Commando Archive
Thread: What have I done???
Arthur...you poor baby....I swear you'd stepped into my shoes. I made master tailor 2 weeks after I began playing a week after SWG came out. I have trained several of the newer tailors on my server. I find it a shame that some people do make it very difficult for a person to enjoy their profession (or a game for that matter). I find it much easier now to change my title when I got out with friends to raid etc. Although I used to love Uniform Marshall because when I had it...nobody knew much about tailoring and so I just got asked a lot of squad leader questions...ah the good ol' days. Running around with Master Tailor above my head when I know for a fact I don't want to be disturbed is just asking for it.
I agree with what one guy said that tailors on this game tend to be overall patient and tolerant people though. I've had a few doozy of a customers. From a person who expected me to drop what I was doing at the drop of a hat because she needed a shirt (cursed my friends for handing her my name) made for a party 3 planets over in 10 mins...and I'm on the opposite side of the galaxy...and although she paid generously...I found that after a week or so of it and not wanting to be rude....I sure did go LD a lot.
I have also had the rude, crude, and lewd walk into my shops. I do believe that some servers are better than others....I just happened to pick a server where "My kid beat up you honor student" is stuck to a lot of rear ends. Learn fast...and don't be afraid to use that ignore bar...if you can't hear them...they dont exist!...now if they could just erase graphics as well.
As for training...overall I'm a very easy going person. I worked hard to get master tailor and paid for all but one of my skills (paid 10% of that one because I had just started). If a person asks me politely...I know that they truly are just trying to learn they're craft and usually will extend my knowledge for free....however, those people that are rude and demand I not only train them right here and now and insist that I come to them...well they find themselves paying for convenience...mostly being rude or find that oops I seem to have developed a bug that doesn't allow me train *snaps fingers*
Develop what works well for you, remember that it is just a game, you should enjoy what you do. I find that nothing puts a bigger smile on my face than helping a customer to look their best or being complimented on my skills (well maybe blowing up opposite faction....but that's an evil fulfillment :wink
. Find humor and experience in all things, and to the guy with the top 10 list....I think I got a few new sayings for jerks. I also like the idea of I'm sorry it's on my vendor when you're ready to purchase. I just love 12k orders and get 5k and the person takes off....although good natured...I have a darn good memory...oh well...their loss.
And to my great customers who are sweet and generous. LOVE YA!
I have consistently good experiences on Lowca too.Occasionally I have to bite my lip and just admit that the odd customer is going to annoy me with constant remake requests or run off without paying, but almost all the time it is a pleasurable experience. One thing I have never experienced is rudeness with training, and I mentioned this on a thread a while ago. I also payed for all of my tailor skills (bar one or two) yet as long as they are polite I am happy to oblige.
I wouldn't worry though. After doing it for a while you will learn how to juggle the different types of customer. Only do some orders through email, arrange to meet good customers one on one, etc. Best thing is to tell them to go to the shop and email back with whatever they want. That way you can control the interaction. Having every item on display also helps in that case. One trick is also not to spend all your time in the shop. It is very easy to get cornered 
Smi
Crudson wrote:
I have consistently good experiences on Lowca too.Occasionally I have to bite my lip and just admit that the odd customer is going to annoy me with constant remake requests or run off without paying, but almost all the time it is a pleasurable experience. One thing I have never experienced is rudeness with training, and I mentioned this on a thread a while ago. I also payed for all of my tailor skills (bar one or two) yet as long as they are polite I am happy to oblige.
You trained a couple of my boxes and I try to return the kindess to other people. I always enjoy helping people out anyway. So far I have never had someone who wants training not be polite.
Whoa sorry to hear you had such a bad night. I have also given up on turning my title on pretty much ever, esp when I go anywhere but my shop. I have recently taken up dancing and people will occasionaly come into the cantina who know me and blast my cover....and then the fun begins....so I made myself lots of dance clothes and left my tailor tools and crates behind. "Oh I'm sorry you will have to go check out the mall or mail me an order, I'm not carrying what I need right now!!!" I have many many loyal and polite people, and it's not them that is rude, it is all the new customers who come in who seem to feel it is uneccessary to say please or thank you, especially the ones who /tell me. My latest set of tells... "I need you to make me some clothes"...."Hi, make me x, y, z...now." and my favorite which I just had to laugh at, was when I had my afk on because I was out hunting on another planet, and she had already telled me 10 times apparently ignoring my afk msg to please mail orders..."NOOOOOOO I need you to make me some clothes now!!!!!!!!!" LOL. Like I'm going to drop everything and planet hop to make that one clothing....I don't think so. I used to feel bad about turning down orders, but now I don't even blink an eye. I have plenty of money, plenty of business, and hey....I am tired of being a slave to the job. This is a game and supposed to be fun. That is why I dance. I like it, it is fun, I can showcase my clothing quietly, and if someone asks where I got it I can send them a PM letting them know that I made it and where my shop is, and ask that they refrain from discussing it in the cantina. I only tend shop about half the week, the other half I dance. So far it is working out well. I stock one day of the week, take care of all outstanding orders when I get them and head out!!!
I hope you get better customers!! BTW we are in the same area as well, I see more new master tailors running around than ever before. Ahh the good old days when we were few!!
Something you said struck a nerve (not in a bad way, just wanted to share this story)... specifically you said 'tailors tend to be a very tolerant crowd, and put up with too much'.
Well, when I was starting out, there was this PA that also happened to be starting in the same backwater city (Restuss, Rori, still my home - even though most everyone has moved on) and I made a bunch of uniforms for them, even before they were official. So I have a bit of a soft spot for them, and tend to put up with a bit more from their members than I would a total stranger (payback for the biz they brought me early when I needed it badly). So the other day I got a typical combat request (camos and a spec ops)... "Oh, that's too expensive... can you just make me a muscle shirt?". Now, I'm in the middle of a dozen other things, factory run, harvesters, a couple of high end orders with BE tissues on them. So I said to him (roughly) "Well, I'm busy now, but if you come to me, I'll sneak you in quickly"... I was on Rori, he was on Naboo (Keren). He couldn't come, for whatever reason (not 100% sure if he even knew how to get here...), but the PA head said he would act as delivery agent for it. Made the shirt, worked on other things... had to head off to Corellia, so instead of going through Theed as usual (love the no-wait starport there), I went to Keren to meet either one of them there... I get there... and surprise surprise it takes about 15-20 minutes of twiddling my thumbs waiting for the original requester to get himself killed so I could meet him at the cloning center.
You can see it coming, right? Of course it takes forEVER for him to figure out how to use the trade window. He doesn't have the creds on him... *banging my head on the keyboard*... so I follow him to the bank...
The upside of all this? The punchline? Well, a guy popped out of cloning two seconds after this requester, and saw the color on the muscle shirt (I had already given it to the first guy, was considering telling him to just keep it and cut my losses rather than follow him to the bank) and wanted an outfit in the same yellow (well, ok, wanted a decent yellow, but that's another issue). Mr Yellow was a model customer - knew and understood limits of whats possible, understood about critfails, and knew the yellow he wanted was difficult. For Mr Yellow I was glad to make a Dress Robe (yep, that is the yellow he wants, but sadly the Robe just isn't his style) - spent about 20 enjoyable minutes with Mr Yellow, he walked away with two items of BE enhancement and seemed to enjoy the experience too. I walked away happy, with 40k in my pocket , and absolutely convinced that 'helping out the poor guy that just wants a shirt for 1k' is NOT a bad way to make a living (sometimes!). If I'd blown off the first guy, or if he had a clue how to get to the city, or, or, or... I'd have lost out on that 40k sale and who knows how much more future business with Mr Yellow.
Chill, guy, it'll be OK. You just had a rough night. It happens some times. It won't be like this all the time. Or even most of the time. It was just bad luck. Dream customers exist, and they make it all worth while.
Speaking of dream customers ...
My best customer to date, the guy who admitted he knew nothing about clothes but was able to tell me exactly what he wanted people to think when they saw him? He was back in over the weekend, with his real-life wife.I'm pretty sure she had just started the game, and he wanted to spend another bundle of cash to make her look good. Fortunately, I remembered that he admitted he had no taste. Fortunately, so did he - instead of emailing an order, like most people do, he brought her by the showroom.
Thank Prime I didn't fill the original order. She had never seen most of the clothes. I ended up making for her almost exactly the things that he had asked for, two lingerie outfits and a set of casual wear... but in colors that much, much better suited her. When I saw them last, at the bank a bit later, they were both still cooing over how beautiful she looked. They'll be back. And I'll be glad to see them.
Don't let a bad night ruin your mood. Worst case, if you get really funked out by it, take a night off and play a totally unrelated alt on another server, to clear your mind.
Thanks everyone! I'm thinking that was just a horrible abberation too, but we'll see. I'm going to use my "master tailor" tag very selectively from now on, even though dealing with "live" customers is by far my favorite thing to do, there is a limit to how much of it I can take.
I had to move my store to become part of a "mall" yesterday, so I kept my tag off all night. Tonight I have to restock the vendors (haven'thad time to restock all the stuff I've sold over the last 4-5 days or so, plus haven't had time to add all the new master level stuff I can make)so I'll probably keep it off then as well, but the rest of the week I'll see how it goes.
Even with the tag off, I did get some orders yesterday, one of which was from one of the "problem customers" from the night before. I guess, he liked the effort I put in for him, lol, but I think I'm going to cut him loose. Not worth the effort imho and doesn't treat me well enough even though he seems to have plenty of money to spend and was willing to part with it generously. This time he sent me a tell saying "come to the med center right now!! I needyou to see some clothing this NPC has so you can make it for me". I went (no idea why, guess I just have trouble saying "no" and I wasn't that far away as it turned out) and couldn't identify most of what the NPC was wearing. It was a really hideous outfit anyway, lol, and I'm not 100% convinced that the shirt and pants he was wearing were something that we could make. After looking through my list of schematics, twice in fact, I still couldn't identify it. Knowing how picky this guy was I wasn't going to waste a couple crates of synth cloth and fasteners to try to satisfy his request, so I left. He was far too impatient to wait for me anyway and told me to just "do it, and let me know when it's done".
As far as training goes, I'm still trying to determine what my strategy should be for that. I'm a pretty easy going guy, so I do tend to end up a "doormat" a lot, but I do hate the feeling that people are taking advantage of me. I've trained a lot more people than I'd like to admit, but rarely if ever get tips, and I think the best tip I ever got was just under 2k, which floors me considering how much money they are saving, and how few training alternatives they have (very rarely more than 1-2 tailors online at a given time in the city where I live), and these people are competitors after all, and I did pay for all my boxes with my hard earned "novice-tailor-made-cash", so I'm struggling with this issue a lot. I've never yet said flat out "no, I won't train you" to anyone yet, but I'm getting to that point, and I know people that do that. It's not like I'm hurting for money, but it's just the pricipal of it that bothers me.
One person about a week ago was power-grinding, had me train her in a lower-level box (casual 1, maybe, don't remember) was polite, thanked me when I did, but no tip, then a half hour later asked for another box of training. I told her I was headed off planet (which I was) but mainly it was just an excuse to get her off my back and for not appreciating what I had already done for her. In a way I felt bad, but I was also a bit angered that she had taken advantage of me and saw me as a "free tailor trainer" at her disposal. And of course now I could look forward to seeing her items in the bazar in the coming weeks, likely priced below mine.
There's just no way I would impose myself on someone like that. Really the only way I can see doing that is if the trainer needs the apprentice points (like all those scouts at the starports desperate for the apprentice points so they can become rangers/smugglers) or if it's simply a matter of "saving a shuttle trip". But then I'd certainly just pay that person at least 50% if not 100% of the cost of training, it just seems like the right thing to do.
Sounds like the security NPC outfit. I had a similar request from someone to come to Theed's med centre and look at the uniform the guard was wearing. Couldn't make it, of course, since this was pre-3 colour option days. And the pants I'm pretty sure we can't make. Maybe armour...
ArthurDentOnBria wrote:
This time he sent me a tell saying "come to the med center right now!! I needyou to see some clothing this NPC has so you can make it for me". I went (no idea why, guess I just have trouble saying "no" and I wasn't that far away as it turned out) and couldn't identify most of what the NPC was wearing. It was a really hideous outfit anyway, lol, and I'm not 100% convinced that the shirt and pants he was wearing were something that we could make.
Me: "There must be some mistake. I'm a carbineer."
Dude: "it sad master taler b4"
Me: * shrug *
Dude: "@&^$( u $!)(#!!!"
Me: "Hold still so I can report you"
Rough transcript of an actual conversation.
I'll interact all day with mature, interesting players, but I find my patience waning with the rudeness of other people's badly-behaved spawn.
Here's what I know about being a tailor, especially a master: you'll get the most tells when you least want them, and least tells when you most want them.
I love tailoring. I love the interaction with my customers. I have a small shop near Kaadara, with a nice showroom. If I put something on the bazaar, I have a blurb about my shop in the description. I refuse to do the 3000cr renamed casual pants for advertising thing. It's strangely off-putting to me.
Anyway, my point: if you've made it this far, and you're not broke or running deliveries constantly to make ends meet, then you're doing something right. Personally, I recently moved to an elitist, snobby, artiste model of business. I'll still take requests from people on the street (usually when I've forgotten to turn off my Master Tailor flag which resets on every time I play). But mostly I make new customers through conversing with people I find interesting and word of mouth.
I don't think I've made a black duster in a month. I've only had two or three customers have me make something and then complain it was the wrong colour or style. Two of them were understanding about the limitations of our trade (one was even a tailor from another galaxy) and, as such, I did my best to help them. (I actually went so far as to spend 3 hours the next day trying to craft a golden outfit that would look good on a man, but that was more me defying the limitations of the system than good customer service.) The third was an annoying little hyperactive dancer girl that I was only clothing as favour to a friend.
So the good news is, if you're willing to forego a few sales, and willing to spend some time with a person, you've usually got a loyal customer in the end. Some days I don't even have any orders to fill. I spend time with friends instead. But I've still got over one million credits in the bank and counting. Bottomline: you really don't need the rude ones. If you're swamped, say "Sorry, I'm swamped. Please send me an email of your order and I'll get back to you." If they understand, hold on to them, treat them well. If they respond with a bunch of gibberish and poorly-spelled insults, then you haven't lost a customer, you've dodged a bullet. Wipe your brow and move on.
ArthurDentOnBria wrote:
There's just no way I would impose myself on someone like that. Really the only way I can see doing that is if the trainer needs the apprentice points (like all those scouts at the starports desperate for the apprentice points so they can become rangers/smugglers) or if it's simply a matter of "saving a shuttle trip". But then I'd certainly just pay that person at least 50% if not 100% of the cost of training, it just seems like the right thing to do.
Its strange, but I have really never felt like I was being taken advantage of when people ask me for training. I actually enjoy it for some reason. I don't ask for tips and if the person is really struggling, I refuse them. If there is a novice around who needs the AP, I usually try to refer the person to them, but otherwise I will train. I always figured that apprenticeship was supposed to be the normal way to become a crafter and that the NPCs are an alternative. Maybe this is just my personality, though and it perfectly OK to feel differently. I can understand not wanting to be taken advantage of. You aren't just some free training machine to be used at will, but if you really resent training people then just don't do it. They will most likely just grumble something about you being mean (well, they will probably say something that can't be repeated on a public board like this) and move on to someone else. If they can't find anyone else, they will have to come up with the money to pay the NPC trainer. Most novice tailors are within a 250 credit shuttle trip of a NPC trainer, and those trainers never have hurt feelings.
I think that customers and their attitudes have a BIG difference with what server you're on, what planet, city, and area of city.
I've seen a lot of people on other servers mention how people are rude and stuff or expect way more out of you than they are willing to be nice about. I'm on Ahazi and spend 90% of my time on Naboo. When I am in the Theed Cantina I get a lot of very nice entertainers who are respectful and always say please and thank you. It's like they understand the difficulty of your profession and they are patient.
On the other hand, when I travel to other places,Tatooine or Corellia for example, I tend to get a few more people who send /tells without even a "Hi." at the beginning or a "please" at the end of what they have to say. Often they just run up to me and say, can you make me this... if i'm in a funny mood I wont acknowledge them until they at least take the time to let me know it's me their talking to. Say my name, and maybe i'll know you're talking to me, and not the other 2309483049 people standing by the starport! 
Well, last night was my first ever tell hell. Shooo-eee!? It was fun, but boy howdy am I exhausted now. Anchorhead, middle of the night. Even before I got near the cantina. Bombarded. I started juggling tells. My poor R2 (Bobbin) went through 5 batteries! I made more credits in 4 hours than I've made in the last 2 months total. It was bizarre. Did someone spike the water last night? And I had only one rude person the whole night.
Guy: (after hearing my price for 2 exotic leotards, a fleshwrap and a Grand Ball Gown) "$#@^%! That's crazy! _______ (name blanked to protect the undercutter) sells those for only 7k!! You're too $#%$^&* high."
/shrug Ah well. I thanked him for asking, and that I was very well aware of ______'s pricing structure. Buh bye.
Okay, tell hell was fun this first time, but... will the thrill wear off? LOL.
