Being a Good Customer

by MsSyko819

As a successful shop owner, I've reaped a lot of Neopoints and met a lot of nice people, but even after playing NeoPets for well over a year, I am still astonished by the rudeness and anger from some of my customers. I've had people ask me to give them a full set of faeries and then cursed me when I refused. I realize that to a new player, those of us with size 200 shops full of expensive items seem rich and privileged, but everyone starts out in NeoPets with the same amount of Neopoints and the same opportunities. In fact, people are better off now, they didn't have the newbie packs when I started! As anyone with a successful shop can testify, we put in a lot of work on our shops. I've put together a list of suggestions on being a good customer that I'd like to share.

1. Don't ask for free items. The shopkeeper paid for the item and there is no reason why he/she should give it to you. Personally I am generous, and have helped many new players start their shops with free items and helpful hints, but it's annoying to receive all the begging letters. Begging is demeaning to the beggar and irritating to the beggee.

2. Don't ask for a discount. I sell a lot of paint brushes, and those must be purchased from other owners. I spend a lot of time finding the absolute cheapest ones, and only mark them up a little (I do have to feed my pets!), and when I pay 25,000 NP for a brush and price it at 25,295, you'd better believe I am not going to sell it to you for 1,500, and I don't want to be your Neofriend either.

3. If someone has limits, try to observe them. I don't understand the reasoning behind setting limits, I don't care if 20 people buy one item or one person buys 20, and as for the poor people, they can eat free in the soup kitchen and get free items and NP at the money tree, but if someone feels they want to limit your purchases, that's their right.

4. Don't waste your time writing Neomails to tell someone to lower their prices. If someone wants to put a price of 50,000 NP on an abacus, that's his privilege. He's not going to sell it, but he can charge whatever he likes. And if you don't like his prices, go to another shop.

5. Why be hateful? I have received Neomails telling me that my shopfront is crappy, that I'm slime, that they don't like me, that they hope that something bad happens to my account...it's a hard world outside of Neopia. We need to be nice to each other. If you don't like something, don't waste your time and hurt their feelings by writing ugly Neomails. If you don't like a shop, don't shop there. There are a lot of other shops to go to. I mean, there are over 7 million users.

6. Give up the scams. Most shopkeepers are intelligent people, and are not going to fall for "I'll trade you a Christmas Paintbrush for your Paintbrush of the Stars, no one will buy yours at that price anyway."

Now that I've got that off my chest, come on over to Asylum and spend all your Neopoints!