People buying stuff on the marketplace but not following through?

[Alexia]

This is a strange one and I don't know where to put the question so I though here is probably the closest.

I've sold terrain files on the marketplace since 2010. The idea is: you want, you buy, you get a notecard that tells you where to email me so I can email the .raw files over.
This has worked for over 15 years and the only thing that has ever gone wrong is me not seeing the email in a timely manner so I have to apologise profusely.

Since March though people have been buying them but not emailing me. Not everyone but probably 2-3 people a month. I don't really want to go inworld to chase them up if I don't need to (I can't message them via the web afaik, so I will have to dust off Alexia and send her in).

Has anyone come across this? It just seems odd. They're spending money and not following through.

Any thoughts?

edit: I didn't realise this was my first post as I've had the account since forever. So hi!

 

[GoblinCampFollower]

Not a lot of products on the Marketplace are sold in this way, where you have to email people for the files. so I bet you have some customers who are just confused.... maybe they don't read English?

And hi! Welcome to the forum. For acceptance here, you must tell us your favorite color and kind of pie.

 

[Alexia]

Thanks for the welcome Favourite colour is whatever looks the most gorgeous at the time and the pie is a meat one - with gravy!

The not contacting is a bit weird though. For the last 15+ years the only people who never emailed are the ones that left a 1 star review (people, eh?) but this has suddenly become really noticeable. I was hoping that the weirdness would decrease along with the inworld population but obviously not!

 

[Kokoro Fasching]

Option 1:
They are receiving your note card, feed it through AI, and AI is generating a puzzle RAW file that they people convince themselves matches what they saw on the display.
Option 2:
The person who ordered the terrain file is a AI, and they are still trying to understand the note card and how it relates to goblins.

 

[Alexia]

Good luck to them then as the notecard only has the email address they need to send the request to
Ah people, you have to love them.

 

[Noodles]

Your situation seems pretty unique among marketplace sellers. Also I imagine people are wary of sending emails to random people and just decide not to. Especially since a lot of people try to keep SL and RL seperated.

Another thought, some people may buy them to use later then they just don't. I don't know your pricing, but if its low enough to be "impulse buy" this may be the case.

Could you host the files somewhere? A dropbox share maybe? Then just put a link to the files in the card. I have bought full perm mesh and this is fairly common for sellers that include Photoshop files. This would elimimate problem 1. Though it may encourage theft if someone shares the link. I have no idea how big of a problem that may be. I know in my case, a PDS template would be mostly useless without the matching mesh in world. I suspect this is less of an issue for anyone pirating terrain textures.

 

[Alexia]

That would require me to go inworld and try to remember how to change the notecard in the box. tbh it's taken me 15 years to modify the listing on the marketplace - which I have wanted to do since before I walked away from SL as I wanted to be more explicit about how the process works...

I'm actually surprised that they're still selling tbh as looking at the other, newer terrain texture sellers, they're selling their stuff incredibly cheap and have good reviews. It's all a mystery really.

 

[Kokoro Fasching]

People still buy my noob raft.. although I have received more comments asking if it will fly. I tell them to sell their soul to Galactus for that feature to unlock.

 

[Free]

People still buy my noob raft.. although I have received more comments asking if it will fly.

Does it rotate?

 

[Argent Stonecutter]

I just got a notice that my algorithmically generated sculpt river rapids that I made when sculpts were brand new got a sale.

 

[Wesleytron]

I'm actually surprised that they're still selling tbh as looking at the other, newer terrain texture sellers, they're selling their stuff incredibly cheap and have good reviews. It's all a mystery really.

I think it's one of the 'rules' of marketing - price something at a more premium rate and people will think it is premium and therefore better than the cheaper options.

 

[Kokoro Fasching]

Does it rotate?

On which axis?

 

[Free]

On which axis?

All of them. I don't waste my money on a single axis.

 

[Naluri Murai]

All of them. I don't waste my money on a single axis.

Well if it rotates on any axis fast enough...

 

[Noodles]

All of them. I don't waste my money on a single axis.

Why chop with many axis if one do?

 

[Free]

Why chop with many axis if one do?

The right tool for the right job. So you need one for chopping. One for splitting. One for taking off scalps. One for spinning...