What's your worst shopping experience?

[Jordyn McGregor]

The store that has banned me from getting any free gifts at events because a friend gave me their gift card they had picked up at one of the Shop & Hop events because they knew I shopped there and they didn't.  

They lost a customer over a 300L gift card.  I no longer shop there.  

[Ivy Mysterious]

1 minute ago, Jordyn McGregor said:

The store that has banned me from getting any free gifts at events because a friend gave me their gift card they had picked up at one of the Shop & Hop events because they knew I shopped there and they didn't.  

They lost a customer over a 300L gift card.  I no longer shop there.  

What store was it? You can DM me if you don’t want to out them publicly 

 

[Freckles Fairelander]

An overzealous group chat mod banned me after I dared mention a brand name other than theirs in the group chat. Knowing the brand name of someone's mesh head is more than a bit important when they are shopping for a compatible skin...

[MissSweetViolet]

I think I mentioned the time a store owner was rude in IM to me after I had left a review on one of their products, so I won't go into that again.

So other then that, most of my shopping experiences have been pleasant. I think the main thing I tend to have issue with now [not super often, thank goodness, but enough to bring it up], is shopping for LaraX clothing and the item was ether poorly rigged, or and I'm more suspect of this, a Classic Lara item just tagged as LaraX.

I don't mine mesh poking through here and there if I can cover it with my alpha hud or a provided/owned alpha. When I do find these items though, they are often clipping in a place an alpha can't cover [ hem, cuff, ect.]. That bugs me when I find it.

[Luna Bliss]

20 minutes ago, MissSweetViolet said:

I think I mentioned the time a store owner was rude in IM to me after I had left a review on one of their products, so I won't go into that again.

So other then that, most of my shopping experiences have been pleasant. I think the main thing I tend to have issue with now [not super often, thank goodness, but enough to bring it up], is shopping for LaraX clothing and the item was ether poorly rigged, or and I'm more suspect of this, a Classic Lara item just tagged as LaraX.

I don't mine mesh poking through here and there if I can cover it with my alpha hud or a provided/owned alpha. When I do find these items though, they are often clipping in a place an alpha can't cover [ hem, cuff, ect.]. That bugs me when I find it.

yeah I don't get it.  I went to try on a new release and the LaraX undershirt of the jacket-undershirt didn't fit at all on the Demo. I should have contacted the creator I suppose but was too busy at that time to do quality control for them.

[Rufferta Mainlander]

I think my worst experience was pre-ordering a "mystery box" to be picked up at a later date, and when I went to pick it up the landmark link was invalid and I could not get ahold of the seller. Expensive lesson learned.

Most recently, on 6-24-24,  at the SLBD Shop 'N Hop, I paid what I think was a "Next-Up" machine for a collectable egg and it never showed up in my inventory. Sent a polite note to the seller, but never received a reply. It was only a $L40 purchase but I'm petty about those things.

In this case apparently the seller was still active in SL at the time, but on the Marketplace I wonder how many listings there are from sellers who are incapacitated, incarcerated, or no longer alive?

 

[Yorkie Bardeen]

Like I suppose many people, I've paid for all kinds of stuff that ended up disappointing or never showed up. Even this year I spent 650 on an AO set that wasn't delivered and the vendor owner (not the creator) told me to pound sand because he was not the seller.

But the one that sticks with me, what must be 10 years or more ago was a time I bought some shoes on the marketplace. They didn't come with an alpha or shoe base that was meant to be in the folder. It was a time when occasionally things would blurp on the marketplace, and so far as I know, there was no redelivery back then, so I just IM'd the maker and asked if they could send the missing piece. They responded with some "I've never heard of anything like this happening before and I'm a big deal" reply, that came across like they were saying I was making it up, or I didn't look properly in the folder. I don't recall the whole conversation, but I remember feeling they were being accusatory and borderline rude about it. I just wanted some basic customer service help. I'm not belligerent as a customer, I was a seller myself, and I always tried to be helpful.

I've spent way more on much more disappointing things in the time since then, but that bad experience has stuck with me. I'm sure that the person doesn't even remember it, and is a successful and well known brand in SL to this day. I'll never buy his shoes.

Edited September 12 by Yorkie Bardeen

[Chery Amore]

I've had little disappointments over the years that made me develop my own rules for buying.  Items must have demos, the seller must have a store in world, I have to be able to sometimes speak to the actual creator/seller... or they must have good CSR's, I only buy expensive items on the marketplace so I can review it, ... and always approach the seller nicely, assuming the problem is a mistake, because it probably is.  
Mostly, I have wonderful interactions with creators. 
I think my most memorable bad experiences happen when talking to CSR's... it often just boils down to the frustration of waiting to get your answer,  or sad to say the CSR just seems clueless about the product in question. I do remember about 6 years ago going around and around with a CSR and never reaching a resolution. The creator seemed to be MIA. I never bought products from that store again. 

[Salt Peppermint]

as a creator, reading this thread breaks my heart.

I'm sorry for you guys having such horrible experiences and most mentioned here definitely were totally unnecessary and shouldn't have happened and should have been handled differently.

Creators are just humans and we all make mistakes, it happens and it's ok. But I think it's also common sense that if we overlooked something and a customer points it out, we at least fix them. I'm just baffled how many actually seem to not really care.

What I also want to point out though, is the tone of reaching out to a creator. Personally, I luckily do not get many complaints and when I do, they mostly come in very respectful ways that I highly appreciate and try to help as fast as I can.

However, things like leaving a bad review before reaching out to a creator at all, or after not getting things "your way", writing rude IM's, calling names , calling the items they purchased trash and *****, will often not end in the response you have hoped for. And unfortunately that happens to many creators on daily bases, which then also causes unreasonable responses to actual issues at times.

That said, I hope creators will do better in their customer service and care more when issues arise 

 

[Nicholle Noelle]

On 9/10/2024 at 4:42 PM, Jordyn McGregor said:

The store that has banned me from getting any free gifts at events because a friend gave me their gift card they had picked up at one of the Shop & Hop events because they knew I shopped there and they didn't.  

They lost a customer over a 300L gift card.  I no longer shop there.  

I never post in the forums, only occasionally browse them, was just looking through this thread to see if anyone mentioned "that" store (I'm assuming it's the same one, as I had a different problem with them and have subsequently heard your story from more than one person). It's a dispicible and toxic practice, really, and the owner is very rude and demeaning. They also chronically blacklist customers from their vendors to prevent them from getting redeliveries of products customers have already paid for.

So, in my case, I used my OWN card there, and the system somehow glitched and gave me an error, I clicked the card again, it worked, and I later found out that the store owner had decided to ban me. I spoke to the owner/creator of the vendors they use, who told me (and the store owner) it was most likely a system glitch, and that was still was not enough to dissuade them.

After a long and fruitless exchange of respectful notecards on my part and radio silence mixed with giving me detailed paragraphs-long accounts of how busy and important they are on their part, I mentioned that I am a lifetime premium SL member and clearly have no issue paying, and their reply was that they don't care if I'd spent L$200,000 at their store specifically, they would still ban me in the event of any errors that they don't understand popping up in their system! That pretty much tells me (and hopefully anyone else reading this) all I need to know about them.

I tell all of my friends to boycott that place, and hope that shop and hop and the other big events will eventually throw them out as well for that sort of awful business practice.

[Zrina Nebula]

1 hour ago, Salt Peppermint said:

as a creator, reading this thread breaks my heart.

I'm sorry for you guys having such horrible experiences and most mentioned here definitely were totally unnecessary and shouldn't have happened and should have been handled differently.

Creators are just humans and we all make mistakes, it happens and it's ok. But I think it's also common sense that if we overlooked something and a customer points it out, we at least fix them. I'm just baffled how many actually seem to not really care.

What I also want to point out though, is the tone of reaching out to a creator. Personally, I luckily do not get many complaints and when I do, they mostly come in very respectful ways that I highly appreciate and try to help as fast as I can.

However, things like leaving a bad review before reaching out to a creator at all, or after not getting things "your way", writing rude IM's, calling names , calling the items they purchased trash and *****, will often not end in the response you have hoped for. And unfortunately that happens to many creators on daily bases, which then also causes unreasonable responses to actual issues at times.

That said, I hope creators will do better in their customer service and care more when issues arise 

 

You're right! Respect should happen on both ends 🙂 
I also had things happen with creators who either didn't respond at all or told me that only I see the issue and nobody else.
But very rarely. I'm always polite and got the same politeness back in return.

[Luna Bliss]

3 hours ago, Zrina Nebula said:

You're right! Respect should happen on both ends 🙂 
I also had things happen with creators who either didn't respond at all or told me that only I see the issue and nobody else.
But very rarely. I'm always polite and got the same politeness back in return.

Yes one side is not worse than the other -- there are no angels in Second Life.

I'm happy to report that as both a merchant and a customer most of my experiences have been just fine.

Edited September 13 by Luna Bliss

[Sid Nagy]

Oxford Street London.
Oh wait, you mean in SL...

[Ayashe Ninetails]

1 hour ago, Sid Nagy said:

Oxford Street London.
Oh wait, you mean in SL...

Omg, that's my best shopping experience. 😂

[Kyrie Deka]

Oh I remember now, too: I got blocked once for standing more than 15 minutes in a shop (during which I purchased more-than ten outfits, demoed each one as I went along, wasn't thinking much about it...)

Made me laugh so hard at the time, too, because I really would rather spend in someone's shop that wants sales.  Looking back now and recalling it, what a loss for them over the years awwwwww.  No worries for me though, as within minutes I was on to spend at the next shop.

[Sid Nagy]

1 hour ago, Ayashe Ninetails said:

Omg, that's my best shopping experience. 😂

I made the terrible mistake to visit that street with someone who loves fashion.
I don't.
I've seen way too many of those stores in one day there. 

Edited September 13 by Sid Nagy

[Sydelle Zanzibar]

On 9/9/2024 at 2:33 PM, Prokofy Neva said:

But in principle, this person's rare houses were livable and I'd used them before. So I tried to again. And couldn't. Because I couldn't walk into the building. Because the creator had not properly wrangle the mesh and the issue of empty volume and doorways to ensure habitable spaces. Sometimes this is fixed by unlinking parts, putting in actual prims, removing stuff, etc.

I had this happen once, the creator put in the MP description that it was "easy to walk in" so I thought it was livable. It was easy to walk in because it was Phantom! When i complained she said of course its a decoration only lol.

Edited September 14 by Sydelle Zanzibar

[Stephanie Misfit]

9 hours ago, Kyrie Deka said:

Oh I remember now, too: I got blocked once for standing more than 15 minutes in a shop (during which I purchased more-than ten outfits, demoed each one as I went along, wasn't thinking much about it...)

Made me laugh so hard at the time, too, because I really would rather spend in someone's shop that wants sales.  Looking back now and recalling it, what a loss for them over the years awwwwww.  No worries for me though, as within minutes I was on to spend at the next shop.

You think store owners would be happy for the traffic. Some sellers seem to be excessively paranoid. They are in the wrong business.

[Chery Amore]

I just had an experience tonight.. probably not the worst but it made me shake my head. I was trying animated poses in a store I'd never shopped in or heard of before tonight. I'm positive I wasn't lingering too long, but I was in IM discussing the poses with a friend.  Either way I was ejected for being afk too long. I swear I didn't even take a bathroom break while shopping. Wild. I don't understand how anyone could think that could be a good shopping experience for a customer. I guess I could understand a standing in one place for 15 mins.. maybe? Anyway, sayonara empty store!

[Anastasia Loxingly]

9 hours ago, Chery Amore said:

Anyway, sayonara empty store!

That's so silly, you'd think a seller would want people in their store to bump the traffic up a little. The only reason I could think of to kick out AFKers is if a pose store is worried someone was trying to steal the animations somehow.

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

10 hours ago, Chery Amore said:

I just had an experience tonight.. probably not the worst but it made me shake my head. I was trying animated poses in a store I'd never shopped in or heard of before tonight. I'm positive I wasn't lingering too long, but I was in IM discussing the poses with a friend.  Either way I was ejected for being afk too long. I swear I didn't even take a bathroom break while shopping. Wild. I don't understand how anyone could think that could be a good shopping experience for a customer. I guess I could understand a standing in one place for 15 mins.. maybe? Anyway, sayonara empty store!

I got that too.  I was 86ed after 10 minutes and told I was kicked and banned for standing too long. I PMed the shop owner I had to go away from the computer for a bit and returned to see my toon in a empty parcel next to the shop. She said I was a bot and if I didn't stop PMing her she would AR me. Told her I'll tell others to avoid her shop and hasta la vista baby and the Lab can check the server logs to find I simply went afk.

[Kyrie Deka]

1 hour ago, Kimmi Zehetbauer said:

She said I was a bot and if I didn't stop PMing her she would AR me.

Another oh my moment!  

I mean too-many-avis shoppin used to be common many years back.  But in my experience the last few years its only for very few extreme cases, e.g. Kiwi grand opening, free giftie heads, etc.  

I mean, if I had land that worked that bad that I still had to run random avis off by the clock at my shop due to lag or whatever, I think I'd be spending my time more efficiently finding a different shop location.  

[Arielle Popstar]

2 hours ago, Kimmi Zehetbauer said:

 She said I was a bot and if I didn't stop PMing her she would AR me. Told her I'll tell others to avoid her shop and hasta la vista baby and the Lab can check the server logs to find I simply went afk.

Should PM'ing her not given her a clue that you were not a bot? Can bots actually PM others?

[rasterscan]

What's your worst shopping experience?

Bought a great looking jacket/shirt combo on the 60L$ sales once but it had a nasty glitch on the underarm the creator must have been aware of 🤥

[Brissil]

Not all clothes have a alpha if its a new body that you have to mix and match stuff it can take long time to fit ones or make own.