Long Term Product Support

Very soon, I'm going to begin selling (what I think) is a very cool object in SL. This object relies on brief communications with my web server in order to function. Unlike most objects in SL, like say a pair of shoes, this object continues to draw a very small amount of daily bandwidth from me long after the person has made the initial purchase.

That got me thinking. Am I, the creator, bound eternally to provide that service or is it understood that objects sold in SL are not guaranteed forever? I don't want to have to return the money of everyone who's ever purchased my device if, in the far future, I had to stop supporting it for some reason.

Has anyone ever had to deal with a similar situation? What's the general rule with regards to supporting objects sold in SL? Do people use agreements or something or is it simply "buyer beware"? Have you ever bought an object that simply stopped working one day? If so, what happened?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Well it seems to me that if you designed the product to work this way and you sell it with this function, and the item won't work without it, then you are obligated to continue to provide that service to your customers. It's what they paid for.

So either rethink how it works or price it to reflect the fact that you will be using your bandwidth to support it. That or make sure that your customers clearly know that it might stop functioning at anytime without notice. Of course, I doubt many people will buy it with that little caveat.

Maybe make it a subscription model, that way you will have incentive to keep supporting it. And when you might stop, they won't be asking for a refund.

The idea of subscriptions doesn't sit well with me. Not only could that turn into a full time job, I doubt anyone would really want to pay for it. I'd much rather the customer just know how much I will promise support, preferably before they buy it.

What about a one year warranty? It'd likely continue working long after that but at least I can guarantee them one year in case I have no choice but stop offering service I'd, at most, only have to continue providing service for another year.

Vares, you seem pretty sure of yourself but how many products do you think are sold daily in SL that don't come with any kind of warranty? Heck, someone could get booted from SL for some reason and their products would no longer be supported.

I'm not convinced that product support is an issue yet, that's why I'm asking.

Your three choices are, perpetual support, subscription service, or planned obsolescence. The customer will need to know which way you're going up front.

It's not a matter of obligations because whatever method you decide, you're obligated. That comes with the package of requiring explicit support from you.

At any rate unilaterally terminating the service with no forewarning is very bad business practice.

Your product, since it needs something from you to continue operating, now falls under the category of "services." As a service Product Support is an issue from day 1.

What you are talking about isn't product support. Product support is helping out a customer if it breaks, or maybe if they screw it up by being stupid.

What you are talking about it buying something that depends on you to work at all. That isn't a warranty, that's basic functionality. A warranty is a guarantee that a product isn't defective, and replacing one that is.

The way you have designed this product, they are dependent on you providing access to that server for any functionality at all. As such you need to make it very clear to the customer that you don't guarantee that service for any length of time (or that you do, but only for a certain length of time) and then let them decide if they want to take that risk by buying the item.

I do think the fact that the item is likely to just stop working some day will have an effect on how much people will be willing to pay for it. Frankly I don't think I would buy it unless it was really cool and pretty cheap.

But you do have me interested in what it is!

So, what's the best way to let the customer know the rules before they buy? Since I haven't started selling yet, I want to be sure they are aware that I'll offer support for as long as possible but can't guarantee permanent support till the end of time.

No, it'd be misleading to say "support".

If the product might stop working at some point because the server is gone, you need to say that explicitly.

As others mentioned above - support is helping people out when things go wrong, not deliberately knowing that something will go wrong at some point.

In other words, yes, items in SL are guaranteed forever because there is no wear and tear and nothing other than tampering or SL failure that can make them break, unless these are coded in, deliberately or as a result of something else.

Fair enough, Yumi.
So, what's the best way to let them know. I can't just put a notecard in the object's inventory saying this because they would have to have bought it already to read the notecard.

If the only way the thing works is off your server, and when your server goes offline, the thing quits, YES, YOU'RE EXPECTED TO KEEP IT RUNNING. Otherwise, give it away free and charge a fee per monthly server usage. That way, no-one can bitch about it, since they did not pay for the object, just the server usage.

You can put a notecard dispenser near the vendor and a sign telling customers to be sure and read the notecard before buying.