Droid Engineer Archive

I had a very nice customer wait very patiently for me to build her a droid last night. I had sent her the typical email of base prices per chassis as well as a rundown on all the modules. Finally, she sends me an email back with all the modules she wanted in her R3. It struck me as odd that she wanted 3 storage modules, but since my "order-form" email stated that storage was capped at 10 items, I figured I was safe. I quoted her a price, she agreed, and I built the droid.

I crit-failed the first combine (yes, it's irrational... my tools & station are uber, and I'm a master DE), so I'm already looking at a relatively slim profit-margin.

Finished the droid, she came to pick it up, and I colored it for her since she was so patient. YES, it stuck on her R3, which we were both happy about! Her smile quickly faded when she noticed there was only one storage compartment. "Why does it only have one storage?" I explain that the modules stack and create one BIG storage bin, but is capped at 10 items. She said, "Yes, but I thought it was capped at 10 items PER SLOT!" She thought that since she ordered 3 storage modules, she should have 3 compartments with 10-capacity each.

I heartily agreed that it would be NICE if that were possible, but the game simply does not allow it. She was very upset and told me the R3 was a ripoff (I was biting my tongue at this point since I barely broke even on it, what with the crit-fail prior) since it really didn't hold as many "compartments" as she thought.

THE MORAL OF THE STORY: do NOT assume your customers know what they're ordering, even if they sound like they do!! ALWAYS question their ability to request what they want, because they are probably imagining something a whole lot cooler than SWG dictates our droids can be!

Frustrated,

I know how you feel it sucks when someone goes defcon 6 on you without letting you explain. In the 100s of driods I have sold I only have had 2 people come back and say I ripped them off, after explaining the situation to the first person the issue was resolved. My last runin was very different the person started off with f this f that your a ripoff dickhead blah blah blah. I sell sometimes 10 driods a day and dont catolouge every sale so of course I have no idea what driod this guy is even talking about.

Finally he said that he has consulted his panel of driod engineers and they agreed that I ripped him off by charging him 10k instead of 5k (well why did you buy it from me?). Of course the only response I get when I ask what driod is F-you, so I am assuming it was a r5. Well I told him im sorry if he felt it was a ripoff but there is not a set price list and I have had no problem selling these for 10k and will continue to do so. I just wish people would shop around if they are so tight with there money.

The other thing that this person claimed was that it was somehow my fault that his driod was taking a lot of batteries. I tried to explain that driods no longer charge in the datapad, that was when I found out I was a f-king dickhead.

For the most part I love selling driods but sometimes I feel like bailing because it can end up being more tedious than its worth. I put out a email explaining what the modules do and also do a recap before I make the driod.

I don't even DISCUSS modules with customers per se. Instead, I only talk capabilities. My simple line is "The maximum number of modules ANY droid can hold is ten".

I sell droids by acquiring capability desires, and then offering the chassis designs that will accomodate.

WOW! That's pretty nasty, Darthfodder. Fortunately, my customer was not rude about it, just extremely disappointed. ..and here I am, Master DE, with a customer unhappy with the nicest droid I can make. Kind of a powerless feeling. bleh..

Maybe I should just take a week off and go fishing...

I feel for you Mirius.

I had someone who wanted a droid with a medical module and a food/chem station in it. I told them I was making another customer's order but I would get to their's as soon as I could. They ended up being too impatient to wait 20 minutes so they bought a Adv Probot with those modules off my vendor. I then had to listen to 30 minutes of whining and name calling because they spent all their money and couldn't buy batteries. Like it was my fault!

My latest pet peeve is people who order things and never pick them up. What do you guys do about that?

Sell them to somone else if it drops off my vendor once... 7days is plenty of time to wait. What do you do for custom orders to keep other random customers from buying them even when both the Deed and the Description are clearly marked as a custom order for XYZ customer.

I have a house and a workshop side by side, it would be Great if I could keep one private but still set a vendor in there for custom orders and set access to just those ppl.

the trick I've learned for when people accuse you of ripping them off or any other kind of shady business practices is just to have a good solid customer base. This helps you out in 2 ways, first of all it gets repeat business and referals so I don't have to advertise (despite what some DE's I've met believe, I can easily sell 3, 4, 5, or even more droids to a person, plus any chassis/batteries/paint jobs etc...). Secondly they provide me with a good reputation. If anyone ever questions my creadibility I can send them a list of 250 satisfied customers that would readily back me up and recommend my droids to them.

Jenden Morn - Master Droid Engineer - Mos Espa, Tarquinas

Owner, Operator, and Founder of DarkStar Inc.

I don't mark deeds with anything but the droid style and capabilities.

I DO, however, maintain seperate vendors in my home. All my 'standard model' configuration droids, along with batteries and such go on my main vendor in the front room. All custom-ordered droids are put on a different back-room vendor who holds nothing else. I do put the buyer's name in the 'seller's description' section, but I figure there's always a risk of a customer backing out on a deal, so all the droids just get named for what they do, and if it isn't picked up, I guess I'll put it on the main vendor.

I've tried other strategies as well, but nothing works like a completely different vendor. On occasion I've put custom droids on the main vendor at a greatly increased price, and had the customer offer some worthless item for the difference. This worked ok, and the one time someone did a pirate purchase, it was just more cash for me, and the actual customer never even knew it happened because I replaced the droid quickly. However, I don't really like asking customers to go through this hoop, and I have even had to go into a detailed explanation of how to offer goods once... So I trained that skill and got the new guy.

I usually pitch my droids by their abilities and not by modules, though I'll explain the mods if they want: "What do you want your droid to do? Help you heal, craft, store itemsor kill -- or all of the above?"

Important things to disclose are: The need for batteries, the limit of 5 droids in datapad, no medical mod use in cantina, avoiding the dismiss button like the plague, max limit on on item storage for all droids, and no calling droids in-doors in a city. *sigh*

Some of these are more crucial then others. I lost a lot of cash to a guy who had 4 droids in his inventory and ordered a bunch of customized droids with no crafting stations. I thought he was getting them for friends(didn't know until he couln't tame the deeds). That's one of the few times anyone has ever screwed me over, though. Ironically, it was a Master CH. We worked out a deal, but now I make sure all customers agree that all droid sales are final and often demand a deposit up front if I don't know the player or meet them in some foreign port.

I really feel sorry for all you guys. The only droid I've made to order since I became a Master Droid Engineer was a probot with a med mod for some new player I pitied.

I only became a DE because I like droids, and I make them for free for my friends. I DO NOT make droids to order, and I get some pretty pissed off people when I say that. I only ever sell droids if I'm desperate for money or I have extras on me.

I had one bad customer when I was not a master DE and sold droids then. He thought the data module stored missions, and said I ripped him off. I told him "...it's not my fault you're ignorant."

Bad customer service? Possibly. But since I am not a made to order DE master, that's not something I have to worry about. And I'd never refund someone's money if I know I did the job to order.

I'm sort of like Eric in that I don't make droids to order. Well except for the odd person I know. I work full-time and I find it consuming to come home and then work all night on orders. So I just set the factories to make components and I work on a line of about 100 droids a week. When they're done I take one and tame it, test it to see what it can really do (all this after reading the forums here extensively for bugs/issues). Then when I list it, I list what its capabilities are, what any issues are (such as not being able to name talking droids), etc., just to make sure that any buyer knows what he/she's getting into. So far just one issue that was solved by buying the droid back and selling it to someone else as it was still in deed form. My system isn't perfect but I'm working on it.When I did make orders it was alot of headaches. People are under the assumption that droid modules work as they are supposed to.

Still from what I've read, doing custom orders is the way for some people and it'd be a good way to build a customer base, and there are nice suggestions in this thread to deal with the issues involved.

Good advice. Unfortunately, some people are going to want to return droids, even though we can't do anything with them. I keep a Datapad slot open, just so I can take and examine droids from customers. And I'll refund their money if they wish. It works out in the long-run. Most of them continue to buy droids and supplies from me. Critical failures and returns are just a part of business, and another reason we shouldn't low-ball the price.

I think we need a datapad slot for each type of droid we sell, so we can show off our wares. A DE really only has 4 datapad slots, since he needs to look at customer droids from time to time, and therefore has to have an expendable slot to receive those droids.

I have to say, I haven't had many people call my prices (or droids) a rip-off. However, I did get one funny situation which weant to show the respect local people had for me as a local DE.. I'll explain below.

I was sitting outside the Bestine cantina last week happily selling "fully customised colour ADV R2 units". I was selling them for 20k which personaly is LOWER than my usual price (usualy atleast 25k) .. but I was having fun and was seing a LOT of happy customers. You would not believe how many times i got tipped over 5k for painting the droid AFTER they had already paid the initial 20k (which I had already said included the paint). People were delighted by them.

Then, this short blue Mon Calamari comes along. At this point, I was franticaly trying to deal with two customers at the same time (my first mistake) and had just run our of pre-crafted modules and chasis, so I was having to build from scratch as well... he asks for "a Droid for healing outside the Cantina". At first, I didn't see his request as I was trying (very hard) to deal with /tells from two customers. So he asks again, this time wording it in a more aggressive way and actually using my name. So I reply with the usual "of course. What type of droid would you like?". At this point, I had finished one of the R2 units I was building and had traded it to the customer .. was now going through the explenation of why they have to /consent me before I can paint (while still trying to build the modules for the second customer). So the Mon Cal, now appearing very angry, replied "The one behind you. BEHIND YOU" Of course, there was about 10 people standing around me. Several R2 units were called (ones I had just sold) as well as a few other types of droids ... people were comparing their colours and droids, yet another thing that made this selling spre of mine so enjoyable .. every crafter loves a crowd praising their work anyway, I finaly get that R2 painted and get a few "thanks! this is awsome!" messages from the customer, and reply to the Mon Cal once more "Which one? There are about 6 droids behind me" ... so he shouts at me "I want a droid to med outside the cantina" ... this guy must have been about 12 or something, I swear. So I reply "Yes I can do that, but you need to choose a type of droid" this finaly sank in, and he screamed "I wan an R2-D2. How much for?". "I'm currently selling them for 20k" I reply. Ofcourse, he must have known this anyway considering he had been standing there for about 10 minutes watching me sell several R2's for this price. "20k? OMFG thats a rip off" He screams as I finish up the second droid and trade it with the customer. "I can get droids for under 9k on Gorath" He yelled. "I have given you my price. As it is, 20k is a very reasonable price" I reply, trying exceptionaly hard to keep my cool.

Needless to say, this whole "rip off" speach goes on for about 5 minutes, then he goes quiet and just stands there. Meanwhile, I sell yet another droid and get yet more happy replies from customers. Then he asks again "How much would an R2 cost?" so I reply "The same as they cost 20 minutes ago. 20k" ... He then turns away and starts yelling "Is anyone selling droids?" and runs off towards the bank. The people standing around me were laughing at him, and telling me how they hate when people do this kind of thing. Everyone was on my side (a very nice feeling).

Anyway, I sat there for about 30 minutes trying to re-build a collection of modules to start selling R2s again.. and he's still there, yelling "Is anyone selling Droids" ... and this is where I smiled so much my face almost broke.. everytime he yelled it, someone yelled back "Yeah H'oshi is" (thats my name) and we all laughed. This must have gone on for about an hour.

Needles to say that during the course of that day, I had made a LOT of people happy and they had, in return, made me happy as well. Customers were standing there DEFENDING my prices while some silly short Mon Calamari attempted to claim rip-off.