Tailor Archive
Thread: Just anoter rant (see: Kawfee Klatch)
Sorry I just gotta get all this off my chest. Feel free to join in the bandwagon and rant away! Yes this is a "my customers make me wanna PUKE sometimes!" post. You have been warned!
For some reason I have been very busy, I don't know if a sizable numberof tailors on my server (Bloodfin) have gone POOF/quit /changed profession leaving the hungry masses at my doorstep or if there was just a major shortage of tailors on my server to begin with but.. Anyway.
It's getting to the point where every3 minutes or so (more of then than not)I get a tell of some sort regarding clothing. This combined with more and more people walking into my shop for custom stuff (usually without checking my vendors first- OMG TEH AGONY) when I am in the middle of juggling tells with 3 people... Well, all work and no play make Anemonie a dull girl...
So my solution was to set certain AFK messages for different things:
1) One for "I'm out checking harvesters/surveying plz leave an email for biz stuff"
2) One for "I am busy doing shop maintenance/crafting/restocking, plz send email for biz"
3) "I am away from the computer, for real, leave an email plz."
4) "I am off working on NON-TAILOR REALTED XP (well duh, I'm a frickin' MASTER TAILOR it oges without saying that if I am doing the XP thing it AIN'T GOT to do with TAILORING), plz send an email for biz stuff"
Scenario 1) Now I would like to think most people who play this game are literate, but ya gotta wonder sometimes. Like when I set the "I am AFK, will be back in game at 5pm EST" and some twit is spamming my screen with "hey, you there? are you really AFK" every other minute from 3pm est-4pm (like it takes an hour for someone to realize I really am AFK).
Scenario 2) Then there's the twit who emails me when I am 3000m from the nearest city, trying not to get eaten alive by slice hounds, narglatches, spats, crystal snakes, you name it (I'm a tradeskill monkey with no combat skills..) as I am en route to one of my many harvesters. As usuall I have the "I am out checking harvisers" AFK message as I am praying to god that I don't land in front of a nest of nasties when burst run wears out. I get a message "Hiya I need this this and that with this and that... oh and a pair of boots and a swoop helm. I'll be by your shop in 5 minutes to pick it up" type message. When I politely inform them the AFK thing is there for a reason, and that I am 3km from civilzation 2 planets from home, and won't be able to make the clothes until I am done doing my harvester rounds, he gets pissy. Then heasks me to suicide so that I clone in the nearest city, and come crawling back to my shop because Mr. Important want's his 6k worth of items now now now now now and can't wait. I told him no, but it still pisses me off that he asked something this rash in the first place.
Scenario 3) Its 12am, I'm tired from25 consecutive customers and I am about to log and ANOTHER customer waltzes in. "Hiya can you make this and that for me?" I tell him I'd be happy to make it tomorrow, but that he caught me at a very bad time, as I was tired and needed to log and get some sleep. "You can stay up a few more minutes." to which I said "sorry I am past my bedtime as it is, I will have to get to it tomorrow" and then he lays on the "oh come on, how long does it take to make 3 items? PLEASE?" guilt trip. Lucky for me I am impervious to guilt and told him no.
Scenario 4) I smile to myself as another customer walks away satisfied with his/her purchase and I decide that it is time to go chill out for a while. A customer walks in asking for justa plain old item. So I think "hey this should be quick, only one simple item".. but then the lightbulb appears over his head and I know my master plan of taking a break is ruined. Hey while I'm here can I have that in (enter 10 different color variations here and tack on 5 accessories and then a master item to boot). As soon as each item is done he thinks of abother couple of other garments he could use. And before I know it an hour and a half has passed and this guy just ruined my night but I can't high-tail it outta there without looking ruder than a truck driver in heat.
Scenario 5) the "I know you're there, I just saw you run out to your factory" persistant pain the the a$$ customer who thinks his time is more important to me than my own even when I have my AFK on.
In other words I am finding my AFK messages are not enough to keep people from buggin me when I want/need to be alone for whatever reason. It is driving me nuts, and to think that I am working on armorsmith right now, which will only add to things! I'll probably have to limit my tailoring policy to "no custom orders with the exception of master items, wookiee wear and BE enhanced orders" just to stay sane.
One of my buddies has told me I should try to think of all the business I get as a sort of compliment but I can't stand the annoyances sometimes. Must kill! Arrrgggh!!
Ah yes, the life of a Tailor. I feel for you. Kaitlyn is a Master Tailor/Master Image Designer herself.
I have two accounts, she is for all intents and purposes, an alt who exists only to make me and my circle of friends, clothing. Same reason she is an Image Designer. Then as I began to rise up the Tailor tree I got hooked and decided i'm opening a shop. I began to advertise heavily. I began to stockpile Synthetic Cloths and Reinforced Fibre Panels and Trim, etc etc. I got Merchant and advertised on the planetary map.
Then 2 weeks later I closed my shop and to this day have never worn my Master Tailor title in public. People are insensitive pricks, simple as that. They believe only one thing:
My time is worth more than yours
Want to hear something scary? No word of a lie, I have macro'd:
/reply Welcome to my ignore list
I only have one AFK message when I don't want to be pestered: Currently busy with a special project... please send emails instead of /tells, thanks... 
-Suni
I figure it's nobody's business what my special project is - checking harvesters, watching TV, talking to my husband, picking my toenails, petting the cat, cleaning the kitchen, cooking dinner, restocking the vendor, dancing in the cantina, restocking the bazaar, goofing around in front of the starport, killing chubas, whatever, hehe...
I chat a lot with my RL friends through tells, so I rarely use an AFK message. But I did make a macro that look something like this:
/r AFK auto-response: I'm sorry, I'm currently busy andunable to respond to tells. Please contact me through mail.
Not sure about the exact formatting, but in game I went afk and had a friend /tell at me so I could copy it exactly. If anyone I'm not expecting to hear from tells at me, I just hit the macro. It may seem a little rude, but getting the person to use the mail system kind of forces them to focus on what they want and articulate their requests better. It's also so much faster and easier for me than spending 10 or 15 minutes in a conversation through tells, especially when I'm trying to talk to other people and do other things.
Yeah it really annoys me that my AFK messages aren't registered as much as they should be. BTW I word them differently then as they appear above (much kindler and gentiler), that was just meant to give you the general idea of what categories of AFK messages I have.
Bloodfin is full of the combat-only types who have no idea how tedious running a business can be since they are too busy spamming their eye-shots. Luckily it hasn't been to the point where I need to put people on ignore (came close a couple times), but some are really pushy and all "its about me me me me me me ME!!!" with their 'tude. Makes me wish I had some combat skills so I could give them a nice talking to, but alas, I am a tradeskill gimp... So far... I might change my mind and go combat someday and then THEY SHALL ALL SUFFER MY WRATH!!!! Erhmm.. Phew. I feel better now.
I must be so lucky. I dropped the MT tag, and still get tells, but the people on Valcyn respect my afk messages.
AFK 1: I am currently working with a customer, please respect their time with me and email me any requests. So far the only people who ignore it are guildmates. But that's a whole 'nother rant.
AFK 2: I am restocking my vendor, please understand that I also run a guild mall and this is usually a task up there with slaying windmills. Email me and I will reply as soon as I finish. Again, the only ones who ignore it are guildmates.
AFK 3: I am really AFK, if you need to contact me, send an email. I will try to get to it when I get back online. Sorry, Splintt needs to eat dinner, he's contemplating eating the month old take out still in his fridge, and food poisoning takes precedence over game matters. Again, only ignored by guildmates, what's worse is that they then send tells to Splintt asking him if I am really afk.
I stopped registering my vendor on the map, (ok, I usually forget to), dropped the tag, and with the exception of when I expanded and added a second shop (What in the name of Vader was I thinking? Obviously I wasn't.) don't advertise on the bazaar, and business isn't hurting. Yes, there are times when I sacrifice what I want for my customers, but that is only for the customers who are gracious and understanding. Or those who roleplay. If you come into my shop and roleplay, you're pretty much set for A-Ti's lifetime.
There is one thing I noticed, and it's a generalization I know, but I noticed it nonetheless, fellow artisans are usually more understanding and appreciative than combat types. (Yes, I know a few exceptions to the rule exists, one of my most favorite customers is one.) It's just seems that combatants don't really understand the work that goes into making even 1 item, especially when trying to match a color. I picked up a large guild on Valcyn as regular customers because their guild tailor changed professions (I have to admit, I wondered if I should even bother with them when they told me, but then the tailor sent me a tell and explained why she changed and that they were all told by their leader that if they offended me in anyway, there would be repercussions. I wish my own PA leader would do that, but it probably won't be happening.
and so far they have been almost sickeningly polite.
Just remember, for every jerk out there, there is at least one if not two or three, generous, kind, appreciative, and patient person out there as well. There are days when you might think that they don't exisit, but they are there. And if the jerks don't appreciate you, the good ones do. And if all else fails, just "go A-Ti" on them. (Apparently, I am the inspiration for a new verb in my PA. I call it standing up for myself, they call it hormonal.)
A-Ti
Valcyn Server
I added a Forum in SWGTailor's forums called "Customers from Hell".
http://zero.xa.net/~shirow/swgtailor/phpBB2/viewforum.php?f=10
We're planning on picking a monhtly story to go down in infamony (muhahaha posting it to the website), but if any of you want to share your stories, please stop by and post them. (Be sure to register in the forum so that we can give credit where credit's due towhen it comes time to announcing the Anti-Customer of the Month.) The only thing we ask is that no actual characternames be used and to trykeep the forum as flame free as possible. (I know kinda hard, being that the name of the forum would lead some to believe it's a flamefest, but hey, all we ask is that you try.)
Hope to see some of you there and can't wait to see your tales of woe.
Dite wrote:
Sorry, I just can't resist. I tried sitting on my hands, but to no avail, I must respond.
Now, aren't these same combat types the ones who tell us they are going to refuse to wear our clothes with the death decay? kInda makes me wish that they would actually do so. While I don't support decay as it will be implemented, I have to admit, it might have some benefits in an extremely twisted and jaded way.
Also, I have to share, I had this great mental image after reading your post subcrimminal. Tailors from all over banding together, MSE and R2 Droids out, wearing our most umcombat clothing and hunting down combatants everywhere, to bludgeon them to death with demanding tells and broken vendors.
Yeah some of them are the kind who preach the "I'll go nekkid before I give in to your decay!" but what it comes down to is this: so long as ego, narcissism and vanityexist, us tailors will always be in business. Why? because you can't change human nature, I mean look at the church! They have been trying to rid the human race of "sin" (vanity being one of these sins) and even hundreds of years after the crusades, the witch burnings, the inquisitions (no one expects the Spanish inquisiton!), the whippings, beatings and other forms of inhumane torture vanity remains intact! WOOT!
Subcriminal wrote:
Bloodfin is full of the combat-only types who have no idea how tedious running a business can be since they are too busy spamming their eye-shots. Luckily it hasn't been to the point where I need to put people on ignore (came close a couple times), but some are really pushy and all "its about me me me me me me ME!!!" with their 'tude. Makes me wish I had some combat skills so I could give them a nice talking to, but alas, I am a tradeskill gimp... So far... I might change my mind and go combat someday and then THEY SHALL ALL SUFFER MY WRATH!!!! Erhmm.. Phew. I feel better now.
Sorry, I just can't resist. I tried sitting on my hands, but to no avail, I must respond.
Now, aren't these same combat types the ones who tell us they are going to refuse to wear our clothes with the death decay? kInda makes me wish that they would actually do so. While I don't support decay as it will be implemented, I have to admit, it might have some benefits in an extremely twisted and jaded way.
Also, I have to share, I had this great mental image after reading your post subcrimminal. Tailors from all over banding together, MSE and R2 Droids out, wearing our most umcombat clothing and hunting down combatants everywhere, to bludgeon them to death with demanding tells and broken vendors.
Subcriminal wrote:
Bloodfin is full of the combat-only types who have no idea how tedious running a business can be since they are too busy spamming their eye-shots.
Yup. It gets quite aggrivating as well. I've lost large (like seven digits) sales because some people don't understand that I pay money to actually play the game, just like they're doing and that I may not want (or be able) toimmediately come from a remote region of a faraway planet just to craft. Luckily, I have a large number of customers that are patient, repsectful, and understanding.
And what is up with the current clothes rush on Bloodfin? Keeping me busy for sure. It's all kinds of stuff, too.
I created a character on Bloodfin and deleted it, I really hated that server for a reason lol. Never got any tip in the cantina as a dancer, which I find extremely rude. Anemonie was one of the only nice people I met though hehe.
But yes, I heard you. I moved my shop yesterday for guild reasons, kept it on themap but with no nameand I'm hoping to get less customers lol. I never craft in the evening, and it's sometimes hard to have people understand that I am busy doing something else. Even with my dancer title on I get about tells. Thanks god I have an alt who gives me tons of fun, but for the record I've never been so spammed in tells and emails than since I started making bio clothing. The standard clothes business is actually going pretty slowly.
AFK REPONSE:
I am currently busy, please send EMAIL me and I will attend to you as soon as possible. every additional tell makes another zero be addedto your final price.