I Now Dread Marketplace Reviews

[Codex Alpha]

"Review activity has occurred on an item in your store" 

has now become a sense of dread, and not of encouragement of the satisfaction to find out that someone cared enough or enjoyed your product enough to leave a review.

Instead, after 10 or so years in SL so far making random and fun things, the reviews have mostly turned sour - and mostly unrelated to the actual product.

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Perhaps it's my fault, and I need to stop adding features, options, interactivity, sounds, and what I'm mostly guilty of: including bonus gifts or prefabs created from the original product.

eg. A bar stool and table set sold on it's own probably wouldn't garner many reviews - it's basic and simple and people will mostly be satisfied with it.

But if you include a bonus gift - in one case it was a prefab set that included a 'dancing on the table' version, complete with spotlight that would appear and shine on the dancer garnered reviews like "Not even a good dance", or "There is no spotlight, false advertising" (They didn't have advanced lighting model on), "Only has one dance", and "Can't modify the dance", and in a private notecard inworld "The avatar you used in your product images was sexist". Yep.

eg. A light of any type with extra features such as color change, texture change (to match their sim), or dimming type values

Yep, reviews left that "This has no scripting" (didn't follow instructions, operating on non-scripted land), "Light doesn't work at all" (no advanced lighting model)

eg. Any item (I've done this many times, thinking I was adding value) that includes a bonus gift, or prefab object

"[Insert bonus object here] doesn't do A, B, C"

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Hey, I'm all for constructive feedback, no matter how nasty, just as long as the customer can tell me WHY they don't like something, or WHAT is wrong. After all I'm just trying to make cool stuff and stay motivated to make more, but it's becoming harder to do so with how many are reviewing nowadays. I appreciate the positive reviews, but the negative reviews always seem to come, and somewhat unrelated to a real issue other than "I don't like this or that part of it", and we have no way of addressing them in any meaningful way, nor will they respond to us 99% of the time.

As usual, the unhappy lot are using reviews to air their grievances or unhappiness, and many times before understanding how something operates, or they missed the instructions, or whatever.

Do I really have to do as many other stores I've noticed have done, and get so legalistic that they have a 300 word writeup trying to cover all use cases?

Also, I can only spend so much time addressing these complaints anyway, or even try to contact them in good faith, as the purchase is most likely equates to 10-30 cents in the Real World, and it simply isn't doable in any fair or real way - so then what? Lindens are too swamped to really moderate all the reviews that come in on a daily basis, and many reviews walk that line for plausible denial so not much to do there.

I don't offer any solution, of course because it will be my reaction that I'm responsible for, but I needed to voice this, and restate that it would be nice to have some way to immediately contact a person, or for them to contact us if they're unhappy, or even go to a Github-style Ticket/Issue/Feature Request type of system that would be much more productive for everyone rather than a punitive rating system that means nothing without context or ability to have a conversation about it in any meaningful way.

Don't worry, I'm doing fine. Been a tough couple of years and just firing up the SL engines again, but man has it all changed out there... Have a good day.

 

 

[Cali Souther]

As a consumer,  the only advice I can offer is - be sure to explain in as much detail as possible what it is you are selling.  That is all you can do.  If you have a detailed description, and the buyer still doesn't "get it" - that's not on you.  From what I understand,  you can get their reviews removed in such cases. 

As a consumer,  I've made some bad purchases.  It's easy to blame the creator,  but not the right thing to do.  I had to learn the hard way,  my lack of understanding was NOT the fault of the creator.  That being said,  a detailed description of the product would have really helped.

Of course,  some people will complain no matter what you do!   I tried creating clothes for awhile (years ago) and I know a lot of work goes into creating.   It would be nice if people appreciated your efforts,  but you simply can not please everyone.

Good luck to you!

[Luna Bliss]

I feel your pain, Entity. It doesn't happen a lot for me, but when I see that message I feel dread. I tend to imagine a difficult situation is looming although I get far more 4 or 5 star reviews than unhappy reviews with 1 or 2 stars. Unfortunately, our brains are wired to remember the negative more than the positive, so some studies demonstrate anyway.

LL has been VERY good about removing erroneous reviews. So just be sure you state clearly what your item is, although it is annoying to have to write long text I know. It seems if some customers simply want an item to be 'X' but you've stated it is not 'X' but is instead 'Y', they leave a negative review simply because they wanted it to be what they imagined. That's an erroneous review, and you should save yourself the headache and just flag it. I've tried contacting the customer but often that doesn't work, as in their mind the item should be whatever they imagine it should be and so deserving of a low review.

As you say, it gets worse when the items are more complex.

[Persephone Emerald]

Humans are often stupid, annoying and rude.

Unfortunately we are social beings, so we have to learn to deal with them, or else live alone with too many cats that we talk to and overindulge.

Edited April 4, 2022 by Persephone Emerald

[Codex Alpha]

Yikes, and cats can be pretty cold and entitled themselves lol. Remember we are their servants only. No cats here but I like (other people's) cats

After the initial fatigue of 'bad news' in a string, I tend to still look at what was said anyway, and start to work in revamping old scripts, functionalities so that they are much easier to understand for them - because things can ALWAYS be made better - and then it becomes fun again. Reviewing an old script and revamping it to include suggested features and solving problems like that - negative review or not - is a challenge, learn something new, and the product is improved. Win for everyone.

The cool thing is that it IS 2 years later and lessons in life and creative projects have been learned, and can now be used to make better products, and to improve the interactivity of the old - the good thing about SL is it is relatively easy to update any product to the marketplace (after one's initial bunglings trying to do so), and ensures that anything a customer might leave for a review gets considered (and sometimes included immediately).

After all, I'm sure most of us create because we love to, and we want people to be happy in the end - and usually thinking best of people's intentions should always be in everyone's view in SL - we're all here to have fun and make and share cool stuff.

[Robotshaz]

Some people can be cruel when leaving reviews. It happened to me once someone gave me a 1 star rating on a product and complained about it not having modify perm when it actually did. I believe if something is wrong with a product best contacting creators inworld if possible rather than putting horrible 1 star reviews that are quite hateful. Personally I would never leave a bad review on a product but if something was wrong i would speak up and contact the seller privately. Another thing to remember.. definitely going to be people out there who are jealous and will hate on your work regardless but there will be some who will appreciate the efforts that you put into creating something. So stay strong and keep making regardless. Don't let anyone put you off with a review.

[Paul Hexem]

All of my reviews have been positive.

Maybe it's something you're doing?

[Luna Bliss]

When a customer gives money to me on the MP they have placed themselves in a less powerful position in relation to me. After all, I could simply deliver an empty box, or not care about quality and have a shoddy product, and so they take a risk when paying before contractual terms are finalized. They must have a bit of faith and trust in me when hoping for positive reciprocity as they send money and expect something decent in return.
This is an uncomfortable position for some. I try to remember that they may have been mistreated by other merchants, or that reciprocity with others in RL might have left them feeling mistrusting of others. It's the principle of the thing and it doesn't matter if the value of the item is 5 cents.

So I do try to remember this if a customer is unhappy with an item, and be objective, even taking a little bit of flack or anger. After all, I have more power in the situation. This is what being professional is all about.  

[Charlotte Bartlett]

Most savvy consumers can read past a low effort review particularly if you have a prompt, professional crafted response in the comments -e.g. the light one

"I am so sorry you were not able to enjoy our product!   Per the description, if you turn on advanced lighting you'll find it working and hopefully can enjoy it going forward.  If you need any one to one assistance please do contact me in world as I would love to help you.  I can show you how to use preferences on your viewer (under graphics) and get you all set up" 

When I buy things if I see responses like that I always go "silly user, great merchant".

Honestly I have had one stars with comments saying "ugly" - literally just that through to how somebody doesn't know basic SL stuff on how to move an item (didn't realise there was a thing where you can use right click edit).  It's just the nature of user reviews - people get frustrated and use it to communicate negative thoughts.

LL doesn't always remove reviews (even ones that clearly breach rules) so best way to look at it is an opportunity to flex your merchant professional skills in responses for your future customers who will read your response and gage your quality/attitude etc.

 

Edited April 6, 2022 by Charlotte Bartlett

[Charlotte Bartlett]

I managed to quote myself somehow - deleted!

Now who's the "Silly merchant" 🤣

Edited April 6, 2022 by Charlotte Bartlett

[colleen Criss]

I'm not a creator, I am a blogger. I've seen some vicious group chats, I read mktplace reviews too and I've left a few. I tend to skip the bad reviews, unless there is a ton of them. Don't let them get you down , it's really impossible to please everyone.