Still kinda New To Market Place Is this Normal and what can I do?

[MariahMaximilliana]

First off Hello everyone, I hope everyone is having an amazing day.😄

 So last month, something started to happen, and it's now getting to where I feel I am being harassed. I only use Marketplace to sell gachas, and I am not talented enough to create products. But selling gachas is a nice little gig and I am happy they brought then back in the new machines. Last month for the first time since opening my store in 2016, someone purchased a few of my rare items, then left the same awful feedback every time. They say, "Bought nine items and all boxes were empty, or they write, "Fake products copy a bot. When I look at the order page, it shows not only did they not buy nine items but they received the two gachas they purchased. When it happened twice last month by the same person , I reported it to LL and replied, " this is a fake review; the system shows you did receive your item and I will be reporting this to linden labs. Within hours of replying I got another email telling me I got more feedback from the same user, but the next email above said, "A review by Users Name has been removed by Customer Support.😱

Now I was really confused. So again I contacted customer service to advise them of this person doing this, and for some reason, you all deleted their response. They informed me" Although we can not provide details,  something that was written by the buyer was inappropriately therefore we removed it."  So I just thought it was a one-off and made a note of the date Aug 30th on my calendar.

Well guess what today I logged in and saw a different user name bought two of my rare items and writing the same verbatim fake reviews above.✉️ So I will again report it to SL as I did before, and this time I decided I would not respond because  who knows why someone does this maybe they get off on the going back and fourth. Maybe its fun some how for them so I decided not this time. I am not responding.☠️

 
Some might think, well, maybe you pissed someone off in SL, but I feel its doubtful. Its kind of embarrassing but I only have five friends on my friend's list by choice. I tend to keep to myself in world, I like decorating, shopping and exploring so I am pretty sure I have not made anyone angry since I don't speak to anyone. Is this normal for the market place? Are there just trolls out there that do this type of thing? Can I stop it? What will happen to my store if they keep doing this nonsense? Will my commission be taken back? Will Sl do something about this to help me stop it? Will this person be held accountable? Will my store get taken down? I have many questions because I have never had anything like this happen to me before. 
I hope this is not TMI to share, but I suffer from severe anxiety and depression, and this spectacle is bothering me a lot. I feel like I am being targeted and harassed with no way to stop it or hold them accountable. I feel like they may win, and I will close my store down because this hatefulness is too much for me. I did not think it would be appropriate to post the user names of the person doing this here so I did not but is there a place we share things like this?
Any advice anyone could provide me with would be excellent.

Thanks for lending an ear Maxi 😢

 

 

[Rhiana Innis]

This has been happening to me too, 3 times last month, then it stopped, then yesterday someone bought a Rare then posted a bad review saying empty boxes, scammer, then this morning another one bought the same 2 rares then posted it was copybot. The reviews last month were removed by customer support but I also noticed that the accounts disappeared from search. One of the accounts that purchased from me did message me and said her account had been hacked. So it looks like someone is hacking accounts, buying gachas and leaving bad reviews, each time I've checked transaction history it says they had 10 items in their cart although only 1 or 2 were purchased from me, I have heard that others are also experiencing this, it's very frustrating.

[Harmony Evergarden]

2 hours ago, MariahMaximilliana said:

I hope this is not TMI to share, but I suffer from severe anxiety and depression, and this spectacle is bothering me a lot. I feel like I am being targeted and harassed with no way to stop it or hold them accountable. I feel like they may win, and I will close my store down because this hatefulness is too much for me. I did not think it would be appropriate to post the user names of the person doing this here so I did not but is there a place we share things like this?
Any advice anyone could provide me with would be excellent.

 

 

My advice is this: SL gives us very good ways to ignore negative people. Use them. Block that person, ignore their reviews...Add a disclaimer to your product descriptions ("all products sold here are gachas and the items are original, in their original packaging." ) or devise a standard response ("This is a fake review posted by a troll with an unknown agenda.") and just let it go. If you stay engaged with these people, they will continue to play with you. Reporting them to LL is good...they seem to be responsive. But DO NOT destroy your Second Life by giving away your power to people you don't know (random trolls). Stop giving them power over you. It has been my experience that if a buyer wants an object they will buy it regardless of the trolls. It's your Second Life. Enjoy it. 

[Wulfie Reanimator]

So, to summarize:

1. Someone bought no-copy items from you.
2. They left a rude review, claiming they didn't get what they paid for.
3. You reported them.
4. Customer support removed their review.
5. They did it again with another account.

If this is correct, then you have nothing to worry about because nothing will happen to your store even if it keeps happening.

The person leaving those reviews is probably just a scammer trying to get the item, while keep their money, and being able to resell the item for more money. While you can block the user (which will prevent them from buying any items from your MP), you can't stop new accounts from doing it. You can hope for LL to ban the person, but even LL can't truly prevent them from finding their way back in.

Give it time and they'll move on.

[MariahMaximilliana]

To @Wulfie Reanimator May I ask how I can block them so they can not buy from my store again. I understand they can make new accounts and do it again but at least this will make it harder for them to do this and I like that. Thanks 😘

[Wulfie Reanimator]

Just now, MariahMaximilliana said:

May I ask how I can block them so they can not buy from my store again. I understand they can make new accounts and do it again but at least this will make it harder for them to do this and I like that. Thanks 😘

Go to their profile in-world and mute/block them from there.

[MariahMaximilliana]

I wanted to share a short update since others are having this same issue. I spoke with LL, and well, they weren't much help at all. I feel confident the associate was playing a game since it took them 10 min after each question I asked before they even responded. I was like, Hello? Are you still there? I am still here; let me answer your question by asking you a question.

 They advised me that an account can not just be deleted; it has to be there if it was done today. They recommend creating an abuse report by clicking on the fake reviewer's name. So my next questions was, how do you click on someone's name when it's no longer showing up? 

So I had them look at my account and see that these user accounts don't come up when you search by the name. Once they verified what I was telling them, I was advised. Here ill just copy and paste it.

 

" I'm sorry for any confusion. If the name doesn't come up for you, then you can also submit an abuse report by opening Help > 

Report Abuse. If their name is not an option for you under "Abuser name," then use the name, Governor Linden. Then you can provide

 the actual abuser's name in the Summary and Details section. They will understand why you used Governor Linden name."

 

Um, ok then, in other words, no one cares; just send it to the queue so you can feel like someone is looking into it for you; um, no thanks, I'll pass.

But again, thank you to all of you who gave me valuable input today. I apricate it, and I feel like I got more here from you than from the service I paid for, which left me scratching my head.

Smiles and Hugs😁

Maxi

[Chic Aeon]

The person may have hanged their "legacy" (login name from when they made the account) to a display name. In that case search sometimes doesn't get them -- hence what it is.  

I had a similar problem with a competitor many years ago.  I simply wrote about it at the top of the product listing explaining all the reasons why the person had no reason to complain.  The product is still one of my best sellers.  So most folks know what's going on. So like someone said, make a statement if you want and paste it into every gacha listing and then just ignore the people. You can flag each false review if you want. Sometimes that works and sometimes it doesn't.    And I gave up on the support system years ago. In the beginning  the folks were great and helpful but that hasn't been so for many years.   

It is hard to ignore things when people are calling you a cheat, but it happens. It happens a lot at the Shop and Hop with people saying "but I didn't mean to buy that". It is just a con.   They have to live with what they are doing. 

[Wulfie Reanimator]

2 hours ago, Chic Aeon said:

The person may have hanged their "legacy" (login name from when they made the account) to a display name. In that case search sometimes doesn't get them -- hence what it is.

Can you search people by their display name?

[Chic Aeon]

I think you can use WEBSEARCH rather than PEOPLE and have them show up. It may also be viewer dependent.  It is tricky though and likely why the "typist" did it. They may have also deleted the account after making the post.   Someone that does this more often than I do might know more.     Display names were always going to be problematic -- in my book anyway.   :D.   

[Wulfie Reanimator]

1 hour ago, Chic Aeon said:

I think you can use WEBSEARCH rather than PEOPLE and have them show up. It may also be viewer dependent.  It is tricky though and likely why the "typist" did it. They may have also deleted the account after making the post.   Someone that does this more often than I do might know more.     Display names were always going to be problematic -- in my book anyway.   :D.   

You're right, display names can be searched in web search. That's not viewer-dependent either since it's its own webpage rather than something the viewer does.

[Flea Yatsenko]

People like to leave bad reviews as a form of leverage/black mail. Something like, "I didn't get my way and if you don't give it to me I'll leave this bad review up." I've had it happen before, they didn't even bother sending me a notecard or IM, which I always respond to as fast as possible. And it was something easily fixed. It's normal, it happens. They are probably hoping you offer to correct what they're complaining about (by giving them free stuff) in exchange for deleting their reviews or updating them. Happened to be a few times, and they're all somewhat recent. I think if you block them they're banned from your store, so if they do it I give them what they want to make the bad reviews go away, then block them so they can't buy from me anymore (I hope). There are lots of scammers like that on other marketplaces too, I've experienced it on eBay. In fact I bought something and the seller accused me of lying to them for more free product and said it happened all the time, but I was able to prove it wasn't because the shipping label was damaged.

I think the worst part is that even if you give proper response and customer service, these people leave nasty reviews in hopes you'll give them what they want, see you respond instantly, and think it's just because they left you a bad review. When you'd do it normally. It's just a part of doing business in the current world we live in, but it's why you should cherish and be grateful for every good customer you get.

[Polenth Yue]

This isn't someone going after you in particular because of something you've done. They're most likely buying the rares to resell, so they leave the bad review to dissuade customers from buying from your listing. They'll be doing this to a lot of listings by many people. Just report it and let it get sorted out. Don't waste time replying. You're not going to get banned over it.

If an account does it more than once over a longer period of time, you could block them... but they're most likely hacked or throwaways, so will only leave one batch of reviews before they're stopped.

Messing with your text colour, size, and so on... it's an accessibility issue. It's better to just type in your message and leave everything on the forum defaults.

[MariahMaximilliana]

@Polenth Yue Thanks for the feedback about "Messing with your text color, size, and so on... it's an accessibility issue."  I had no idea so thank you for sharing. I was just trying to make it pretty. But this is good to know for future posts. 🤗

[RohanaRaven Zerbino]

On 9/14/2022 at 1:39 PM, MariahMaximilliana said:

and this time I decided I would not respond

Always respond to negative review, especially if you doubt there is some scam behind review. It is your voice on the matter and you should use it.

[AvaThing]

I run in the same situation a few days ago. (not me "me", i write here intentionally as alt)
Somebody bought a few items, and left a review about "empty boxes".
First, the item was not boxed at all (LOLz) and the item was unlisted anyway since those were the last ones i had.

Still, i replied to the review: "what boxes? those are not boxed..." and then flagged the review as > "Inappropriate Review" > "Review by Direct Competitor".
Then abuse reported the buyer, mentioning that i flagged the review (added link to it), then that i believe it's an hacked* account, and linked this and the other forum thread about same cases.

The bad review was removed a few days later, and i see that probably the buyer account was saved (the thief left comments in the hacked profile "about" that are now gone).

I guess now the marketplace and abuse report teams are aware about this repeating situation and react accordingly. (thanks!)

*hacked:  of course this was probably phishing, not hacking.

 

[Ardy Lay]

On 9/15/2022 at 1:19 PM, Flea Yatsenko said:

if they do it I give them what they want to make the bad reviews go away

Oh, please don't do that.  It just keeps them doing the same thing to others.  PLEASE DO NOT ENCOURAGE THE BEGGARS AND SCAMMERS.  Block the name leaving inappropriate reviews then report each inappropriate review via the provided method on Marketplace.

[Sasy Scarborough]

@MariahMaximilliana   I am confused by this post, because if the item is a gacha item, why would the item still be listed once you have sold the item? how can they leave a review, I would think once you sold it, it would go away? 

The only suggestion I would make is that you unbox all your items for selling, and then submit them including the box in the folder for marketplace, then list the item so that the contents tab shows all the items that are included - to be double protected you could even screenshot your contents and include that as a second picture for the item, that way if someone does try that rubbish it is clear the contents were in the listing. 

[Polenth Yue]

8 hours ago, Sasy Scarborough said:

I am confused by this post, because if the item is a gacha item, why would the item still be listed once you have sold the item? how can they leave a review, I would think once you sold it, it would go away? 

The only suggestion I would make is that you unbox all your items for selling, and then submit them including the box in the folder for marketplace, then list the item so that the contents tab shows all the items that are included - to be double protected you could even screenshot your contents and include that as a second picture for the item, that way if someone does try that rubbish it is clear the contents were in the listing. 

Many resellers have multiple versions of the same item. Those items are sold from the same listing. Unboxing the items would be a lot of work for something that wouldn't stop people leaving fake reviews anyway.

[Wulfie Reanimator]

Many gachas are no-transfer after being unboxed/redeemed, too.

[Sasy Scarborough]

1 hour ago, Polenth Yue said:

Many resellers have multiple versions of the same item. Those items are sold from the same listing. Unboxing the items would be a lot of work for something that wouldn't stop people leaving fake reviews anyway.

Ah so like when people selling full perms but only 20 sets they do limited quantity until gone, makes sense. 

59 minutes ago, Wulfie Reanimator said:

Many gachas are no-transfer after being unboxed/redeemed, too.

That is true, there was that event that you chose to redeem or swap that did that. Not a fan personally because sometimes I might pass something to an alt to use if taking a group pic etc, gachas are handy for that.