I had several Freja and Adiene characters in my shopping cart, intending to purchase today - on the last day of the sale.   I frequently do this, as I don't like to make lots of little purchases, but rather keep stuff in my shopping cart and pull the trigger on everything at once.

All of these items said "Sale ends 2/5/10".  Well, the top of my browser currently says Friday, February 5, 2010 7:59 AM CST.

When does a sale end, if the item says "Sale ends 2/5/10"?  Apparently it ends at 12:01 am, not 11:59 pm.

Am I the only one who was confused by this?  Is this how all sales work?  it seems to me that I have waited until the last day before without difficulty.  Was this sale canceled early for some reason?

Klebnor

You aren't the only one that is confused.  I think we all are. Someone else posted about the very issue in the market place customer support.

http://www.renderosity.com/mod/forumpro/showthread.php?thread_id=2793466

They really do need to pick a time and stick with it. 

Thanks, Acadia.

Actually, this little snafu saved me about $70 as I had quite a few items in my cart.  I do like the FRAD characters, and was about to go a bit nuts.  Slamming the door early on my fingers actually helps my retirement fund.

I have to say, I think Rendo should establish a common end time for sales and require vendors to comply so users have can plan accordingly.  If every vendor can decide what time of day their sale ends, then I guess the only realistic option for purchasers is to subtract one day from the sale period to be safe.

Klebnor

It all depends on when the vendor sets the sale to end.  Mine, for example, is set to end on Feb. 28 at 11:59 pm so that people can still have their items in the cart at the sale price until one minute to Mar. 01

That is what I would call good vendor etiquette.

Since only the date shows up on the individual items, any customer who puts an item in their cart and notes the sale end date will not be disappointed if the sale ends at 11:59.  On the other hand, if a sale ends at some arbitrary earlier time during the final day, then customers must search out this information which, honestly, I did not know was even an option.

What is the point of having a sale, if you leave your customers feeling tricked?

A hint to vendors - it takes several positive experiences to overcome one negative one.  Don't be tricky.  If you want to limit a sale, put in less items, use a lower percentage, or have it end earlier, but don't end your sale at some weird time of day.

Klebnor

that is weird, i've never had that issue .. i always thought that sales ended at midnight of that date set ... like for example 5th february midnight (going into the 6th feb - if this makes sense)

Quote - i always thought that sales ended at midnight of that date set ... like for example 5th february midnight (going into the 6th feb - if this makes sense)

Yes ... you suffered under the same delusion as I.  As demonstrated by the recent FRAD sale and the thread linked by Acadia above, this is a common misconception.  Vendors can set the sale to end this way, and I suspect most do, which is why users tend to assume all sales run to the end of the stated day.  They can also end it at any time during the final day - which is where the problems arise.

I think Rendo should standardize this for the sake of simplicity and to eliminate confusion.

Klebnor

huh... well i didnt get to buy blossom :(

It might have something to do with the time zone in which the merchant lives that sales seem to end at an arbitrary time? I mean, does the software for the site follow one time zone for sales or does it follow the individual time zone setting of each merchant? What I mean is this: Let's say .Artemis. (who lives in the west and whose time zone is three hours behind mine) puts an item on sale to end at midnight and so do I. Would mine end three hours earlier than hers? If the latter is the case, that should definitely be changed ;o). Too confusing :o). If every sale ended at a midnight Renderosity time (which is Central time - I think) then people could compensate for their own time zones and not be so confused. I have no idea which is actually the case...lol.

If I'm not making sense you'll have to forgive me....I've only got one cup of coffee in me so far...lol.

Laurie

Laurie:

I don't think that's the issue.  I understand that all sales dates follow Rendo Time (CST).  I believe most users understand that they have to account for the difference between their time zone and CST.  The problem here is that it is still (as I write this) 10:27 AM CST (Rendo Time) on 2/5/10, yet a sale which was listed to end on 2/5/10 is already over.

When a merchant sets an end time for a sale, I believe it is always CST.  The confusion has arisen because it appears some folks (like me) assumed all sales end at the end of the day specified, not some arbitrary time during that day.

Klebnor

That would be my way of thinking as well. If it ended on Feb. 4, than to my mind it would be 11:59 pm the day of the 4th ;o). If it's 12:01 am on the 4th, than to my puny little mind that would really mean it ends Feb. 3rd...lol. So I agree with you ;o)

Maybe there was some kind of glitch.

Laurie

Laurie:

It's gone now, but I have the impression that somewhere in the sale there was a time stated, however, if one just looks at the individual items, one only sees the sale end date.  Then we assume it means midnight CST on that date.  Therein lies the problem.  Which could be easily remedied if Rendo created a policy that said all sales end at 11:59 PM CST on the date specified in the ad.  Seems simple enough.

BTW, I don't know where you are in PA, but I hope you don't get hit too bad with Snow tonight.  That storm looks horrendous.

Klebnor

We're supposed to get at least a foot of snow and then frigid temps afterward :o(. I'm in south-central PA, about an hour's drive from the Maryland border (about 15 miles to the southeast of Harrisburg - the capital), give or take 10 minutes ;o).

I really hate winter...lol.

And yes, the 11:59 pm CST should be the established end time (if it already isn't)

Laurie.

Well, it looks like I'm not the only one confused.  If you're reading this thread real-time, go to Marketplace -  Sale Items now.

The first two pages are all FRAD characters - none of which are on sale!  It makes one wonder why they show up on the Sale Items page, doesn't it?

Apparently the Rendo site thinks they're still on sale.  Curious, no?

Also, take a look at the new Oskarsson sale.  If you go to the sale, it will tell you that it ends at 6 AM on february 12th.  If you happen to go to one of the items directly, it will just say "sale ends: 2/12/10".

That's how it happens.

 We here on the forum side can't actually help with anything the MP does, nor can we comment on anything further than our own personal stores.  I'm going to move this thread to the MP Customer Support Forum, where the eyes that need to see this problem will be more apt to see it.

Jeni

JenX has moved this thread from the Poser forum to the MarketPlace Customer Support forum as of Friday, February 5, 2010 11:58 am.

Well, that should kill this thread.

Every other thread here is "reset my download".

I seriously doubt anyone will look at this now.

Thanks.

 Rest assured, I've emailed the store staff to look at this thread, Klebnor.  

Jen:

Thanks for passing it along.

Do you know why the items would show up in the "Sale Items" section when they're no longer on sale?

Klebnor

 Again, I have no idea on anything that goes on in the store, nor the programming of the site.  My advice is to be patient with this, and someone will answer you guys as soon as they can.  There may have been a system glitch.

Well, I'm glad I'm not the only one that's extremely confused, not to mention very, very disappointed! I was just coming here to ask about this exact thing. I had a LOT of the Freja & Adiene stuff in my cart just waiting for payday...today, since the sale said it lasted until 2/05. Imagine my surprise to go to checkout and find the sale was over! Argh!
Is this a new thing? IMO, if the sale isn't going to end at the end of the date, instead of just putting 2/05 as the end of sale...a time needs to be put, too! A time in Renderosity server time so it's clear!
Oh well...money to spend elsewhere.

I'm holding my breath waiting for someone from the Renderosity marketplace to respond to this issue.  Since it has been removed from the Poser forum (the only one with significant traffic) it appears it will die on the vine here.

Klebnor

These weekly deep discount sales times are not set by the vendors, they're setup by Renderosity staff.

Usually when vendors setup their own sales, the batch job kicks off and ends sales somewhere between 3-6am (even though the ending date displayed is the previous day).

Because of the tool we have to do these unique deep discount sales, the normal batch job doesn't control the kick off and end of these sales.  This is why the ending time is clearly listed in the front page article.  The product description page doesn't have a place to put in an ending time.

But if it's confusing, I will see about ending it at midnight from now on and forgo the additional 6 hours of the sale.

Quote - I'm holding my breath waiting for someone from the Renderosity marketplace to respond to this issue.  Since it has been removed from the Poser forum (the only one with significant traffic) it appears it will die on the vine here.

Klebnor

I have explained to you why the thread was moved.  Our store staff is small, and do not have the time, capacity, or manpower to patrol the outer forums to meet every complaint head-on.  
In the future, I would suggest that if you would like a speedier reply, to contact the store staff directly by emailing them at store@renderosity.com

I didn't read about the sale in the mentioned front page article. I just saw that a bunch of items in my wishlist were on sale & realized from that that Freja's entire store was on sale. So I missed the ending time being posted in the front page article. It is very confusing in that case.
I guess there is no chance that it could end at midnight tonight?

Sorry, the FP article was up there for a week listing the ending time of the sale, and I cannot extend that.

Moving forward with these sales, I'm going to have them scheduled to end at 11:45pm CST on the date shown on the product page to avoid confusion for members that don't read the FP articles.  11:45pm is the latest I can end a sale with the sales tool we have in place for these sales.

I apologize for the confusion and thank you all for your opinions and suggestions.

Debbie:

I think that's an excellent solution.  At least with a consistent policy everyone will get used to it over time.

As you can see by searching around, this issue comes up again and again.  Usually it is the experience that aqrose and I had - seeing individual items on sale and putting them in our cart without looking at an article.  This leads to disappointment when an item advertised as "Sale Ends 2/5/10" is off sale when the user goes to purchase it at noon on 2/5/10.

Thanks and regards,

Klebnor

Quote -
I have explained to you why the thread was moved.  Our store staff is small, and do not have the time, capacity, or manpower to patrol the outer forums to meet every complaint head-on.  
In the future, I would suggest that if you would like a speedier reply, to contact the store staff directly by emailing them at store@renderosity.com

Jen:  I think the forums can also serve to let people know an issue exists.  Just seeing this thread in the poser forum would have let many people know that the timing of a sale is important, and that they don't always end at midnight as many people obviously assumed.  I think Debbie has hit on the best solution - a common expiration time which I hope will be explained somewhere on the site so such confusion is limited in the future.

Regards,

Klebnor