Photoshopped Pics not matching items sold

I was actually thinking it would be funny to place "This Bastard Is Too Cheap To Buy This Item" on a demo item...but rather than discourage cheapskaterie I fear it would start a fashion trend

The demo version idea is great, but it's just so much more work. SL often feels like "work" to me, just with the maintenance of my shops. I already have a real job and school to deal with - I can't imagine doubling my work, and I don't even put out that much stuff!

Awhile back someone asked for a refund for one of my items for the first time ever, and I don't know if I was in a bad mood or what, but my initial reaction was to be defensive (I think because of the way her request was worded). I'm so glad I talked to Chip, the voice of reason, about it before acting. It didn't hurt me any to refund her money, and I hopefully have retained a customer. I shouldn't have even questioned what to do.

Regarding photoshopped ads & boxes - I really do admire those who spend the time to make their ads all pretty. In alllll my shopping, I've only bought two items that I can remember being really disappointed in, and feeling like the seller was purposely deceptive with their images.

LMAO yeah but it wouldnt go over well with the word Bastard all over it in a PG Sim..LOL


LOL remember the Whitemans Chocolate Samplers where the wrappers have Whitemans all over them over the chocolate?

I fear If I did something like that with JJW it would become the new Gucci..LOL

Shadow

I wasn't suggesting you do it, I was just explaining I have seen it done... Hell I wouldn't do it... I have tons of stuff I have made and never released simply because I havent got around to taking pics and putting em in vendors lol

I'm really new to SL and have only begun to learn the ways of using templates to make clothes and design. That in mind I think this is a highly educational thread.
One thing that popped in my head is that if the creator of a product did a "touchup" to the picture on the package and the actual product pales in comparison, you should absolutely get a refund or at the very least get what you expected when you shelled out your Lindens.

If the creator refuses I think the rules of good/bad customer service should come into play.
I wonder how much longer that creator will be selling products once the word gets around to your friends and your friend's friends that Creator A "touches up" the packaging that contains garbage inside. Maybe this was mentioned earlier in the thread and I missed it.

None the less...just a thought. I'd think this kind of thing, if not handled by the creator, would be bad for business.

Personally, I have never had a major problem with any purchases not looking like they should...and I do tons of shopping. I always take into account lighting and other effects that are used to sharpen/highlight items...as this is done irl ads all the time. It really shouldn't be any surprise to anyone that this happens. I don't consider it false advertising. I consider it "Creative Advertising" If I did buy something and it was way off then of course I would IM the seller and hope that it gets taken care of.

I agree with Ryntha,

I photoshop some of my pictures, I also give a refund of the item if the user is not happy, as long as they give the item back to me in the same hour.

If the item is "Not transferable", i will glady show the buyer the item before the purchase occurs.

I love photoshop and i like messing with photoshop its fun, and i just love to make posters
But not all of my pictures are photoshoped, i mainly just photoshop the "background" not the actual item.

I have found that what one person sees (and photographs) can be a whole lot different from what others may see, depending on their vid card and other factors. This may be a part of the problem.

Thats pretty much what I do - I add a drop shadow to the model once in Photoshop (which doesn't affect the rendering of the clothes and then I add some lighting effects because sometimes no matter what in SL the light doesnt work right when you are taking snapshots and parts are rendered detail less due to darkness or shadows. I will mess with the lighting until I get it right so that it doesn't make the outfit look off colorwise or detailwise.

That said, I have to agree with Alan that I have had the same problem. I buy something and then it doesn't look like what the picture on the box looks like. I usually keep it and avoid the bother of IMing the creator for my money back. But, it does annoy me and then I become more wary of buying things from the creator.

On another note, some box images are either too busy or too dark which cause the same problems....

You can see all of my box shots on SLB as well as about 100 or so other peoples. You can do the same on SL Exchange or Second Server as well..... Its easier that posting pix or looking around at a ton of different stores.

www.slboutique.com/Jennyfur_Peregrine

Its not that it is alot of work... but more so im most peoples cases spatial constraints. I barely have enough room for my normal stock let alone doubling it with demo boxes for every item. If it was an inherent feature or script that would allow you to try on the outfit beforehand without having to create extra primage or vendor work that would be great.

I am so amazed at all these posts that talk about "getting your money back."

I have bought lots of things that turn out to be crap, and IM'ed the creator only to get no response at all. Some of these products were rather blatant example of false advertising.

I have never recieved a refund and never had a seller offer one. I have asked things like "can i just buy that skirt" (instead of the twenty piece ensemble that I dont want) and offered to pay double, and *not* been taken up on it.

With these kind of responses, I stopped asking.

I just assumed that *everyone* spends several hundred lindens a week on bad product

The plus side (and ther is one) is that I usualy try to drop these things on a newbie.

It's almost worth the hassle and the lost money to see their expression when they get 300 bucks worth of Hoochie hair gifted to them on their first day.
And they are not usually as picky as I tend to be.

I think this is an important point.

Most clothes are made for the narrow hipped small boob standard, skins as well.
Because larger boobs make the texture stretch you get some fairly weird results.

Also most of the good tops (that are tight) have ... well lets say "shading" around the nipple area. If this is done for the average model (thin and flat), any more healthily proportioned girl end up with the nipples under her chin.

All of this is also true of the crotch area but I dont htink it is necessary to go into that in detail...

I have bought some *really* expensive, very sexy tight clothes like this that I cannot wear, but I still love them too much to give them away. This is not the designers fault per se., they are just not thinking about it.

Being able to try stuff on would eliminate this, but i can see how it is a ton of more work for the designers.

I cant speak for everyone, but I try to be fair and at least responsive.

I don't get many requests for refunds due to dissatisfaction... When I do, i just refund the money after the person returns the purchased item to me. I would say that the only reason I would not give a refund to someone would be if they asked for their money back and 1) there was no record of the transaction or 2)if they did not have the items to give back to me. Even then I would probably make an exception.

What I get more than people asking for their money back is things like "this doesn't fit right -- could i get a modifyable version" or "do you mind altering this because it doesn't look right on me" i.e. "do you have a non--sheer version of this top. As long as I have the time I don't mind... The only time I couldn't do it was on one occasion after I had my hard drive failure last december and no longer had the templates to make the alterations without having to recreate the entire thing from scratch.

I also get vendor misfires where someone buys something and they don't get it or they end up buying the same thing twice. In which case as long as I see the purchase has been made I give them the item that they wanted.

Most designers don't seem to have a set of rules for returns/exchanges etc. It tends to go case by case.

Yay, my thread got resurrected! If anyone gets mad at my original premise, I think I made some apologies on page 3.

If you buy a lot, you almost have to budget a certain amount of wasted $L.

I never thought about turning the "irregular clothing" into a care package for noobs. That is a great idea.

Stretching to fit different sized AVs is something I wasn't even aware of until a couple months ago. A pair of shorts that looked great on my male AV looked like crap on a friend's AV that was much beefier. I also recently did a wifebeater tank that looked great on my regular female av, but when I put it on the male AV, the shoulders were all messed up. I had to redo the top to get it to look decent on an AV with a wider frame.

Now, when I do unisex items, (unless it's just a black T) I make sure to photograph them on both the male and female AV so people know what they're getting. Other than that, I pretty much just design for my own AV shape. Some hips, some bootie, and some boobs, but none in excessive amounts.

I made a male avatar to deal with that problem because I had the hardest time making mens wear until I did that.

i think i was aware of how clothing affected av shapes from early on whilst messing around back in the indigo castle days and trying to make the largest body size i could. it was fun, but WOW you should have seen what it did to all those hot little Luscious Lingerie outfits I had back then.

my hat is off to the kind folks at Second Skin Labs, after a bout of drinking with some friends, I arrived home to purchase a brand new skin.

I stumbled into the wrong section and bought a female skin by mistake, one IM, and the situation was taken care of.

Love the skin btw

OMG!!! Can you imagine using my 45$ vid card??

No wonder my SL is kinda clunky!
Hmmm -- I wonder why Linden Labs recommended it? I purchased according to their advice

This has happened to me i bought some $150L shorts .. that were vivid and glassy and apealling in the add .. so much i said "WOW"

Then when I go them they were faded and washed out looking, and totally lacked wow.

I gave them away - and wont shop at that store again. And when my friends or noobies ask about this store or that store I tell them.

Okay, I am proving that I am the laziest of all. All I do to the photo is save to disk and then upload. It never sees an editor of any sort. I do try to make the MODEL look good, but that's in game only, using the right combination of skin/hair, etc. Other than that, once that photo is taken, I do nothing to it. Too much work

what I create in the way of clothing ( 2 dresses, 3 t-shirts, 1 generic sweater{white})
I take the picture, save to disk, open psp, crop the picture and clean out the background.
Once I have 1 layer with an invisable background, I transfer this to the company box design, save & upload. I make sure that sides and straps can be seen well so the customer knows what they look like when they buy it. If I suck at clothes ( which I tend to do ) then the customer knows it . LOL Though all the clothing I have made is fairly nice since I tend to be a somewhat detail intensive creator.

Z