Current mood:

tired

The Wonderful World of Retail
Try to imagine the above title said with sneering sarcasm. I happen to own three stores (actually four if you count the one I have with Jigsaw Pig). These are not ordinary stores, these are virtual stores with virtual merchandise in an online virtual reality experience platform called "Second Life". About a year and a half ago, I was shocked to find out that I could actually earn a pretty good real life living from the sales these stores generate. The only trouble with owning a store, even a virtual one, is that it comes with all the trials and tribulations of owning a real life store, including Customer Complaints.

For the most part, my customers are sweet, polite people who are looking for textures to make things so they can sell their own creations. They take the problems in the game with a bit of salt and are patient when things don't get "delivered" or when things go missing from their inventory. I, in turn, like to treat them with the same courtesy I would like if I were them and everything works out well for the most part. That is, until this week.

I don't know if spring fever has hit people square between the eyes and turned them all into greedy, unreasonable brats or something else is afoot but I have had a sudden surge of trouble in paradise.

Consider this conversation I just got done having with a customer in IMs, spelling mistakes hers:

Her: I bought some textures from you for $250, the Real Paint with Boarders, the 82 colors and they never got diliverd. Can you help me?

Me: (I check my account history first and see that indeed she did buy something for $250) Sure, can you tell me the exact name of the item you bought and I will get it right out to you.

Her: The paints with the boarders.

Me: I need to know the real name, I don't have anything for $250 for sale in the Real Paint Series with Borders so I'm not sure what you bought. I only have the different border sets available for $100 each.

Her: I want the paint with the boarders. Thats what I bought. I allready have the 82 pant color.

Me: The 82 Paint Colors are the only thing I have for sale for $250. Did you accidentally buy those again?

Her: I don't know I will go back to the stor and see.

Time passes while I wait.

Her: I see now. I must have boght the same thing agin.

Me: Ok, I am refunding you $250. Here it is.

Her: That makes no sense that you don't have the 82 colors with the boarders for sale in one set. Why don't you sell them?

Me: I do sell them but they are in individual color sets.

Her: Why don't you sell them in one big pack like the paint colors?

Me: Because most people don't need 164 different wall colors with borders and it would cost $1,640 just to buy it which is way more than most people want to spend.

(At this point I should explain I make a point of selling my textures for what it cost me to upload them, $10 each)

Her: I don't think that's right that you don't sell them like you do the paint.

Me: Well, it's not cost effective. No one would pay that much.

Her: You sell the plain colors for $250, why can't you sell the ones with borders for the same amount?

Me: I am selling 82 paint colors for $250, which is about 1/4 of what I paid to upload them here. I discounted them down from $820 to $250 because they were easy to make and as a favor to my customers so they could match the wainscot and border walls with the same color paint.

Her: But I wanted the boarders.

Me: You can still get the border textures, you just have to buy each set individually.

Her: But then I have to pay $100 for a few of them insted of $82 dollars for the whole set!!!!

Me: They cost $100 for 16, that is still a very good value.

Her: Not as good as value as 82 for $250!!!

I hear nothing from her for a while.

Her: I think UR wrong in not making them available for people to buy.

Me: They are available, you just have to buy them in the individual sets.

Her: But why are they so much more than the Real Paint colors?

Me: Because they require a lot more work than the plain colors, I had to resize the wall texture, make the wood borders, fit them to the texture, add drop shadows, etc.

more silence

Her: So you just put them into Photoshop and added the borders there?

At this point, since I could tell which direction her thoughts were taking her, I decided to stop talking to her. Plus, the fact that I now was getting Very Irritated. I really didn't understand why a person would need 162 different wall textures anyway but I assume she would now download my Real Paint Colors to her own paint program, add some borders and reupload them. She will be surprised to find out it will cost her even more to do that then I was charging her.

The other customer problems I had this week included a person who bought my textures and was reselling them in her store. Another customer was kind enough to tell me and when I confronted this girl she first told me she had put them out by mistake because she had assumed they were part of a free pack she had received. This might have been believable except for the fact she had used the same packaging and had cut my name off the top of the box. The next thing she told me was that she had searched my online store (this is different than the in game store in that it's more like catalog shopping but it's the same merchandise) and found the ones that had not said specifically that they were not for resale and had bought those and only used those because she "was not a thief". I could have argued with her the point that since I made them, perhaps I should be the only one to profit from them but instead I just told her to please take down any with my name on it, they are not to be resold. Later that night she IM'd me and said, "It doesn't matter that I'm selling your stuff accidentally anyway because I'm leaving the game and taking my whole store down. I'm totally leaving the game!!!!" The next day I received a link from another customer to a forum where they had been discussing her stealing my textures long before I had ever contacted her. She had been defiant and unrepentative in the thread, even when told by other residents that I had signs everywhere that said no one was to resell my textures. In fact, she told the other posters in the forum that she refused to "take down my textures unless I personally got in touch with her."

The day after that I was sent another message saying another person was selling my textures at another store and I investigated that one and found it to be true. I really hate having to track down these people and confronting them is even harder for me. It's just all so depressing and demoralizing to me. Again, I sent a message asking this new person to please remove my textures immediately, they were not to be sold by anyone but me. I received a flurry of French that came so fast I couldn't cut and paste into Babelfish fast enough to keep up with her. Plus, she would switch back and forth from French to English and I soon realized she knew enough English well enough but only When It Suited Her. I just kept telling her I wanted her to take my textures down from her store and she called me "Inconsiderate" and that "I Didn't Understand Her". That "It Must Be The Language Difference" why we couldn't understand each other. I'm not sure why she couldn't understand me, I had sent her the message "Please take down my textures, it is illegal to resell them." in both French AND English, in several different ways. I think my dogs could have understood this. There was the usual lapse of IM silence of which I have learned they are usually winding up to deliver some Zinger of a statement and she didn't disappoint me. Her last message to me was that "I was cruel" to make her take them down, she was only trying to "earn a little extra money" because she had three kids.

This brings us to the Egyptian Dancing Pavilion Incident. When I first joined Second Life, I made a gazebo-like structure out of my Egyptian textures, added some floating sheer curtains and torches and offered it for sale. After almost 2 years of selling this in my stores, this week I received an IM from a man who wanted full permissions on the pavilion so he could sell it on his island. What this basically means is that he would make money on something I had designed and built. There was no talk of what I might expect out of the deal. I argued with him over the fact that I had made it and was quite proud of it. He said that was why he wanted to sell it, because it looked so great and he could make a lot of money from it and it would sell well on his island. I pointed out that if people really wanted to buy it, they could see my name on it and come to my store. Then I offered up the suggestion that he try to build his own creation and sell that, that he could use my ideas and come up with something all his own. He IM'd me back saying he wanted me to send him all the textures I had used on it. I said you can't copy me, that wouldn't be right, you need to use different textures. He said, "Ok, how about this? You sell it to me with full perms and then you take it down from the sale floor in all your stores. Then I will just sell it at my store." Umm, no, don't think so.

The last one is another language barrier one, only this time from a German man. Here is the exact message:

[0:57] Subzero Schumann: rear did not keep textures Jewelry making bought however

Me: Do you mean you didn't get something you paid for?

Since I have become quite good at deciphering fractured English, it sounded to me as if something he bought did not get delivered or he lost it. Now the only trouble was trying to figure out what it was.

To my amazement, I received the next message:

Subzero: Yes, I didn't get the box I paid for.

This new command of English sounded much more promising.....at first. The whole conversation went something like the example below.

Me: Subzero, what was the name of the box of textures you bought?

Subzero: Finally no can do light park.

Me: Sub, I can't understand what you're saying. I need to know the name of the box so I can send it to you.

Subzero: Box is alone sometime everyone.

Me: Sub, let's just talk in German. I will use a translator.

Sub: Ok

and then came this long long sentence in German and I thought to myself, Finally, this will be over. I've been trying to understand this guy for almost an hour. I eagerly cut and pasted it into Bablefish and the German turned out to be as unintelligible as his English had been.

Me: Sub?

Sub: Yes

Me: I'm just going to send you all the boxes I have in that category since I can't understand what you're trying to say. (which I then proceeded to do)

This was followed by a polite "Thank You" followed by aa few minutes of silence. I had a feeling it wouldn't end there.....and it didn't. He started in English again or something that resembled English. "For why please sky does under in basket around near?" Finally I said, "Sub, maybe you can find someone who speaks both English and German and have them interpret for you because I can't understand what you're saying. I have to leave now."

I signed out of the game without waiting for his reply, knowing the only real reason I had to leave was so I wouldn't go stark raving mad.

See what retail has turned me into?