Droid Engineer Archive

Hi,

I'm reposting this from the game guide forum, just to get some reaction from the DEs here.

*repost*

Hi,

Just wanted to get something out that happened to me last night on the Starsider server, and hopefully it will serve as a warning to someone about what can happen. Be careful with transactions; don't let this happen to you.

I'm a Master DE, and have something over 100 survey droids on my vendor. I came to an agreement with another player that I would give him a good discount if he bought all of them off my vendor. The deal was that he would buy them off the vendor for 16k for each stack of 8, and then I would tip him back the amount of the discount (10k per stack). Thus, he would be paying 6k for each stack of 8 survey droids.

So there we are in my shop: he buys the first stack of 8 off my vendor. I thought he was going to buy them all at once, and then I would give him the total amount he was owed back, but after buying the first one, he says "I will wait for the tip for each one." So I said "Oh, okay" and then tipped him the amount for that stack (10k) out of my cash inventory. (Note: I had 65k on me, and didn't really want to pay the 5% surcharge for what would eventually total over 100k; so to start with, I tipped him from my cash inventory.)

After waiting a few seconds for him to buy the next stack (and wondering why he didn't), he suddenly says "Shall I report you now?" Totally clueless as to what he's talking about, I say "what?" Then he says he was watching his inventory and that I didn't tip him. Thinking that maybe I had made a mistake somehow, I checked the chat log, and sure enough, it said that I had successfully tipped him the correct amount. I checked my cash amount, and it was 10k lower. I told him several times to check his chat log. Without responding to anything I was saying, he simply kept accusing me over and over of ripping him off, and that he was reporting me. Normally in such a situation, your first reaction is that there was a mistake, but not once did he suggest that. He IMMEDIATELY started threatening to report me and accusing me of ripping him off.

At this point I lost all patience and told him (in pretty unkind language) to get out of my shop, while taking screenshots of the conversation that included my tip tp him. From the moment we had started talking, I noticed he had been acting strangely suspicious, but I had continued with the transaction because I was eager to get rid of the survey droids. So as it stands now, I reported him, and he claims to have reported me. I've banned him from all of my buildings, and I'm still waiting to hear from a CSR.

Later, going through the conversation in the chat log again, I noticed that in the middle of it all (I hadn't seen it when it happened), he had accused me of using a "color hack." I don't know what that is, but it made me remember that before we had done this transaction, he had requested that I also show him how to change the color of his text. Thinking that he needed it for a sign or something, I had agreed to do it after the transaction.

Anyway, I'm convinced that he had this planned all along. It all adds up: 1. His behavior beforehand, plus that fact that 2. instead of thinking there was some mistake he immediately started accusing me, plus the fact that 3. he asked me about how to change the color of his text and then accused me of using a color hack, = I'm convinced he was trying to rip me off. In speaking to another DE who had referred him to me, I learned that this same person had lied about the reasons he had bought some items off the other DE. Even if it turns out that he was simply mistaken about his transaction with me, I STILL hope he gets whatever is coming to him, just for the way he acted. This person is obviously not very experienced in how to deal with people, so I suspect he was some kid.

The bottom line is that he ended up getting a good deal on 8 survey droids, and I made 6k. What can be done about this? What recourse do I have to resolve this? A response from a dev would be nice too.


Rippen Tuck
Master Droid Engineer
RippenCo Droids, Inc.
Starsider, Naboo
-5035, 2652

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TheRealTK421 wrote:

Repost of my reply to the Game Guides version:

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Honestly?


If you know that you tipped the funds, /bug it..../ban him from your shop and place him on /addignore.


Done.


If you didn't do anything, the /report logs wil bear you out on this.


If you don't want to worry about this sort of thing in the future, I'd recommend you simply take a harder line on your pricing. I've pretty well informed my clients that I price my products at where they WILL sell...but custom orders can get worked out after I know that a client is.........reliable (and not a weirdo).


/bow

Respectfully,

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Thanks TK, I guess I just felt the need to post that story because I was so mad about it last night, and want some sort of justice to come out of this. And what is this "color hack" thing he's talking about? And how come I don't see my post on Game Guides now?


Rippen

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Rippen208 wrote:

Thanks TK, I guess I just felt the need to post that story because I was so mad about it last night, and want some sort of justice to come out of this.


I would think that knowing your 'client' will stew in his own ignorance might well be justice enough.


And what is this "color hack" thing he's talking about?


/shrug

Methinks it might just be the rantings of an ill-informed individual. No worries.


And how come I don't see my post on Game Guides now?


Garva problem just whacked it when he saw that it 'moved' over here. It was really off-topic anyway.

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/bow

Respectfully,

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TheRealTK421 wrote:

Repost of my reply to the Game Guides version:

---

Honestly?


If you know that you tipped the funds, /bug it..../ban him from your shop and place him on /addignore.


Done.


If you didn't do anything, the /report logs wil bear you out on this.


If you don't want to worry about this sort of thing in the future, I'd recommend you simply take a harder line on your pricing. I've pretty well informed my clients that I price my products at where they WILL sell...but custom orders can get worked out after I know that a client is.........reliable (and not a weirdo).


/bow

Respectfully,

---

Rippen, you have my sympathy..and whats more it's useful to know there is some sort of scam going with colour changes in chat..I'll be watching for that one.

TK has it right on the nail...keep to your price, be hard, 99% of the time you WILL get your asking price just by saying you never discount, your price is your price..take it or leave it.

Now, established and trusted customers you can of course do deals with..and certainly should..but strangers-never.

I hope you come back to post that a CSR took care of the issue..please let us know.

Good Luck

---

Thanks TK, I guess I just felt the need to post that story because I was so mad about it last night, and want some sort of justice to come out of this. And what is this "color hack" thing he's talking about? And how come I don't see my post on Game Guides now?


Rippen

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Back when I used to play Diablo 2, there was a 3rd party hack referred to as the "color hack" that would allow you to change the color of your text. Our hex code method is intended. The ability to change text color in D2 was not. My guess would be our friend here is coming from that world.

Thanks for this story. Caution should indeed be a priority when dealing with unknown individuals. But let me tell you, I love these situations when they happen to me, because I like to ruin what they though was a clever plan to cheat me out of something and laugh in their face. /cityban is a great weapon.

I know a lot of people don't like to include names in these sorts of posts. I'd like to know this persons name though.

Deidre

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Deidre_DE wrote:

I know a lot of people don't like to include names in these sorts of posts. I'd like to know this persons name though.

Deidre

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I'd just request it via forum PM to Rippen...


This is another excellent reason, folks, to get the DENets running on your server. I can say that Ahazi DEs have been able to avoid a lot of this silliness by simply blacklisting the offenders (after they are reported to the list).



/bow

Respectfully,

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Shian_Tavkin wrote:

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Rippen, you have my sympathy..and whats more it's useful to know there is some sort of scam going with colour changes in chat..I'll be watching for that one.

TK has it right on the nail...keep to your price, be hard, 99% of the time you WILL get your asking price just by saying you never discount, your price is your price..take it or leave it.

Now, established and trusted customers you can of course do deals with..and certainly should..but strangers-never.

I hope you come back to post that a CSR took care of the issue..please let us know.

Good Luck

---

Here's an update to this story. My ticket was answered by a CSR, and she confirmed that I had indeed tipped this guy 10k. I tried to copy/paste it and send it to the guy with a few choice words, but it wouldn't copy. I think he has me on ignore anyway. Thanks for the replies, I'll certainly be more careful. Up to now everything had been fine with customers, I had only done this out of eagerness to move the droids. If I had not been lazy and just removed them from the bazaar and used the trade window, I probably would have accomplished that. Needless to say, I've learned my lesson won't be doing any more convoluted deals involving tips.

Send me a tell in game (Rippen) or send a PM here, and I'll give you the guy's full name. I was in for a short while earlier today and one DE has already done so.

Anyone interested in forming a DE union?


Rippen Tuck
RippenCo Droids, Inc.
Starsider, Naboo
-5035, 2652

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TheRealTK421 wrote:

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Deidre_DE wrote:

I know a lot of people don't like to include names in these sorts of posts. I'd like to know this persons name though.

Deidre

---

I'd just request it via forum PM to Rippen...


This is another excellent reason, folks, to get the DENets running on your server. I can say that Ahazi DEs have been able to avoid a lot of this silliness by simply blacklisting the offenders (after they are reported to the list).



/bow

Respectfully,

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TK, can you explain how to get the DENets going, or provide a link explaining how? I'm not even sure what they are, but it sounds helpful.


Rippen

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neinnunb wrote:
Thanks for this story. Caution should indeed be a priority when dealing with unknown individuals. But let me tell you, I love these situations when they happen to me, because I like to ruin what they though was a clever plan to cheat me out of something and laugh in their face. /cityban is a great weapon.

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LOL I know how ya feel, I wish there was some way to get this guy back, to make him somehow regret what he did, but I probably need to just let it go. I like catching people in the act too, but I also don't like having to be suspicious and distrustful, so all things considered, I hate when this happens.

Rippen