Merchant Archive

So I get this email today on my SWG forum account. The author says that he bought a gun at my vendor on Sunday for 14k, but forgot to retrieve it.

On Monday morning, after finally making novice merchant, I removed my old vendor and replaced it with a new NPC vendor.

As you know, when you remove a vendor, any stuff left on it goes bye bye. So of course, I was careful to remove all of my stuff from my old terminal vendor before destroying it. As you might expect, the store owner can't see any items on the store once someone has bought them, so I had no way of knowing this gun was still on my store waiting to be picked up.

In any case, the gun has been sent to /dev/null and this guy writes me to ask that I refund his 14k. My first instinct is that this is totally not my fault and there's no reason I should have to eat this cost. What do you guys think? Should I refund his money?

Item retrieval from any type of vendor is basic game knowledge and learned by all of us, usually after just such an incident.All fault lays on the buyer in this story.

If it were me, and I had replaced the merchant vendor before the buyer realized their mistake and came back, I had the email where this person actually did buy it, and I didn't smell a scam,I would look to future business and pay his loss or replace therifle for free. By crafting and running a game store ourselves, we have to be our own very real customer service in a way, sowise advice might be don't treat a potential good customer like Sony treats our tickets: suspicion and distrust. Make his or herday. You need the exposure and good name it might generate. Might even make a friend.

A more normal approach might be to offer to make another one for cost, and share the cost of his mistake.

Just out of curosity, what would your favorite Star Wars character actually do inthis situation?

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Forgery wrote:

So I get this email today on my SWG forum account. The author says that he bought a gun at my vendor on Sunday for 14k, but forgot to retrieve it.

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Do what Charla did in Paradise Hotel: keep the money. haha

Seriously, I don't know, this is a tough one.

Here is my thought.

1. If you spend 14k on a gun, and fail to retrive it, for many days, I would question if it is true from the start. I would not pay 14k for a gun, something I use all the time, and forget it. For many in this game that would be like playing with your screen turned off.


2. As one said, getting your item from a vendor is BASIC 101, and if you spend 14k on a gun, you are not a newbie.

Tell him sorry, it is gone, and if you would like, offer him a gun at a discount. But I would not refund him.

Nope, I wouldnt give him the money back. I would apologize, be sympathetic and offer another with a small discount. If that isnt good enough for him, its not your problem. IfI left something on someones vendor that long and didnt pick it up, I know that is my fault and wouldnt even ask for a replacement.

Its like when we had the problem with customers buying stuff, leaving your shoppe and crossing a barrier, and the stuff disappeared. I never felt obligated to refund peoples money then either.

~Prinethea

The obligatory SWG merchant sign:

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All items not claimed in 3 days are not managements responsibility

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It's true in the real world and true in SWG.

I'd say: offer him a comparable gun for free. That's what I would do.

If the customer is genuine:

- Makes him happy, he gets what he wanted to buy for the price he wanted to pay for it
- Reduces your "loss" (you probably made a 400% markup on that gun ~ 11,200~, so this will _only_ cut the markup down to 300% ~8,400 ~, still a nice profit)

If the customer is fooling you (which I highly doubt, the general intelligence of customers, no disrespect intended, isn't capable of such clever scheme's):

- Makes him happy, he gets what he wanted for free
- Reduces your "loss". Only costs you 2,400 credits (assuming that's the cost to create) compared to the 14,000 credits he is asking now.

In both cases your loss is covered (2nd case by your other sales) so you _can_ afford to be a generous salesperson and act as you'd expect any supplier would act towards you if it happened to you.

Goff McMerrii
Miner

I had the exact same thing happen to one of my customers when I first opened my shop. Not only did I replace the items at no charge, I delivered them to her on another planet.

As a result, she became one of my most loyal customers. The cost of the original items has been repaid to me many times over.

I sell everything..

I once had a client who came in , bought a repair kit and a gun... used the repair kit a day later.. and the gun was destoryed.

He called me up and asked why the gun fell apart on the first repair.. and i knew it was legit. I told him it was a case of bad luck, to come back to my shop and pick up another new gun for free. That is customer service.

If it happens again... to any other client.. sorry , but im not replacing it. For the first person who bought it.. he has been in my shop Numerous times.. and has bought so much stuff i cant even recall it all.

Customer service in this game is key. Ive helped a few clients here and there get off their feet, and in return weekes later they came back to me with a huge tip or even matierals they knew i used. I have one client who gave me 80k material over a week period because i was really nice to his RL wife.

No matter what you think.. give your clients great service.. you never know if they will join a PA, and bring everyone to your shop and you make 100 sales. Im a master merchant.. and i love my clients.

Hope this helps.. Eat the cost of the gun.. and get him a new one... Much cheaper for you to replace it then to give back the cash. Just my 2 credits.

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alibinsophos wrote:

Just out of curosity, what would your favorite Star Wars character actually do inthis situation?

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Send a platoon of stormtroopers out to flash-fry his family and then blow up his homeworld.

What?

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