Shipwright Archive
Thread: What Should I Do About This Customer
Chickenbone
Thu Mar 31, 2005 8:20 am
#14
That's a very unfortunate dilemma newwb. Thanks for sharing that story. I probably would've done the same thing you did. I guess I could be too trusting sometimes. If I ever get a large order like that in the future (especially one that involves a master level chassis), I would definitely ask for a deposit.
teanmili
Thu Mar 31, 2005 11:51 am
#15
You people are so harsh .. If i was a customer and was buying a ship i would look for best price Obviously mass is not a prob om YT-1300 you can use junk resources to make all carrier ships and make an even bigger profit as long as you can get the HP around 4k your good to go . I personally sell all my passenger ships for 450k with no complaints about price charging 900-1mil for them is BS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Golrok
Thu Mar 31, 2005 12:01 pm
#16
newwb wrote:
I would like to request my fellow shipwright's genius in this dilema of mine. Here's the situation:
One of my more frequent customers obtained master freelance pilot and requested that I build him a fully equiped YT-1300 with all mark 5 products. I broke out my pricing calculator and the total price suprised even me: 1.2 million. So i told him that would be the price and he said he would have in a couple of days. I trusted this person, so I went ahead and built everything, put it on my vendor, and sent him a tell. He responded by saying he would have my payment soon. So I log on today, and I see I have received an e-mail from him. It says that he managed to find someone who is selling a YT-1300 for 250k, so he said ditch this ship and just give me the parts. Needless to say, that PISSED me off. Now here's where I need advice, there's no chance hes going to want to buy the ship, now that he bought one for cheaper, but I still need my compensation. How should I deal with this situation. Thanks.
This is the EXACT reason I now refuse to to do pre-orders on high end chasis. If I were you, I would just jerk his chain if he asks for service again. Tell him a 2good to be true price on something, the next time he sends tell, and lie about how good its going to be.
Then tell him to meet you on some random location on Lok as you have recently set up shop due to some rare resource there or some BS like that. Like very far south of Nyms, where most likely he'll get attacked by a Krayt Dragon on his bike ride, (not to mention hordes of otherruffies) sending himto a remote cloning area, far from nyms, while you go "/afk" in coronet.. Wait to go /AFK after he sends the "where the hellare you?? I'm at the WP" tell. Unless he's a Jedi or soemthing, he's in for a real headache if he doesnt clone in nyms.
Unless on your server Lok has several PC cloning centers, I'd say this punishment for his crappy ethicswould be most appropriate. I now boycott any pre-orderchasis request from all strangers. As this chasis lowballing crap is rampant, and"customers" always claim your gouging them when all your trying to do really is break even.
"waaah! joo suck!! I see chasis for way cheaper!" Then wth are they doing sending tells for them??
Golrok
Thu Mar 31, 2005 12:08 pm
#17
Jagged-F3l wrote:
However, Master Shipwrights on my server, especially those with good resource reserves, are becoming more and more rare.
Same on my server. And I'll be damed if the gen pop is gonna push my rare snakelikeass around.
TomoRainer
Thu Mar 31, 2005 12:26 pm
#18
Golrok wrote:Jagged-F3l wrote:
However, Master Shipwrights on my server, especially those with good resource reserves, are becoming more and more rare.
Same on my server. And I'll be damed if the gen pop is gonna push my rare snakelikeass around.
Yeah, but if you're already one of the server's high-end shipwrights, you don't really need to worry when things like this happen, as you're already rich. I like keeping my word of mouth good, anyway.
As for the original question, I'd go with a lot of those here and just list the chassis on the vendor and shrug it off. I might decide to not do custom work for the guy anymore, though, or at least make him pay up front for anything else he wants done. Once he places an order with you, he should be done shopping around.
Jagged-F3l
Thu Mar 31, 2005 12:44 pm
#19
teanmili wrote:
You people are so harsh .. If i was a customer and was buying a ship i would look for best price Obviously mass is not a prob om YT-1300 you can use junk resources to make all carrier ships and make an even bigger profit as long as you can get the HP around 4k your good to go . I personally sell all my passenger ships for 450k with no complaints about price charging 900-1mil for them is BS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What's harsh? In real life, if you order something from a company and suddenly don't want it, they will typically charge your credit card with some kind of cancellation fee. Even you let them send it and return it, typically you have to pay shipping and a restocking fee.
Jagged-F3l
Thu Mar 31, 2005 12:47 pm
#20
How dare you presume I'm rich! I'm not rich. Quite on the contrary, I'm lucky I pay expenses at this point.
TomoRainer wrote:
Golrok wrote:
Jagged-F3l wrote:
However, Master Shipwrights on my server, especially those with good resource reserves, are becoming more and more rare.
Same on my server. And I'll be damed if the gen pop is gonna push my rare snakelikeass around.
Yeah, but if you're already one of the server's high-end shipwrights, you don't really need to worry when things like this happen, as you're already rich. I like keeping my word of mouth good, anyway.
As for the original question, I'd go with a lot of those here and just list the chassis on the vendor and shrug it off. I might decide to not do custom work for the guy anymore, though, or at least make him pay up front for anything else he wants done. Once he places an order with you, he should be done shopping around.
Kassuff
Thu Mar 31, 2005 12:58 pm
#21
LOL! You almost had me there. I'd 5 star you if stars were still around
Dezrick wrote:
You could go to your nearest Imperial base and report him to the Officer there for breach of contract. If he does nothing or says "I don't deal with rebel scum" then you can always go and make representations to Palpatine at the Emperor's Retreat.
If all else fails go into Deep Space and blast him out of the sky next time he appears there.
It may cost a fortune to do this but SWG comes under the US legal framework, I forget which state, and there may be a RL legal come-back on it. Some gamers have already prosecuted others for theft of virtual items successfully, so you could have a test case for a breach of contract in a virtual envirnment. BUT thats taking gaming way too far - what happens next do I prosecute someone for murdering my character when he was overted by STs?
ITS ONLY A GAME!
(BTW I saw a report that one gamer killed another in China when one stole the other's sword in Legend of Mir 3 and sold it on an auction site).
TomoRainer
Thu Mar 31, 2005 2:07 pm
#22
You've been in this business a long time, Jagged, so I find it surprising you're just barely meeting expenses. As a high-end shipwright, I've found customers are happy to pay a premium for great stuff.
Which isn't exactly revelatory, but lots of people think we can't make the same kind of money the other crafting professions can. In my experience, that's not the case.
Which isn't exactly revelatory, but lots of people think we can't make the same kind of money the other crafting professions can. In my experience, that's not the case.
SandLizard
Thu Mar 31, 2005 7:06 pm
#23
TomoRainer wrote:
You've been in this business a long time, Jagged, so I find it surprising you're just barely meeting expenses. As a high-end shipwright, I've found customers are happy to pay a premium for great stuff.
Which isn't exactly revelatory, but lots of people think we can't make the same kind of money the other crafting professions can. In my experience, that's not the case.
my luck i'm competing against tomo
heh, but even I'm still doing better than I expected originally. I agree with customers willing to go out of their way to get great stuff and pay a premium for it.
I believe that if you keep your vendors well stocked, customers will notice, and just go to your store next time they need something withough shopping around, as they *know* you'll have it. I've already developed quite a few customers that come in all the time without looking elsewhere, and I've only been shipwright for a little over a month i think. Just keep up stock with the best you can make, and you and your customer will both be happy.
newwb
Thu Mar 31, 2005 8:24 pm
#24
UPDATE
thanks for the advice everyone, i'm amazed I got like 20 replies in one day.
So the person came and asked me for help with getting xp in space, apparently he wasnt a master yet after all,and I reminded him that he needed to pick up his order, then he reminded me that he had changed hismind about a ship he had custom ordered from me. Despite all the advice you guys have given me, I decided that I should at least get some compensation for the money I spent to build his ship, so I told him he needed to pay me something for the ship too and that you cant just make a commitment like that and back out at the last second. Of course, he freaked out and told me I was being stupid about it and refused to pay. At that point I decided it was enough,I was just like BA-BA-BANED! Obviously, he broke out the bs that he didnt need to shop at my store and he could spend his money some place else, and that I was being stupid and thick-headed, the I /addignored. Yes, I was being thick-headed because I spent hundreds of thousands of credits to build something that he requested I build specificly for him, the suddenly he changes his mind. Well thats the end of that.
Message Edited by newwb on 03-31-2005 07:26 PM
IIscandar
Thu Mar 31, 2005 11:09 pm
#25
most of the time I try to interview my buyers. Ask them a few questions about faction, equipment level, and ship cert. Last night I was about to sell a dunelizard to a pilot by request, when I realized he was imperial. I asked him about it and sure enough, he didn't realize that dunelizards where freelance only. He almost made a huge mistake. Granted a dune lizard is much smaller than a master ship. Many times I've been able to avoid bad situations by educating the customer a bit during the ordering process. Sometimes they just jump in and don't research everything they are certified for. They know what they want, but what they want is not always what they can actually use.
Message Edited by IIscandar on 04-01-2005 12:14 AM
Peace_Keeper
Fri Apr 01, 2005 2:27 pm
#26
Do what I do for the big boats...
Ask for a 20% (non-refundable) down payment.