Issues with review/ratings on market place

[Robustus Hax]

Hi all, I have been having an issue with getting bad reviews on my product on the marketplace which are ridiculous and irrelevant.  Is there any sort of moderation that can be done?

The issue is this.  We give away free prim televisions which work with Viewer 2 shared media.  These are free items on the marketplace, and in the description of the product state several times that this is for VIEWER 2 only.  As can be expected several people do not read this, get the free tvs, try to use them in viewer 1, and they do not work.  Nor do shared media need scripts to operate.  I was ok when this was just one or two reviews but this seems to be becoming a common problem, people are not reading the description, thinking they don't work, and run to post a terrible rating on the product.  I've contacted a few of the raters that made text comments and told them about this and asked them if they could use the product in the correct viewer and then return and update their review, obviously none of these people care about my rating nor would put in the time to go and correct their bad review.

How do you guys combat this issue?  Its one thing if I was getting a bad review on the product, but it's another to get bad reviews from people who cannot simply read directions.

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

Thanks.

[Chelsea Malibu]

I recently started a thread on this very topic where I suggested we also be able to rate the reviewers. Though almost all of my customers are fantastic and great to work with, there are few who are just bad. I had a good one who posted a negative review within minutes before I even had an opportunity to assist him and when I did assist, he was very gracious though he still wrote a bad review.

Another had a suggestion that they get a rating based on how they review which I thought was brilliant. If someone averages a 2 star rating on the review they give, they too get a reviewer rating of 2. It really puts that persons perspective into better alignment of who they are as a customer.

In all though, to answer your questions, there is absolutely nothing you can do but to take it sometimes and move on even though that review will last long after that resident has moved on.

 

[Zanara Zenovka]

Just put in a marketplace support ticket - silly reviews get removed pretty easily, usually within a day or two, especially if you can demonstrate that they misrepresent your product, etc

[Dora Gustafson]

My advise would be: do not give your items away for free!
Even a small price of L$1 would filter out all those who buy it just because it is free and don't care about what they are buying.

Forget about moderating the reviews and ratings:smileyvery-happy:

[Josh Susanto]

I also suggest charging something for most items in order to slow down email notifications, no matter how they are reviewed. 

But charging 1L actually increases sales of some items over 0L..... SOME items.

A surprisingly large number of people seem to be resistant to acquiring something for free, but consider it to be worth acquiring at a cost if you tell them that it is worth at least something.

My average production cost is 20L, so when an object has generated that much money in sales at 1L, I increase the price to 9L and the notifications slow down, while, usually the item continues to produce a similar amount of total monthly revenue with a smaller number of sales.

I don't charge 10 because 5% of 10L gets rounded up and LL keeps the 10th, which I would prefer to let my customers keep.

For most things, if you charge more than 10, you'll have to promote the item in order to pull a steady revenue stream off of it, even if you let yourself get excited about a few sales that make it look like you're making a lot of money.

If you're getting bad reviews, or no reviews, promoting an item invites people to see that. I'm not suggesting that it's in any way good to hide an item; just that the value of promoting something that is being de-promoted by someone else might be sufficiently smaller in a way that would allow it to be less costly, and therefor more profitable in net, if not promoted.

Personally; I don't promote anything anyway; my stuff flies under the radar in-world as full perms, and the items gradually market each other. In my observation, if someone really wants more of something they have seen, they will go straight for it on the marketplace without reviews or promotions ever figuring into the equation. Price might matter, but a low price for something you can provide in infinite quantity seems pretty reasonable; the only loss item, ever, is one that costs more to produce and distribute than what you can expect to eventually get out of it. Moreover, even if you DO give stuff away, it can be a gain for you in the long run, if enough of the right people see it in-world as a result of the give-away and decide they would risk some coinage on related items with no reviews or bad reviews.

It's working for me, anyway; just something to think about.

 

[Rya Nitely]

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Dora Gustafson wrote:

My advise would be: do not give your items away for free!

Even a small price of L$1 would filter out all those who buy it just because it is free and don't care about what they are buying.

Forget about moderating the reviews and ratings:smileyvery-happy:

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In my experience this is true. Freebies seem to attract more 1 star ratings than any other product I've sold. I increased the price of my freebies for this very reason, and at L$10 the negative ratings stopped.

[Robustus Hax]

Thanks for the advice guys, I may change over to 10L, I'll definitely consider it.

Thanks again.

[Pamela Galli]

I know LL will remove reviews that don't have anything to do with the product or the service -- like failed deliveries. Not sure if the "I did not read any directions or notecards and have no clue how to do anything in SL" kind they will remove, tho they should. But I doubt those hurt sales. It's pretty obvious that in these cases the problem is in the buyer not the product or merchant. I will sometimes explain this in the comments but for most ppl it is really not even needed.

[Chelsea Malibu]

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Zanara Zenovka wrote:

Just put in a marketplace support ticket - silly reviews get removed pretty easily, usually within a day or two, especially if you can demonstrate that they misrepresent your product, etc

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Not according to Linden Labs...to quote:

"If the buyer leaves a review that violates the Terms of Service, Community Standards or Marketplace Listing Guidelines, then you may report the review using the link provided beneath the comments and the Product Listing Review Team will view the comments against the above policies and if they find that the comments do violate any of them, the comments will be removed from the listing."

[Zanara Zenovka]

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Chelsea Malibu wrote:

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Zanara Zenovka wrote:

Just put in a marketplace support ticket - silly reviews get removed pretty easily, usually within a day or two, especially if you can demonstrate that they misrepresent your product, etc

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Not according to Linden Labs...to quote:

"If the buyer leaves a review that violates the Terms of Service, Community Standards or Marketplace Listing Guidelines, then you may report the review using the link provided beneath the comments and the Product Listing Review Team will view the comments against the above policies and if they find that the comments do violate any of them, the comments will be removed from the listing."

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That's what I said.

Misrepresenting a product is one of the violations.

[Jaylin Wytchwood]

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Chelsea Malibu wrote

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Not according to Linden Labs...to quote:

"If the buyer leaves a review that violates the Terms of Service, Community Standards or Marketplace Listing Guidelines, then you may report the review using the link provided beneath the comments and the Product Listing Review Team will view the comments against the above policies and if they find that the comments do violate any of them, the comments will be removed from the listing."

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Its quite sad to see, how easily the info, that an item was copybotted, vanishes from comments...

[Josh Susanto]

>In my experience this is true. Freebies seem to attract more 1 star ratings than any other product I've sold. I increased the price of my freebies for this very reason, and at L$10 the negative ratings stopped.

I think it's a complex phenomenon, but a lot of builders and merchants resent the presence of free items, even if they buy them, if only to see what they look like.

If you charge enough for someone to undersell you with a similar item, or at least match with a comparable price, that is a way for them to compete with you. But if the item is free, they can't compete for price, so the temptation to flag or give bad reviews to free items competing with their pay items increases, at least in principle.

BTW... have you checked negative ratings at 9L as compared to 10L?

[Tavo Vella]

The real problem with the ratings are the very low numbers that are given.In XSL I reconed on getting a rating from 5-10% of sales. In marketplace I am on less than 0.5% of sales giving a rating. This distorts the whole concept of feedback 3 ways:

The small numbers mean that it is very easy for sellers to game a high rating by getting one or 2 friends to leave a positive.

The small numbers mean that a buyer with a grudge or who is misinformed can give a low rating that isn't diluted out

As more ratings were given under XSL, most high rated items got their ratings then, and are therefore old, and may even be obsolete.

 

I would like to suggest that LL have feedback an opt out rather than opt in option after buying

After some time, when new feedback has built up, the old (pre marketplace) ratings are removed.

 

Tavo