I've seen lots of items being sold where the pricing format is intended to deceive the purchaser i.e nanosilk being sold for 1,800,007 per item. It's purely being sold like this to catch people out who click the unit price to list in low price order and do not double check that they are looking at a list in low price order.

 

I know everyone should double check but a lot of purchases are done in haste and the guys selling nano silk was charging over 5m for 3 pieces and this is done, and the format is done, purely in a manner to deceive someone into accidently paying stupid money for an item.

 

If someone does make a purchase in error, is there any comeback?

 

Doesnt feel right to be scamming people in this way, particularly as there isnt anywhere to safely stash your cash - ie you could pay your entire cash stack in error!

I don't see how this qualifies as a scam. The price is ridiculous but its not like they are displaying one price and charging another. Its not even a misrepresentation really. It's simply opportunistic people setting really high prices on items and inattentive and impulsive shoppers buying them at that price.

 

How would you propose they fix this though? You can't just make a mechanic to allow GTN purchases to be returned, because that would allow price fixing. If I could return things I bought on the GTN that I regretted over-paying for, then I could list something at 10,000,000 credits, buy all of the reasonably priced items that are cheaper, then return them all to ensure my over-priced item is always the cheapest one on the market at my ridiculous price.

Edited September 18, 2014 by Orizuru

Mmm...

 

Having been a victim of this form of game abuze, I really wish GTN would automatically provide information sorted from lowest price to highest in a search, which should alleviate this issue tremendously. But often the sorter is bugged and makes folks like me easy prey who play in a highly distracting environment (2 small children).

 

Sue

I agree it is annoying that they don't automatically sort price low to high and instead newest to oldest, but I've just gotten into the habit of checking, even clicking extra times to make sure I'm still sorted by price.

I don't see how this qualifies as a scam. The price is ridiculous but its not like they are displaying one price and charging another. Its not even a misrepresentation really. It's simply opportunistic people setting really high prices on items and inattentive and impulsive shoppers buying them at that price.

 

How would you propose they fix this though? You can't just make a mechanic to allow GTN purchases to be returned, because that would allow price fixing. If I could return things I bought on the GTN that I regretted over-paying for, then I could list something at 10,000,000 credits, buy all of the reasonably priced items that are cheaper, then return them all to ensure my over-priced item is always the cheapest one on the market at my ridiculous price.

 

Maybe scam is the wrong word, opportunist is probably more apt. I haven't fallen foul of this practice but can see a point where someone would accidently click on an item thinking it was the lowest price and suddenly find their entire bank balance had gone.

 

Sorting the sort might make it clearer or providing some short term cancellation of a trade ie 30 seconds. I would notice if 5m came out of my balance rather than the 5k i thought.

 

The problem only really arises when you are in a hurry and trying to buy up mats as cheap as possible - but its a pretty horrid mistake to happen if your entire savings go awol!

Maybe scam is the wrong word, opportunist is probably more apt. I haven't fallen foul of this practice but can see a point where someone would accidently click on an item thinking it was the lowest price and suddenly find their entire bank balance had gone.

 

Sorting the sort might make it clearer or providing some short term cancellation of a trade ie 30 seconds. I would notice if 5m came out of my balance rather than the 5k i thought.

 

The problem only really arises when you are in a hurry and trying to buy up mats as cheap as possible - but its a pretty horrid mistake to happen if your entire savings go awol!

 

If you are buying up cheap mats, you're being greedy / opportunistic as well.

 

If you are blindly buying up cheap mats, you're being careless... you reap what you sow.

Edited September 18, 2014 by azudelphi

My first question is, Why in the name of all that is holy are you buying mats off the GTN like Nano-silk? I could see high grade mats like MMG's and Iso-5's but Nano-silk? My second question is why are you using Unit Price and not the raw price? This isnt real life where you cant have infinite money, if you run low on money, just go run dailies and boom more money...

Another thought crossed my mind on this...

 

The GTN has input fields for min and max price you are willing to pay when you search for things. If you enter a max price that is what you consider to be the highest reasonable price you would pay for the item you are searching for, that would help to filter the ridiculously priced items out of the search results.

I don't see how this qualifies as a scam. The price is ridiculous but its not like they are displaying one price and charging another. Its not even a misrepresentation really. It's simply opportunistic people setting really high prices on items and inattentive and impulsive shoppers buying them at that price.

 

How would you propose they fix this though? You can't just make a mechanic to allow GTN purchases to be returned, because that would allow price fixing. If I could return things I bought on the GTN that I regretted over-paying for, then I could list something at 10,000,000 credits, buy all of the reasonably priced items that are cheaper, then return them all to ensure my over-priced item is always the cheapest one on the market at my ridiculous price.

 

It's pretty obviously a scam. I'm not sure how you fail to see this.

 

As you rightly pointed out, the solution isn't to permit refunds. It's simply a matter of altering the system to make it more difficult for these scammers to exploit their unwitting victims. For example, Bioware could allow us to decide on a specific credit cap for our GTN spending...a spending limit that sets off a special flashing warning message and/or warning sound when we exceed that limit.

 

Little features like this would help innocent players protect themselves from scams. Bioware can't eliminate the scams, but they can certainly give us tools to help us avoid them.

Edited September 18, 2014 by Hebruixe

You just need a warning confirmation box in the settings. So if you say set the limit at 100K, you get a popup box asking if you're sure you want to spend that much.

It's pretty obviously a scam. I'm not sure how you fail to see this.

 

As you rightly pointed out, the solution isn't to permit refunds. It's simply a matter of altering the system to make it more difficult for these scammers to exploit their unwitting victims. For example, Bioware could allow us to decide on a specific credit cap for our GTN spending...a spending limit that sets off a special flashing warning message and/or warning sound when we exceed that limit.

 

Little features like this would help innocent players protect themselves from scams. Bioware can't eliminate the scams, but they can certainly give us tools to help us avoid them.

 

A scam, by definition, is based upon fraud or dishonesty. They aren't being fraudulent or dishonest when they set an outlandish price. However, this isn't really important of relative to the issue, it's just us splitting hairs over a definition.

 

And I think the GTN can allow a spending limit of sorts. As I noted in another post above there is the Max Credits field that can be used when searching the GTN to filter out search results that have a price that is above the Max Credits value you provide.

Nothing needs to be changed. People who fall victim to this are just not using the features that are in place to protect you from making a wrong purchase.

Another tip, don't use the GTN when you're high.

Edited September 18, 2014 by JediRelentless

Doesnt the gtn do a pop up confirmation on that? Any time I try to to buy -anything- for more the 5000 credits a little window pops up asking if I'm sure I want to make that purchase. Drives me nuts but I guess it saves me from buying a piece of neutronium for 500k...

 

So in theory, not only are you zerg clicking to buy, but your -also- not even reading the "are you sure you want to buy -insert item here- for -insert credit amount here-" pop up as well, so that's two seperate instances of your own fallacy?

Doesnt the gtn do a pop up confirmation on that? Any time I try to to buy -anything- for more the 5000 credits a little window pops up asking if I'm sure I want to make that purchase. Drives me nuts but I guess it saves me from buying a piece of neutronium for 500k...

 

So in theory, not only are you zerg clicking to buy, but your -also- not even reading the "are you sure you want to buy -insert item here- for -insert credit amount here-" pop up as well, so that's two seperate instances of your own fallacy?

 

I get that message 4 the vendors, but not the GTN.

 

Anywho, on the main topic, If people r so bummed by the items having 2 prices (total + unit), why don't they just ask 4 it 2 b returned 2 the way it used 2 b (total only)?

 

That way they wouldn't have this problem:rolleyes:

What I'd really like is for "sort by item price" to always, always, always default to lowest.

 

The fact that it is somewhat random is the issue IMHO.

 

If it defaulted to lowest price first always, then I think this issue would largely go away.

Or you could just pay attention to what you buying...

Or you could just pay attention to what you buying...

 

eBay has allowed sorting by price for 15 years now... I think Bioware should be able to manage it...

 

It isn't a crazy outrageous thing you know...

What I'd really like is for "sort by item price" to always, always, always default to lowest.

 

The fact that it is somewhat random is the issue IMHO.

 

If it defaulted to lowest price first always, then I think this issue would largely go away.

I would love this for so very many reasons -- great QoL idea.

 

99.99% of the time I always want it sorted by lowest price. And since the sort by price is sometimes buggy, I end up sorting, sorting it again, then sorting it by name because the price sort didn't work, then sorting by price again, then sorting one last time to go lowest to highest.

 

I swear, it's worse than trying to plug in a usb connector.

eBay has allowed sorting by price for 15 years now... I think Bioware should be able to manage it...

 

It isn't a crazy outrageous thing you know...

 

It's not. Especially since we have it. It just has to be manually toggled each time you reload an instance.

eBay has allowed sorting by price for 15 years now... I think Bioware should be able to manage it...

 

It isn't a crazy outrageous thing you know...

 

Just like ebay, this game allows you to sort by price on the GTN, either low to high, or high to low. In fact, you can sort by unit price or total price, even better than ebay. You have to choose to sort by price, as it's not the default sorting, but you CAN sort by price, either total or unit.

I get that message 4 the vendors, but not the GTN.

 

That's just odd. I get it every time I try to buy something off the gtn for more then 5k. (That was fun when someone had about 40 grade 9 diplomacy mission up for 5k each, had to click yes I was sure for each one...)

 

Same any time I try to buy a crafting schematic that's 5k or more.

It's not a scam and I wish people would stop calling it that when they get what they paid for.

 

Why is it NOT a scam if you get something for 500 credits that normally sells for 500,000? You're clearly taking advantage of the seller by knowingly buying it at that ridiculous price but it's ok cuz you're getting a deal, right?

 

Seems legit.

 

Oh, and don't forget to brag in general chat about how you just bought X Item(s) that "some idiot" just posted for nothing.

That's just odd. I get it every time I try to buy something off the gtn for more then 5k. (That was fun when someone had about 40 grade 9 diplomacy mission up for 5k each, had to click yes I was sure for each one...)

 

Same any time I try to buy a crafting schematic that's 5k or more.

 

It's because I turned the warning message off in my settings. I spend M's of credits on the GTN quite often, so the warning message was very annoying early on. The OP seems 2 have done the same, and then not been careful when using the GTN.

It's because I turned the warning message off in my settings. I spend M's of credits on the GTN quite often, so the warning message was very annoying early on. The OP seems 2 have done the same, and then not been careful when using the GTN.

 

I was the OP, and I haven't made this mistake as I'm careful that I don't accidently spend 1.8m on basic mats. I buy and sell a lot of mats and have seen this pricing so many times now I thought I would flag for discussion. I have had to pause and double check the pricing to ensure I am not making the mistake.

 

I don't mind people charging what they want for an item, what I wanted to flag was that there are a number of people who are deliberately pricing their items so that they may appear to be the lowest priced item of that type on the list when you sort, but in fact due to the way the pricing is structured they are actually 1,800,007 (per mat, or similar pricing structure whereas the next lowest price is 1900 or 2000)- so that they appear on an initial price sort as the lowest priced item when in fact they are costing millions. Take a look at the GTN on your servers and I guess you will see the same. A quick way to make a few million I guess for some people.

 

If someone falls for this then fair enough if people believe this is fine, but setting the price of a basic mat to appear low when in fact it is intended to get you to accidently click and buy and spend a few million credits is to my mind a deliberate opportunist act.

 

Some good advice about setting the min/max values for trades and I will also now consider transferring bulk of my cash to an alt that I dont use to buy and sell so that I do not by accident spend 5m on 3 basic mats. I can see someone else doing it and it doesn't seem reasonable behaviour to me, but thats up to BW to decide I guess.

So.. add a search function to search by how many items you want allowed in a stack? So you only get the auctions listed that have 1 item in each stack... doesnt seem that difficult to me