Merchant Archive
Thread: Should a Merchant have the ability to delete items that aren't theirs?
Page 1 of 2
TheWalt2
Fri May 21, 2004 3:45 pm
#1
This is an issue I have just become painfully aware of recently:
When a merchant deletes a vendor, it deletes all items in the vendor INCLUDING outstanding offers to the vendor! Items that the merchant has not purchased yet and DOES NOT OWN!
I recently won an online auction, and through a mishap, the items were offered on a guildmates vendor instead of mine, and my guildmate, unaware, removed his vendor, which deleted all the items I was intending to purchase.
Should not the seller of the items have the opportunity to retrieve the offers before they get deleted?
Has anyone else experienced this yet?
Thanks in advance for the discussion-
JTGAlpha
Fri May 21, 2004 4:21 pm
#3
Well...what should happen to those items, then? I mean, it'd be just as much a pain if the merchant had to wait for the owner to get around to responding to the merchant much less picking up their stuff...also, the offers window isn't like the trade window where it can just scratch the whole thing and call no fault. So, while I agree it sucks, I'm not sure what could be done about it. But I suppose Doc could ask.
p4Samwise
Fri May 21, 2004 4:24 pm
#4
Return them to the owner? It might seem a little silly to have them magically teleport back to the owner's inventory, but it beats having them vanish without a trace.
JTGAlpha wrote:
Well...what should happen to those items, then?
JTGAlpha
Fri May 21, 2004 4:26 pm
#5
Yeah, but that's the issue. Once something's out of your inventory, there is NO function already existing in this game that can magically teleport it back, which leads me to believe that the functionality of this would be REALLY hard to impossible. See what I'm saying?
TheWalt2
Fri May 21, 2004 4:32 pm
#6
You're right, it's a tricky issue...
Here are a few options:
Email people with outstanding offers with a time limit to return and retrieve their items before the vendor gets deleted...
Or, move the items to the 'Available Items' at the nearest Bazaar terminal (again with email notice)
Or, instead of programming a fix, there are logs available... CSRs should have the authority to return deleted offer items to the original owners.
To me, it just seems WRONG that someone can delete items they haven't even paid for (and in my book, do not own). The last CSR response I received was that ownership is transferred upon the offering to the vendor, by game design. I can't say I entirely agree... maybe this doesn't happen too often, in which case my 3rd option seems entirely plausible.
TheWalt2
Fri May 21, 2004 4:33 pm
#7
Do CSRs have the ability to return items? I know of an instance where credits have been returned...
DingoBoi
Fri May 21, 2004 4:34 pm
#8
offer 5M worth of goods and the vendor gets deleted... don't tell me ownership was transferred when offered... that's why it's called a damn offer... ownership is transferred when bought
p4Samwise
Fri May 21, 2004 4:42 pm
#9
JTGAlpha wrote:
Yeah, but that's the issue. Once something's out of your inventory, there is NO function already existing in this game that can magically teleport it back, which leads me to believe that the functionality of this would be REALLY hard to impossible. See what I'm saying?
Yeah, but I think "oh, that's hard to code" isa ridiculous excuse for completely broken behavior. Especially when the issue is as simple as moving an item from one place in the world to another.
JTGAlpha
Fri May 21, 2004 5:02 pm
#10
Well it depends on HOW hard it is to code. I mean, you're not exactly always in the same spot. It has to find you and put all the items in your inventory. And what if your inventory is full? Ya see? It's not always so cut and dried. There are NO existing mechanics for this right now that even come close, which is what leads me to believe that it's a technologically difficult issue.
Songe
Fri May 21, 2004 5:46 pm
#11
I make sure there are no offers on a vendor when I remove them... If there are I tell the owners that they have 2 days to retrieve it, and only then do I remove the vendor.
But I agree, it's a problem.
DocSavag
Fri May 21, 2004 7:05 pm
#12
Do you have the CSR's name or a ticket number? I'd like to follow up but I need that info to ask about it.
This isn't new behaviour on behalf of the vendor it has always done that. I agree that deleting the items seems wrong. I also don't want the merchant forced to buy them to remove the vendor. returning them to you might not be technically possible to do though. 
TheWalt2
Fri May 21, 2004 8:22 pm
#13
Doc- check your pm's... and thanks for looking into this...
Message Edited by TheWalt2 on 05-21-2004 08:23 PM
Page 1 of 2