Worst Shopping Experience EVER

[Tari Landar]

33 minutes ago, Rya Nitely said:

No need for warm blankets in forums - that was the message thrown at me. So, why the change in opinion?

 

Oh, and I'm just waiting for Solar to come along with his scornful laugh.

And Tari, if you are busy writing me a book, I'm not going to read it all. I might skim the gist of it, and then give up because I don't want to read a book. I'm already reading War and Peace atm and that is enough for me right now.

I won't write you a book. But I will apologize if I hurt you somehow with my prior comments in another thread. I can see precisely why you feel the way you do, and why you're responding the way you are to my post, because you feel I was quite rude, and that I was wrong. So, I do apologize for that, I'm not a monster, nor am I perfect, in any way. I make mistakes too, just like everyone else. I would have to say that was one of mine, because I have always respected you as a person, as I do the vast majority of people. I clearly handled that entirely wrong (and that may be why I bowed out of that thread, I don't remember exactly why now). My apologies are sincere however, regardless of how you may feel about me, or whether or not they are accepted. I wouldn't offer them otherwise.  I am sorry Rya. 

[Rya Nitely]

thank you  I really did need that. I've never seen this side of you before - I like it.

[Luna Bliss]

[Elvina Ewing]

Merry Christmas to you too, Tari!

[Tamara Artis]

Merry Christmas to everyone here, who posts and reads.   

[Love Zhaoying]

In this thread, I expected “Bah! Humbug!”

[Love Zhaoying]

14 hours ago, Luna Bliss said:

Is that the original “Dancing Baby” before the 3D version?

[Orwar]

On 12/19/2018 at 12:47 AM, bigmoe Whitfield said:

• No demo, No sale
• Demo, but I must go hunt it down in your store, No sale
• Demo with a time limit???  No sale and word passed around you are one of those kind.

• A price on the demo, even L$1, is a no sale (referring to the MP - but honestly I don't 'get' the whole 'give me L$1 for the demo and I'll give it right back from in-world vendors).
• A demo with alphas - which you've put a banner around. That also has alphas. So that it's impossible to view the product properly.

   I don't 'get' why creators at all make boxes that require to be rezzed to unpack, there are free, light-weight unpack scripts that work perfectly whether you rez it or attack it to your HUD. You just stick that script into the box whilst you're putting in the contents anyway, and to turn it from a prim that'll stick to your right hand, you just right-click, attach to HUD, center. Take it off again, and now it's a HUD. 
   But if they'd rather I have to leave the store to try it on and then come back... Meh. If it's a -really- nice item, maybe I will. Maybe I won't. 

[daquari Stawberry]

 

On 12/18/2018 at 9:50 AM, Alyona Su said:

NOTE: The reason for my rhetoric is this: Remember that all sales in SL are 100% FINAL. There is no exchanging, no refunds, except for those very few creators willing to go beyond the norm; Linden Dollars is real money. So it hurts in a real sense when buyers' remorse becomes happens. So we shop carefully.

You merchants need to get a clue. Seriously.

FAIR NOTICE: This may appear as a rant against you creators who fall into this category, though I don't see it this way. I'm not angry with you at all. I see this as doing you a favor to help you increase your sales.

Other than a brand name on the wall, this is the entire sales display (brand name avoided intentionally) of a "booth" at the Winter Shopping even 2018 (which makes it an even worse "offense", the way I see it:

That's it. Nothing else anywhere. Zip, zilch, nada.

• What is it called?
• How much?
• Which mesh bodies does it work with?
• What (if any) features?
• How does it look when worn?

To get the answers, I went with the very first one (on the left-most of the image):

• Must get demo
• Contents of the demo are cryptic (as viewed in the "Copy to Inventory" window):
  • Land Mark
  • An object with the *apparent* name of the item (somewhat cryptic),
  • Notecard titled "Thank You."
  • Notecard titled *About Sizes Included..."
• Accept the folder into inventory
• Hunt inventory for folder
• Read notecards
  • Discover this is for ONE type of mesh body ONLY

Move-on without bothering even to cam the rest or take the freebie gift, make a note to never think about this brand again.

OR, if it turns out you do like this and have THAT body:

• Find out that object is a box
  • Must rez box to unpack
    • in a NO-REZ ZONE
      • Must leave regions to unpack demo
        • If you like it then must return to event location to purchase
          • Try to remember where that item is located, make your way there

It's not just this event, folks. I am seeing this type of "marketing" more and more at places in-world.

If you want to make sales, then make it easy as possible for me to give you my money.

This is the reason I shop almost exclusively on Market Place:

• No waiting for unoptimized, oversized, over-stylized vendor images to rez
• Easy to find items made for MY chosen body through meta-searching
• Easy to read the description because of easy-to-read web font
• A fast and easy way to grab a demo

Deal-breakers for certain:

• No demo, no sale; goodbye forever
• Have demo, but force me to hunt your in-world location? Unlikely (unless I really like what I see)
• Not a quality fit on my mesh body (and the reason for demo)
  • Just because you name my body doesn't mean it fits right. If it doesn't, goodbye.
    • I believe I shouldn't have to use alpha slices at all...
      • Unless my AO forces me to...
        • ...and only lower legs, shoulders, boobs, *maybe* butt and hips
           

So there you go — a little frank feedback to those of you creators that are trying way too hard to be all fancy-schmancy about it. Stop with the crazy animated vendor pictures, for example, they are annoying and make it harder to evaluate your product advert - especially if there's reading to be had on it. The simple matter is this: I am your target customer; I will pay higher prices for higher quality, and if I like your design, I'll usually opt for the fat-pack. Oh, and I prefer HUD change, not multiple copies in different colors.

 

One final note: if you have an inworld store and no Market Place: chances are I'll never even know you exist. If you're that lazy, then do it the way a few other creators do it: Put only demos on your MP store but at least provide a link to that vendor on that page. Don't drop me at the front door of your store and force me to rez the entire place then go on a scavenger hunt to find THAT item. Likely not going to happen.

having had a business in SL years ago, I find this very rude towards the designer.  People have the right to display how they want.. if you don't like it.. move on....

[Wulfie Reanimator]

23 minutes ago, daquari Stawberry said:

having had a business in SL years ago, I find this very rude towards the designer.  People have the right to display how they want.. if you don't like it.. move on....

I think the point they were making is.. "I will."

Regardless of why you no longer have a business on SL, if you can't handle even second-hand criticism, your business has little chance of growing past a certain point as word will spread about how bad of a person you are to customers. Do you think "We do it this way and you can go somersault out of our store" is an acceptable response when you voice a complaint at a store IRL?

Edited January 2, 2019 by Wulfie Reanimator

[Alyona Su]

2 hours ago, Wulfie Reanimator said:

I think the point they were making is.. "I will."

Regardless of why you no longer have a business on SL, if you can't handle even second-hand criticism, your business has little chance of growing past a certain point as word will spread about how bad of a person you are to customers. Do you think "We do it this way and you can go somersault out of our store" is an acceptable response when you voice a complaint at a store IRL?

Precisely.

As for the rudeness @daquari Stawberry refers to: it's only rude if you take it personally. As a famous mobster once said: "it's just business".  Sometimes truth hurts. The way I see it: My feedback was a favor because most disgruntled shoppers will never say a word and just take their dollars elsewhere because nothing in SL (or even RL) is *that* unique that something similar cannot be found elsewhere.

[Orwar]

4 hours ago, daquari Stawberry said:

having had a business in SL years ago, I find this very rude towards the designer.  People have the right to display how they want.. if you don't like it.. move on....

   Once upon a time there was a pretty huge gaming company who had a chief design officer, who upon hearing criticism against their project said.. 'If you don't like it, don't buy it'. The company, which has been around for many, many years, dropped almost half their stock market value over the course of a few weeks, losing billions. Communities have decided to boycott the company, as this was but one of several recent scandals. 

   Be very vary of how you treat your customers. 

[Theresa Tennyson]

21 hours ago, Wulfie Reanimator said:

I think the point they were making is.. "I will."

Regardless of why you no longer have a business on SL, if you can't handle even second-hand criticism, your business has little chance of growing past a certain point as word will spread about how bad of a person you are to customers. Do you think "We do it this way and you can go somersault out of our store" is an acceptable response when you voice a complaint at a store IRL?

A few years ago there was a certain skin maker in Second Life. They were one of the top names. I went to their store looking for demos. With most skin stores at the time, you got demos by "buying" them from the big picture on the display, and then bought the actual skin by selecting one of the smaller skin-tone buttons below them. This was also when many skins had makeup as a permanent part of the skin.

With this particular skin maker, though, "buying" the big picture would give you a single makeup in every skin-tone. To buy demos you needed to use a separate button that was artfully blended into the frame around the pictures. Well, I paid the big picture and clicked "okay" without thinking. My fault, totally. I acknowledge that.

I also acknowledged this when I messaged the skin maker saying that this setup wasn't optimal. (No, I didn't ask for a refund.) The skin maker replied something to the effect of, "Well, nobody else has a problem with it blah blah blah." Not really an awesome customer service experience all around.

As it happened, not too long after this same skin maker needed money badly for a particular legal dispute and there was a big fair where you could buy things to serve as contributions.

Somehow, I wasn't inspired to help out.

Then, after a few other interesting decisions (i.e. dragging their feet on appliers, then only releasing appliers for new skin tones, then finally releasing almost but not quite compatible appliers for their old skin tones,) this skin maker decided to close up shop.

And there you go...