Your bad Experience with merchants

[Trinitis]

I figured I'd make this topic to see what bad experiences people have had with merchants? Here is one of mine...


The merchant lass who was (may still be, I'm not sure..) comming to the premie area like twice a month to do alters..well, I actually won one.

what did I want?

I wanted a silly little gempouch made, something along the lines of :

a stuffed turtle shapped pouch with a silly grin on its face.

what did I see in my mind? 4 little legs and a head full of stuffing, attached to a small pouch (the shell area) and a silly smile stitched on the face (somewhere under the eyes...yah..)

Her responce.

Turtles don't show emotion..and even if they did, turtles are stupid animals.

I found this rather offensive, I happen to love turtles (and so does Adredrin.)

What did I do? I got a bad alteration (IMO) and sold it 10 min later.

a jet black spidersilk pouch clasped by a bright ruby dragon captured in mid flight.

She did not blink an eye at that altar.

-Adredrin

Oh yah, dragon's don't exist, rememeber?

[StrayRogue]

Heh, don't get me started. I got a lot of shit off three merchants just to have my FGB altered into armor I had recently gained at Anfelt with NO trouble. I got alot of hassle to "hurry up" by Tsin and Dorckwizard's whore. I know alot of people had the same problem at the Faire.

[DCSL]

My worst merchant experiences are bad not so much for what I didn't get but from the merchants themselves. The absolute WORST was that S-something dwarf friend of Chavie's at the Artisan Faire. The one that got up abruptly without saying anything, left the room, then when others followed, misted back into the room he was in before and locked anyone who followed out.

That royally pissed me off. None of the GMs would address the issue either. He didn't role-play with it. He didn't SAY A THING before or after. Not a word from anyone. It was not role-play. It was customer abuse! Or something.. I dunno... but that was the worst.

[Drew2]

Originally posted by DCSL
My worst merchant experiences are bad not so much for what I didn't get but from the merchants themselves. The absolute WORST was that S-something dwarf friend of Chavie's at the Artisan Faire. The one that got up abruptly without saying anything, left the room, then when others followed, misted back into the room he was in before and locked anyone who followed out.

That royally pissed me off. None of the GMs would address the issue either. He didn't role-play with it. He didn't SAY A THING before or after. Not a word from anyone. It was not role-play. It was customer abuse! Or something.. I dunno... but that was the worst.
Actually I find that quite humorous. There's nothing more annoying then a bunch of merchant groupies.

[Betheny]

I hate when you go into a room with people that do nothing but kiss ass and try to impress the GM. People act so differently when they KNOW a GM -type is watching, :lol:.

I've always thought that merchants ought to spin one, take the person to a private room, and WORK with them on their alter -- not have the person walk up and say "Hey, this is what I want exactly." A merchant should have a distinct style, and if I was creating items, I would want to give the customer what they wanted. But I'd also want to put my own touch on it.

[DCSL]

Originally posted by Maimara
I hate when you go into a room with people that do nothing but kiss ass and try to impress the GM. People act so differently when they KNOW a GM -type is watching, :lol:.

I've always thought that merchants ought to spin one, take the person to a private room, and WORK with them on their alter -- not have the person walk up and say "Hey, this is what I want exactly." A merchant should have a distinct style, and if I was creating items, I would want to give the customer what they wanted. But I'd also want to put my own touch on it.

I'd really like it if we could be taken aside one on one. That would make it easier to get family heirlooms made for a character in such a way as to keep the "But I saw that made just yesterday by someone else at the Faire!" to a minimum.

But it'd open up even more problems. There'd be no one watching to catch mistakes, as often happens. People would feel there's more room for favoritism with no one else watching... that whole can of worms.

[Kurili]

CHAVIE!

I'm not even going to his overpriced items, that wouldnt bother me. You buy em or dont.

At Anfelt, my char asked him in whispers about some armor. He didnt respond. No problem, there were other people there, and I figured he was busy.

Next day, my char and a Faendryl friend went in, it was Chavie, my girl, and her friend. Three of us. Chavie worked for her friend, ignored her. Three more came in, he worked for them. Finally I said something...coughed, whatever, and one of those who had recently arrived said, "Oh, I had no idea you were waiting"

To which Chavie said, "She can wait". Mind you, there was no RP leading up to this. None, zilch. And Anfelt IS a pay event of course. My char spent the rest of Anfelt walking around yelling "Boycott Chavie."

So, at Con, I did find out why he wouldnt even acknowledge her. It's because Chavie wont deal with Dhe'nari. OK, fine. EXCEPT....this is in Plat, there is no organized Dhe'nari there, at least not then, I dont know about now. Remember, although Chavie's GM knows my char is Dhe'nari, and his player knows...how in HELL did Chavie know? How could Chavie tell she was Dhe'nari and my friend was Faendryl? If he'd even said, "You look like a Dhe'nar, are you?" she'd have said she was, and that would have been fine.

But he did not. The way I see it, Chavie's knowledge that she was Dhe'nari was OOC. We arent supposed to have name/race tags on, and she had said or done nothing to indicate her culture in his presence.

End of rant.

Acolyte Kurili

[StrayRogue]

I agree Chavie, his stuff, his groupies and the GM behind him, are all retards.

[DCSL]

Originally posted by Tayre
Actually I find that quite humorous. There's nothing more annoying then a bunch of merchant groupies.

You can find it funny all you want. Alot of the people that were locked out weren't merchant groupies though. They were just eager to get the item they want. Is that wrong? NO. If you want something really special for your character, I don't think that's merchant groupie-ism/hunting.

I wouldn't have been as mad about it either, being an admitted merchant hunter myself (and I refuse to let you or anyone else insult me for it... I have IC reasons for Lysistrata to back it up, so let's cut short the merchant hunter insulting in this thread) and having been letdown or refused many many times before... if he'd JUST ROLE-PLAYED IT!

Chavie's really rude too. A real butthole of a merchant that'll deliberately try to be hard to find and will play cruel crowd-cutting games. But he role-plays it. That's his character. My beef with the S-dude.. Scrawll? Something of that sort... was that he didn't react or say anything at all. NOTHING. Nada. Zip. He acted like nothing happened when patently, it did. And it wasn't just like his character was playing dumb.. no.. it was the GM being a butthole in a completely out of character way.

That's what pissed me off.

[Solkern]

This merchant wouldnt let me have the color black, in my armor, since he didn't like the color I was like you fucking dumbass, I slapped him and left.

[ravinlloonitik]

never had a alteration

[Soulpieced]

Well, if you don't want bad merchant experiences, don't be a brown-nosing merchant chaser like all the rest of the peons trying to get "ahead" of others.

[theotherjohn]

Originally posted by LordAdredrin


a jet black spidersilk pouch clasped by a bright ruby dragon captured in mid flight.

She did not blink an eye at that altar.

-Adredrin

Oh yah, dragon's don't exist, rememeber?

actually dragons do exist in GS. one of my characters has seen them in flight over the landing. the other has seen drawings of dragons and unicorns in the EN

[ElvenRangeress]

My first alter was from a merchant named Clarysa. I handed her a dress I wanted to alter and told her this: a thigh-length black leather dress clasped with a tiny star. She gave me: A black leather dress fastened with a star. I asked her if theres any way she could add thigh to the description, she said NO. And then I saw the next person she worked with and gave them thigh in the description. I was rather upset and I asked her is there a way we can do what she did for the other girl, she asked me to wait until she was ready, i waited four hours and then asked her if she was ready, she said in front of everyone, sorry Atheana you dislike my work so much. That was embarassing, she could of just said no in the beginning, not making me wait for four hours. I was rather upset that night, but some alterers just don't get into the roleplaying deal, they come on alter be mean and leave. Thats not fun is it ;o(

[CrystalTears]

They do exist, they're just not huntable therefore you can't have dragon or unicorn PARTS in alterations. You can have images of them all you want.

[Adhara]

Yep yep. Dragons have flown over the landing and I believe there is one sleeping in a cave that you can see as you slide down the water tunnels from the Reach.

[Edited on 9-20-2003 by Adhara]

[AnticorRifling]

L something, has a shop in EN archery stuff. Well we knew he was coming so alot of us waited for him to show. All the while I helped design alters for folks, talked, had a good time. He showed up and didn't announce he was using a list. The list is always there. Bam, it's full by some folks that just walk in. Most of us that had been there for hours didn't get anything. Wasn't real bad just struck me the wrong way.

[Betheny]

ANY alterer that Merryleon goes to is a BAD experience. Very bad.

[Kurili]

Well, if you don't want bad merchant experiences, don't be a brown-nosing merchant chaser like all the rest of the peons trying to get "ahead" of others.


Did I mention...I wasnt even wanting work done from Chavie. I was again trying to ask about some armor he had for sale I was interested in buying for another character, whose type of armor I had no experience with.

Acolyte Kurili

[Warriorbird]

Frazerarg stole an altered item of mine as I attempted to RP with her. I think Uska does a tremendous amount of nice work for Gemstone, especially in the area of critters he creates, but that infuriated me to no end.

Mahegh, in turn, I've gained new respect for from seeing him run the Platinum Rings quest. He's made a lot of people happy. It wasn't really IC to any of my characters, but I've seen that he can do really good work sometimes. However...Chavie spinning a group, then leading them to another room...then leaving and not doing any work for them and working for people in another room was also pretty bloody damn maddening. Much less his stupid overpriced items....much less the stupid crap he made for Tsin...

I, admittedly, like a lot of the work GMs in GS do...but sometimes they can really screw the pooch, merchant wise.

I think the GMs need to work on making the merchanting experience more representative of reality, and divide themselves from the notion that it's all some OOC thing conducted at their whim. Also, in turn, I hope in GS4 that we see a lot more creative merchanting services...

stat boosting items, spell granting items, more items that move by themselves....merchants that teach special skills...merchants that give Artisan's Guild lessons...merchants that are really just a chance for a lot of experience and special knowledge of what is happening in the game world...

[GarrsSoul]

personally ive never actually spoken to or seen a merchant up close....

[LaVaca]

Wasn't my character but I somehow found it hilarious when Sukara gave warclod a bunny tattoo then people dragged him to helga's where he lie asleep in a pile of ale !

lol

[Warriorbird]

And posts like this are why folks find it hard to believe you when you say you'll turn over a new leaf.

[Betheny]

To translate Warclaidhm's speech, use this handy tool: http://www.albinoblacksheep.com/text/aoler.php

What he said was this: IMM WARCLADEHM AND IMM RILLY RATH3R DUMB1!1!1 OMG LOL

[Kitsun]

I've been to a quite a few merchants and one of the most infuriating experiences was with a merchant Nitza. I have no idea what her problem was but it wasn't an RP'd rudeness but rather it felt like the GM behind the scene was having a bad day and taking it out on the players. She would fight you all the way through the alteration process. I asked for an onyx finger-armor and she asked me to supply it...so I went to go buy another one of her items that had onyx in it. I don't understand the point in requiring someone to hand over an item thats supposed to be common. Nitza also gave one of my friends a problem when she asked to get a wedding ring done, she actually asked how could you identify a wedding ring from any other ring.

One of the biggest problems I've had with dealing with merchants is when they want you to supply a material that should be damn near readily available(in real life) but near impossible to find ingame. Its frustrating to the player since they won't get the item they envisioned simply because they didn't have the foresight to try to find 4 velvet cloaks or two suede boots to have torn apart for material.

"L something, has a shop in EN archery stuff. Well we knew he was coming so alot of us waited for him to show. All the while I helped design alters for folks, talked, had a good time. He showed up and didn't announce he was using a list. The list is always there. Bam, it's full by some folks that just walk in. Most of us that had been there for hours didn't get anything. Wasn't real bad just struck me the wrong way. "

I have mixed feelings about that situation. While I am sympathetic to people waiting because they so dearly want something done...I don't believe GM's should encourage the behavior of sitting in one area until a GM comes to work for you. It happens quite a bit at many of the pay-for events. People will find a merchant that performs a desired service and people will sit there for hours, if not days on end, and whine about it all the while like they were tethered to the spot. There's a matter of choice in the situation and if the merchant CHOOSES to reward your efforts thats fine, but ultimately the people waiting will revert to incessant whining because of the expectation that doing that will get them what they want. I think the list would be fair play, if you noticed the merchant login, you'd peek around the room and spot the list. It rewarded those who were paying attention. (Not trying to say you weren't but that method would exclude those that dozed off and left their characters there AFK)

[Kitsun]

Originally posted by DCSL
My worst merchant experiences are bad not so much for what I didn't get but from the merchants themselves. The absolute WORST was that S-something dwarf friend of Chavie's at the Artisan Faire. The one that got up abruptly without saying anything, left the room, then when others followed, misted back into the room he was in before and locked anyone who followed out.

That royally pissed me off. None of the GMs would address the issue either. He didn't role-play with it. He didn't SAY A THING before or after. Not a word from anyone. It was not role-play. It was customer abuse! Or something.. I dunno... but that was the worst.

If a merchant sit down to work, then suddenly gets up and bolts...its usually a good idea to sit tight. I would actually wager that the GM just went to close off the area and wasn't trying to lead unsuspecting victims out of the room so he wouldn't have to work for you. Chavie's room always had a steady influx of people coming in to get work done, if he doesn't close up, he has enough people to work on for a day straight.

[Caramia]

Originally posted by Kitsun
...without saying anything, left the room, then when others followed, misted back into the room he was in before and locked anyone who followed out.

That royally pissed me off. None of the GMs would address the issue either. He didn't role-play with it. He didn't SAY A THING before or after. Not a word from anyone. It was not role-play. It was customer abuse! Or something.. I dunno... but that was the worst.

That also could have been the night that GM Aelsidhe died and that's not the kind of thing you just blurt out. I'm sure her death was a shock to many, and some apologized at the gathering in the Mentor area for being unable to continue that night. As a result, the Artisan Faire was open for another week, 6 days more than it was supposed to be.