Proper Vendor Etiquette?

i sold something for $300L while offline yesterday. i received a notice from the buyer that she paid me but received no item. i wrote her back, asking her to reference which color she bought, and that i would give it to her directly as soon as she let me know.

in the meantime, i went and checked all my items, and they are all operational and making the sale when 'buy' is clicked.

my question is, if i don't hear from her...... do i refund her; do i just pick a generic diamond color in a week or so; or do i just forget about it if i never hear from her again? i dont' want someone walking around saying i run a bad business, cuz i don't, and i'd rather give away two of something than get paid for something undelivered.

If it's really important to you, then I would send her a followup IM in a week. I wouldn't play guess the colour and just drop her one

I have bought items before that were not delivered. Due to grid problems/lag. So it's very possible she really didn't get it.

me too, so i don't argue that at all. just wondering what to do next. i'll be patient. it was only yersterday, afterall.

having a vendor that emails you 'delivered ___ to ___' messages is handy to make sure the vendor completes every operation... i can tell you though that nearly -all- customer requests are 100% honest.

various periods of grid-tuning between updates, combined with the big swings in online population, produce varied periods where deliveries can be a bigger prob than usual. as of late the tuning is 'great', with only occassional 'no delivery' requests.

(and lately that seems related to a slightly new and different bug - try to drop a copy to the customer, and it automatically declines, as if they have 'busy' set! waiting a day or two seems to clear up this bug, probably a temporary 'bad presence' recording or something)

But equally, I have bought things that didn't arrive immediately but turned up at the next logon. I think the only thing is to IM her and ask.

ohh, well - just im them back, ask any q's you have to deliver the right product, then when ready just drop her a copy s'all there is to it! babelfish.com for international customers...

<Customer Service hat>

Mail her back. Advise her that you'll be happy to help out if she gives you some details.

I've had fantastic CS in SL ... mostly ... and also I have had silence from some people.

I know naming names is prolly bad form but not when giving praise so here goes: Eladon Galsworthy and Di Yifu. Both go the extra mile and then some

Ah I misread. I would wait a day or two for a reply and then follow up with another message if not answered.

that is very true! it is a recommended practice by some to wait a day or two just to see if the prob clears itself up. and customers are always good about that too; they will let you know if it finally arrived to their inventory.

i don't necessarily believe in 'instant gratification' as the solution to everything in rl or sl, lol but i do believe my customers expect when they pay my vends, so i get back to them asap.

'clear cache' is also a good thing to recommend/train customers; may help resynch their inventory to the server, plus always good for the overall ops of sl. (but lately clear cache does not seem to have much to do with missing deliveries - fortunately, as it is an unwieldly process to have to step newbs thru

p.s. and oh - well if you replied to them, then no worries, wait for them to call back! maybe they found it after all and didn't want to bother you anymore. or just busy and will get back to ya later...

I believe, unless it has changed, the transaction history on the website would show what item she bought:

Something like "X avatar paid you $300L for red diamond"

Just a thought.

This problem does happen a lot.
What I do is check my transaction log - you can do it in game and it will take you to a web page with all your transactions that you can sort by any day for the past 30 days.
I find what the customer says is missing - if its on that transaction list - I simply give them the item they didn't get. As long as your items are no transfer, giving them another copy is not hurting you at all and making you look good to the customers eyes.

As others suggested, just because it worked for you doesn't mean it worked for her. Good that you checked it to make sure there's not an ongoing problem.

If there aren't many color choices, I'd just send her a copy of every color and be done with it. You'll have a customer for life, and you won't be stuck trifling with the issue for days or weeks.

And yes, that transaction log should just show you what she bought anyway. Hope you have them named in a logical way.

Unintentional muting?

If she has you muted, she wouldn't receive the item, nor your reply and offer of assistance, right?

I remember reading in the forums about people being muted they'd never met before.

Maybe try having an assistant contact her to be sure your good intentions are getting through?

I agree, its not worth spending alot of time on for L$300, you got her payment, its better to send the products then to have to keep fussying over it.

Right on the Money Echo. Definitely double check your transaction history. I have been approached by at least a half a dozen people who claim they bought something and never received it. I even had one girl say 'why would i lie about 100L?' My question to her is 'why wouldn't you?'

Never showed up in transactions, never got any cash, and and here's the kicker.....I put out proximity sensors, strategically, to see the traffic and guess what, never on the property LoL.

Not saying this is everyone, but scrutiny keeps you from giving away the farm.

Cheers, CC

you know, i did first check transaction history before anything else. she definitely paid. .... but i didn't check for color. i simply scanned for the credit. DEERRRRR! why didn't i think of that myself? sheesh.... i'm so embarrassed .

thanks for kicking me in the head and setting me straight. so, now i know which color. it's no copy/transfer.... so, i'm not sure wut to do next. won't be inworld until Friday unless i hear from her, so my follow-up will just have to wait until then. (i have about 10 color choices. dont' want to give them all. that's like... 3000L of prodcut for her to pass around).

going back to doing wut i clearly do best ... ---->

my stuff is now all no transfer and modify copy or just copy (depending on the item modify is useless so its been removed). I have my im's so that they go to my email and I check once a day usually unless i'm on holiday or sick or something. When i get those things where they paid but didn't get one I just look at the payment history quickly and send the item they purchased as I have the boxes all marked so i know what is in what

Linen shirts (red) (location shop) even though that's in the third line I still at it in because i seem to see that faster and prior to the ingame history being removed that's why its there cause i never used the website one.

If there is no history I have been known to say no hehe mainly because the times these requests are made when there is no history they only occur on the expensive items (i make avatars too from time to time and a couple are very popular). In this case since 100% of my requests over time for something with no transaction history is always for an avatar ^^ I now say no cause I have a hard time believing that LL's server is only dropping lindens in my place on selected products lol

the rest is very random and comes with asset server issues and where there is on person not receiving an item there is others money goes through always though because I use simple boxes with no real script for it.

well, this particular product requires transfer capability, because it is an avatar control collar....

and, i was notified by email that i had received an IM. so I went inworld and replied to her IM.

just waiting now, i guess.

haha okay

I try to stay away from transfer stuff it gives me gas I also had a lot more lost items when they were transfer as well. I have noticed a definite decline on "i didnt get my item" requests since i put up a sign that says what is what regarding refunds (no transfer = no refund) and what is what regarding permissions (all my stuff is now no transfer cause of asset server headaches). I can also now refund multiple purchases of an item without a second thought. I think with the way sl is now I would avoid making items that had to be transfer in order to make sense lol, but that is just me

it's a tough call. i thot about making a sign saying that "if you are buying this to use on someone else, not to be used on YOU 'by' someone else, have THEM come buy it".... but that seemed tacky.

you can create a gift card system. That is how i got rid of the transfers permission issue. I bought a system that works on a store card basis (it was very expensive but its an awesome product and one of a kind pretty much in SL there are cheaper systems but they dont work like this thing does hehe). Then they can buy a card say for 500L or you can make one for the exact price of that item as well and that card is transferable actually (which no one has as of yet not gotten which is interesting in and off itself) and they give the card to their friend etc to buy stuff with.

so, the buyer gives you BACK the card and then you give them the product?

wut if they say they never got the card?