Banned for negative review in MP?

[Jennifer Boyle]

If I knew that a MP merchant had banned people, I would not buy their products because I would be concerned that they were preventing me from knowing about quality issues with their products. The way to deal with false reports of problems is to refute them or to allow positive reports to outweigh them. People who just want to silence critics are suspect.

[belindacarson]

30 minutes ago, Alwin Alcott said:

as you tell your review was not about the item itself but the lack of sizes, the review should be removed.It's totally irrelevant, ... and new? you'r adult and 2009 ?..or earlier.. that's not new.
The merchant doesn't have to go check about the posted reviewer is new.. ... the customer however has to be aware about the sale.

But i stay with my earlier remark.. the amount of counterposts show already you won't take it else than your way.

Absolutely agreed 100%

[Maryanne Solo]

As a former SL creator who has switched to RL creating.....
The intention was to supply a flawless product then and even more so the case now.

Every single, (fault), scenario must be factored into the design.
Every possible usage scenario must be considered when creating/providing resources
long before the item is offered for sale.
and in my case, that means free upgrades to the latest improvements of designs for early
purchasers who were informed at the time they would be entitled to free upgrades.
They were, (of course), informed of my 3 years of product R&D throughout its duration.

if you're not this dedicated to your art/works?
Give it a rest. Pronto.
Create Heirloom quality works? - or go home! 😛

 

Edited September 22, 2020 by Maryanne Solo
LackOfComprehensionAttention

[Ultima Cloud]

1 hour ago, Maryanne Solo said:

As a former SL creator who has switched to RL creating.....
The intention was to supply a flawless product then and even more so the case now.

Every single, (fault), scenario must be factored into the design.
Every possible usage scenario must be considered when creating/providing resources
long before the item is offered for sale.
and in my case, that means free upgrades to the latest improvements of designs for early
purchasers who were informed at the time they would be entitled to free upgrades.
They were, (of course), informed of my 3 years of product R&D throughout its duration.

if your not this dedicated to your art/works?
Give it a rest. Pronto.
Create Heirloom quality works? - or go home! 😛

 

Ya that's the part I don't get. It's been awhile since Ive created anything outside of hobby level stuff. But Ive been to graphic design and art school. We all had to stand in front of 30 other people all critiquing your stuff on the wall. Regularly, once or twice a week for literally every class related to your major. I'm sure most of these vendors have had or are taking some form of relative education. They seem pretty damn talented. I mean if you can't take a bad review. You shouldn't be in the business of making things.

Edited September 22, 2020 by Ultimo Constantineau

[Nova Convair]

Oh, new possibilities.

If I dislike a shop I buy something cheap, leave a bad review and get banned.
Then I can not buy anything anymore by accident. (I tend to forget that things)

😎🤣

[Anna Nova]

It's best to say nothing.  Like me.

[MaxMare]

I had ppl resell my assets full perm even tho those were for re-sale only under license agreement...I would gladly ban the person in question if I knew who they are....

There  definitely are a few common sense/legitimate reasons to ban someone,  however, a poor review, even an unfair one is not it..

As a creator, I`ve received a couple of  poor and  a few unfair reviews, but I feel it is my job to offer explanation and right the wrongs with valid points but also to admit when wrong and fix the problem, if not for the reviewer then for the next potential customer looking into buying one of my products...

I often see creators argue and act very rude and unprofessional in review section, I don`t get it, even more so I don`t get ppl who see that and think ok here is a great person I want to support with my cash..it is our collective fault for allowing certain individuals to be above scrutiny...for me personally, there`s no content good enough  that I`d willingly support entitled, rude person...

@Ultimo Constantineauthe sad part of SL business is that about 90% (top) store owners are ppl with a following who outsource everything knowing their investment will be returned cause of exposure,...actual creators, especially those with a college degree or any sort of real world experience in this field are a  dying breed around here...

Edited September 22, 2020 by MaxMare

[AlettaMondragon]

The feature to ban someone from buying your products is a huge double-edged sword. In general, it depends on how people use the feature, obviously. Like in groups, or on your land, you don't have to ban someone for anything just because you can, but some people do exactly that. And the reason in most cases can be as serious as "I don't like you, I don't want you to come to my land." Okay.

The same can happen if a person simply doesn't want certain people to buy their products, I guess. On one hand, the ability isn't entirely bad, since there are some lunatics that are willing to spend time and money on certain people's products on the MP just to leave negative reviews on them, and if the review itself doesn't violate the terms, flagging it wouldn't do anything. So, if a creator somehow managed to get such enemies (which is actually super-easy in SL), they might have reasonable use for the ban feature.

On the other hand, merchants can somewhat abuse the feature as well, of course, to avoid negative reviews, or "punish" certain people just like they try to do by banning them from parcel and groups, to show force. This is interesting, since the vast majority of merchants (even many popular brands in certain fields) work from full perm meshes and scripts, often not even bothering with making custom textures (whether it's a clothing item or a vehicle or anything else), but they just provide what the FP package already contained, and they put a price tag on it which might or might not comply with the user license of the FP item. And for some of these merchants, it was already a strategy to occasionally remove listings which got negative reviews, then they relisted them later. Being able to ban the person that left a negative review might be appealing in order to protect their low-effort business attempt. Although, does it also remove existing reviews from the person that they ban? If so, that really makes reviews quite pointless.

I personally don't have experience with this feature, and actually I don't really run into issues with items I buy either, since I am extremely picky and sit on a demo for even days to inspect it from all angles from 5cm distance in all possible poses (for clothes) to see if the rigging is good, fits my shape, etc, so that avoids unfortunate purchases and conflicts with sellers. It might have been like 3 occasions when I had any kind of issue with an item, once it turned out the merchant was right, the other case the seller got 3/5 stars since half of her outfit was great, the other half unusable (and there was no demo, for which I asked before the purchase and she said she can't give demo items), and the last one was a bit disappointing, since the creator that actually made her own meshes, and I have several of her items, was so reluctant to fix one tiny issue, that in the end I was glad she eventually gave me the fixed item, because it seemed like she wouldn't. However, it was well enough for me to decide, even if I liked her creations, I'll avoid that brand if it's so hard to fix one thing for a returning customer.

The point of the last paragraph is that as a customer, you have to keep your eyes open, and even if you're not as picky as I am, you can avoid a lot of unhappy situations and bad purchases. But whenever an issue would still occur, a good merchant should take the time and effort to try to resolve it. For that, though, it's not the MP review where they should first see the issue. I also state it on my listings that whatever issue or questions they have, send me an IM inworld to sort it out.

[Rowan Amore]

I think the reviews should be done away with completely.  Someone recently posted about her MP sales being down and wondered why.  So I went and took a look at her MP store.  Frankly, I found most of her items to be sub par compared to similar items.  At least front e pictures.  However, one item had 40+ 5 star reviews.  Curious, I checked the.profiles for 10 or so reviewers.  Even curiouser is the fact most I checked were day old, had completely blank profiles and strangely similar names.  So what is the point of the reviews when the can be skewed the other way as well.

[Syo Emerald]

1 hour ago, RowanMinx said:

I think the reviews should be done away with completely.  Someone recently posted about her MP sales being down and wondered why.  So I went and took a look at her MP store.  Frankly, I found most of her items to be sub par compared to similar items.  At least front e pictures.  However, one item had 40+ 5 star reviews.  Curious, I checked the.profiles for 10 or so reviewers.  Even curiouser is the fact most I checked were day old, had completely blank profiles and strangely similar names.  So what is the point of the reviews when the can be skewed the other way as well.

I found reviews to be (overall) helpful. A couple of times, they spared me from some unsuited purchases and I tend to also leave reviews, if a product showed to be especially good or bad.

[Wulfie Reanimator]

6 hours ago, Ceka Cianci said:

They just need to remove the review system, because there are merchants abuse it as well.. just like search,if there is a way to game something or grief something, it will happen..

Are you saying... search should be removed because merchants abuse it?

[Rowan Amore]

1 minute ago, Syo Emerald said:

I found reviews to be (overall) helpful. A couple of times, they spared me from some unsuited purchases and I tend to also leave reviews, if a product showed to be especially good or bad.

Although, in theory, I agree they can be helpful but as I mentioned, they aren't always truthful.  I never purchased anything based on a review but then I normally only buy off MP from creators I'm already familiar with or who have a demo which I always try first.  Anything gadget, house or other than clothing related, if they have an inworld store, I'll go there to demo a product.  A lot of the time it's something someone I know has recommended to me personally.

[Jules Catlyn]

I have had my shop since 2013. I use a well known vendor system and i currently have 6 avatars banned from making purchases from it for various reasons. Not for a bad review but they did far worse things. So it does happen and i am glad the possibility is there. Marketplace bans are automatic when i block someone inworld. I haven't counted how many people i have on my blocklist but it is not that long. They cannot buy from me because they are on that list. My point is, you can be banned from buying items from a creator on MP for more reasons that aren''t even remotely business related.

[Ceka Cianci]

7 minutes ago, Wulfie Reanimator said:

Are you saying... search should be removed because merchants abuse it?

Nope,wasn't saying that at all.. If you expand the post I was replying to you will see what I was replying to.

 

[Wulfie Reanimator]

5 minutes ago, Ceka Cianci said:

Nope,wasn't saying that at all.. If you expand the post I was replying to you will see what I was replying to.

I've gone back and read it. I still don't understand your point. Molly didn't mention the search at all, you did.

You said that the review system should be removed because merchants abuse it. Just like search.

If search is being abused but shouldn't be removed because of that, why should reviews be removed because of abuse? Doesn't seem very consistent.

Edited September 22, 2020 by Wulfie Reanimator

[Scylla Rhiadra]

I'm aware that reviews can, of course, be gamed, and that as often as not the negative ones are by someone with an axe to grind, or who has done something dumb like forgot to attach the HUD or failed to understand how the product works.

I've probably left a half dozen reviews all told, and all were positive, because I don't like dumping on someone's work unless it's an actual scam or it seems malicious. That said, I do occasionally read reviews, but only for items where no demo is available to try or view. And I have found them useful sometimes -- for instance, something that has photographed well, but that turns out only to be a flat piece of mesh with a texture on it. A review that merely says "this looks awful" is not something I'll pay attention to.

I can't help but feel, even knowing that reviews generally have a very limited authority, that this is yet another nail in the coffin of merchant accountability in SL. This is already a place where "Caveat Emptor" is writ large: there are virtually no mechanisms for the consumer to seek redress when they are sold something crappy or not as advertised, or otherwise swindled. Even "word of mouth," the mechanism sometimes cited by free market enthusiasts as a check on bad faith merchants, isn't really an option here: try informing people about a dishonest merchant here, or in a group. (I've spoken before of how useful a real consumer advocacy and review group would be -- something that is actually accountable, and that doesn't merely repeat hearsay, but really investigates complaints, and gives merchants a chance to respond. Ain't gonna happen, though.)

Given that people are now going to be, and probably should be, wary about leaving negative reviews, these are clearly even less useful than they were before. I'd kind of like that to be better known than it is -- and I'm grateful to the OP for bringing this to my attention -- so that more people are aware that the reviews, particularly (now) the overall ratings of products, are not to be trusted.

Edited September 22, 2020 by Scylla Rhiadra

[Ceka Cianci]

6 minutes ago, Wulfie Reanimator said:

I've gone back and read it. I still don't understand your point. Molly didn't mention the search at all, you did.

You said that the review system should be removed because merchants abuse it. Just like search.

If search is being abused but shouldn't be removed because of that, why should reviews be removed because of abuse? Doesn't seem very consistent.

They were talking about vexing customers abusing the review system..

I replied with, might as well remove it because merchants do to..

Then used search as an example for, If there is a will and a way to game or grief something, it will happen.

[Penny Patton]

10 hours ago, Mollymews said:

as an aside I personally don't see the point of the market place review system. I don't care what somebody else thinks of a product. If the image/description fits what I am looking for then I will get the demo if there is one and have a look at it myself

I find the reviews to be extremely helpful. One issue I come across all too often is an item being listed as mod/copy, but the actual item you get is no-mod. There's no way to know this is what you're getting before you buy unless someone leaves a review and mentions the problem.

[Obi Linden]

Hello All! 

Unfortunately, we've decided to lock this thread because it's gotten a lil off topic.

Have a great Tuesday!

Best,

Obi