Tailor Archive

First of all, I personally will never put the items in a bag... .too tempting. There was a rash of someone buying bagsthat were for other people and trying to ransome them back a while ago. Can you imagine, lol.

I have a seperate vendor that is labeled Custom Order Pickup. I put the items on there and in the description I put: **FOR XXXXX** with a blurb underneath that says: Please do not purchase these items if you are not the above named customer. If you would like something similar, email me. Please extend the same curtesy you'd like given to you. Thanks in advance, Z- (may not be verbatim... I use the notepad like a monster.)

If you've got the money, available vendors, and lots:

Drop a small house near your main shop (or better yet, a vendor tent, if you can). In that shop, put a vendor that's dedicated to special orders. Leave that "shop" set to Private. When someone places an order and is going to pick it up, you place it in the special orders vendor. Add their name to the entry list on the building. When they've picked up their order, remove their name. Wash, rinse, repeat.

Of course, this isn't 100% perfect as there is still the slight possiblity that some yo-yo will pick up their order and someone elses. Still, it significantly reduces the odds of it happening.

Or you could just be mean like me and demand your customers come to you if they really want something made so that you never have to deal with this kind of thing. /grin

You can not have vendors in private buildings anymore or this would be the best way possible. :/

This happened to me twice in one week. I kept all the receipts, dumped the text and mails to the folder, and made sure every reputable merchant knew about them. One apologized, was very honest as to why he did it (curiosity.) The other quit.

All you can do is have a custom order policy, and also if youd like put some decoy bags up. Make a pack with the same custom name you give your custom orders, put some 1 unit resources i them, along with a uniquely named item like "You shouldn't have bought this." Snagged one more like that. It's definitely a bold step, but a good one, as they are breaking the CARDINAL SIN of merchants:

Do not buy other's custom orders.

Sergia

Yah, can't make houses with a vendor inside private anymore. And merchant tents can't be made private at all (although you can declare residency on one).

The trick to limiting who can get in is to set an astronomical entry fee on the door, and add only certain names to your entry list. You could have a Custom Order Only vendor in a tent that way. I was in a player city the other day that had a PA Hall as a mall, but it's entry fee was 1000000000 or something like that and I bounced back out onto the steps. (Good thing I never auto-click okay) I was left to presume the vendors in there were Guild only and only guild member names were on the entry list. (Which I think is impractical now * for malls* as the entry lists have been reduced to only 40 names.)

In a shop with multiple vendors, you need to "hide" the custom order one, off in a room (ot a separate house) where 99% of customers never go snoop, maybe even conceal it behind furniture. Do NOT register it for the world map. When you list a customer's order on it, send them an email explaining where that special vendor can be found (with a kind suggestion to please keep the info confidential to help prevent "thefts.")

Message Edited by Mystyrys on 02-23-2004 11:27 AM

I seem to be somewhat unusual in that, with a few exceptions (the odd very large special order - I mean, like 30 items large), I just throw "special orders" up on my vendor among its "general population," and seldom have much trouble with it. (Generally, if something's unusual enough to special order - i.e., I don't usually stock it - it's unusual enough that it's highly unlikely to sell to some random person by the time the customer comes to my shop.

I wouldn't do this with expensive bio-enhanced stuff, though I generally do those sales in person anyhow, so it's not a big issue.

In terms of the "secret vendor" thing - you can hide inside your crafting station, so, drop a crafting station on top of the secret vendor. Problem solved.

What I don't get is buying special orders in a pack from a *tailor* of all people! Every time I've made one like that, it's always been *highly* unlikely that anybody other than the person it's intended to would want what's in it....