ClintH opened this issue on Aug 10, 2002 ยท 19 posts
Jack D. Kammerer posted Sat, 10 August 2002 at 1:42 PM
Hi Clint, long time no talk!! LOL!! Not to be a PITA (Pain in the ass), but I have a question to ask ya. Having posted a picture to the galleries, I included a product that was purchased for me by Diane. The vendor contacted me after seeing the image and accused ME of getting their product through illegal means. I wont tell you or bore you with how un-nice I was after getting a site mail from the vendor. Suffice to say that after around ten e-mails back and forth, the vendor apologized (as did I) and thanks to Diane we were able to set her mind at ease when we proved that it was indeed a gift from Diane. Being honest, although I managed to get things worked out. I was more than a bit peeved that I was accused of being a thief and even though her and I worked things out (behind the scenes like it SHOULD be done) will never buy one of her products again. With that said, I am wondering if this new Gift System is going to bring more of these sort of situations to the forefront. How are vendors going to know who bought what and from whom to protect their assets. I ask this, because if someone buys me another gift, the last thing I want is some rude ass e-mail from a vendor who feels the need to accuse me of being a thief before looking into the facts or even asking for the facts. Also, let's say someone buys me a gift, or I buy them a gift, what if I want to do so as a "secret admirer"? What right of privacy would I have being a customer in your store? Is there a way that I can keep my identity from being noticed (without a need for a clone account) so I can properly flirt without worry of being discovered by a boyfriend or hubby? wink Like I said, I don't mean to be a "PITA", but I don't want to spend another week long arguement some vendor (trying to be nice here without breaking the TOS) who notices a product in one of my images and accuses me of being a thief, but at the same time keep my own privacy. My spending trends in the online stores is really no one's business but mine and the owners of the store. The way I look at it... Tide doesn't need to know who bought their product, only the store (say K-Mart)that sold that product needs to know who bought it or how. Tide can feel free to ask me if I want to participate in a survey to see if I bought their product, but it should be up to me if I want to participate in it. In the same regard, there has to be a way to protect the vendors to minimize the amount of warez of products that hit Peer2Peer programs, without them feeling the need to go through the galleries and then attacking and accusing the artist of being a thief because that artist has the product in their render. Jack