VonGklugelstein Alter

Toysoldier Thor wrote: I have been watching this thread pop up on my android for the past few days and stayed quiet - thinking the topic will go to sleep soon (as it has many times in the past). But it keeps going. I am surprised how long its been talked about here - the reason is because this issue i nthe MP merchant community has come up as a sore spot OVER and OVER and OVER. Sooooo - when does this thread end until the next cycle? That is because I never got going on it until now.. I am like the thing that does not go away until it gets what it wants.. Yes it is obvious which listings are full of bogus reviews if you are another merchant. To the untrained eye a product with many reviews must be great.. I have items that sold thousands of times and have no reviews or maybe 1. When some ding dong shows up on page 1 of a category with 43 reviews in about 3 days (not counting the 11 that were removed by LL for being made by direct alts) - other merchants will notice. Long live this thread lol

Madeliefste Oh wrote: We LL allows merchants to pay for reviews, the system should reveal what reviews are paid for and what reviews are spontaneous. They can add a field or radio button or something saying 'I was paid for this review' and ' I was not paid for this review', that the reviewer must check. And because everyone is so damn honest they would pick the " I was not paid" selection... I am almost at the point where I am convinced that the reviews must go away completely. They can keep the comments but reviews must go. What they really need is a field in the listing that shows total number purchased. This is a more acurate indicator how a product performs, even if people game this. If they want to keep this system as is, they should install a rating system for buyers. This way the douche that left a bunch of 1 star " Ok but not stunning" reviews on my items can be "derated", since I cannot go find him and kick his ass.. once buyers collect enough bad ratings they should be IP and HW banned from making purchases on the MP. (SLX had some similar safety features that blocked alts from purchasing or reviewing) Maybe I wil file a complaint with the FTC since the review process as it is set up violates the law.

Rya Nitely wrote: VonGklugelstein Alter wrote: This whole situation is a fraud to trick people into purchasing an item. And it does trick people...but at a cost. At some point these merchants stop paying for reviews in order to maximise profit. Once they have accumulated a high enough number of 5 star reviews they stop paying. Now any new customer will be attracted by the numerous 5 star reviews, and when they purchase the item they will have high expectations - they will expect it to be dazzled and amazed like others were. These new customers are very likely to be disappointed - any fault in the item will be extremely annoying. The outcome - 5 star reviews quickly start turning into to 1 and 2 stars. I've had a close look at a particular merchant who paid for reviews and now I see this very trend. The payments have obviously stopped. It's not worth it. I would prefer my customers to have a lower expectation and then be pleasantly surprised. lol.. this particular merchant magically has 1 or 2 star reviews disappear withing a few hours and adds 10 more reviews within minutes

Amethyst Jetaime wrote: Whether you or I agree with it or not, merchants may offer a reward for reviews as long as they reward without regard to the rating given. Here is the source of that policy: Writing Reviews on the Marketplace "Policies and guidelines 1. The review should be about the item in the product listing, or about support regarding that item. 2. Reviews should not use profanity. 3. Reviews must not violate the Second Life Terms of Service or Marketplace Listing Guidelines in any way. This includes, but is not limited to, the following: Reviews should be appropriate to the maturity rating of the listed item. Reviews should not be left by the seller of that item, whether with the selling account or an alt account. Reviews should not be written for pay, or for other rewards or compensation unless both positive and negative reviews are rewarded." bolding and underlining are mine. So what.. ? This rule is obviously made by someone with an agenda other than promoting a fair playing field. maybe they own stock in the company that runs the "Pay for Review service" or maybe they own the Stock exchange itself.

Spica Inventor wrote: Why would L.L. like the review system the way it is? 1. They make more money by promoting phony purchasing for ratings wars. 2. They promote the idea again that The Marketplace is all messed up and so it would be better and they would again encourage you to just do your shopping in world instead to avoid 'all the craziness that is The Marketplace'. ;-) The only way they can encourage inworld shopping is to block free members without an inworld store from offering items on the marketplace. Many of the big sellers on SLM are by people who do not have an inworld store!!!! It used to be (During SLX days) that the big sellers were mostly by stores with a big inworld presence.

Nefertiti Nefarious wrote: iCade wrote: Having worked in sales for the past 8 years, I am unsure if America is different to germany, but over here product owners pay testers to test their products and to leave reviews. They are gifted the products in exchange for a review. Reviews give costumers a reward for some products over here. In the USA, if the reviewer gets ANY compensation, even a free sample, they MUST reveal that information in their review. I thought so too.. there are some strict consumer laws in place..specially in CA where LL is based. This whole situation is a fraud to trick people into purchasing an item.

Your english is better than many who have lived here all their life..yo.. fact remains that the reviews made are all false.

Rufferta wrote: VonGklugelstein Alter wrote: I just saw that a merchant who is selling similar product as me has been getting like 20 reviews a day on a few items. After some research it turns out the merchant is paying for these reviews and therefore also paying people to buy their product in effect increasing the relevancy of their product. What is the story? Has The marketplace become this sleazy that anything goes? While I do use the Marketplace, I prefer stores (like yours) that maintain a physical presence in Second Life and that have a good track record. The Marketplace offers speed and convenience, but is not policed very well. One example: I picked up a grandfather clock at a freebie center, and I happened to be visiting the Marketplace a little while later and found at least nine places offering that same clock (same texture, same number of prims) for from 5L to 50L before I stopped looking. I don't think there are ways to do reviews of items purchased inworld, but if there were, I'm sure someone would be trying to game the system. Perhaps it wouldn't hurt to put a small note on your Marketplace items asking purchasers to make reviews? Thank you. I used to write that in the listings but stopped because it made me feel like I am begging. I get plenty of real reviews and when they happen at least I know somebody went out of their way to write it. I would rather have no reviews than a bunch of bogus ones.

It is funny how good of an investigator you can become just by checking your own rankings periodically. You can see who is gaming the system but it does not matter because LL does not care because they make money on each sale regardless if it is fake or not. I know the name of every texture seller who cheats the system but the only recourse I would have is to start gaming the system too which for now I do not have the time to do. I love when reviewers say that the product they just bought is the best they have ever found and all other ones they tried are of bad quality.. and then find out the review was made on the "Born on date" of the purchaser. Other tags are when they use quotes like 10/10 stars and about 10 different reviewers use the same 10/10 reference. And yes.. I most likely outsell them by a lot and I do have some very good loyal customers who are the only reason why I haven't quit this mess yet. I am very tired of seeing these bottom feeders (and some Alts of big name merchants) trashing the economy with their tactics. I predicted that the marketplace will destroy SL and so far I am on track with my predictions. Inworld stores and honest creators are dropping like flies while shady character (more shady than me) are starting to dominate the economy.. Trust is out the door with me .. but I trust you ..lol

Yes.. but sales are the real factor in determining the ranking so this inflates the sales units which moves the item to the top of their categories regardless. This renders the question whether reviews count or not irrelevant. Items that sit on the top of category pages sell automatically it seems so shoppers are being tricked into thinking they are getting a value which in this case they are not becasue the product is actually a low quality knockoff copy of the real thing. Not only is the product a knockoff, so are the sales ads which are a copy of another merchants packaging. (Rather than a spoof which I sometimes do)

iCade wrote: This is what shops/firms do in RL, why on earth should it be forbidden in SL? I'm confused. I have never had anyone pay me to buy their product. If you know of any place in RL where this happens let me know and I will do all my shopping there.

I just saw that a merchant who is selling similar product as me has been getting like 20 reviews a day on a few items. After some research it turns out the merchant is paying for these reviews and therefore also paying people to buy their product in effect increasing the relevancy of their product. What is the story? Has The marketplace become this sleazy that anything goes?

Pamela Galli wrote: Again, in my limited experience: Stupid bad reviews do not hurt sales, however annoying they may be, assuming that the merchant has commented on it. And the stupidest ones, LL will remove. I like reviews and am pretty good at telling which are stupid or faked. We had someone here a couple of weeks ago who came complaining about a bad review -- which, btw, we thought was not stupid but made valid, specific criticisms -- which I noticed was immediately followed by 5 glowing reviews all on the same day. Ahem. I do pay attention to what others are doing within my "Industry" and am finding some amazingly blatant gaming of the review as well as the relevancy system by several of the merchants, some of which are big name players.... I love the 5 star reviews left by people following a bad review by people who were born on the same day as the review date..

A good way to fix this would be to show all the reviews that a person has written, similar to what ebay used to have. This way it would be easier to see if the review was made by a genuine person or someone on a rampage to trash other peoples items. There are some people around who make it a hobby to trash listings with crap reviews. I sometimes get a string of bad reviews from the same person. LL does not always remove them even if they are totally ridicilous and obviosly left by someone with an agenda. Here is a good example: ok Posted August 20, 2012 by woody Ninetails 1 star ok but not stunning Was this review helpful? Yes No Comments (2) Permalink Already flagged This person left several like it for me... lol

Amiryu Hosoi wrote: Well, I am strolling the web today because today is the second time LL decided to charge my paypal account to pay for tier. If my sales doesn’t recover I will need to close down my sims and SL will loose again 4 wonderful free landmarks. So that leaves me with one option only. Praying sales will recover after the summer so my friends, residents and visitors can keep enjoying our little corner in SL. ..and a bunch of other stuff Ayhaymee, Correct me if I am wrong but did not YOU create these 4 sims to PROMOTE your PRODUCT? I doubt that LL will agree to forgive you payment for these because besides acting as your showroom they provide a valuable service to SL. LL will take tier because you comitted to paying for the use of these. If your sales model cannot float the 1200 a month then just shut them down and make way for someone to fill the hole you have made in your market... Godspeed!!

Alicia Sautereau wrote: If they bought it and redelivery is blanked out, what stops the merchant to send a copy directly instead of saying "redelivery is blanked" The merchant did not get paid. That is why the button is greyed out.

Dartagan Shepherd wrote: In a way, negative reviews are a badge of honor and a show of support. haha..they are a status symbol.

Zanara Zenovka wrote: Meh - customer's lying/confused about declining since the order didn't get past the payment stage to be delivered and is clearly a scumbag making threats now anyway, so I wouldn't be believing anything they're saying about instructions from LL either. Bottom line, they haven't been charged so they can buy it again or go away. Just keep an eye out for harrassing reviews on the products they have and do a ticket to get them removed when/if they appear. It is well documented that transactions that show as failed and unpaid on the merchants end resulted in a charge to the customer who does not receive a refund unless they file a ticket. My guess is that the item does get delivered because the complaints about these transactions are rare. Only if a customer does not receive the item for some reason will they contact the merchant.

Ok here is a nice scenario: Customer buys a product and receives the item BUT accidentally declines the object. Customer contacts merchant and asks for a redelivery on an Item she did not receive. Merchant checks to find Failed transaction - Not Paid - Unavailable for delivery Merchant suggests for client to file a ticket for a refund. Customer files ticket and says she accidentally declined the item and wants a refund LL Support tells customer to ask the merchant for a redelivery and only if merchant does not respond for a long time to file a ticket for a forced redelivery. Customer contacts merchant and wants the item redeliverd because LL said to do that Merchant explains to customer he cannot redeliver because the order was never paid for and link for redelivery is not active Customer threatens merchant with bad reviews on other other items purchased because merchant is not redelivering the product or refund the money. Merchant tells customer to go ahead and report Merchant or give email address for Proof of transaction history Merchant gets ignored and waits for a bunch of 1 Star bombs to hit lol Now What?

Textures also has some holes in it. The main ones missing are: Roof Textures Door Textures

Since yesterday I have been getting rocked with customer redelivery requests for DD items. After they relog the item shows up and also test deliveries fail until after relog. What is up? A new Feature?

Pamela Galli wrote: Luckily you got five 5-star reviews yesterday, so that not only brought your star rating up to 4 but pushed the bad review to p. 3 :-) haha ! They should ban her just for that!

Josh Susanto wrote: What's weird to me is that this thread hasn't also been removed, and the person who posted it banned. Or has he been banned (yet)? Ok.. now it makes sense.. The thread was removed by someone high up.... and turned into a support case! I can only say wow.. thank you for listening.

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False alarm!!! The customer was a Ding Dong!