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The buyer is always right?


KennyChidorie
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Hello everyone, from time to time I come across an injustice towards the sellers. Many buyers are convinced that they are right. I consider this unfair. Do you agree with the fact that we all need customer evaluation? 5 stars and the possibility of recall. If the buyer will leave a review, others will be able to find out and evaluate the buyer. And wherever this buyer went, we can always read all the reviews about him.

 

Something like a "Not careful customer. He doesn't read the description." or "This buyer doesn't cares about content and ignore "For classic avatars only"". Or... "Rude customer."

 

Some buyers try to blackmail sellers. I have often encountered people who threatened me that they would take away the audience of buyers from me.

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24 minutes ago, KennyChidorie said:

Hello everyone, from time to time I come across an injustice towards the sellers. Many buyers are convinced that they are right. I consider this unfair. Do you agree with the fact that we all need customer evaluation? 5 stars and the possibility of recall. If the buyer will leave a review, others will be able to find out and evaluate the buyer. And wherever this buyer went, we can always read all the reviews about him.

 

Something like a "Not careful customer. He doesn't read the description." or "This buyer doesn't cares about content and ignore "For classic avatars only"". Or... "Rude customer."

 

Some buyers try to blackmail sellers. I have often encountered people who threatened me that they would take away the audience of buyers from me.

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Why not just contact the customer and try to help/solve an issue?  Or use the comment option to offer further explanation?  

The thought of evaluating customers reviews is a little scary to me and will put off anyone wanting to leave an honest review of something good or bad

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Hi, Cindy! A lot of customers discourage sellers. And i think we need this system because some buyers ignore when you tried solve their problem and ignore personal messages, like a "Hello, this clothes onlt for classic avatars. You can not use this dress/outfit with your mesh avatar. Be careful and always read the description because creators always tell to their customers what they selling". A lot of customers don't like when creators trying help to they. 

There is a reason why idea with customer review system is fair. 

I think creators and sellers must know who wrote reviews with this system.

 

If customer leaved their review he/she ready for personal evaluating. This system will avoid crooks and scammers among buyers who cheat others.

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The answer is pretty simple: Give *great* customer service.

Too many creators are paranoid jerk heads. If someone makes a mistake and buys something they cannot use, why not give them a refund? Sure - they may be trying to cheat, but so what? Maybe only ONE out of every hundred people who have a problem may be trying to cheat you. So what? It doesn't cost you ANYTHING to give another copy or a refund.

This is my philosophy and all I ever get are 5 Star reviews - sure, they like my products, but more importantly is when they give me "rave" reviews on my customer service. This is the most important thing because now I have word-of-mouth advertising which is the most valuable and you cannot buy that. They tell their friends.

I *ALWAYS* answer my offline IMs immediately, I *ALWAYS* tell when I will be in world next time and offer to help them and make things right. I *ALWAYS* promise them that if I cannot do anything to make them happy that I will give at least half their money back - and it has never come to that even once in ten years.

Even if a customer seems rude,  you - the creator - MUST remember that 1) they are frustrated and 2) Chances are that you are reading what they write as being rude and that they never intended that. YOU should always do whatever you can, quickly as possible, to satisfy your customer. Because when a creator interacts with a customer they WILL tell others about it, positive or negative and whether they speak positively or negatively about you is in YOUR control.

It costs you nothing to make copy after copy after copy of your creation: so just throw a new copy at the customer, no questions asked. If they are cheating you it's not a lost sale - it's a sale that never would have happened anyway, but if it's a genuine customer the good-will in their comments about you is priceless. In the case of selling "classic avatar" items: you need to make it absolutely clear in your description in all caps at the top: "NOT FOR MESH AVATARS". Many very old adverts (created before mesh came along) do not specify. This is why I only shop Market Place and never, ever buy anything I cannot see in world or try as a demo. Ever.

So just give the customer their money back and leave them satisfied. The word of mouth is priceless.

Only one in a thousand customers is genuinely a "bad customer", the rest are just frustrated people who want a solution and a perceived problem resolved. Only you can resolve it or tell them 'screw you" because if you don't resolve the problem to their satisfaction, that is exactly what you are saying to them.

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As a shopper, I rarely pay any attention to reviews that other people may have put on a product. They are generally left by people at the extremes, either those who really liked the product or those who hated it, and both get irrational in their own way.  I have almost never seen a substantive review that told me anything useful as a buyer. 

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1 hour ago, KennyChidorie said:

"Hello, this clothes onlt for classic avatars. You can not use this dress/outfit with your mesh avatar. Be careful and always read the description because creators always tell to their customers what they selling".

und wenn sie kein Englisch können?

 

Edit: The goods cost you nothing, but if you don't want to refund the lindens consider you can also offer store credit to the customer, a major mesh body maker did this for me when I was unable to find a solution with their support people to weird fingers. That act highlighted their care. I will never use the store credit, heh, but it was a way to provide stellar service.

That can be a good middle way.

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As a seller, there are times when you will find yourself frustrated by a buyer.  As a buyer, there are times when you'll encounter a frustrating seller.  This is simply human nature.  There are two kinds of frustrating buyers.

  1. The Stupid Buyer.  Buys something without reading or understanding the product description.  Buys something without trying the demo first.  SOLUTION:  Try education.  Improve your product description.  Explain to the buyer how to use the product.  Offer a replacement product, or store credit.  In extreme cases, offer a refund.
  2. The Criminal Buyer.  Buys something with the intent of complaining and being such a nuisance that you'll give them additional free copies of the item.  When you suspect a buyer is of this variety, first try education, then try ONE replacement.  If they are still plaguing you, mute them and ban them from your store.

As long as you are in business, you're going to encounter these from time to time.  I would not consider a "buyer rating system" to be effective.  There have been similar attempts to establish a "Second Life Better Business Bureau" to "rate" sellers, and these have all failed, due to people gaming the system to try to get advantage, or get revenge.

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I hope my idea can be realize, because buyers isn't right.

My shop without refunds and i don't earn real money fron Second Life. So i don't change my rules anyway.

Thanks for your answers, but i prefer be honest with customers and i don't refund. I always check my items 5 times to be sure of the quality of the goods. A lot of creators leaved Second Life because they got bad reviews. I believe that many unjustly offend content creators and called they "jerks".

I do not understand people who support buyers who spoil reviews because of their carelessness. Believe, your target audience will not change if you do not refund the monetary contribution to inattentive users. If you are so afraid and shaking for every linden and review, then this is your right. But I hope that in the future we will have the opportunity to evaluate the client.

P.s. Thank you all for your opinions and answers!

Edited by KennyChidorie
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20 hours ago, Lindal Kidd said:

As a seller, there are times when you will find yourself frustrated by a buyer.  As a buyer, there are times when you'll encounter a frustrating seller.  This is simply human nature.  There are two kinds of frustrating buyers.

  1. The Stupid Buyer.  Buys something without reading or understanding the product description.  Buys something without trying the demo first.  SOLUTION:  Try education.  Improve your product description.  Explain to the buyer how to use the product.  Offer a replacement product, or store credit.  In extreme cases, offer a refund.
  2. The Criminal Buyer.  Buys something with the intent of complaining and being such a nuisance that you'll give them additional free copies of the item.  When you suspect a buyer is of this variety, first try education, then try ONE replacement.  If they are still plaguing you, mute them and ban them from your store.

As long as you are in business, you're going to encounter these from time to time.  I would not consider a "buyer rating system" to be effective.  There have been similar attempts to establish a "Second Life Better Business Bureau" to "rate" sellers, and these have all failed, due to people gaming the system to try to get advantage, or get revenge.

Best pithy answer of all of them, including my own.

Here is the fact: The customer is NOT "king"; the customer is not always right, usually the opposite.

You simply have to treat each case of support on a case-by-case basis. In the example of a customer purchasing something that is made only for classic avatars, I am of the purview that it is both: seller and buyer" falling short here: The seller for not being as clear as possible in their product description (TIP: Don't describe is as only for classic avatars, describe is as not for mesh avatars) and the buyer for not informing themselves properly by understanding the product description before the purchase.

This is another reason why I, myself, never purchase anything costing more than 100L that doesn't offer a demo and just about everyone else I know does the same, more or less.

 

There is an old adage: "Caveat Emptor", meaning buyer beware. Nothing about sellers in that statement. 

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"Caveat Venditor" Kenny...

Thanks Qa Boa for writing just about exactly what I was going to write.  I can't get my head around the "NO REFUNDS - IT'S A POLICY!" idea.  We can do what the hell we like, it's NOT a policy, it's a fragile belief that because someone else wrote it that others should too.

Sometimes when someone has looked at something of mine and popped a question, will it fit? etc. I might just send them the item and just ask them to go back and pay for it if they like it.  I don't check, well big deal. *shrugs*

There are already too may dysfunctional merchants and while there are customers who make mistakes, don't seek to punish them, just settle the issue, it's really not difficult and I wouldn't want a review system for customers, don't have time for that at all and it would just end up being used for spite.  The only reason you'd have for doing it would be to complain about someone.  Would you go and leave a 5 star "excellent customer" every time someone bought and you never heard from them?  Of course you wouldn't.  Besides, they might have then looked at the item, called it crap and told all their friends that it's crap, is that a good customer just because you had their money but none of their opinion in person? 

The comments section is just fine as it is, learn to be a better merchant.

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On 10/2/2017 at 10:18 AM, KennyChidorie said:

Thanks for your answers, but i prefer be honest with customers and i don't refund.

...

If you are so afraid and shaking for every linden and review, then this is your right.

A lot of creators leaved Second Life because they got bad reviews.  

But I hope that in the future we will have the opportunity to evaluate the client.

 

Just to comment specifically on one of your posts Kenny, the first two sentences above just do not correlate.  You say you don't refund and go on to question other creators who are shaking for every linden dollar?  Surely it's YOU who are grasping at every L$ by refusing to refund even when someone isn't happy and most likely won't use the item?  You have their money, they have nothing of use and that's ok with you? Really?  Please do explain why someone who made a mistake and can't use something should lead to you being better off...

A lot of creators left SL over bad reviews?  a) GOOD - special snowflakes don't need to waste their time here.  b) How many can you name, the list will be short.  There's no evidence, if you have it, present it.

Finally, given that there is no opportunity for someone to review a merchant, there should be no opportunity to review the client.  The review feature is about the PRODUCT not the merchant, maybe this isn't clear?  If it's not, leave LL a bad review for poor documentation and tell everyone about it.

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On 10/1/2017 at 7:54 AM, KennyChidorie said:

Hello everyone, from time to time I come across an injustice towards the sellers. Many buyers are convinced that they are right. I consider this unfair. Do you agree with the fact that we all need customer evaluation? 5 stars and the possibility of recall. If the buyer will leave a review, others will be able to find out and evaluate the buyer. And wherever this buyer went, we can always read all the reviews about him.

 

Something like a "Not careful customer. He doesn't read the description." or "This buyer doesn't cares about content and ignore "For classic avatars only"". Or... "Rude customer."

 

Some buyers try to blackmail sellers. I have often encountered people who threatened me that they would take away the audience of buyers from me.

ыыы.png

You seem to value honesty.

Therefore, I'll tell you that your grasp of the English language is much worse than you seem to think it is. Your "explanations" on your items can be quite difficult to read. When you "check things five times," this seems to have fallen through the cracks. I understand that there are many people on Second Life who don't have English as a first or even a second language, so I wouldn't judge you on your English except for the fact that you judge others for not understanding things, and in fact want a special system added for making judgments.

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The policy of no refunds is to stop the masses from asking for a refund. This same theory holds true for many RL retail establishments. But blindly saying you will never give a refund is short sighted IMO. A customer in need creates an opportunity to strengthen, and or affirm a relationship. It can also be an opportunity for you to dissolve a relationship. The choice is yours.

Saying that many creators left because of bad reviews is just affirmation bias. Bad reviews happen, its a part of doing business. What you as a seller can do is look at at those service issues and determine what changes can be made on your end to prevent, or minimize future issues before they happen. At the end of the day, the more reviews you have, the less impact one negative review has. If you offer a product demo, those reviews are further negated.

Instead of a merchant reviewing a customer (*which sounds wrong on so many levels), they could make all reviews completed by that customer available to see (i.e. Yelp). However, I think even that would have a limited effect given how easy it is to create an account.

 

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7 hours ago, Chase01 said:

The policy of no refunds is to stop the masses from asking for a refund. This same theory holds true for many RL retail establishments. But blindly saying you will never give a refund is short sighted IMO. 

I know why people state it but it's based on a false belief. The "masses" do not ask for refunds, they just don't! Rather if anything it would be the minority, a tiny minority that do.

I've always operated openly with a published refund policy and never has it been an issue.

It's my belief that many merchants copy dysfunctional parts of other merchants policies because some are just laughable.

E.g. "no photography in the store"

Anyway, I digress!

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I don't know what type of volume you do for your store, so I won't make any assumptions but a stated refund policy in itself isn't a bad thing. When people say the "masses" in this regard, it doesn't refer to any and all customers that have an issue, it just means that it is a measure to minimize it from occurring. If you've ever worked in retail, you'd know this.

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7 hours ago, Sassy Romano said:

I know why people state it but it's based on a false belief. The "masses" do not ask for refunds, they just don't! Rather if anything it would be the minority, a tiny minority that do.

 

This is true. I would say I have a relatively high sales volume. I just did a count for October 8th and it comes to around 140 sales for that day. I don't have any policy about refunds, and I can't remember ever being asked for one. I may have been but I just don't remember because it's so rare. People are more likely to give one star and move on than ask for a refund.

Edit: The sales are mostly from the flowers and plants store (Reid Parkin), not Tuff. But even with scripted boats I never get asked for a refund. I would be the one to offer if there is an issue that can't be resolved, and then the customer would gratefully accept.

Edit: Oh wait, I do get asked for refunds on double purchases, and I would give a refund if I notice a double purchase. But I don't think we were talking about this clear cut example.

Edited by Rya Nitely
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On 10/8/2017 at 10:21 PM, Sassy Romano said:

I know why people state it but it's based on a false belief. The "masses" do not ask for refunds, they just don't! Rather if anything it would be the minority, a tiny minority that do.

I've always operated openly with a published refund policy and never has it been an issue.

 

1

Yeah... even a tiny minority can be rather troublesome when you have enough sales volume, ESPECIALLY with inexpensive products.  Even with an ironclad refund policy in place and on the wall, I still get daily requests for refunds.  I don't mind giving people their 50L-99L back if the reason is legitimate... it's literally pennies, but why are you wasting your time asking for 40 cent refunds? I think people forget just how little they are spending. Back when I had 99% group discounts inworld, I would literally get people asking for the 1-3L back because of double purchases, or wrong purchases or whatever. 

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It seems like some people get asked for refunds very often, and others very rarely. The question that should be asked is why. I have a high daily sales volume so that's not it. I rarely get asked for refunds, except the occasional double purchase.

Perhaps it has something to do with complexity of the item, I don't know. Why do people ask for refunds, what are the reasons given?

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  • 2 weeks later...

I think a creator should be able to choose to allow reviews of their item or allow no reviews for their items.  It doesn't matter how well you word your description or how many times you tell someone to please try a demo first 98% of the customers are just to lazy to read or follow directions.  If they did read and follow directions then almost all of the problems they end up complaining about wouldn't be a problem because they would have known before they bought the item that they didn't like it.  But, you can bet your sweet bum they won't blame themselves for their own laziness, but they will blame the creator.  It also doesn't usually matter how nice a creator is to a customer, 99.9% of the time, said customer is going to be rude and disrespectful.  Most don't even contact the seller to say they have a problem and give a chance to have it rectified, they just slap a bad review up on the marketplace and walk away and even if contacted by the creator and given a refund, most don't ever even say thank you or remove the bad review, because they just don't care.  This is what you need to remember...they don't care about anything or anyone but themselves.

If you want to actually make decent RL money in SL you have to take it all with a smile, keep your mouth shut, your opinion to yourself and act like they are always right.  Otherwise your reputation goes in the gutter.

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17 minutes ago, HaileeTempesta said:

I think a creator should be able to choose to allow reviews of their item or allow no reviews for their items.  It doesn't matter how well you word your description or how many times you tell someone to please try a demo first 98% of the customers are just to lazy to read or follow directions.  If they did read and follow directions then almost all of the problems they end up complaining about wouldn't be a problem because they would have known before they bought the item that they didn't like it.  But, you can bet your sweet bum they won't blame themselves for their own laziness, but they will blame the creator.  It also doesn't usually matter how nice a creator is to a customer, 99.9% of the time, said customer is going to be rude and disrespectful.  Most don't even contact the seller to say they have a problem and give a chance to have it rectified, they just slap a bad review up on the marketplace and walk away and even if contacted by the creator and given a refund, most don't ever even say thank you or remove the bad review, because they just don't care.  This is what you need to remember...they don't care about anything or anyone but themselves.

If you want to actually make decent RL money in SL you have to take it all with a smile, keep your mouth shut, your opinion to yourself and act like they are always right.  Otherwise your reputation goes in the gutter.

That doesn’t describe my experience at all. Most customers could not be nicer. The percentage that behaves as you describe is maybe  ten percent.

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Hailee, I agree with you. There are a lot of customers unwilling to admit their own fault. I definitely agree that the general attitude of customers can also vary widely between brands. Over the years I have managed a lot of retail establishments at various levels; and even within the same catagory (and sometimes similar price point) the types of complaints and the guests general attitudes varied quite a bit. I was always willing to help someone in need; it was those that were lying or trying to abuse a policy that frustrated me the most and one story comes to mind in particular. At least as the business owner in these situations here; we have the power to do what we feel is appropriate.

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It's unfortunate that some people have such a hard time with customers. Even though I can't relate to it, I can understand that it must be difficult.

I did get asked for a refund recently, which doesn't happen often.  Below is how the conversation went. This is my style, and I do understand that we all have our own methods, which is fine. I just really like mine, so I thought I'd share it.

Customer: The item animation does not function. I paid you 150 lind. you can return my 150 lid

Me:  Hi there, I was wondering if you read the info on it, because I can't understand the animation bit

Me: let me know what you want? Did you make a mistake to buy it? Very important to read before buying.

Customer: friend did not matter, I thought it was animated

Me: I'll give you a refund

Me: Refund sent. I know how it feels to be disappointed in a purchase

Customer: ma nooo

Me: It's my pleasure

Customer: thank you for the money back, thank you again for your onesta, and your works are very beautiful

Customer: thanks again I bought another item, and soon bought, I'm not disappointed

Me: thank you :)

After this I did have to endure a long conversation when I really just wanted to work, but fortunately there was no friend request.

With another approach, the situation could have turned out very differently, very frustrating, with two very upset people. Is that really worth L150?

Overall, it left me feeling good, and the customer feeling good, and I can truly say that this is what I love most about SL - my daily interactions with customers. It so often leaves me with that warm and fuzzy feeling.

 

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