Customer Support; what to do?

Forget it.

She has a right to use, and has allowed you to know. You have a right to not respond, or to contact her Master direct and let him know that you will speak to her one on one in open chat, but no IM.

Does it matter?

Understandably you may be offended by the idea that someone seems to be forcing to play a game in which you have no interest. But ultimately, is there any reason that the support you give must be a secret never to be shared?

That stuff in the profile is silly and annoying. If it were another type of transaction you may well want to object. But to give support, who cares if this person shares it with someone else?

You could always reply, "I do not agree to the terms of the IM sharing that you state in your Proilfe. I would be happy to provide support to you if you assure me in writing that you do not intend to share my IMs as stated in your profile." But I think you are ultimately creating extra work and problems for yourself when it really doesn't seem to matter one way or another whether she is sharing IM with her "Master" or not.

I once ran into a similar dilemma and consulted my Master, who thinks such things are ludicrous. His suggestion was that I play it utterly formally and conduct all communications with my customer via her Master; that is, reply to her on a notecard, send it to him and ask him, politely, if he approved the communication would he please pass it on to her and, if he approved her reply, would he please forward it, via notecard, to me.

My customer's Master soon got tired of being used as the postman, which was the idea.

Tell her to send another NC explaining the issue/problem in detail so you can address it, and that you will handle it as you would any other support request. Never let someones "game" interfere with vendor to customer communication.. your business is with her, not someone else.

Forget it

gah it's just people doing something they can't do in real life. she probably doesn't care if you contact her. bdsm people are not all weird and crazy. they understand you don't get it and if her Master gets weird, just claim to be from Antarctica and polar bears don't play that kind of D/s communication game. Ya dig?

What type of collar do you have in mind? Amethyst and Open Collar can only monitor what the wearer is saying. Dari's doesn't do monitoring at all. Dunno about the others.

I'm a bit surprised to learn that RVL can monitor chat remotely. Which of the functions listed at http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/RestrainedLifeAPI do you say it uses?

If "this one is owned by X" why didn't X contact you? Why did "this one" go shopping to begin with?

I'd send her a notecard in return rather than IM. No one social engineers me!

Make a note card stating quite simply, "Because I am not interesting in roleplaying a "scene," with you, I cannot, in good faith, agree to the terms as they are stated in your profile. Either this is to be an out of character situation, in which your master does NOT read my IMs or I will be unable to offer you support on this product." If the customer cannot accept this, then.. maybe it's better to fire her as a customer?

I note you found this in her profile and not the note card that she sent to you, which means, if you hadn't seen her profile, you'd have never known and would have had your IMs read by her so called "master."

I'd send her Master a notecard expressing My displeasure that she dared contact Me directly, and advise he keep his pet on a shorter leash.

...the trick is to outplay them at their own game.

Jeeeezus.

What does it matter. Do you intend on saying anything improper, or secretive?

If it is strictly a customer support call then it does not really matter if they are monitored by her Master does it?

Why the big fuss? Her IMs are monitored and you have a support issue. She isn't forcing you into any sort of RP at all. What does her Master reading her IMs have to do with RP? What if she said her IRL husband is in SL and reads all her IMs, any different now?

And FFS give it a break on the "slavery is against the law for a very good reason" stuff, thats really over the top. This is a freaking virtual world, where people PRETEND.

Jesus Christ in a hand basket, you are freaking quoting parts of the TOS/CS??? Really? Jesus Ben, take a chill pill on the issue and just IM the person. You are not telling her the location to King Solomon's Gold.

This is like drama for drama sake.

OH NOES A D/S COUPLE IS PULLING ME INTO THEIR RP BECAUSE THE MASTER CAN READ MY IM'S TO HIS SUB WHICH ARE CONFIDENTIAL AND ITS AGAINST THE TOS CHAPER 4 SUB SECTION C, PARAGRAPH 52.

There is no slavery happening.

What is too much is this over the top thread about some one reading your customer support IMs. And the replies here are so freaking funny. You guys take this crap so damn serious when it isn't. It is just people co-existing with their own little quirks from their D/s scene. You are not ROLE PLAYING with them by giving her customer support. You are simple "giving customer support".

Get off the high horse of anti-slavery - WHICH ISN'T HAPPENING. Just seems to me like you don't want to deal with this person because you don't agree with their lifestyle in SL since SLAVERY IS ILLEGAL. OH NOES! VIRTUAL SLAVES! EAVES DROPPING MASTERS! CUSTOMER SERVICE SECRETS LEAKED!

Whatever. This thread is farcical.

Yea i don't hold prejudice people in high regard either. And yes, you are being prejudicial. Period.

I agree with Brianna, what's the big deal if someone reads it? Your choice I guess but I wouldn't personally care how many people saw my great customer service

I guess if I felt strongly about the IM thing, then I would just drop a notecard asking for her to send me a notecard describing the problem in detail, and then would respond with another notecard. No IMs, just notecards.

...

Wow. This makes no sense and goes beyond ignorant and straight to stupid & idiotic.

damn..

This entire thread is stunning. And i never thought someone could be so simple minded on this issue.

" Remotely monitoring conversations, posting conversation logs, or sharing conversation logs without consent are all prohibited in Second Life and on the Second Life Forums."

The key phrase you seemed to overlook is: "without consent". She clearly has given her "Master" consent to read her IM's - therefore, it would appear that this is not a violation of TOS.

It does not matter.

He will figure out some other prejudicial reason to avoid them as he has already implied that he does not like those type of people.

I've already decided i won't be buying any of his crap EVER because of this thread and nor will i recommend his builds to people.

In fact, I am going right over to the Gorean Forums and naming and shaming and sending out messages to the D/s groups i am in so they all read this thread and think twice about buying his stuff.

He sure does not mind taking their money even though he does not like them so hopefully they will find other places to spend their money.

In fact, i think i am going to cut me a 16m plot on Ninbriana, match his search criteria, put some extra notes in the description field and notecard giver on the parcel so people can read this thread and come to it if they like.

People like this don't deserve ANY business from the D/s community that they despise so much.

I agree that it doesn't matter. The whole thing is rediculous in my opinion.

No, she warns you that she will share them with her Master and says that, by IMing her, you agree to this. That's not the same thing.
There's nothing there to AR, is there? If you *were to* IM her and if she *were to* share the conversation with her Master, and if you *were to* find out about it, and, *if* you had the proof to send along with the AR, that would be a bit different.

Speaking as BDSM submissive, I would say, since you feel so strongly about it, either conduct the whole transaction through notecards via her Master or just give him a notecard telling him that if she wants your help, then you don't agree to having your IMs shared, and let them decide what they want to do. But it really doesn't seem a big deal.

Maybe they are RPing that they are Dutch and holding slaves in one of their far flung colonies.

Hi Benski -

I had asked a similar question a few weeks back, about the procedure for communicating with a child av on a customer service issue, and if it was expected for the store owner to do this in a roleplay fashion with them, as they were obviously in roleplay when contacting me.

Certainly not expected was just about every opinion that I received, and that it would not be disrespectful or unreasonable at all to ask that they come "out of character" in order to resolve the issue in a timely and efficient fashion.

Agreed, that's all I look for.

People stating such stupid remarks in their profile, and then asking me to IM them, are simply not worth the trouble.

I just find it weird, that people here have no problem with others RPing outside their community.

I have no problem with BDSM or whatever else. I do have a problem with them bringing it to my doorstep.

I do not hold a high thought about those that EXPECT you to agree with it or PULL you in their fantasy.

That does NOT mean I think the same of ALL that RP the same.
But when you feel the need to bring it to my doorstep, don't expect me to act upon it.
That is ALL I ment with this entire conversation.

Obviously I am getting attacked here for what? hating the bdsm community? Not true. I simply cannot stand those that force it upon me. That is ALL.

Those that feel attacked: Sorry, I did never mean the entire BDSM community. I ment those that EXPECT YOU TO FOLLOW THEIR OWN D*M RULES.

Gees how fast can someone be slapt into the ground here for stating concerns.

No worries, I won't ever place ANY question any longer. NOT worth the trouble. NOT worth the stress, NOT worth the bashing down into the ground.

Thanks for the headage.