Item Not delivered & Vendor away for 26 days

To begin, I bought a skin from a SL vendor and the money was transferred from my account. I have it in my transaction history. The skin was never delivered. Actually the vendor has not been on SL since the day before I bought the skin. I have sent IMs to the vendor and written several notes. Apparently none go through to their email. I understand that LL does not enter into disputes between an individual and a vendor. I am out 860 lindens. The vendor's business is still there but I wonder since since it has been 26 days since they have been on SL what will happen when they don't pay their tier? I wish there was a process of putting a lien on the vendor. I would really like to mention the place to warn others, but hesitate. Any suggestions?

Nat

They don't have to log in to pay tier. As long as the payment method that they have on file hasn't maxxed its credit line, their tier is covered just fine.

While it is unusual for an active merchant to not be on-line for close to a month, Life does happen sometimes. People get assigned to Jury Duty, or to an overseas military tour, or lose their jobs, or even die.

Does the merchant have a support group? Have you tried asking there, to see if they have anyone else in-world that can handle a problem with non-delivered merchandise? Many merchants do have a staff of individuals empowered to make good on customer service issues if the merchant themselves is unavailable.

I'd give it some more time before you start picketing their store. It may have been that the merchant had a RL emergency and is unable to login. I doubt that someone who went through the trouble of establishing a business selling skins, will abandon their business with no regard for their customers.

I feel your pain. I see these types of threads pop up from time to time, but the same happened to me recently. Paid the tier box on a parcel of rental land, then IM'd the owner to ask what I needed to do to start building. After three days of no response, I found out by joining one of the person's groups that the person had not been online for two months (mid-March). I had paid roughly 1800L in tier that is now gone. Live and learn, I guess.

1. Give it some more time? Let's see..twenty six days and counting so far. So you mean wait 'til the end of this year, maybe?

2. You doubt they would have no regard for their customers? I can tell you're new and have no clue as to the practices of many of the vendors in sl.

Don't worry, you'll learn.

I'm sorry you feel that way, I may not post here often but I guarantee you I'm not "new". I'm a business owner myself, so I think I may know something on the subject. Lastly, I was just trying to offer some advice. If you're not willing to get answers that may not be to your liking, then don't post. L$860 is not even US$3.30, hardly an amount to cry over.

That US$3.30 pays for the drugs that keep me alive for a day, well I won't die if I don't take them, just being devils advocate in a very extreme way LOL

I will wait for awhile longer, what else can I do. I do realize something may have happened to the store owner in RL. It isn't really the 860 lindens but the principle. However, if I had the lindens I would be able to purchase a skin from another place. I will in the very near future publish the store name and the owner's name so that others don't find themselves in my position. Thanks for all your concern and advice.

Nat

These days before I spend a substantial amount of lindens I will send an IM to the creator or owner or whatever first. There is very often a good reason to do so since few vendors show enough information about the product, sometimes permissions information isn't available or I may want to ask about script performance.

If I don't receive a reply, I don't buy.

So many ask that you send a notecard as their IM's are capped regularly. So now, I always send a notecard if I need contact. Only once has there been no response, a big, really big women's hair store. I was asking if she'd discontinued a style I was looking for. 2 tries, (notecards) no response, gave up. Only time that's ever happened to me, but I wasn't out any money for it.

That's a frequent stipulation but I'm pretty sure the "IM's are capped thing" has got to be so much BS. I've contacted more than a few extremely busy people in SL via IM and in most cases I have virtually always had replies. Conversely I have done the notecard thing with quite a few that requested it and ... zilch.

I think it is more than likely a case of bad management of their SL communications or they just can't be bothered or they log in once in a while when it suits them to do so and don't give a damn otherwise.

IM caps are NOT BS. Mine pretty much are capped daily. And I don't even have a business open at the moment. Alot of accounts especially older ones get flooded with IM's and those insane join our group blue boxes every time we log in.

I don't know if it is aganst the rules of these forums to post commercial names in a positive light but I would be quite prepared to do so if necessary to back up my argument. I cannot believe that the people I am thinking of are not heavily IM'd on a daily basis since their names are by-words for certain types of product in SL.

I'll say it again that I am convinced my comments on IM capping stand.

It has now been a month and the store owner who didn't deliver the skin I bought has not been in Second LIfe. This is what she has in her profile: "Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are." IMHO her reputation isn't worth anything and she certainly lacks any character. I will still wait a bit longer before revealing her name and the name of the store. But why anyone would buy from her I don't know!

Nat

It is against the forum rules to post the names here. So, it might be more hassle then it is worth. Sorry you had a bad experience. I have had a few, but a large majority of my experiences with creators here has been positive.

This is the conclusion. The store owner came on for one day. Never answered the many notecards I sent. Never refunded my money or sent the skin. Closed up shop and reportedly has left Second Life. GOOD RIDDANCE! Second Life is better off without people like that. Wish I had the power to cast a pox on her Real Life. LOL

Nat

Awwww. I'm sorry that is how it turned out for you. The recent changes in what will soon be allowed in SL and what wont are driving a number of people to close up shop, and even leave SL. But it's sad that the merchant didn't make good on ther last sales.

Well, at least it was only 800 or so L$ you lost, and not several thousand, or even tens of thousands. But it still sucks that you lost anything at all.