and i've thought of posting this for 3-4 months now, but have hesitated because i really don't want this turn to turn ugly as that's not my intent by any means.  i'm also posting this in this forum instead of in a private forum because i'd like to be able to offer other people [those who aren't merchants] the opportunity to express how important, or non-important, pre-customer service might be to them. and i'm posting now because i'm hoping it might give other merchants some insight as i don't believe for a minute that i'm alone in this experience.

and what experience am i referring to?

i don't tend to ask questions about a product too often if it is something i can resolve through a little bit of research, but there are times when i simply cannot find an answer.  and i'm talking about questions i may have prior to purchase.

more often than not, if i send my little question via IM to a merchant, i hear nothing for days, though usually it has been read sometime during the day it was sent, or at the very latest, the following day.  i really don't understand why there is such a lag in response.  my question[s] aren't terribly complex typically and 50% of the time a simple yes/no response could even suffice, but yet, there i am waiting for a response.

the longer i wait, the more likely i am to not purchase the item.
the longer i wait, the more i question why i should give my money to that merchant just on principle.

i'm not saying that i always experience this, and i commend such merchants as Val3dArt, surreality, Poisen and SWAM for valuing me as their potential customer and getting back to me immediately, not to mention that their responses have been fairly detailed, too.  it has been greatly appreciated & that is a way to build my loyalty before i've even bought the item. and i'm far more likely to check their stores regularly for new items, etc.

i do think to discount your potential customer, either as first time buyers from you or just as purchasers for a single item, by essentially ignoring them or sending out the signal that your time is more valuable to you than they are is not a good business practise.  it can easily change the way someone perceives you that maybe was never intended, but that is difficult to correct once it has occurred.  and if enough merchants are operating this way, it might just encourage people to shop elsewhere, so the behaviour might, or could, end up effecting other merchants adversely as well.

so better pre-customer service is currently number one on my Merchant Wishlist.

again, i DO NOT want this thread to deteriorate into merchant bashing or anything remotely like that, so if you, after reading this, decide to respond, please be civil if you want to express something negative.  keep in mind that the louder you shout, the less likely it is that you'll probably heard or read, and those that might need the most to hear what you have to say will tune out far more quickly.

if someone just HAS to regress here, i'll request this thread be locked...

thanks :))

edited to change a word - digress, which was originally typed, was meant to be regress :o

OK, this is my view , and I am a merchant elsewhere but not at rendo.

1. It costs me 50% of the item price to have a product in a store , and for that I expect it to be presented to a potential customer by a category and keyword search so a customer can find it , and to have the sale processed in a timely manner  and a decent speed in the download.  I also expect the store itself to handle some enquiries .
   I try to put everything relevant in the product description and readme file , and if there is specific info in in the readme I will make that available for download too.  If the question cant be answered in the description or readme then the answer is probably, no it doesnt. I normally put up one picture of the item with material zones simply colored , no texture or bump maps  because it shows how hard or easy changing textures will be .

I dont expect to have to answer questions like , will it work for character x  or does the door open , it will say that in the description .

My response to customer questions is usually about a week, maybe faster , but I spend my time modelling and making stuff, not trolling the sites for questions. The stores all have a email address for them to contact me , and I check emails daily, so a customer problem reported to a store I will see within a day , and normally reply same day.

An example of a question would be very helpful .

here at Renderosity, there is no access to a merchant's email address.  it used to be that one could find it in the ReadMe prior to purchase, but that can now only be found in the ReadMe that accompanies a zip file, thus only accessible after purchase.

a person can use the "Contact" link here to ask a question via the IM'ing system.  it is the only way that i'm aware of to contact a merchant [unless i want to see if they have a current website up, visit the site and see if i can find an email addy that way]. and as a merchant here myself, it keeps all inquires to me in one location, so i don't need to go "trolling for questions" - they're all right there in my site mail inbox ;)

**The stores all have a email address for them to contact me , and I check emails daily, so a customer problem reported to a store I will see within a day , and normally reply same day.
**
here at Rendo, the Staff encourages a customer to contact a merchant directly with questions or problems after purchase, etc. before becoming involved, so you're lucky that wherever it is you sell, that the staff there will immediately forward inquires to you & act as the middleman, so to speak. :))

as i said, i try to do my homework beforehand as i don't feel that i should just go about asking questions that i can easily resolve on my own.  and i think it's great that you provide what you feel is all the info required for someone to make an informed purchasing decision.  however, not everyone manages to do that, and i've seen requests from time to time in the Vendor forum here where a person wants to know how to edit/update their ad copy for any number of reasons.  people make mistakes, forget to include info, etc.

you want an example of a question - i'll give you an easy one, though most folks include it in their ad copy as standard these days, but now & again, someone doesn't...

example:
what size are the textures that are included in your merchant resource pack?

a different kind of example?
i have a promo ad where the figure is wearing an item of clothing that is sold over at Renderotica.  i purposefully did not disclose anywhere in my ad copy or images where the item came from because it wasn't too long before that that Renderosity made the decision to not sell erotic items, and i was concerned about listing a site that may be deemed inappropriate.  so i didn't include credit for the item.  but i can tell you that i've had a handful of folks contact me via IM wanting to know what it was & where to find it.  each time i've fetched the link, explained that there are several versions of the item, etc. and answered the question.  takes me literally all of 2 minutes, tops, too.  and i've received back in response from most folks who have asked notes that say thank you, how much they appreciate my quick response, that that isn't usually the norm of their experience here when asking questions of merchants.  and frankly, that's kind of sad, imo.

another way to look at it is to think of having that kind of experience offline, and just how acceptable that might be to you if you were the customer [and i'm using "you" in general terms, and not "you" as in any personal sense]...
  
you go into a store, wander around, read the back of the box for an item, pull out the item's manual from inside & read it, but find you still have a question.  so you seek out the only sales person available, and who also happens to be the store owner, and ask them your question.  you know they heard you [parallel: you know your IM was read], but the sales person wanders off to go do something else without a word, or even acknowledging that they'll come right back.  how long would you wait before feeling like the store owner must not really give a damn about your potential business?  how long would be acceptable?

**I normally put up one picture of the item with material zones simply colored , no texture or bump maps  because it shows how hard or easy changing textures will be .
**
btw, i LOVE promo pics that do that.  that gives tons of good info that way on a model's potential. :))

haha, I am really bad at texturing , so I tend to use lots of material groups , as well as UV mapping the model . That way I can usually get away with some simple poser materials for the model and let the user paint his own detailed maps if they want them .

My email is ONLY available to the store staff at the sites I sell from , a normal customer must use the site messanging facility. I have stuff at about 8 sites though , so it takes me about 15-20 minutes just to visit each site and check for messages , not something I want to do daily, since I also have support emails for customers to  ask questions directly. I prefer problems to be reported through the stores, so the store management can say, OH POO ! theres a major problem here , we better stop selling this .

If I was looking at a resource pack of images , or even background pics , I would expect a file list and sizes and color depth to be in the product description or readme. I really like the sites that make the readme file available for download without purchasing.

Some of my work is for print , so a 640 x 480 pic at 16 bit color is fairly useless.

Some of this stuff is worth hasselling the store about though.  The description copy and content in my opinion is part of the stores quality control and product testing. Its easy enough to have a checklist  to ensure everything is covered.

I appreciate that a store  may not want to handle questions about store products , but hey, they get 50% of the sale , so thats part of the job. I do sell at a couple sites that are basically an automated storefront, no people involved most of the time , but they also charge less commision on sales, because they offer no customer support at all.

I tend to answer any emails or IMs as soon as I read them. Some, if I read them during office hours, while I'm at work, I leave until I get home, but they are always answered the same day.

The only problem I seem to hit is timezones:)

I answer my emails as soon as time permits. There are so many things I have to do during the day and evening, taking care of my mother and seeing that she has all her meds. It isn't until late evening that I have free time. If I'm not offline a few days due to illness or something I try to be prompt in answering. It's important to me to give support on my products, wether a freebie or a retail. I certainly wouldn't purchase a product from anyone who would not give support but I take into account that they may need some time to answer. If more than a few days to a week I figure they aren't going to bother, so why should I bother with buying.

I answer all of my emails and im's...it's part of that customer service thing that seems to have disappeared.

Ultimately a vender needs to provide customer service, it's part of the deal. As far as the host site and what they offer, you as customers need to make that known to them. Content creators cannot dictate what they (host sites) do or don't do, but you as customers hold a bigger stick.

I gave up quite awhile ago with the "wishing well" forum regarding ideas for products that I would love to see (And Buy for that matter) seeing that it was a common clothing item, I was thinking that the Vendor/Artists would "Oh, Why did'nt I think of that?, No problem"; For some Strange reason,This is the only article of clothing nobody wants to even think about , I only saw ONE and it looked paper-thin and stiff-looking, i ask the artist if he could build on it or come up with some more of the same type, he said He's only doing that once and that's it, Even though some customers' gave it high marks(exactly what they were looking for).....Go figure; My search continues, I'll be really happy to find this, But, I don't feel that the "Wishing well" was helpful; Just thought I'd put this in the middle of it in hopes that some of the vendor/artists would see it. 

I also believe that inquiries should be answered as quickly as possible. I'll do my best to answer as soon as I've read the question if it is a simple enough answer, or within the same day at the latest.

I've emailed a few vendors with questions or comments about their products, and for the most part have had good experiences with friendly and fast informative replies. There have been a couple though, that never answered at all...one that didn't reply after two inquiries I made about a product I really wanted. Did I buy it anyway? Not a chance...if the merchant can't be bothered to answer what I as a customer feel is a serious inquiry, not only will I not by the product in question, but I won't buy anything else from their store either.

Other than that....I know it's been said a million times, but a better search would do wonders. It is frustrating to no end to try to make a search specific and get page after page of listings that have nothing at all to do with the search criteria.