Droid Engineer Archive

Over the past month, I've had some exceptionaly cheeky customers (one such customer yesterday) and thought I would start a post to find out how many people have suffered this, and so see how you personaly deal with it. So with that in mind, here are a few questions:

1. What is the lowest price someone has asked you to sell a droid for?
   


2. What is the lowest price you have solda droid for?
   


3. When someone asks for a price lower than you are willing to sell at, what do you do?
   


4. If someone aggro's you claiming you are ripping them off, what do you do?

I'll start off...

1. What is the lowest price someone has asked you to sell a droid for?
   2k ... for a Probot!
   
   
2. What is the lowest price you have solda droid for?
   5k ... and only because I was selling to a friend (except for BH droids, but they don't count)
   
   
3. When someone asks for a price lower than you are willing to sell at, what do you do?
   Try and convince them that it is worth paying MY price... otherwise, I'll just walk on
   
   
4. If someone aggro's you claiming you are ripping them off, what do you do?
   Laugh at them so hard my intestinal tract is forced through my own throat. After I have finished regergitating my internal organs, I proceed to the /ignore feature

What is the lowest price someone has asked you to sell a droid for?
Free.... Lowest actual price someone asked for was 700c, but I've had people ask for free surgical droids.

What is the lowest price you have solda droid for?
400c, the amount I sold MSE's with medical modules for when I was a novice. As a master, 3k is the price of my cheapest droid.

When someone asks for a price lower than you are willing to sell at, what do you do?
Tell them that my prices are more reasonable than most/all the others they will find, and to let me know when they're ready to pay.

If someone aggro's you claiming you are ripping them off, what do you do?
Never actually had this happen, but I would just tell them if they think they can get it elsewhere cheaper, go for it.

Jenden Morn - Master Droid Engineer - Mos Espa, Tarquinas

Owner Operator, and Founder of DarkStar Inc.

What is the lowest price someone has asked you to sell a droid for?

500 credits for a Probot. The person sat and whinner for a little while in my shop and protested that they didn't have the credits to buy the droid. Two hours later the person returned and ended up buying an R3 from my vendor. /shrug

What is the lowest price you have solda droid for?

500 credits for an MSE back when I just began started the profession. This included a level 1 medical module or level 1 storage with every droid,

When someone asks for a price lower than you are willing to sell at, what do you do?

I tell them that I am firm on my pricing and that if they are looking to buy cheap droids, to go a check the bazaar. I only offer the best quality droids that can be produced and I offer them at a price that reflects this.

If someone aggro's you claiming you are ripping them off, what do you do?

I had someone leave me an E-mail the other day that stated that the droid that they bought didn't have any of the functions that it was stated to have. At the end of the E-mail was a statement to the effect of that I must be in the business of ripping people off. I sent them a politely written reply that plainly stated that I was offended by such an acusation and that I have created a strong feeling of trust in my services with many of the better known crafters on the server. I also told the person that if they wished to throw around such conclusions about what had happened, I would let others of the crafting community, mainly the more renouned Armor and Weaponsmiths, know of this persons acusations. Amazingly enough, as soon as the person logged back on an read their E-mail,I recieved a complete appology from the personanda few days later had a number of customers refered to me by the person.

1. What is the lowest price you have solda droid for?
   

As a novice DE, I started selling MSE with level 1 medical for 1000.... then when I was in mid-grind, I decided to put a bunch on the vendor for 250.

Of course, I do have a thriving business selling droid _batteries_ in factory cases, so I make my money there.... and the more people with a droid, any droid, that they find useful, the more folks buying batteries.

(It's an odd day when you sell 3k worth of droids and 29k worth of batteries....)

1) I have not often been asked for very low-priced droids, I guess the one guy who wanted to spend 5K on a 110% medical + food crafting surgical droid would be the most egregious though.

2) As with so many others, I actually DID sell a few droids as a novice, and I did manage to sell a few level 1 medical MSE droids at 500 credits each.

3) I immediately decide NOT to offer the discount I otherwise would have. On custom droid orders, I quote a price, and when they show up to buy it from my custom vendor, I'm sure they're quite happy to generally see that the price is often lower. Sometimes I don't discount, for various reasons (like, I forgot to tell the HIGH price or something). If you ask me for a discount, I MIGHT give you one, but you will almost certainly wind up paying more than if you hadn't...

4) Haven't had this happen to me yet... Lucky, I guess, or maybe I haven't sold enough droids yet... Although yesterday I was looking through my in-game email and I was shocked at the sheer number of droid sales. In any case, I make it a VERY strong point to keep up-to-date on current droid issues, and I am over-the-top in terms of making customers aware of the pitfalls and problems. I have (mostly) managed to avoid building 'broken' droid combinations, primarily due to this board. I've had one incident where a customer did not get what he expected, and to this day I'm not sure where communication broke down. He got a free R2 with 110% medical and 10 item storage slots out of the deal, and I got tipped 5000 credits for delivering the new one, which eased the pain a bit.

1. What is the lowest price someone has asked you to sell a droid for?
   Free, I had no idea who they were ethier. I was busy building a droid for a repeat customer that was standing there and this person comes up and asks if I can build a droid for them. I say sure, just wait till I am finished with my current customer. And the person says can you build one for free. To which of course I say no. And the person replies but I don't have any money. To which I reply neither would I if I gave all my droids away.
   
   


2. What is the lowest price you have solda droid for?
   Free but only to friends. (And they never asked for free droids it was just my choice, and several of them tiped me anyway)
   
   


3. When someone asks for a price lower than you are willing to sell at, what do you do?
   I don't sell to them, quite frankly I stay too busy to be bothered by rude customers. However for people that are nice, I will work something out with them such as trading a droid for items, sometimes even if I don't really need the item. And I also give discounts to repeat customers that are nice even though they never asked for a discount.
   
   


4. If someone aggro's you claiming you are ripping them off, what do you do?
   
   I've not had this happen yet. And I've sold some cheap droids too. When we had that bug that we couldn't build any droids at all for a few days I had found a few old R5's from my grinding days with like level 1 modules in them. I put them up on my vendor for a really cheap price and made a very long descripton about it saying don't buy this droid for the modules, it is an old one I found, I can build you a better one later. And I've also sold protocal droids off my vendor and in the description stating that this droid has no modules whatsoever and all it does is follow you around.
   
   
   I just always try to be very thorough when selling my droids in person and on my vendor and so far it has kept anyone from claiming that I ripped them off. I also make sure and take time with customers and Non customers and answer any and all questions that they have.

1) What is the lowest price someone has asked you to sell a droid for?

Free

2) What is the lowest price you have sold a droid for?

Free, but only to friends

3) When someone asks for a price lower than you are willing to sell at, what do you do?

Tell them that just like any of the renowned weaponsmiths on the server, my prices are not negotiable and are reasonable taking into consideration my skill level, the resources required, and the time it takes to craft the droid in question. I tell them to email me with their order once they have sufficient funds.

4) If someone aggro's you claiming you are ripping them off, what do you

Tell them that if they do not like the price, that they are certainly welcome to craft the droid themselves. (They always like that).

Even though I sell droids very cheap (6k light armored probots, 10k max armored), I do like people haggling. So, if someone comes and say 'would you sell it for 8k?' I'd go '9500' he'd go '8500?' I'd say 9k and it's yours, if he tries to go lower than that, I say 'sorry, got another customer waiting'.
Cheapest I've sold. A seeker for free, a surgical for very cheap (because I claimed it had a storage unit and then when she called it, it looked like it didn't, then checked forums and read they were bugged).

1. What is the lowest price someone has asked you to sell a droid for?

hmmm 12k for an adv probot maybe 20k for a r2

1. What is the lowest price you have solda droid for?

MSE's back when i was new 1k to 2k, nowadays i sell MSE's for 6k, havent sold one under that in 2 months

1. When someone asks for a price lower than you are willing to sell at, what do you do?

Tell them, "Gee im sorry, i cant sell less than the prices i posted. If you feel my prices arent fair, feel free to shop around" then i point them to the non-existant competition on the global map

1. If someone aggro's you claiming you are ripping them off, what do you do?

If its something that is my fault, aka a screw up on my part i comp them a droid otherwise, i try to reason with them if they seem at least somewhat civil, and if they arent civil i suggest they take there business elsewhere.

1. What is the lowest price someone has asked you to sell a droid for?

I had a couple of customers beg me to sell them R3s for 5k. I laughed. Actually, my favorite incident of this nature was when I ran into a new player (still basic artisan) who aspired to grind to armorsmith. He was blasting me with a million questions regarding surveying, harvesters, etc.. (which is fine, I have my "Helper" tag on for a reason) and finally mentioned needing steel. Itold himthat I had recently finished my grind to Master DE a week or so prior, so I had accumulated about 100k steel. I told this new player that if he needed grinding steel, I'd sell as much as he neededfor only 1.5 cr/unit. True, it was relatively low OQ, but for grinding it'sperfect.He agrees that he certainly could use it, so I ran to my house nearby and grabbed the steel.. I got back, split the steel to trade with him, and then he says: "What..You want me to pay???" He then walked away and I laughed until my spleen hurt.

2. What is the lowest price you have solda droid for?

Free. When I was grinding DE, I made a couple of probots with level1 armor andno modules for my vendor. They NEVER sold. After a couple of weeks, I was far enoughup the DE tree that these probots were hopelessly obsolete. I then took several of them tothe nearest hospital and handed them out ton00bs who were comingin with terrible wounds. I gave them all a quick lesson in droid controls, how to care for them,how to name them, etc.. I sent them all a waypoint for my store and have seen ALL of them as repeat customers. Sometimes it just takes afreebie to jump-start a market. The excitement and smiles from handing a droidto these younger players made my day too..

3. When someone asks for a price lower than you are willing to sell at, what do you do?

I sell at relatively low prices, so I don't get that many hagglers. The few people who do haggle with me anymore are typically ignorant of the quality I build into my droids. Most of them who use the "my DE buddy can build it for less" are talking about Novice DEs. Thus, I typically say: "Yes, they can build it for less, but it won't be a probot with 110% medical and 10-item storage.." High-level modules are expensive.. if you want the added luxury, you have to pay for it.

4. If someone aggro's you claiming you are ripping them off, what do you do?

Unfortunately I had this happen recently, since there was a misconception on droid item storage capacity. I held my ground and explained all the other high-end features this droid possessed. It seems players overlook this huge, exceptional machine and dwell on a particular feature not being right. Heck, the storage even worked (was in an R3), it just wasn't 50 like she thought it would be.

The bottom line is:the average player has NO clue how borked droids are. They expect them to be every bit as cool or COOLER than they were in the movies. Trying to tell customers otherwise is like trying to spread creamy peanut butter on a grizzly-bear... doesn't go smoothly.

Cheers,

1. What is the lowest price someone has asked you to sell a droid for?

5K for a protocol droid.


2. What is the lowest price you have sold a droid for?

1K for a medical mouse droid when I first became a DE. Funny thing was the person tipped me more and said I should raise my prices. Actually there was one person who I waived his tab. He was one of my first customers and I gave him a credit line. While he never fully paid it off, he a) made payments towards it, b) bought other things, and c) became a friend. The last time he approached me to pay more of it off I told him I zeroed his tab.

3. When someone asks for a price lower than you are willing to sell at, what do you do?

It depends on my mood and the situation. Depending on how expensive the unit is I may lower the price a little but I do have a lower limit. If they won't pay that I politely apologize and ask them to come back if they don't find a better deal.

4. If someone aggro's you claiming you are ripping them off, what do you do?

I haven't had anyone come back and complain like this. If someone did it would depend on how they thought I was ripping them off. If it was because DE #2 sells the same unit for X credits less I'd tell him that those are his prices, these are mine. If he was polite I may offer a discount on his next buy. If his complaint was the result of a mistake, a bug, misunderstanding or something like that I'd try to correct the problem even replacing the whole droid. If no solution could be found and he was polite I'd offer to take back the droid and give him a refund.

1. A person asked me to make a surgical for 300cr, the shuttle was sitting there and as he started whining I vanished before his very eyes.

2. A friend of mine was moving so I sold him R5s with 10 item storage for 4k a piece.

3. If its not a friend or referral a lot of times I will set my price a little higher than I normally do and haggle down to the price i would normally sell it for.

4. Only had this happen twice, both times it was my panel of DEs said you charged to much. One person I resolved the issue. The other person just kept swearing at me telling me it was my fault his driod was taking to many batteries, I tried to explain things calmly but he just kept telling me what a dickhead ripoff master i was. I did have a problem with storage in a surgical I sold but resolved the issue with no harm done.

Sometimes you just now when you are going to deal with some worthless turd and have to just weather the **edit** storm.