a little girl turned away during the swap

[PlutoEpcot]

That is horrible!! And this was a Staff member of the happiest place on earth!!

 

[Azure]

Thats sad.... hurtful and really just sad. If I had any tears left in me i'd cry them out but I used them all up.

 

[DementedRiku]

In Phinny's defense, she's trading too fast to know if the person is a child or one of the many adults. She has people in her room screaming about being faster. And most importantly I think she is trying to SAVE all of your quest things! When she said the pirate quest pin aren't the right value she meant "The pirate pin is WAY more valuable then this stupid Grand Cali pin!" I think she is trying to save you all from trading away the VARY rare things you treasure! That's why she only wanted a "Cheyenne Pin" A hotel pin for a hotel pin is fair to her.

The only argument i have against the swap monster is not telling people what NOT to trade. I say they should put in the room description what you can trade for the item. That would help ppl.

And Celine12- If you had traded phinny a green or red soldier for a yellow one....phinny would have given it to you. She was not tryig to scam you out of your rares. All the swap monster hosts would trade the exact same things. There is no one host that is mean.

 

[BriarRosie]

Since Phinny is a staff member, why would she care about collecting rare
stuff when she can put any item into her own inventory?

Your accusations make absolutely no sense to me.

The entire "equal value" thing baffles me, though.

And if someone chooses to defend someone else, please be nice. Not
everyone agrees with me all the time, either.

 

[Califgirl]

In Phinny's defense, she's trading too fast to know if the person is a child or one of the many adults. She has people in her room screaming about being faster. And most importantly I think she is trying to SAVE all of your quest things! When she said the pirate quest pin aren't the right value she meant "The pirate pin is WAY more valuable then this stupid Grand Cali pin!" I think she is trying to save you all from trading away the VARY rare things you treasure! That's why she only wanted a "Cheyenne Pin" A hotel pin for a hotel pin is fair to her.

Sorry I don't buy this argument. I was there and Phinny refused my trade of a quest pin. It was a simple "I don't accept that pin", not 'that pin is too valuable try something else'. The Grand Calif pin is rare because it is so difficult to get and I was more than willing to trade quest for it. She should have accepted what I offered to trade for it if she felt the value was there.
I did send a letter to the black hole and I hope they look at Phinny's trading practices. Like many others, I feel that she is very unfair, especially as players are getting disconnected right and left while she is being picky about what she will accept.

 

[celine12]

Since Phinny is a staff member, why would she care about collecting rare
stuff when she can put any item into her own inventory?

Your accusations make absolutely no sense to me.

The entire "equal value" thing baffles me, though.

And if someone chooses to defend someone else, please be nice. Not
everyone agrees with me all the time, either.

before you post, please research the information. Actually while phinny can give her self stuff, she can't. I remember one time, when a Host needed a turnstyle and asked if any players had one. When evryone said, can't you just get it? She said we are not allowed to give ourselves free stuff. I confirmed this with VMK_Babs that staff cannot just give themselves free stuff

 

[celine12]

Sorry I don't buy this argument. I was there and Phinny refused my trade of a quest pin. It was a simple "I don't accept that pin", not 'that pin is too valuable try something else'. The Grand Calif pin is rare because it is so difficult to get and I was more than willing to trade quest for it. She should have accepted what I offered to trade for it if she felt the value was there.
I did send a letter to the black hole and I hope they look at Phinny's trading practices. Like many others, I feel that she is very unfair, especially as players are getting disconnected right and left while she is being picky about what she will accept.

Thank you and I do agree. She didn't tell me "that's too rare" she made it clear, my offer wasn't worth her time and then booted me. I sent a letter to the black hole and Sulake in Finland and USA and will post any replies, probably sometime in August 2006. And yes she is unfair and its time we as players discuss this issue. Many people are in agreement that her attitude and service needs some improvements but many are affraid to talk as they fear a ban.

 

[Califgirl]

I didn't mean for my post to sound inflamatory. I did send a note to the black hole, but not because I think Phinny is mean or rude. Only because with the short amount of time to interact, because of the disconnect issue, I thought that she should post in her room what she would accept in trade. Besides that, I also felt that the quest pin was 'worth' a Grand Calif pin, and I didn't understand why it wasn't accepted. I got the ol' dc before I could get her to clarify, and before I could put up an alternate pin. I just think the 'rules' should be posted and clear so everyone has a good chance to succeed before the dc gets them. So I wrote to the black hole to ask them to clarify those issues.

 

[DementedRiku]

I didn't mean for my post to sound inflamatory. I did send a note to the black hole, but not because I think Phinny is mean or rude. Only because with the short amount of time to interact, because of the disconnect issue, I thought that she should post in her room what she would accept in trade. Besides that, I also felt that the quest pin was 'worth' a Grand Calif pin, and I didn't understand why it wasn't accepted. I got the ol' dc before I could get her to clarify, and before I could put up an alternate pin. I just think the 'rules' should be posted and clear so everyone has a good chance to succeed before the dc gets them. So I wrote to the black hole to ask them to clarify those issues.

I agree completely with that. They should have rules posted so that there is not this overwhelming problem. If enough people send in letters i'm sure they have to do something about that.

 

[aengus]

LOL, ok well since all the dc's and everything we can all agree its worth a prize for just making it to the room and completing a trade.

I do know they have no idea who they are trading with, but since none of these pins mean anything to a staff member, they should just hand out the pin.

1 other point that was glossed over, the staff member an hour or so earlier was going to accept the pin in trade. We could see both pins in the trade window (staffs pin after ours). I can only speculate, that the behavior of a staff member might have been altered after an hour of -plz plz can i have inferno, and maybe the fuse was a little shorter than it previously was.

We have not eaten or been able to sleep since the incident and I hope VMK will do something about it!!!

LOL ok we pigged out and slept like babies. My daughter lost all interest in the pin and gave it back to me for a set of purple teleporter doors, which are waaaay cooler to her, and has not mentioned the event at all. I will get over it eventually but if any of you donate green flips the healing process will be a more speedy one!

 

[Califgirl]

LOL, aengus! Glad to see all is well at your house and there is no permanent scarring from the VMK event!

 

[DementedRiku]

That is awesome! And very ironic! We become sad and angry at VMK while your daughter is off to do better things with her life! You have to love the logic of a child!

 

[aengus]

yeah but... what about the green flips people? LOL

 

[LisaInNc]

In Phinny's defense, When she said the pirate quest pin aren't the right value she meant "The pirate pin is WAY more valuable then this stupid Grand Cali pin!" I think she is trying to save you all from trading away the VARY rare things you treasure! That's why she only wanted a "Cheyenne Pin" A hotel pin for a hotel pin is fair to her.
QUOTE]

NO WAY! It was NOT that she was thinking of us

When I got in the trade with her I put up a Bride in the Attic pin because it was the first pin I spotted in my inventory and I didn't want to take a second more to find the Cheyenne pin. That pin is worth WAY more since it is not available any more. She took it just fine.

 

[LisaInNc]

Since Phinny is a staff member, why would she care about collecting rare
stuff when she can put any item into her own inventory?

This may have changed but I remember back about three weeks after the Zebra pin was sold, that was when staff was trading in their rooms every weekend. Phinny said she was out of Zebra pins and wished she had more. I offered her some and gave her 10 Zebra pins.

Often back then staff would run out of pins, they would have submarines and then run out and the selection would become less and less as the day went on.

I always guessed they only got so many to give out.

Back when Pirate Quest was new. I had a set the day after it came out. MaliaMike brought VMK Annie to my room and she wanted to trade for it. I just thought that was SO weird. I even offered to give it to her and she could trade with me later and she said she didn't know when she would get what I wanted. I can't remember what it was I was asking for. Probably a space suit, back in those days they were so rare.

But things have changed considerably since then. Like I said staff traded almost every weekend.

 

[cat_herder]

I had the same thing happen to me!! It was HOST_Phinny and this wasn't the first time it has happened either. She has denied my rare stuff many times and I am disgusted and sick of it. I waited 45 minutes and crashed behind 108 people, then went back and waited behind 112 and offered her POTC Insider Tour Pin and she said "not rare enough" and I said "excuse me this is quest" and she said "sorry" and CLOSED!!! So I scolded her in the room and said "excuse me that was very mean Phinny" and she BOOT.

She also turned me down for a Yellow Soldier, I offered her a pirate stool with no stick and she wanted the "other part" to it. I think she is very greedy and tries to scam players for the rare stuff. I am a teenager but think about the little ones, they don't know any better and get upset. Least to say, HOST_Annie gave me a Yellow Soldier for just a Green Soldier, no questions asked. Sorry to rant, but I was very upset that I even cried.

Sorry, if you are trading the pirate stool you SHOULD trade both parts, that's how it came to you. It's not greedy.

 

[cat_herder]

In Phinny's defense, she's trading too fast to know if the person is a child or one of the many adults. She has people in her room screaming about being faster. And most importantly I think she is trying to SAVE all of your quest things! When she said the pirate quest pin aren't the right value she meant "The pirate pin is WAY more valuable then this stupid Grand Cali pin!" I think she is trying to save you all from trading away the VARY rare things you treasure! That's why she only wanted a "Cheyenne Pin" A hotel pin for a hotel pin is fair to her.

The only argument i have against the swap monster is not telling people what NOT to trade. I say they should put in the room description what you can trade for the item. That would help ppl.

And Celine12- If you had traded phinny a green or red soldier for a yellow one....phinny would have given it to you. She was not tryig to scam you out of your rares. All the swap monster hosts would trade the exact same things. There is no one host that is mean.

If they don't want your pin then they could give you another chance to put up something else up, after all the long lines and dc. Heck I think if you manage to get through the lines without disconnecting, they should just give you the pin as an award.

 

[BriarRosie]

This may have changed but I remember back about three weeks after the Zebra pin was sold, that was when staff was trading in their rooms every weekend. Phinny said she was out of Zebra pins and wished she had more. I offered her some and gave her 10 Zebra pins.

Often back then staff would run out of pins, they would have submarines and then run out and the selection would become less and less as the day went on.

I always guessed they only got so many to give out.

Back when Pirate Quest was new. I had a set the day after it came out. MaliaMike brought VMK Annie to my room and she wanted to trade for it. I just thought that was SO weird. I even offered to give it to her and she could trade with me later and she said she didn't know when she would get what I wanted. I can't remember what it was I was asking for. Probably a space suit, back in those days they were so rare.

But things have changed considerably since then. Like I said staff traded almost every weekend.

Wow, that is weird! I must admit the reason I thought staff had access to
all inventory items was that I received a gift of the flying saucer pin two
weeks before it was released to the players.

I guess I just assumed that if one staff member had rare items they wished
to give away, they had all-access to them. (Too bad it wasn't inferno, as
I still have been unable to get that pin. LOL)

Perhaps that's why they changed the staff designations into "VMK" and
"HOST". Maybe the "VMK" staff has access but "HOST" staff doesn't?
Annie is now under the "HOST" designation, so maybe my theory is
correct.

 

[Lauralee]

About this whole thing that staff cannot put any item they want in inventory, I can only relay what I observed when I was in Phinney's trade room this weekend. I was up like second or third in the line from trading with her, and she made an announcement to the room that she would be back quickly, that she had to get more pins. Hmm, I interpret that to mean she is clicking/loading/inputting any number of pins she needs from a master item list. I doubt she has to buy her Grand Californian pins with an allowance-like credit limit.

As far as why Phinney doesn't accept just anything in trade for the hotel pin, could it be that she is just applying the same rule of supply and demand that we, the players, have set for items in vmk? I would not generally accept a trade that was not fair, i.e., a pair of jeans for a crown. The whole concept of rare and/or expensive, or plentiful and/or cheap is standard in vmk. I can see why she only accepts a trade of equal credit value.

The problem lies in the lack of foresight/preparation/organization of this pin trading event. They easily could post trade rules in pictures on the walls, in photo albums, in the room description -- or have volunteer CL's repeat the rules as general statements to the room. The rules for the spin the generator event are clearly posted -- why can't the rules for swap monster be posted too? Would save a lot of kids a lot of tears.

Or even better yet, maybe every vmk staff member should have a sign on their desk with the message "What would Walt do?"

 

[celine12]

Sorry, if you are trading the pirate stool you SHOULD trade both parts, that's how it came to you. It's not greedy.

Are you kidding me? Everyone trades parts of items. Who ever trades a full gold set? I see people trade just sticks, just stools, just gold penny, just gold ropes, etc all the time. This isn't something new, and I agree with your second post though