i hate my customers, *why?*

[ecaguimbal]

i hate my customers. know why? they make my shop a staying place. then they talk and talk and then they will argue, tease each other, slap and attack*ouch*. they just even messing up my shop! throwing water bags and make the floor flooded. the manager (me) i am just quiet in one place and then they will flirt, complain to me and have an affair, slapping, fighting, teasing. *exhausted*. the worst part, when we fight, their loyalness to me is now very low, low, low! so my business rank is -20. any tips?

[Simsbaby]

Download most of Squinge's hacks. 

[Wolfee]

Also make sure you greet your customers and show them around the items you want them to buy. I make sure my customers are attended too and I have loads of loyal customers. When you ignore them they complain to you. This way seems to be the only way to make your rank go up, for me at least

[J. M. Pescado]

I currently have a prototype in testing that basically completely squelches all forms of obnoxious customer annoyance behavior, like trying to kickybag in the store, and soforth, not to mention tons of other social advertisement-related behaviors like child molestation and public stalkers.

[Ancient Sim]

What are the stalkers?  I'm not sure I've noticed any of those.  I do seem to have some Sims who are using the stores for their own ends, though.  Last night I was playing the Ramirez's furniture store and the Tinker couple came in.  The husband (forget his name) bought an el cheapo chair, but otherwise all they did was have pillow fights, sit on the sofa chatting, or make burgers.  Eventually Wanda Tinker had the nerve to try to complain about something, so I sent her packing with Inge's teleporter bush.  I presume they're too broke to buy much, although that doesn't seem to stop Brandi & Hegelian spending all their cash on robots and tasteless ornaments they don't need.

[J. M. Pescado]

What are the stalkers?  I'm not sure I've noticed any of those.

Stalkers are strange sims you don't really know, who, for no apparently obvious reason, stubbornly insist on trying to follow your sims around the lot, pestering them with admires and other annoying gestures, even if you immediately move as far away from them as possible to get away from them. They just keep FOLLOWING YOU for no reason, even though you don't even know them, STALKING YOU across the lot.

It's immensely aggravating, especially when you're trying to do something and these weird people keep following you around for no reason.

[DrBeast]

What are the stalkers?  I'm not sure I've noticed any of those.

Stalkers are strange sims you don't really know, who, for no apparently obvious reason, stubbornly insist on trying to follow your sims around the lot, pestering them with admires and other annoying gestures, even if you immediately move as far away from them as possible to get away from them. They just keep FOLLOWING YOU for no reason, even though you don't even know them, STALKING YOU across the lot.

It's immensely aggravating, especially when you're trying to do something and these weird people keep following you around for no reason.

These kind of sims usually end up accidentally hitting their head in my sims' fists over and over again. Oh well, accidents happen you know...

[Jysudo]

Sighs.
Just max motives. That will solve ur problem. I think ur customers are in a crappy mood.

[Regina]

I downloaded a bunch of Squinge's mods and let me tell you, my businesses are now businesses instead of playhouses.  I thought when I first started a business, this is a bunch of hogwash!  Very few people hang around in stores having pillow fights and insulting each other without being escorted off the premises.  My store--my rules, so that type of behavior is out.

There's another problem you may want to watch for, too.  If the business is a store and a sim is finished shopping (as in they've made their purchases and checked out) they may hang around the store browsing.  You don't want this to happen, because invariably they'll look at something then end up with the whole star-minus thing over their head (as in their loyalty just went down a point).  If a shopper is lingering too long on the lot, I use Inge's teleporter shrub to get rid of them or if it's convenient for my sim, just have them tell them good-bye.  This sim may show up on the lot a few sim minutes later, but they'll be shopping again, not just browsing with their loyalty points going down.

[Dea]

I hate when a customer throws a water balloon and then complains that the store is not clean.  Geez, I wonder why.   I have alot of fighting going on too.

There's another problem you may want to watch for, too.  If the business is a store and a sim is finished shopping (as in they've made their purchases and checked out) they may hang around the store browsing.  You don't want this to happen, because invariably they'll look at something then end up with the whole star-minus thing over their head (as in their loyalty just went down a point).  If a shopper is lingering too long on the lot, I use Inge's teleporter shrub to get rid of them or if it's convenient for my sim, just have them tell them good-bye.  This sim may show up on the lot a few sim minutes later, but they'll be shopping again, not just browsing with their loyalty points going down.

Yep, I had that happen too.  I had to tell alot of them to leave and the ones that were shopping I had to "dazzle" bc that seems to give you an instant star when its sucessful to make up.

[sara_dippity]

My customers behave well, but I am an avid micromanager, having someone constantly restocking and cleaning, and several sales people. If I have a cust causing problems, I usually stop and chat with them for a bit, I think playful or grouchy sims with low social might start pranks or irritating. The only time I had customers who wern't loyal where when I fired employees or tried to badger them into changing their horrid outfits.

[anelca]

i have no objection to a bit of frivolity in my stores...i like to think a happy sim is a happy shopper
but they can get a bit too happy....Wanda Tinker is one of them. i have resorted to banning her from most stores now.
she can bloody well shop online if i ever bother to play her family again
Squinges mods are quite convenient. i have done a pick and mix of the ones i like, not so many of them as to ban all obnoxiousness and weirdness, but enough to keep business ticking along

[radiophonic]

I was playing one day and noticed that I didn't have any customers for, well, a long time. I looked way down at the end of the lot, and just out of earshot, they were all playing kicky bag. I had to laugh, their customer loyalty was going up and up. Problem was, I wasn't making any money! I shooed them and they came back to shop.

I don't mind them goofing around in the store, that's the way they are. Customer loyalty and stars are simple to regain as long as you're playing the shop properly.

Of course, I have a problem with them losing loyalty over the actions of another sim. It makes little sense to me that someone would get mad at the shop owner if someone else pops them with a water balloon. Get over it! Stop complaining! What do you want me to do, kill them off? They don't work here! lol 

Squinge's mod is a bit extreme for my taste. I don't need sedated customers.

[J. M. Pescado]

If you want to try something less messy than hacking every single obnoxious interaction, the approach Squinge has taken, try the general-purpose "nopedostalkers" available in the OFB test directory. Should work for NL as well.

It will completely eliminate a lot of creepy stalkerly behaviors, such as stalking some child on a community lot to offer them candy, and greatly reduce the urge of sims to badger total strangers, especially in shops! Your shoppers will thus tend to behave themselves, rather than constantly poking and annoying everyone. Because in real life, this sort of thing gets you thrown out of the store and told never to come back.

[Ancient Sim]

There are actually Sims wandering around on community lots trying to entice kids?  Are these some of the new townies, or what?  I will have to pay close attention in future, see if I can spot any of this sort of caper.  Then again, I don't think I've ever seen any kids on business lots, presumably they need taking there with adults, or do they appear autonomously in toyshops and other kid-oriented business lots?

I've got a selection of Squindge's mods in too, but not all of them.  My method is the same as anelca's, I don't want to ban all interactions (takes the fun out of it), just the more irritating ones.  The main one I have is the one that stops my owners playing with their stupid mp3 players.  By the time they've taken the headphones out, the customers have thrown their shopping bags on the floor.

[J. M. Pescado]

There are actually Sims wandering around on community lots trying to entice kids?  Are these some of the new townies, or what?  I will have to pay close attention in future, see if I can spot any of this sort of caper.  Then again, I don't think I've ever seen any kids on business lots, presumably they need taking there with adults, or do they appear autonomously in toyshops and other kid-oriented business lots?

Well, what else do you call strange adults that go and talk to random children? Do YOU go up to some kid you don't know and start talking them? No! You'd be arrested for that!

I've got a selection of Squindge's mods in too, but not all of them.  My method is the same as anelca's, I don't want to ban all interactions (takes the fun out of it), just the more irritating ones.  The main one I have is the one that stops my owners playing with their stupid mp3 players.  By the time they've taken the headphones out, the customers have thrown their shopping bags on the floor.

Whereas I'm not so much banning specific interactions as I am with discouraging interacting with specific types of people. Like total strangers. So with mine, the full range of actions are available, but sims will choose to perform them on people they actually know, and are near, not random strangers halfway across the lot.

[Onion Girl]

I had annoyences with a bakery I opened, the minute I opened it, townies came pouring in, and did nothing for about 2 hours other than smell the food, even the owners, though, they mostly stopped after a while.

And yes, I usually nowadays get random townies coming up to my sim and poking them, with having met only once. Retarded little townies, death to them all! Erhem, I'll stop now.

[Scotbo]

I might be completely off here, but when I ran into these issues it seemed to me that the customers who were causing problems were the ones with no money to buy anything.  They're flat ass broke so they stand around and chit chat and annoy everyone, instead of buying things like they're supposed to. The more I play a business it seems that the customers who can't afford to  purchase anything begin to ourtweigh the townies with unlimited funds. The more I play the harder it is to actually make any profit because of this.

It was intended that playable sims visiting stores will only keep the last 3 objects purchased and automatically sell back the others so that they don't run out of money.  This is completly broken. When I enter the houses of most sims their inventory is loaded with crap and they have no money and I have to manually sell everything they've bought.

Are these two things related, or is it just my imagination?

[Pegasys]

Yes I'm noticing the same issue.

It's odd. When I first opened my TV & Appliance business, all the Sims, playable or not, came in, and very seriously examined all the items in the store. There was no farting around. They bought little alarm clocks and boomboxes and fire alarms and burglar alarms and TVs.

Now, I notice, hardly anyone buys the alarm clocks and boomboxes and several other items. Even if they have the money to buy them. Is that because they've filled their inventory with these items so they have no desire to buy them anymore (even though I often see multiples of an item in inventories)? Now they come in and play kicky-bag, or go around to the back to play kicky-bag (I've never seen such a crowd of Sims involved in one game of kicky-bag before!). My biz owner does make sales, but they're all large expensive items, not much of the smaller stuff anymore. And mostly because my Sim spends a lot of time "showing items" to the townies.

It also seems like the same Sims come into the store. I know that there are at least 400 Sims to draw from yet the same Sims come in day after day. Florence Delarosa comes in, with Professor Von Ball because she witnessed a fire at another community lot. Checo Ramirez apparently has no money and keeps bringing up the "I can't afford it" thought bubble. Etc.

One day I did a little remodeling to the store and the next day it seemed the customers were a little more interested in buying again. Maybe it was coincidence, but I'm beginning to think that possibly changing things around, changing inventory or the store itself stirs up buyer interest. Has anyone else noticed this?

Finally the other thing I've noticed, actually with much relief, is that there are far fewer fights, slapfests, etc. on community lots in general. Pre-OFB but post-NL, I used to see at least 2-3 fights on *every* community lot if my Sim stayed for more than a couple of hours, and lots of slapping. I've never had a fight break out in my store, and in visiting other community lots I haven't seen any fights either. Now Sims just seem to walk away from the Sim who pissed them off.

[J. M. Pescado]

Well, the upcoming Business Runs You! includes the automatic bum-banisher, where bums quickly lose interest and leave the store.

[Scotbo]

Nice going, Pescado! I'll definitely be downloading that mod.  It doesn't look like Maxis is going to bother to fix it.  I was really impressed to see a patch out so soon, but it didn't fix most of the issues I've ran into.

And, yes, Pegasys, I've also noticed that it's always the same customers coming in day after day and most of them don't have a cent to their name. I boot them out as quick as I can when I see them enter the store, before they can turn other people off. I haven't tried renovating the business, so I don't know if that makes any difference or not. It's kind of silly if that's the case because there's only so many plants you can sell in a flower shop so you can't realy change the inventory that much without making it a different type of store.

[J. M. Pescado]

And, yes, Pegasys, I've also noticed that it's always the same customers coming in day after day and most of them don't have a cent to their name. I boot them out as quick as I can when I see them enter the store, before they can turn other people off. I haven't tried renovating the business, so I don't know if that makes any difference or not. It's kind of silly if that's the case because there's only so many plants you can sell in a flower shop so you can't realy change the inventory that much without making it a different type of store.

Renovation, in and of itself, makes no difference, because sims don't actually KNOW the layouts of anything.

Rearranging all your objects and deleting half of them and replacing them with new things may affect things influenced by "The One" effect, but it doesn't really change the sims themselves.

[maxon]

Well, what else do you call strange adults that go and talk to random children? Do YOU go up to some kid you don't know and start talking them? No! You'd be arrested for that!

Crikey - sad world when you can't talk to children without being arrested.

[ZiggyDoodle]

Maybe it was coincidence, but I'm beginning to think that possibly changing things around, changing inventory or the store itself stirs up buyer interest. Has anyone else noticed this?

Changing inventory/relocating stock is done daily in the RW, so that marketing strategy should work on Sims shoppers.

Just did a remodel of my home based bakery and will see if it generates more interest.

[anelca]

relocating stock is the thing that pisses me off about stores in RL. Marks and Spencers is one of the worst culprits. doesn't make me buy more, makes me buy less because i can't be arsed to fanny around looking, so leave.

sims don't actually think, so i doubt any specific thing you do will work, it'll just depend on the variables and coding (sorry, i'm not very techie but i know what i mean  ) so sometimes things will appear to work and then don't, and vice versa