, it's because lots of people are frustrated.

But it's not right to blame the seller either, at least not until you've actually given them a fair chance to respond. When items disappear from MP lsitings it's usually because they've been eaten by the crappy software, way out of the seller's control and something they can't be held responisble for.

As for Linden Lab, they don't take responsibility for the Marketplace, never had and never will. I can't see how we can do anything about that.

Posted


Juliansanderson wrote:


Chic Aeon wrote:

There is a REASON why lots of folks only buy from Marketplace sellers who have an inworld prescence. This is one of them.   Did you TRY THE DEMO?   Having a demo work would certainly be a first step.

 

And yes, things have always been this way.  Your profile says you are over a year old so I am surprised that you didn't know.

 

Now at least you can shop more wisely. There IS of course a chance that the skin maker might get back to you. Honest mistakes do happen.

 

I am glad that your initial response is to blame the victim. I suppose I am not surprised that this type of reply came up. Since even in RL it happens, when women get raped... well she deserved it she was dressed like a **bleep** mentality.

While I do agree some of those things can help, there are plenty of good items on the marketplace that do not have in world presence.

To the guy who mentioned the terms of service, ToS is actually not a be all end all when it comes to legal contracts. If the terms of service only protects the people who wrote it and offers no concessions to the other party. It often times is thrown out.

In the end it was 100L so I am not out a lot, which is part of the reason I didn't care for a demo, if it was a bad item. It would've been bad and who cares, but the fact is there was no item, it wasn't a bad delivery. It was the correct box delivered but only had a notecard in it. What gets me is linden labs will not take down listings like this. So I am just letting everyone know - why bother making actual content when you can just cheat the system - and anyone who says this is a case of buyer beware. It really isn't, it is a case of this could be managed and prevented. If you thought of this like an online marketplace similar to amazon marketplace(not amazon itself, but the one that allows third party users to sell on amazon.) Or e-bay. If you were sent an empty box from a merchant, with a piece of paper in it rather than an old book you ordered or something similar. Amazon would contact the vendor, get their side of the story, try to resolve it, and then if there was no resolution take appropriate action.

L$100 is an extremely low price for a skin - anyone with a fair amount of experience in Second Life should know that. A marketplace search showed most of the skins priced at exactly L$100 are being sold by one merchant, and that merchant offers a wide range of skins with other skin makers' names on them. Buying from that merchant would be the exact equivalent of buying an expensive item from some guy selling things out of the back of a van in a real-world parking lot -- either they aren't what they say they are or they're stolen. 

Posted


Theresa Tennyson wrote:

A marketplace search showed most of the skins priced at exactly L$100 are being sold by one merchant, and that merchant offers a wide range of skins
with other skin makers' names on them.


That's weird. I'm looking at the MP now. about 30 different merchants on the top 96 list of 100 L$ skins, including one or two fairly well known names.

I can't go through all 3185 listings in detail of course but it seems to be more or less the same all the way and I can't even try to guess who you're thinking of there. Did you use some other filtering and/or search words too?

Posted


ChinRey wrote:


Theresa Tennyson wrote:

A marketplace search showed most of the skins priced at exactly L$100 are being sold by one merchant, and that merchant offers a wide range of skins
with other skin makers' names on them.


That's weird. I'm looking at the MP now. about 30 different merchants on the top 96 list of 100 L$ skins, including one or two fairly well known names.

I can't go through all 3185 listings in detail of course but it seems to be more or less the same all the way and I can't even try to guess who you're thinking of there. Did you use some other filtering and/or search words too?

Look for the store names instead of the names on the listings. I initially searched under "Avatar Appearance" -- in "Avatar Components" - "Skins" there's a larger variety but not only was the initial "merchant" I was thinking of prominently featured, there was another with L$100 skins from several big names who put up this helpful text on each listing:

IMPORTANT: ALL OF OUR ITEMS ARE COLLABORATIONS OF DESIGNERS. They're all boxed so make sure you open them.

You're getting what you're seeing in the picture. [storename] features cheap skins for helping the not so furtunate ones in third world country. Remember that by every purchase 50% goes to education in third world countries.

Stay tuned for more products from [storename]. Be aware that Products will dissapear and new ones will be for sale so buy the products when you can since they're all for a limited time.

Thanks for your purchases.

  • Lindens
Posted

Greetings All!

I would like to take this opportunity to address a few of the issues that have been raised in this thread. Hopefully this information will help everyone, buyers and sellers.

1. Fraud is never okay.

2. Sellers are responsible for the content that they sell.

3. Linden Lab does not intercede in business transactions between users, except in extremely rare cases.

4. Selling an item that was created by, or using an image that belongs to another user, without that users permission is a copyright violation.  Linden Lab cannot, legally, do anything about those items until the original creator files a DMCA violation notification with Linden Lab. 

The above 4 points are outlined in the Linden Lab Terms of Service, located here:

http://www.lindenlab.com/tos

Sellers cannot disable and create a new store.  Each store is linked directly to their avatar. If a seller removes a listing to try to hide negative reviews, then creates a new listing for the same item, please report the new listing to Linden Lab using the Flag this item link that is on every listing.

Disabling or deleting a listing and creating a new listing for the same item is a violation of the Marketplace Listing Guidelines and is outlined in the Disallowed Actions section, located here:

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/listing_guidelines?#re-listing-items

If there is an issue with an item that you have purchased, please try to contact the seller in world.  You should also add a review to the listing itself outlining the issue.

Sellers are sent a notification from the Marketplace when a review is added to one of their items.  Please keep in mind though that Linden Lab cannot force a seller to communicate with a buyer.  This is why it is very important that buyers take the time to leave a review on their purchases.

One thing to keep in mind though when reviewing an item, do not be mean. :)

We understand that it can be very frustrating when an item that you purchase does not meet your expectations, for whatever reason, or you have had a problem with the product, but the surest way to get a review removed is to use profanity, or hate speech towards the seller.

If you purchase an item through the Second Life Marketplace and the item is Copy Enabled, you can request a redelivery from Linden Lab and as a courtesy, we are happy to have the item redelivered to you.

It is not necessary to explain the reason, just state that you need a redelivery of the copy enabled item and include the MKT Order Number and the line item name.

Please ensure that your request for a redelivery is made within a reasonable amount of time after your purchase.  If you purchased an item 1 year ago and would like a redelivery, most likely your request will be denied. However, if your purchase was made 1 week ago, we are happy to redeliver the item through the Marketplace system for you.

If you purchase a copy enabled item and do not receive the item, please immediately submit a support case for Failed Marketplace Delivery and ask for a redelivery of the item.

Online systems and items can have issues, unfortunately, and asking for the redelivery immediately may resolve the problem and get the item to you.

Cheers All!

 

 

Posted


Theresa Tennyson wrote:


Juliansanderson wrote:


Chic Aeon wrote:

There is a REASON why lots of folks only buy from Marketplace sellers who have an inworld prescence. This is one of them.   Did you TRY THE DEMO?   Having a demo work would certainly be a first step.

 

And yes, things have always been this way.  Your profile says you are over a year old so I am surprised that you didn't know.

 

Now at least you can shop more wisely. There IS of course a chance that the skin maker might get back to you. Honest mistakes do happen.

 

I am glad that your initial response is to blame the victim. I suppose I am not surprised that this type of reply came up. Since even in RL it happens, when women get raped... well she deserved it she was dressed like a **bleep** mentality.

While I do agree some of those things can help, there are plenty of good items on the marketplace that do not have in world presence.

To the guy who mentioned the terms of service, ToS is actually not a be all end all when it comes to legal contracts. If the terms of service only protects the people who wrote it and offers no concessions to the other party. It often times is thrown out.

In the end it was 100L so I am not out a lot, which is part of the reason I didn't care for a demo, if it was a bad item. It would've been bad and who cares, but the fact is there was no item, it wasn't a bad delivery. It was the correct box delivered but only had a notecard in it. What gets me is linden labs will not take down listings like this. So I am just letting everyone know - why bother making actual content when you can just cheat the system - and anyone who says this is a case of buyer beware. It really isn't, it is a case of this could be managed and prevented. If you thought of this like an online marketplace similar to amazon marketplace(not amazon itself, but the one that allows third party users to sell on amazon.) Or e-bay. If you were sent an empty box from a merchant, with a piece of paper in it rather than an old book you ordered or something similar. Amazon would contact the vendor, get their side of the story, try to resolve it, and then if there was no resolution take appropriate action.

L$100 is an extremely low price for a skin - anyone with a fair amount of experience in Second Life should know that. A marketplace search showed most of the skins priced at exactly L$100 are being sold by one merchant, and that merchant offers a wide range of skins
with other skin makers' names on them. 
Buying from that merchant would be the exact equivalent of buying an expensive item from some guy selling things out of the back of a van in a real-world parking lot -- either they aren't what they say they are or they're stolen. 

What are you talking about Zyra sells complete avatars for L$150 - 300linden that are not mesh quality. However they're fine enough and they come with hair/clothes/etc.... So it is perfectly feasible to get a decent skin for $100 linden.

Posted


Juliansanderson wrote:


Chic Aeon wrote:

There is a REASON why lots of folks only buy from Marketplace sellers who have an inworld prescence. This is one of them.   Did you TRY THE DEMO?   Having a demo work would certainly be a first step.

 

And yes, things have always been this way.  Your profile says you are over a year old so I am surprised that you didn't know.

 

Now at least you can shop more wisely. There IS of course a chance that the skin maker might get back to you. Honest mistakes do happen.

 

 

To the guy who mentioned the terms of service, ToS is actually not a be all end all when it comes to legal contracts. If the terms of service only protects the people who wrote it and offers no concessions to the other party. It often times is thrown out.

 

I'm not a guy ;) lol

I mentioned the TOS in case you weren't aware it was even in there. When it comes to things like this, aside from very, very rare cases, the TOS does stand. I never said it was the be all end all, I simply mentioned it. LL has already commented on that though.

I still hope it gets resolved for you, regardless. Have a nice day :) 

 

Posted


Juliansanderson wrote:

What are you talking about Zyra sells complete avatars for L$150 - 300linden that are not mesh quality. However they're fine enough and they come with hair/clothes/etc.... So it is perfectly feasible to get a decent skin for $100 linden.


Oh yes, definitely. You can even get a top quality (classic) complete-except-for-hair avatar for 10 Lindens - or for free even. Some good content creators only do it as a hobby and don't worry about the income, some think it's better to sell a lot of copies cheap than fewer copies at a higher price and of course there are always lots of cut price promo items.

Most of the time however, the good old rule of trading still applies:

 


Posted


Juliansanderson wrote:


Chic Aeon wrote:

There is a REASON why lots of folks only buy from Marketplace sellers who have an inworld prescence. This is one of them.   Did you TRY THE DEMO?   Having a demo work would certainly be a first step.

 

And yes, things have always been this way.  Your profile says you are over a year old so I am surprised that you didn't know.

 

Now at least you can shop more wisely. There IS of course a chance that the skin maker might get back to you. Honest mistakes do happen.

 

I am glad that your initial response is to blame the victim. I suppose I am not surprised that this type of reply came up. Since even in RL it happens, when women get raped... well she deserved it she was dressed like a **bleep** mentality.

While I do agree some of those things can help, there are plenty of good items on the marketplace that do not have in world presence.

To the guy who mentioned the terms of service, ToS is actually not a be all end all when it comes to legal contracts. If the terms of service only protects the people who wrote it and offers no concessions to the other party. It often times is thrown out.

In the end it was 100L so I am not out a lot, which is part of the reason I didn't care for a demo, if it was a bad item. It would've been bad and who cares, but the fact is there was no item, it wasn't a bad delivery. It was the correct box delivered but only had a notecard in it. What gets me is linden labs will not take down listings like this. So I am just letting everyone know - why bother making actual content when you can just cheat the system - and anyone who says this is a case of buyer beware. It really isn't, it is a case of this could be managed and prevented. If you thought of this like an online marketplace similar to amazon marketplace(not amazon itself, but the one that allows third party users to sell on amazon.) Or e-bay. If you were sent an empty box from a merchant, with a piece of paper in it rather than an old book you ordered or something similar. Amazon would contact the vendor, get their side of the story, try to resolve it, and then if there was no resolution take appropriate action.

You are just being informed of how things are, and how to protect yourself from fraud in the future, to the extent it is possible. If you want to buy items without demos, at far below average prices, from sellers with no inworld store, who may seem to be selling other creators items, and you don't care what the provenance of the products is -- go right ahead and call yourself "the victim" when you wind up wasting your 40 cents.

Posted

I totally agree with you here. I tried to create my avatar completely free using free and group gifts. But its impossible! Its true when they say you get what you pay for. 

There are some great freebies in Second Life, but as I searched through free and cheap listings even I could see that some stores are just not worth the little lindens they sell for. 

 

Another exmpale is a TP script I purchased yesterday for 9L$. Turns out the creator modified it in such a way it doesnt acutally work. Even though it was just 9L$ i was so annoyed, and even more so when i realised the creator didnt have a store in world and gave ZERO support. But i was annoyed at myself for breaking the golden rule. I usually always find on marketplace, and then check the store in world and check the merchants profile. if it doesnt seem legit, I dont buy. But this time i did. My mistake. 

 

 

Posted

AdamZadig wrote:

But this time i did. My mistake. 

I don't think there are many people in SL who haven't done that mistake, Adam.

Btw, in case there's any doubt and since I ended up writing yet another post here anyway: With all the info that have turned up after the original post I have to say: yes, this particular case is beginning to look more and more like genuine fraud and not a honest mistake.

Posted

Words mean nothing when the system doesn't work. Here are 2 photos for you, can you please reply how it is possible that merchant is breaking SL Marketplace listing guidelines with each item from the shop? Prices are set higher on the Marketplace than in-world shop and, unlike other merchants who keep quiet about it, this states it right there in the listing description. 

 



This is one of the listings, as you can see I already flagged it. Nothing happened. 



This is a highlight of the Guidelines. So how can I say that fraud is never okay?

Posted

Tamara, the problem is that so many from merchants to customers and even LL staff have absolutely no clue what "inflated listing price" means.

Evidence, read my full listing here:-

https://marketplace.secondlife.com/p/RLV-strip-poseball/3451504

Also, this is one of the transactions that Dakota mentioned where LL DID intercede and that was a story in itself but having involved themselves in the transaction, never reported back to me the outcome in detail which should really have happened (in my opinion).

Posted

You also have to consider the definition of "Inflate."

 

2.
increase (something) by a large or excessive amount.
 
 
 
 
So simply being higher priced does not necessarily mean inflated.
Posted


Tamara Artis wrote:

Words mean nothing when the system doesn't work.

Words and intentions mean nothing when the system doesn't work.

That is the crucial point. I do not for a moment doubt the intentions of the people at LL working with the Marketplace. My impression is that they are doing a great job all things considered. But you don't try to empty you swimming pool with a teaspoon.

There are more than 4 million items listed for sale on MP now. I don't know how many merchants there are but it must be close to 200 000. How do you manage something like that? Certainly not on a case-by-case basis. You need efficient, reliable software and efficient, reliable work routines.

Without those tools any sanctions against dishonest merchants are bound to be arbitrary. You have to be very unlucky indeed to be caught. And of course it doesn't exactly help when honest, well-meaning merchants risk being penalized too just because the software messed up their listings.

There's no sign of any significant improvement. I mean, Grumpity has been hard at work for more than half a year trying to fix the search algorithm. All credit to him or her for that but it is one of the minor issues. At that speed it'll take 20 years before we have a presentable Marketplace.

This hurts all serious MP merchants. It hurts our reputations, it hurts our incomes and it steals an amazing amount of precious time.

It hurts Linden Lab in the same ways too. LL's commission rate is 5% today. As Medhue Simoni once pointed out, serious merchants would be quite happy to accept 25% if the services provided were worth it. But they aren't. They're hardly worth the current five.

Posted

So, LL is OK with profiting from fraud? If i buy a $10,000L Horse from the MP (which i did a few years ago) and the box is empty (which it was) and the merchant never responds (which they didn't) and LL takes their 5%(Which I assume they did) how does that not make them an accessory to fraud?

I filed a support ticket within minutes of purchase, was contacted within 15 minutes and told "LL does not get involved in user to user conflicts." But you took your cut of the money.. It would have been simple to freeze their L$ and investigate. I was out $40 USD.

I buy nothing without a DEMO now.

  • Like 1
Posted

Yes Perrie but as far as MP is concerned, there's no wiggle room. The flagging option clearly specifies that it relates to an inflated price in comparison to inworld or other e-commerce sites.

 

Where this went wrong was when some creators asked Pink Linden (if my memory serves me correctly) about the 5% commission and Pink responded that they could raise the MP price to compensate.

 

Personally, I hold the view that's a cost of sale, there's no requirement to use MP and the same merchant wouldn't increase their price due to having inworld tier to pay for, that's already factored in!

 

Prices should be the same regardless.

 

Still doesn't detract from the fact that my poseball got flagged for inflated listing price while being wholly compliant but then removed by LL staff incorrectly.

 

When the staff can't even get it right, even when it's as clearly laid out in the MP rules, it doesn't offer much hope.

 

Plus as others have pointed out, LL sits back and doesn't involve itself yet does become complicit in fraud, unless that fraud is of a high enough value that it would cause them to lose money. THEN it gets involved.

 

I still want to know why I had L$27,000,000 taken from me without full explanation. :)

 

Sassy {Dog with bone}

Posted

To  Sassy; I was thinking that inflated price is every price not same as in-world? There should be some kind of explanation because as it is right now, each of us can understand it in our own way? 

 

Perrie can you define large or excessive amount? 

 

ChinRey yes it hurts everyone... I understand there is no perfect system and there are tools anyone can use to point out to little imperfections. Whats stopping me from inflating my prices? Or selling empty boxes? 

 

Drake right now SL Marketplace is considered a site where you can sell stolen goods and get away with it, it is a shame to read the TOS of some websites and realize things have gone so far that they had to write it down, right there in their terms of service, that selling their products in SL is not allowed! 

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