Shipwright Archive

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.

Uzop Inzap-Arkon's Havoc Squadron Ace Pilot (retired)
Smuggler's Alliance ace pilot (retired)
Imperial Inquisition Pilot 4-4-4-3
Master Shipwright
Space Mercenary Corp.
Please drop auction winnings off at my vendor outside Coronet at 303, 29, -5874

yes, but it doesnt seem fair to me that he ordered this from me, i used all those resources to build it, and hes commited to buying it, then suddenly he just decided he doesnt want it anymore.

Uzop Inzap-Arkon's Havoc Squadron Ace Pilot (retired)
Smuggler's Alliance ace pilot (retired)
Imperial Inquisition Pilot 4-4-4-3
Master Shipwright
Space Mercenary Corp.
Please drop auction winnings off at my vendor outside Coronet at 303, 29, -5874

Tell him you sold the parts to someone else.

Don't do anymore custom orders for him either.

Ryche Mykola
Outer Rim Collective (ORC) High Council


Ariakus Mykola
Outer Rim Collective Master Rifleman
Cancelled accounts for Wow

Drop him as a customer. Put all the stuff on the vendor and someone will buy it.

And the next time someone asks your for such a large order, ask for half up front to make sure they pay for the order. If they trust you, they will pay the half and wait. If they never planned to do the sell, your out nothing, or at least half of the cost of the production. Many armorsmiths do that, its a way of weeding out the bad customers from the committed.

Sorry to hear you got screwed in the deal. Just don't make the same mistake twice.

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Blah, Blah, Blah, Yackity, Smackity. Its all the same bull, just new packaging

Ithorians do it in stereo - Ikkoso Ylise

So long, and thanks for all the fish.

I would put the chassis up on my vendor and sell him the parts. Business is business and sometimes handling a situation like this with a smile and good customer service will bring many purchases later. Not to mention someone might see you have a YT on your vendor and buy a whole ship worth of parts while they are there.

That sucks, but that's business.

If he is a really good customer, then swallow your pride and sell him the components. But if you are busy enough and you don't need the money, you can /addignore him, but that's harsh too.

Especially with the MP ships, since they have 5 million mass, I know that someone will undercut me by a longshot. So in that case, you can always be honest with the customer and let him know that they can be had for a ridiculously low price. Besides, having one on the vendor is always good eye candy for the shopper.

Personally, I hate making master ships. They consume so much resrouces and the return is poor. It's better to make the best quality components you can sell. In the end, the return is greater for your resources, you don't have to harvest ungodly ammounts of resources, and it's a lot more satisflying to make.

It's going to happen again and not necessarily with ships, so grin and bear it.

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).

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Dezrick (Master Shipwright)
Just about everything in stock - restocked daily
Theed Mall -5459 3436 Naboo
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Drop him as a customer. I've only had to do that couple times, but it happens.

Our player-based economy is one based on fundamentals of capitalism, and thus there is little you can do about it. This happens to me quite often--receive custom order for a fully equipped ship, put the order on my vendor, and the buyer tells me he found the chassis somewhere else cheaper. I always unbundle the chassis and the put the chassis on my vendor seperately (and it typically we sell within the week, so little skin off my back). Yes, I am often annoyed, but I'll let you in on a little secret.

Never tell a customer what the price of the individual items would be if s/he were ordering them seperately from you. By doing this, you have the upper hand. Okay, so he doesn't wantthe YT-1300 and he even went as far as to tell you that he picked one up for 250K. So, pull the YT-1300 out of the bundle and reduce the cost of the bundle by 250K--of course, put the YT-1300 on your vendor later at your price. When the buyer questions it, tell him that in light of the competition you had to drop prices on your master ships, and hence, raise the prices on your ship components.

Is what he did fair? No.

Is this kind of tactic I'm suggesting fai? No.

It's capitalism.

Oh, by the way, the customer will rarely object because they have been waiting for the order already. Rarely will a customer want to seek out another Master Shipwright and wait for that individual to complete the order.

A nice side benefit, the customer probably won't come back. However, Master Shipwrights on my server, especially those with good resource reserves, are becoming more and more rare.

Well, personally, I track who sells chassis cheap. I charge around 5cpu for mine but I mine my own resources. I charge 15 cpu for my componets and higher if I really have fool with something where I might have to try more than once. When I get a custom order for an entire ship, I usually suggest they get the chassis at the cheaper vendor. He has to eat too. I really do not have a big reserve of crappy materials and would have to use good stuff. You would be surprised and how many people do not want to hassle with this. They just pay my price and get a little more mass and more hitpoints. They like the idea that I am trying to save them money but do not want the hassle. They want to go one place where they know they can get good stuff at a reasonable price. I end up with a steady customer because he feels he can trust me. I once had a JTL noob come to me because he bought a Tier 1 blueprint, paid to have it converted, and did not realize he had to equip it. lol He was out of money, so, I equipped it for free and told him to pay me when he could. He paid me later. He also joined a JTL guild and I got 25 new steady customers that give me Carpal Tunnel REing. lol