Don't blame me for being a vendor

[Jaroo]

Ok, I'll probably get no sympathies but let me rant and I'll feel better.
So I find this fellow selling cultural armor. Seeing that it's a rare sort I send him a /tell hello. His AFK says to send his main acct. char a tell and that he would hear offers for volume discount.

Ok, so this to me means not only does he produce the stuff but he's a businessman.
So I send his other character a tell asking him first if he made the stuff and then that I was looking for someone to do some combines.

At this point he launches into this paragraph asking why he would bother doing so either taking my money for combines that probably would fail or would I then expect to use his precious supplies to get my items. No thank you I'd rather just make and sell the armor.

Did I say anything about using his supplies? no. Did I even get to the part that I intended to pay him simply for the combines? no. The assumption is such that I'm there to abuse him.

Why the rant? Well if you're going to have your mule directing you to an active character AND mention something about discounts, at least have the business courtesy to haggle a deal.
If you don't want the attention, then change your AFK back to something innoculous and play on. Nuff said.

I finalized my conversation with him by apologizing for offending him somehow and that I was only looking to pay someone for their time. At least my reply was 'no offense intended, I cannot help you, GL'

Perhaps just a bad day, but if I'd wanted him to share it, I'd have asked.

[Renjah]

Lots of GM trade skillers dont like to do this and I am one. If I know the person I really mind doing combines for them but when a perfect stranger asks me I rarely do so without knowing what their intents are and what I am getting for it.


It didnt always used to be this way. Months ago someone brought me enough items for 2 haversacks and asked me for combines. I did so with the understanding I wished to be compensated for my time (time in skilling up) and we had an agreement it was for HIS use NOT to be sold. I was paid 500pp for 2 successful haversack combines we we both left. He was happy he has his bags, I was happy I made something he can use.

The next night he sold the 2 bags for a hefty profit and approached me to make more for his monk. I flat out refused to do to and to this day I rarely just do combines. I prefer to make the items myself and sell finished product. This way if someone chooses to resell it they can do so. If they will use it then they can. I just dont like people making money off my skill. I spent the time to farm items, do combines, and resell my product. Why should someone else make money off my skill?

[Daikoku Ashikaga]

If you do not know me, you don't know that my mule is mine, he has his own identity, if you do, then it is Dai's twink. I make no inference to my main in vendor mode.

Friend, my guild, my former guilds, my alts former guild, or i just in the area and not doing anything when someone /ooc's for a smith (never seen one for a chef yet) I will do it Only for the last would i ask, or think of asking for money, if it for something like enchanting metal, I likely will not take pp for it, unless it is bulk.

If someone (not friend or somehow a guildie) want something like a livestone chain tunic if they do not offer a fee, nor do they do not tip, I would not do it again, for that person.

I can not farm enough in spots I want to to make stuff for sale, I don't really like being a vendor, I'd rather make for a person, oncce it is made, it is there, I do not own it in any way, if someone wants to do mass stuff and have me make it, if I am not 'busy' then I am happy to help them, usually those people are thi\ose who still drool over dropable gear, many too proud to ask the uber for a loan (if I have any money to loan, I tend to get 40k then sppend it in 2 days and be down to 3k. if hitting combine helps them for them, then I do that for the reward of helping someone.

Helping people, primaraly why I got in to smithing to begin with, not to make plat.

Dai

[Dunthor Warsmith]

My vendor doesn't make direct reference to my main (although the names are similar enough you can probably guess we're the same, if you see both), but I do consider haggling to be very different from doing combine attempts for someone. For reasonable (or blatantly-in-my-favor, but those are rare) offers, I'm often willing to bargain a bit, since I usually price my items at the high end of the market (and no, 2kpp for something I have priced at 10kpp is not reasonable, sigh).

But do combines for a stranger? That tends to wind up with a long discussion which at best results in them walked away, at worst results in flaming and curses - them actually walking away with their product and us both happy is quite a rare outcome. The customer often doesn't have all the components, or doesn't like my skill, my estimate of probable success rate, or the amount of time it would take to get & do the combines. Or they want to get an item which has a large margin between average-cost-per-success and market-value for a trivial payment/tip/trade. Or I do agree to help, and fail, and then they get ticked off - not at the RNG or luck, but at me.

At this point, the only combines I will do for strangers are the low end cross-skill items, things like skinning knives or baking pans and occasionally cultural tempers, where there isn't much involved on my part even in imperfect customer circumstance and there is a very understandable probable need for the item in question. Of course there are exceptions, but most of the time its just not worth the frustration the rest of the time, imo.

[Jaroo]

I think if someone knows what they are getting into, has done the research and knows the failure rate, then maybe I would consider doing something for hire.
Most folks seem to have the common sense not to have their mule give out their pager number. I guess we should all know to be wary if your mule is named Ubertrader or Megatrader. Sounds like that plat seller guy, imo.

[Draggar]

Originally posted by Renjah
Lots of GM trade skillers dont like to do this and I am one. If I know the person I really mind doing combines for them but when a perfect stranger asks me I rarely do so without knowing what their intents are and what I am getting for it.

While I agree with that completely, one thing changes my thoughts on the subject;

So I find this fellow selling cultural armor. Seeing that it's a rare sort I send him a /tell hello. His AFK says to send his main acct. char a tell and that he would hear offers for volume discount.

If you set up your AFK message to send a tell to the main, then that is the exception,esp when he said that he'll offer volume discount.

His AFK message stated that you can send tells to his main, and that is what Jaroo did.

I think the person with the cultural was a poor sales person. If he'she didn't want the tells, or were going to rip into someone for asking them for some combines, which his trader's AFK message stated, then they should change the AFK message.

Right now the only people who know I am a tradeskiller are friends and guildmates, which any of them I wouldn't mind doing combines for, I even offer it openly to the guild (and have a deal that any trivial item I'll charge them for ONE set of components, if I fail, I'll eat the costs (but that is in-guild only)).

If someone sends me a tell out of the blue, or I see an /ooc WTB (who uses /auc besides me?) it will highly depend on what I am doing and what kind of mood I am in.

[Faerwynd]

Re: Don't blame me for being a vendor

[QUOTE]Originally posted by Jaroo
[B]Ok, I'll probably get no sympathies but let me rant and I'll feel better.
So I find this fellow selling cultural armor. Seeing that it's a rare sort I send him a /tell hello. His AFK says to send his main acct. char a tell and that he would hear offers for volume discount.
QUOTE]

Here's the thing I don't understand.... why would he make items he is already trying to to sell, for you to sell and possibly/probably undercut him, or at the very least compete with? Seems like he would be shooting himself in the foot. THAT is where the annoyance comes from I would wager.

I may have misunderstood you, but that seems to be what you were saying.

[Iannyen]

What I hate is the person that comes up and says stuff like: "Hey, I forraged 5 morning dews, and got this block of velium, can you make me a breastplate?"


....

[eniamn]

i normally dont mind. i do enchanting bricks and tempers a lot. nobody wants combines for baking hehe. get donations. never charged for it directly. normally get more pp donated than i would have asked for anyway. the only exception being i would have liked more for not failing any in 2 stacks of celestial temper and 1 blood temper in a stack but he was playing with more than my bank account atm so i wasn't really upset. almost everyone in my guild does combines for free to guildies too.

a large part of cultural is the components. i try to get everything but the final combine done when i have to hire out. 200-500pp for 1 click and 10 seconds is a lot for me. i dont try and get 10k items for that though.
i normally try and pay in picnics now though. only a problem when i run into other bakers still eating picnics.

[Chenier]

This dude has his panties in a wad. He needs to not tell people the redirect to his main and ask folks to leave him a message on his seller mule (that way he can respond to those he wants and not bite the heads off people he doesn't want to talk to).

[eniamn]

lol. oh yeah. he shouldn't be upset if his mules afk message redirets your tells. that's just silly.

[Noni DeeCups]

I had to read your post many times

Sounds like this guy had a bad experience with someone asking him to do a combine. He did and it failed and the guy expected him to make up for the lost supplies. Ha, yeah right.

So many people don't grasp the concept of - Buy it from me for my asking price or bring me the supplies and risk getting nothing at all.

I got burned on the free haversack combines and I don't do them anymore. The guy sent me a tell gloating about how he sold them for 7k each?!?!?! I flipped out on him. I felt bad because he had no idea how offensive that was. I sure did go off on him for a while

He just got an offer he couldn't refuse Boy was he bummed when I wouldn't make any more bags for him cause he sold ALL 4 I made for him for FREE.

[Jaroo]

You all got the idea what I was saying. Granted I might have been reselling his hard work and undercut him. There's no way he could have disproved that if he thought it.

No, I was simply looking for my own armor and did all the leg work. I've tried cold tells before to those selling in the bazaar and see if they did the work themselves. Some don't answer, some say no thank you. Some listen to my offer and decline.
Overall, most are decent about it and I don't push the issue. I know how it can be having something people want for free.

I just thought it stupid to make yourself out to be some great merchant only to jump on the person that inquires.

[Noni DeeCups]

btw, "volume" discount means - I sell haversacks for 6k each. You want 10 at once? Okay, I will sell them to you for 5.5k each. That does not mean "I do combines if you bring the stuff".

personally, I don't do volume discounts on anything. I think I price my stuff fair, the end.

[Grimina]

Aye I think that misunderstanding led to the rest. He didn't put his main's name there to discuss making armor. He put it there to discuss knocking down the price on pre-made stuff for folks that wanted multiple pieces. I think he could have added "Pre-made" in there for added clarity but overall I feel his message was pretty clear. Anyone willing to discount bulk orders really isn't going to be someone willing to make MORE of it. He's already got plenty that he needs to get rid of. Perhaps once he's cleared his stock he might be more willing to discuss combines with you. Just something to think about =)