Waiting For Support From SL Merchant

Oh yeah, huh?

Yes I do. I included this information in requests for assistance from the item creator as well as in the AR.

As this was not bought from SLX, but only from a SLX merchant, SLX cannot do anything to assist me.

This is the unfortunate part of going to a merchants store itself to buy more expensive items. Usually that is what I have been doing lately for any item over $1000L is going to the merchants store (if they have one) and purchasing direct from them.

This actually for legitimate merchants better for them as they do not have to pay commission/fees to SLX for the sale.

But, this time, I got stung.

We bought a skyhouse from Fornicola and her partner. Not only was the product gorgeous, and they both very helpful and patient while we were making our choice, but when I had ... err .... fatal problems rezzing it (my fault, I tried to rez it over a property line and it kind of exploded), they gave us a completely new version free AND came to set it up for us, in a very friendly, generous and un-pissed-off way. (Oh wait, they came again too when I accidentally took the wall instead of a picture). It was one of the VERY BEST product experiences I have ever had in SL, both for product and service.

Not saying I don't believe you, OP, but this completely goes against our experience with them, which was absolutely wonderful. Perhaps some misinterpretation is going on on one of your parts.

I didn't suggest that slexchange would be able to help you. I did suggest that you post a screenshot of transaction records and a description of the problem in the slexchange forums. Did you do that?

Maybe they ARE just on vacation or something.

Nope. Both "partners" were online in the last 24 hours as well as a few times this week.

It's a pity that the creator neither responded to the OP's requests nor chimed in here. It would be good to get an objective picture. Bad press like this w/o even an attempt to fix the problem is bound to hurt sales, esp. in the high end segment of the market.

I wonder about this banning action. As it stands here, this seems a bit harsh. Actually, I happened to notice that the creator is banning quite a number of people from her sim (pretty long ban list). I do hope that's not a regiment of unhappy former customers.

Just to update.

Fornicola has finally gotten back to me. Apparently they thought I was trying to scam them as in the past they have had people do so. That is why I was ejected from the group and as well the land.

However, after chatting with Amo (her partner) it was determined that I was not scamming them and Fornicola has sent me my Castle as well as a extra item to make up for my inconvenience and frustration.

I just wish it did not take a week to resolve this. But it is now resolved.

btw....Fornicola said in her IM that part of the problem with the delay in resolving this was that in the past, someone had placed fake vendors on her land and that is why Builder Buddy 1.7 Boxed 1 was coming into the picture.

Fornicola said in her IM that she does NOT use Builder Buddy and if anyone gets that from a purchase at a vendor on her land, it is not a vendor of hers.

Thing is, I do not know how someone could erect a vendor on her land as it is No Build, but this is what she said has happened.

Hmm
I am still kinda new to the whole building,but the first thing that comes to my mind is that someone hacked the sim in question.

Glad to hear it has been fixed and sorry you had to go through the distress.

that`s the stupiest excuse i`ve ever heard as it can be determant if some one bought from you with a simple look at the L$ transaction page

To be honest, I find it ironic that only after a AR was filed did I get a response and the item.

Did they unban and unmute you, too?

One guy had a problem, now rectified, by his own account - and we have *only* his account as to what happened. My partner and I and, according to the OP himself, *everyone* who has bought from them through SLX had a great experience with Amo and Fornicola. I am unsure why his singular experience is being accepted as the norm, or, frankly, even what happened.

I highly recommend their products and their service to anyone in the market for a new home. In that light, here is my SLX review of their skybox from last year:

[5 stars] Triz Aster on 2007-08-10

1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

I wish I could give this and the creator more than 5 stars. She is wonderfully helpful and endlessly patient (lucky for us) and the skybox is fantastic. It is perfectly made, not a seam visible anywhere, and the textures are wonderful. You feel like you are in a real home, yet the design is made for SL - good clear views in all directions and it's easy to move. The furniture - even the art! - is terrific and the skybox is filled with extras that make it very special (like working ceiling fans, a balcony with a little table and great sit poses and the best stairs I've seen in SL). We'd been looking for a new skybox for months and when we saw Amo's work we knew we'd found it at last/

with the state of sl these days many things could have happened. I have seen things (a bomb on one occasion that had me as a creater though I have never built a bomb). I ar'd it of course but never got any response other than it was closed. However you have blasted this creator and named them and now that all has been worked out you should edit your posts to just take the names out the situation can be instructive.

The person may not really know exactly what happened and I can certainly appreciate that, as many people are perplexed with some oddities of recent. Though according to you and I believe you, you only tried to buy something and was treated harshly they did in the end come around.

The sellers appeared to believe you were scamming them and that too I can appreciate. Why they would give you anything without getting paid (if indeed a scammer placed a builder buddy box of scripts) it doesn't make much sense unless of course they believed you already got the castle and by some error of your own lost it and was trying to get another.

The statement that she never used builder box scripts is disturbing though. If she's never used them you'd expect she wouldn't have got paid selling them . In that case no transaction should have showed up on her transaction page. Which brings up another point that sometimes the left hand doesn't know what the right hand has done.

That you got the castle would indicate they verified the sale and reception of funds. It sounds like a very unfortunate situation for all involved. She may have just been in a bad mood and got confused and its seems that fuses are getting real short in sl these days, I know mine has at times .

FWIW, it sounds to me that the merchant ended up being more than decent about this. If what happened is what I think happened, then the merchant never actually got paid for the product that was delivered.

Here's my guess: at some point, build was turned on (or object entry, if it's not a whole sim), and auto-return was off. A scammer put a false prim over a vendor. The false prim took the OP's money. No transaction was recorded on the merchant's history. At some point after the OP first complained, the merchant found out that in the interim a business associate had discovered the scam prim and the erroneous parcel settings. The merchant decided to "make whole" the OP, despite having never been paid for the product.

It's speculation, but kinda fits the facts, as far as I can tell.

Incidentally, there *are* reasons for IMs not to be delivered, as I've recently discovered. Just last week I got an IM that was sent at least a month earlier. (I think I got it then, too, but still something's pretty b0rked there.) And lately I've been crashing on login with some regularity, which means that IMs queued but not yet forwarded to email are simply lost without my being able to view them.

[EDIT: Or, holy cow! See /327/43/248680/1.html and associated jira, http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/VWR-5263 for another reason for lost IMs.]

Tygers, i'm glad this was resolved.

but i don't understand the owners logic. it shouldn't matter what vendor you paid, you paid while on her land, to her, and that is that.

and if they haven't taken the steps necessary to protect their customers from the scams they are already aware of, they are irresponsible and foolish. there is NO way a new customer can know about such issues.

i hope the owner now has enough sense to go see what is going on in her own store and rectify the situation.

again, glad you got your stuff. enjoy your castle!

Still banned Annabelle. Unfortunately.

I had wanted to view the demo castle again, as I was having a small problem with the rezzing of my castle, but I was still on the ban list.

If some scammer put a false prim over the vendor, then the payment history would have shown a payment to the scammer, not the builder, right?

Tygers: What does your payment history say? Was the payment made to the builder or her partner or was it made to someone you don't recognize?

It was to the builder Trout. I verified that in my History as well as in my copy/paste to the vendor and in the AR.

I am very careful to make sure that I am paying the person/service that I want or intend to pay. I remember quite well a note from Fantasyland Estates as well as Azure Land about this and to ensure that one is paying the actual Fantasyland or Azure and not "No One" or any other payee name.

Uh... In that case, please ignore post #40. And Trout, thanks for catching that.

Cool! Just asking. I'm glad the builder got back to you and cleared up the problem.