Tailor Archive

I get a lot of people who send me a tell or email saying "I bought xxx and yyy, but I dont like the colors. Could you trade it for a different color?"

I usually dont mind, especially when they JUST bought the item... but It's been happening very often now and I was wondering what other tailors do with customers like this.

I was considering charging an "exchange price" but not sure what I should charge. Do you think 500cr per item sounds reasonable?

for me, if its immediate then i don't mind. if weeks have gone by then no I don't exchange. The most important part is this: IF THE ITEM WAS NOT MADE BY ME, I DO NOT EXCHANGE. why? because what am I to do with someone else's clothes? resell them? I could likely then expect a call saying, ''Hey! I charge twice that for MY item and you're undercutting me with my own clothes!'' or the reverse, ''Hey! I made that and you didnt and youre charging double!'' So, have your own personal exchange rules as you see fit, but my recommendation is, if its not yours, dont take it

I tend to be pretty lenient about this if they bought the stuff off my vendor, based on my own experiences as a tailoring customer with my alt (a dancer who's a serious clothes horse).

The problem is that it's really hard to tell what's going to look good with what or what's going to look good on until you're actually wearing it. Things that seem to be the same color end up totally clashing, or those bracelets you just bought both go on the same wrist so you can't wear them together, or that robe sticks up funny above your shoulders and makes you look like a freak who can't dress himself, or those new pants look really hideous with that new shirt. There's so many little bugs and idiosyncracies about our products that it's pretty hard to put together a good outfit without having a tailor custom match the colors and let you try all the pieces on to make sure they look good. Because of that, if people come into my shop and buy stuff off my vendor, I'll pretty much always offer them a full refund or exchange if--and this is a big IF--they ask nicely, rather than demand it like it's their right. Since every tailor can basically make the same things, I figure the only real value add I can give to my customers is good service and my expertise about my products and how to put them together for the best effect.

That said, if someone ever tried to return something that I'd sold them in person, I'd be hesitant to take it back--I always tell people to try things on before they leave my shop to make sure they're happy, and they'd have to be a pretty darn good customer for me to allow them to waste my time by returning something after a custom fitting session.

People seem to think my vendor is a rental service these days. They buy stuff and a week or two later bring it back and try to sell it back at the same price on my vendor. Now I have had people buy things from me and sell them back for less than they paid because they didn't like them once they tried them on. That's just a little different. I'm not going to whine over 2-300 free credits of course. But I generally have to tell people not to sell stuff back to me on the vendor. It's sort of rediculous =(

I'll buy clothes offered on my vendor if it's immediately after they bought it, for up to the full price. Maybe it was a mistake, maybe they don't like it. No harm, no foul. I will not exchange clothes under any circumstance, especially if it was made by another tailor.

I'm not talking immediately =D Im talking stuff that I remember making and selling a couple of weeks ago...

Yeah, I won't buy stuff that's left on my vendor with no explanation. If they want to return something they bought from me, all they have to do is send an email or IM and ask me if it's okay. I'll do almost anything for a polite customer who shows that he respects my time as much as his own, but people who are rude or try to take advantage of me usually find they get very little cooperation.

Here's a question for guys, though... would you prefer that your customers offer to sell you back your clothes that they don't want anymore, or that they just sell them on the bazaar? I don't really mind if they resell my stuff on the bazaar, but I was wondering if other tailors do?

Most RL companies charge a 15% restocking fee, I see no reason why you shouldn't either. Or simply not allow trade-ins unless as they said it was just purchased during the same visit. I make almost everything custom so luckily I don't get this problem a lot.

Do people really get that many returns????

I might get 2 a week ... and that is from hundreds of sales in that time frame.

So at that rate, I just accept the return without hesitation as long as the price is what they paid (never had one turn in cheaper). But did have one guy try to turn in Dress Slippers for 5000 credits ... I assume he added a zero by mistake

I don't generally get returns -- but on the other hand, if someone was bringing something back a week after purchasing it, then my assumption would be that they'd gotten tired of wearing it and wanted something new. In which case, no, I'm not buying it back from them. *g* If someone comes to me the next day with an "Oh no, this doesn't match -- " and so on, then absolutely they can swap it for something that does.

Definitely don't take swaps of clothing made by other tailors. Did that once, once, and I still have the garment sitting in a container somewhere, gathering dust because I'm not quite sure what to do with it...

I have been getting a LOT of returns lately.

I have absolutely no problem if they just purcahsed it, or even purchased it an hour or two earlier and changed their mind. I Let them offer the item back to the vendor for the same price, and I accept it as soon as I get a chance.

BUT, when someone emails me two to three days later (which is what has been happening lately) it kind of bugs me. Didn't they realize they didn't like it when they bought it? That's the only type of situation I'm considering charging a fee for.