Sellers: how do you deal with things like this?

This is why I created the Procyon Asset Protection system.

When you buy an expensive (over L$1000) item at Procyon Games, you get a license which is registered to your avatar. If anything happens to your item -- if it breaks, or fails to rez, or even if it disappears from your inventory -- you can revisit my store, click on the vendor, and it will give you a new one, no questions asked.

I even give you a remote which will deliver a new item to you. You don't even have to leave your home.

You can keep a many copies in inventory as you want, but you have to purchase a license for every copy you want to rez simultaneously in-world. So it's like having all the assurance of being copy-ok without it actually being copy-ok.

And, if you ever want to sell your item, you can transfer the license. So it's like it's transfer-ok too.

The same system is used for product upgrades, which makes that a snap too. When an upgrade is available, just delete your old unit and get a new one delivered.

With SL acting the way it has been people have been losing a lot of inventory. I lost a file of animals which was worth a lot of money. I didn't go back to the vendors to ask for replacements ... I hate to ask, but that is just me. One vendor heard through my friend that I lost a lot of her products. I came online and there was a message from her with a bunch of new objects. She didn't have to do that. But that kind of customer service will keep me going back to her again and again as well as recommending her to everyone else.

Maybe if you are suspicious you could send them a copy that is non transferable.

This is a useful tip but I usually don't bother, I just rely on recognizing the name. I mean, if the person is hitting me up frequently enough for me to care then I'll recognize the name.

I always trust people the first time no questions asked, and I'll do a second replacement if there is another problem right away but I warn them that unfortunately I can't keep giving out free copies forever.

WHEW! i think you handled it very well, from inquiry to conclusion.

about the fireplace, you do make a great fireplace. i gave one as a gift some time back. i think i should hurry up and go get one for myself before you change the style. i don't have a home to put it in right now, but some day i will.

It must be said that in almost all occasions that I have experienced, people in SL _are_ very honest, and would not dream of trying to cheat a seller - in fact, they are frequently _too_ reluctant to ask for replacements. I have found out far after the fact that people have deleted a "copy" item or reset things by accident and not been able to use them, and I would be perfectly happy to replace purchases.

As long as it was not "hello I'm the alt of X and I bought a lot of your stuff only LL have banned me for no reason now, can you give me your stuff and also can you loan me L$10,000".

You really only have two choices. You can either give people the benefit of the doubt and assume that most people are honest, or you can assume that most people aren't honest and that the odds always favor that someone is trying to pull a fast one. The problem with option number two, even if it were true (which of course it isn't), is that it ends up punishing honest customers that you probably want to keep. Go with option one and replace the bed.

i have accidentally allowed something to get into my trash, and then deleted the trash.

but, in my opinion, that's not the seller's fault and they should not be approached for replacement. but when LL messes it up, i feel a lot better about replacement requests.

No, it's not the seller's fault, but I'd still be quite happy to do it, as long as I could find your name in the transaction records (and if it was copy/no-trans - pretty much everything I sell _is_ though).

The particular problem was dealt with earlier. There was never any doubt about what I'd do, but I wanted to know other people's thoughts - hence this thread. I've never refused anyone, but there are odd occasions when I don't feel comfortable with it, and I was curious how others thought.

I always replace, usually after running through the "relog, clear cache, relog again" mantra. But then again I also give away freebies via a lucky chair - I'm fortunate enough to be in a business where the vast majority of my products go for less than L$250 and the world is so much larger than my humble little business that more of my items "out there" would seem to only be a good thing in the sense of free advertising.

Actually I take that back - there was once when I didn't issue a replacement, and that was only when no amount of reasonable discussion would calm this person's rude demanding tone and sense of entitlement over something so small that was none of my problem to begin with. Consumers take note

Today i've lost *alot* of inventory, I won't be asking for replacements but wonder if others have to?

I noticed that you'd already dealt with it after I posted. It makes me uncomfortable at times too, but that's the way I choose to look at it. The chance of denying an honest customer isn't justified by the lesser chance of preventing someone from taking advantage.

Almost everything I sell is copy, so I normally replace.

I have been known to be very... abrasive when someone decided throwing around threats and insults was appropriate because I'm not on the grid 24/7. Even content creators sleep!

I was working on my Chimera, loaded with about 4-5K worth of no-copy dances, and it poofed when I went to pick it up. I tried all sorts of things to recover it since it was still showing up on the script scanner in the admin tools, even sent in a support ticket.

I don't know why any of you people sell stuff as no copy, as glitchy as SL is, you can lose it in a flash. Why not make them copy but no trans? I mean seriously you all sell your products with the assumption that the mechanics of the world are flawless, rather than first assuming that your customer WILL lose the item you sell through SL goofiness.

There are plenty of products where allowing someone to have infinite copies may be undesirable. Anything you rez out, like furniture, basically. It's no biggie for clothing to be copy/no-trans since the person can make as many copies as they want but they can only wear one at a time. It's totally different for, say, a chair. For an inexpensive item you may not care, but for a big ticket item it may not be desirable for a person who bought one chair to be able to furnish their entire club with that chair.

Besides, people often purchase items as gifts for each other, in which case they need trans. Until I put a warning as you enter my store about keeping an eye on permissions, I routinely got IMs from people who purchased a copy/no-trans item but wanted to give it as a gift; I never got IMs from people wanting copy versions of no-copy items.

Johan pointed out furniture, which is what I sell, and I won't sell any of it as copy, even though I am asked for it quite often. Before the store, I was in the skybox rentals business, and had 60 up and rented out (only 15 are left now). I really don't want to sell a single sofa or a single sex bed to someone who will then put copies of them in all their apartments and skyboxes. I do quantity discounts, but I won't sell copy items for that reason.

Simple! I will neither sell, purchase, give, or accept as a gift, any no-copy object, ever again, for the duration of the Second Life experience.

Here's another one. I've never had this happen before.

Last night I received an IM (by email) from a customer who I had never heard of. It said, "hi, can i have a refund for the kitchen set" - that's all it said. I replied simply, "Why?". About an hour and a half later I went to bed without hearing anything back. I was in SL so there wasn't an email problem.

When I got up today there were 6 emailed IMs from him and the SL system. They went like this:-

1. "i dont have room for it, takes up too much of my prim"

2. 7 notifications that he had offered me 7 kitchen items, "sent ya back the kitchen stuff", another notification of an 8th kitchen item.

3. 8 notifications that he had offered me 8 tables, "i dont have room for any of this, i got into a small apt and do not have room", another notification of another table offer.

4. 1 notification that he had offered me another table.

5. 2 notifications that he had offered me 2 more tables, "i believe thats all of it", "im sorry to do this, but i dont have room for it, and i dont want to waste money on stuff i cant use"

6. 5 notifications that he had offered me 4 sofas and a chair.

All but one of the tables are non-kitchen types; the other is a dining table.

I checked my accounts, and most of the items were bought a month and a half ago, and a few were bought 2 weeks ago. 25 items in total.

What it amounts to is that he bought the things and used them in the accomodation that he had - hence coming back for more a month after the first lot of purchases. But now he's moved into a smaller place where he doesn't have room or prims for them all, so he thinks he can sell them back and, without waiting for me to agree, he simply sent them back for a refund.

I'm not asking what other sellers would do in a case like this. I just thought it was interesting. I sent everything back to him, and told him that I don't sale or return. I do take things back for a full refund if the circumstances merit it, which they occasionally do, but not in this case.

A long while ago (in SL terms ... it was probably actually about 18 months ago) I bought a dress from Ivalde and messed up the prim while editing the skirt (yes, I *know* you can copy those. Shushy! If she was nice to me, you can be too!). Because she IS very nice, she was talking me through it ... but I still did mess it up despite her help. A moment later, another dress arrived with a kind note saying "if this doesn't work, I'll send you another!"

And because of that, Ivalde's is still one of the first places I shop and also suggest people check out, and all of them have had the same great experience. From that one perfect, friendly customer experience she has made at least 10 times the cost of that original purchase from me, and some of my friends basically live there.

Shopping in SL is relatively very inexpensive and for me all about the fun. Given the choice, I will ALWAYS buy from the people that seem like they are ALSO having fun creating and selling. Dolly and Lilith Heart being two more great examples, as is Ante Flan. Well, now I keep thinking of more examples but this could turn into a bad Academy Awards speech ("Oh my gosh! Without you all, I could not have shopped as I did!" )

ETA oh Amo Lambeau of course. Now I am shushing!

For no-copy items I usually give lee-way of up to one replacement for anyone who appears on my transactions page. We all know SL's been a bit fritzy lately so it's not uncommon for deliveries to fail or for inventory loss to occur. I also still have frequent cases where people have accidentally muted my vendor(s) instead of accepting items.

I generally figure that the chances of someone trying to cheat the system and get two items for the price of one are low enough that they're not going to significantly cut into my profits, while better customer service is more likely to improve word of mouth and my image as a friendly seller.

The more common problem is people who IM me and try to get on my good side so they can get freebies. While my friends do get freebies, I've known them for around a year usually, you don't automatically get freebies for getting on my friend's list =)

So you just camp then?