Shopowner being scammed?

As some of you may know, I'm the owner of Pi Labs, in Briarcliff Manor. Ever since my shop became popular, I have been receiving tons of IM's saying my vendors don't work, and that people paid them multiple times and didn't get an object. Now, I had MANY of my friends test my vendor, and they have been telling me that it works fine. Are people just telling me it doesn't work to try and rip me off / get me to pay them money / get multiple copies of objects? I have been giving these people copies of my objects but I'm not sure if I should continue. What do you suggest?

All I know is I WISH there was a way to prove if an OBJECT from a VENDOR really did get TRANSFERRED to the AV...

Yet another reason to only give out nomod/copy/notrans objects.

Use a vendor like mine, It rezes different containers, if someone wants to buy the item the picture of the item is on the rezed box. But here is the thing, the razzed box has sell contents on it, so its actually the lindens responsibility that it works. because sell contents isn't a script. There is'nt any chance of malfunction.. (well there is, if the script breaks they cant look through the inventory, but is better then wondering if it was sold)

All I can say is, I have had experiences with lots of people claiming false purchase / lost items. You can watch closely and even figure out friend and alt relationships of scammers this way. Just setup your vendor to log the sales or have it email/IM you. That way you have a log.

I've complained that I bought something that didn't show up in my inv but it was my fault. I found it later and felt bad for bugging the seller. I didnt expect it to show up as a folder for some reason. I expected it to appear in my "objects" folder. Tell them to ask a Linden for help. They can either find the bug, or show teach them inv usage.

Some things not showing up are caused by lag. They show up 10 minutes later.
I've found the email dosent work everytime. Enough to keep track of things but I dont depend on it every sale.

Crimson

I have my dog vendors setup that way, so I get an IM as well as an email sent to a seperate account. The problem is that it's still not 100%. The email server sometimes hiccups and emails don't get delivered or take forever. Also, I get lots of IMs anyway, and many times my IMs get capped so I have no record of a sale by IM.

At first I was simply giving anyone a replacement who claimed lost dog, but now with hundreds of customers, I have to look up every request. If I don't see their name, I ask questions...like was it a gift from someone? If so, who? What breed did they buy for you? What tricks did it know? Etc...

There is no perfect way. We all know objects can easily get lost in SL. We have to try to put safeguards in, but they don't always work in every case.

Anyway, without having access to Linden Labs logfiles, I doubt there is ever an absolute way of knowing if someone did try to buy something from you. IMs and emails are better than nothing.

Another way to keep track of sales is through your Account History, both in world and here on the web page. If someone tells me they paid 50 for something and their name isn't in my account history, then they didn't pay me 50 for anything.

Thats true, I DO CHECK my account history, but that still doesnt show proof that objects were transferred to the buyer's inventory.

Unfortunately true. I have most of my items as Copy/No Transfer, so I'll usually just give whoever it is a No Transfer copy of what they claim they bought. If they're scamming, they end up with 2 of the same items.

That's a good idea.

Most of my stuff is usually copy no trans anyways.. if someone says a vendor didn't give them something first thing I do is check account history either in world or if I'm not at home, on the website.

If I have no record of payment, they didn't pay me..
If I have a record of payment I drop a no-trans copy on their calling card.. usually everyone comes out happy.

The average price of my stuff is 100 lindens (ranging from 50 to 300) so if anyone 'scammed me' for what is probably a 100 dollar no trans item, I'm sure they can go brag about it their 'big time criminal friends'.

What they're probably overlooking is that the only item of real value in Second Life is your reputation.

Break my motorcycle, I'll rebuild it.
Break my word, I'm fucked.

Running a scam for a few lindens worth of transient crap simply isn't worth it in the long run.

Siggy

Well, now I think your trying to insult me for being too sensitive. The stuff in my store DOESN'T average around 100 lindens... the items that people are asking for another copy of go for about L$800.

Please elaborate how anything I said in my post above could be construed as an insult to you...

If it was insulting (which it wasn't) it would be to people who try and scam people. And all I say there is (paraphrased) 'if you wish to scam people - the only thing you'll hurt in the long run is your own reputation' - which is the most valuable thing you can possess here.

It also showed how I dealt with situations like that - checking for an actual sale , that money was transfered, and how replacing the item with a no transfer version will only yield them 2 copies of the same item that can't give/sell away. At that point it doesn't matter how much they are worth.. they can't do anything untoward with them.

If you think thats insulting, then chances are you ARE too sensitive.


Siggy.

First, I've never ever had trouble with a vendor. I use the HiroVendor, which Hiro so kindly started giving away for free 2 days after I purchased it. But anyway... it has proven to be very solid.

Second, if someone who has definitely paid me money said they didn't get an item, I think I'd just give it to them and make a mental note about the person. I don't want to be a sucker, but I don't want any bad press either.

Third, since april, the only time anything remotely similar to this has happened to me, some guy lost an item somehow from the world. And that is it. I don't think people are in the habit of trying to scam shop owners.

So.... At this point I guess I think something could be wrong with your vendor maybe. At least, I hope that's what's wrong. But people haven't given me any trouble in that regards, and I think the items I sell would have a relatively high probability of generating that kind of attention, and they still don't.

Good luck.

Ugghh, lol... I feel your pain... most likely the item is going to somewhere in inventory that they didn't notice? Where do your products show up when you buy them? Objects? General Inventory? Elsewhere?

I like using copy / no trans myself for this reason as well.

I would also recommend that if a customer insists that they did not get the item, tell them that the script has been proven out, and that you would be happen to work with a Linden with them if they reported a bug.