Store rebating newbie for mistaken purchase

Has anyone here heard of a store rebating someone for a purchase they made in error ?
Here's the deal. I bought three items as a gift assuming I could pass them on.
I hear the chuckling starting.

Well, my thought was that perhaps the store might be familiar enough with this mistake that they would have a workaround to encourage good public relations.

Does this seem at all likely or do I just have to take my lumps?

Thanks, (crossing my fingers)

If someone got in touch with me and said that, and I had records of them paying me three times for a copy/no-transfer object, I'd certainly give them their money back.

Thanks Malaprop.

I take it you are a store owner so it appears I might be in luck if most stores have your attitude.
I am feeling somewhat more hopeful now.

Yes, if it's clearly a mistake most store owners will refund. But not all.

There are such things as "no copy and no transfer" items out there - rare but they exist - if you bought one of those then the store owner may not be so easy going about a refund.

Same here. If someone purchased multiple copies of the same copy/no-trans item from me, I'd have records of that, and would refund them on all but one purchase. (I have no way to be sure they won't keep one, so they would still have use of that one item.)

If they purchased three different copy/no-transfer items... that would be a bit of a tough case. They would still have the use of those themselves. I would probably be willing to take their word for it one time that they had indeed deleted the items, but there is no way, short of a Linden checking their Inventory for me, that I could verify that they really did that. And I am not even sure if a Linden could or would check their inventory like that, even if the buyer asked them to.

In all cases, if someone contacts me and asks for a transferrable, no-copy version of something I normally sell as copy-OK/no-transfer, I'll happily sell them one. If they want to buy a copy-OK/No transfer one to give as a gift, I'll set that up via SL Boutique, and they can buy it there, and the merchandise will be delivered to the person they choose.

Ceera,
So Glad I was anwered by you.
Because as it happens .. they were purchased through SL boutique.

The items were indeed three different items.. I had intended to give them to a woman as a surprise gift .

I know that the trust thing is important as far as deleting the items goes but as they were women's clothing perhaps you could grant me the favour of believing that I would not wear them ( don't check my profile !)

But seriously.. they WERE intended as gifts and I spent a long time just learning how to shop on SL. Took me probably three hours to make it happen.. (sigh.. yes.. I know it shouldn't have taken me that long)
But the whole wallet thing is pretty confusing

Umm.. so .. pretty please with sugar on it ?

I can just give her the money or a gift certificate with the same amount and we could come in to the shop today to do some kind of an exchange ?

I don't know how it could work but I am sure you maybe could find a way ?

ya gotta give a newb a break eh ?

Believe me scurrilous, it took me about three hours too and that's not including finding the SL Boutique atm in-game in each of my logins and 'linking'! Yes, I know I should have just given my alt the money but then my alt won't login to SLB any more than it logs into here grr!
AND I can't find the package I bought!

Hi scurrilous,

I don't own SL Boutique. I am just one of many hundreds of merchants who use that website to sell my own small line of merchandise. While you may have bought the items through SL Boutque, but you did not buy them from me. I just checked my sales records there.

What you need to do is locate the items again, and note down who is selling those individual items. Each item will be followed by the seller's name. For example ":oda:: Ruby Dress by charlotte morellet" is a dress sold by charlotte morellet. Then you'll need to contact the seller of each item and ask for assistance. They can, in a matter of seconds, look up your purchases of their items, just as I did to verify that "scurrilous Syakumi" has never purchased any items from my SL Boutique offerings. It will then be up to them to decide how to proceed.

Assuming that they either give you a refund, or you just choose to buy new copies of the items and send them to your girlfriend via SLB, here is what you do:

When you are on the page for an item you want to buy, click the button marked "Send as a gift". It will then ask you for the full SL name of the person who is to recieve it. Complete the transaction, and the item you bought will be delivered to your girlfriend's inventory the next time she logs in. You'll also want to send her an IM to let her know the gift is from you. I don't believe that SLB purchases sent to others includes any sort of 'gift card' indicating who sent the item.

If someone comes and buys 20 of my products(which are copy/no trans).. I would more than hapilly refund all but one of their purchases. I think the same can be said of most every retailer who's not "so high and mighty that they can't remember being new"... For items that ARE transfer, I would issue refunds on the grounds that the items be returned to me.

There is a special case I have found, with some products in world, where many a retailer will give you a refund of a single purchased, no-transfer item.. even if it's against their own store policies. and that's buyer error, or confusing advertising (I remember the first time I used a KDC vendor, and didn't know how it worked.. I bought the wrong thing.. ). I have purchased 2 no transfer items that turned out to not be anywhere near as cool as they looked in the pics. (in one case it was due to the pic requiring thousands of particles per second, and my pc only being able to generate hundreds). The shopowners are ususally willing to sacrifice a little product (which on the post-production retail stage, costs them nothing to generate another for sale)... in exchange for a reasonable customer having a good experience in your name.

BUt... this kind of reaction WON't come if you go in with "Your product is a piece of crap, why would anyone buy it? your advertising is completely deceptive!" Instead you have to approach with humility, respect, and realization that the problem is yours, with your computer, or your shape, or whatever... not fitting into the maker's expectations of "average", and you're hopeful that they would be willing to assist you.

Thank you for that Ceera,
Very helpful.
I rechecked my purchases and now realized that only one of the items was non transferrable and it was purchased from a different store than the others (though also through SL Boutique)
Thanks for explaining it to me.
I guess it's almost a happy ending,, and I enjoyed coming to this forum at the same time.

I've had this happen in my store several times, and I try to take it on a case by case basis. We used to have this problem all the time, so we've tried to make it clearer what people are buying. I try to put all the important information clearly on the vendor item picture. We have signs in our store warning people to make sure what they're buying is what they want. We encourage people to ask before they buy.

If someone buys a copiable item more than once, and they notify me, I'll refund the money. If they buy something else, usually it's a "Too bad so sad" situation. A lot of it depends on how I'm approached. If someone seems generally concerned, I'll help them. If someone is being a dick, I won't.

If I make a mistake, I'll refund, fix, or do whatever is necessary to make sure our products work as they should. If the buyer makes a mistake... well... Caveat Emptor.

Seems reasonable to me

I am hoping the store owner recognizes that they won't be out of pocket by allowing it to be "resold" to the originally intended recipient.
Their only risk, I suppose is that I will wear their dress too and get double duty out of it so to speak.
But for the sake of attracting new customers I would think they would enjoy the opportunity to interact with my friend who is then likely to visit them in the future.
Their lines do seem well worth it.
At any rate.. I did discover that only one of the three items I bought was from this particular store so I am not too upset anymore.. At least I was able to drop two outfits into her inventory,.
Haven't seen them yet though

I can't believe how much time is spent on here just trying to figure out how to do stuff,

Oh well, at least it is fun, and is sure to even out eventually.

SOMEDAY I will learn to tie my shoelaces.

Thanks for the advice.
Hopefully not too many come to YOU with that attitude,

I've had this happen twice in the history of my store. Both were pretty obvious, and I was even in the store when one instance occurred, and the guy was sending doubles of his chat lines all night. Both instances were refunded.

My server reports to me if someone buys the same copy/no trans object more than once. I don't wait for 'em to notice before I send their money back; keeping it would just plain be unfair.

This brought me to an interesting situation recently where someone bought a bunch of stuff from me, not having read the permissions. None of the aircraft were meant for her use, but she was buying Christmas presents. She said she would probably not have noticed she was unable to transfer them 'till it was too late.

So I had a choice to make. I have an "all sales are final" policy as no one can return items to me. But her purchases were final, just in the wrong avatar's possession. All my partners on each purchase already had their cut of the price, so no matter what I did it was no skin off anyone's nose but mine own.

So I set up auto delivery for the aircraft. Let her keep the refund, too.

Why? Easy. Customers are more than people who pay you for stuff. They're humans with foibles, and plans, just like the rest. We all make errors, just seems the world would work better if we all tried to help one another out of the consequences of those simple mistakes. Plus it's just a keen feeling to do something nice.

Happily I rarely hear of merchants who sell copy/no trans items who don't give refunds for duplicate purchases. Those that don't also don't last long, for a variety of reasons.

It's foggier about the question of a single mistaken purchase. Short of the item misidentifying its permissions, well, you did buy it. You might just have to take a lump on one of them and call it a learning experience. But, chances are good that treating the seller properly and giving a calm and rational explanation of your position will garner you a reprieve from your mistake.

(I am so going to have my cynic card taken from me for that last sentence.)

I have noticed someone buying the same item multiple times, and when I do ... if they weren't full perm I'll refund them right away, if they were I ask them if they meant to and refund them if not. Most of my products are full perm, some people will buy multiple copies even though they don't need to because they're going to give someone a gift and want to pay me for both people who will be using them.

hope your cynicism is unjustified..

I still have my fingers crossed

Hurray !

This is to update the kind people who responded and to let others know .

The store owner/artist's name is Pukk Abel and she was fabulous in getting back to me and making everything right.
The dress is being worn by its rightful owner and she is thrilled with it.

I might give them a partial refund. However, they still have the item if it is copy no transfer.

If, however, it were transfer, no copy, I would give a full refund if they return it to me.

Even though I don't have to, I try to conduct my business in line with RL legistlation, where practical, such as the Retail Sales Act of 1988. So, for example, I will refund if an item proves not to be fit for the purpose for which it was sold, as stated in said legislation.

umm yup.. thanks

In this case, multiple purchases of a copyable (but not tradeable) item, I'd of course give a refund, that's self-understood. Once I have your purchase on the record, you can always get a backup copy of the same item (with abovementioned permissions), in case you accidently delete it or lose it due to a bug. Alternately I'd offer to trade the purchased copies to the recipient they were meant for, or trade you a +trade -copy version. I do the same if someone purchased just one non-trade item as a gift, and I can see that the buyer most likely has no use for it (i.e. a male buying a female dress as a gift for his girlfriend, for example).