pool table – Ahuva’s Blog

Excellent Customer Service

I have been working product support for a VERY long time now. I will not even TELL you how long because it is painful to me to realize how long. For many years I have been the person my manager sends out to soothe the irate customer. What that means, however, is that I think I know a little bit about providing good customer support. I know it from being a customer and from being support. Both sides of that have their ups and downs, trust me. The customer is NOT always right, but it certainly helps to talk to them as if all their points are valid. It helps to “feel their pain” as the saying goes. I was in pain the other night.

I broke my pool table. Yes, yes, the famous pool table I bought for my coworker. (Who, by the way – has YET to show in SL – has still not even proposed a date to come inworld. /me nods – yes, he is on the “not in favor” list.) I have been running out of prims on my land. So I decided it was time to move the pool table to the office. I “took” the table into inventory. Except….. only the top of the table came. The rest stayed there. Probably I SHOULD have read the directions. Probably would have been a good idea. I rezzed the top back out and moved it into position with the other parts. There. Right as rain. Then Oura came by and tried it. It didn’t work. It seemed to work fine for ME. I, of course, am the owner. That always means different rules. Sean dropped by a few evenings later. Sean is WAY techie. I asked him to give it a try. The verdict: Broken. The table was not dispensing the HUD. When I gave Sean the HUD myself – it didn’t work. We agreed. It was time to contact the creator of the table: Fred Wardhani.

Fred built my pool table. He runs the store French Touch Design and FW Supplies, over in PixelFashion He has other games and lots of very nice furniture. After Sean and I tried and failed to make the table work, I IM’d Fred. I figured that I would write up a notecard explaining the problem and drop the card on him. I sent him the IM as a courtesy to say the notecard was coming. Fred was online and replied immediately. He asked what kind of trouble I was having. I explained that I appeared to have broken the table by taking it and rerezzing it. Obviously I had done one of those steps incorrectly. Fred listened to my story and asked if I would like him to come by and take a look at the table. OMG! Would I???? Of COURSE I would. If I’d had any clue what to do, *grin*, I wouldn’t have been IM’ing him. I told him I’d be thrilled. He asked me to give him a few minutes to settle up what he was doing. In just a short time he called for the taxi.

Fred came to the house and we used voice. SO much easier in these situations. Fred is a dynamite looking guy, with a lovely voice. Not only that – but he was kind, patient and very, very gracious. He grasped the issue immediately and told me how we could fix it. He not only explained how to fix it, but also explained how it worked and what I was to do in the future if I wanted to move the table about. He waited while I ran through the sequence a few times. 🙂 He noted that although I had the pool sticks, I had the modern cue stick stand whereas I had the rustic table. He offered to swap stands for me. 🙂 I took him up on the offer. He was absolutely gracious, completely helpful, and made me feel like an important client instead of the bumbling newbie I really was in this instance. Let me be clear – *I* did the wrong thing. The fault was NOT in the product. But Fred never touched on that. He stuck to helping and explaining and offering other ideas. A class act, for sure.

A few mornings later I went by the store. I wanted to take photos so I could tell you all about Fred and the pool table, and how gracious he was. Fred was there, working on a new version of the pool table. A customer had wandered into Fred’s work area and was asking questions. I joined them and asked Fred’s permission to post his name and picture. Fred remembered me right away, greeted me warmly. He said he would be delighted if I mentioned him here. And – without my having actually posted anything yet – he gave me a gift certificate for the store. Again – gracious, good customer-relations. He certainly did not have to give me a gift coupon, especially as I’d not done anything but ask him to come and help me take my table into inventory and re-rez it. *grin*

So Fred Wardhani gets my vote for “Excellent Customer Support”. I thought he made an excellent product before I ever met him. Now that I’ve had this experience, I can say to you – Buy from Fred. Great products, EXCELLENT customer relations. That is something that works for all of us.

Thanks again, Fred! *hugs* For the rest of you – c’mon by the office. The table is up and ready. 🙂 BYOB.

Pool Time

Ha! I bet your first thought was that I was going to talk about the pool table I want scripted for my coworkers. Admit it – you think I’m obsessed. Well. You are right that I am obsessed. But this post isn’t about that. However since YOU mentioned the pool table…. I don’t say this often here, it’s not really something I like to say. I quit. They win. They beat me down and I surrender. There won’t be a pool table for my manager’s manager. 😦 I was offered a WONDERFUL deal on a pool table script. VERY inexpensive, done by one of my absolute favorite most-trusted scripters. I cannot convince anyone at my company to fund it. No one I know has the budget to pay for it. I KNOW that there is money out there, because I see people getting garbage all the time. I can’t get anyone to pay for this and I simply can’t afford it myself. So. If my manager’s manager ever really comes inworld to hold his all-staff meeting, there won’t be a pool table. Don’t blame me. If they want team-building – let them go kill each other. 🙂

This post is REALLY about my pool, however. I LOVE my pool. Now that it’s summer in RL for me, I find that I am hanging out at my pool all the time. I’ve been thinking I needed more animations for it. Then I went to see Calli’s new house yesterday and also visited her neighbors. Wow. Now Calli knows how to live the good life. *grin* Her house is gorgeous and the views are stupendous. Her neighbors also do it right. Calli showed me the recliners. I NEEEEEEEDED those recliners. Now. This instant. Instant craving. That had to wait, however, as I wanted to see Shenlei’s students practice their fashion show. See – I CAN control my emotional side on rare occasion. 🙂 I love watching Shen’s students. They are so excited and happy when they walk the runway. I was having problems with that laptop, however, so my shots are not very good. Also – I don’t want to spoil the surprise for their final show. So no pics today. /me smiles They are so CUTE because they are SO excited!! *grin* Thanks Shen – it was great to hangout last night.

Once the students were done practicing, I grabbed Oura and said we MUST find the recliners. LOL. I bought 2 recliners and we headed back home to redecorate. We had to decide on colors. I really wanted colors yet when all was said and done – white looked the best at my pool. We had to move furniture all about, take out some plants. I HATE having to count prims. Sigh. I need more land. This really stinks. I NEED more land. (I’ve begun craving my own sim……) Jonah showed up and had great ideas too. I’ve managed to add the recliners AND keep the deck chairs. I’m so excited. Now I need some more animations for the water. We tried out some party lights too, but that’s where I started getting prim-conscious. blech. I may have to do some serious pruning on the back lot to gain more prims. Because I NEEEEEEEEEEED pool lights. *grin*

C’mon by and visit! The water’s great!

My Friends, We’ve Got TROUBLE

Right here in River City!!! With a Capital “T”! That rhymes with “P”! And that stands for POOL!!!!

You may have noticed that I love my life in SL. I have a great time and I am always trying to encourage other friends to come live here too. *grin* Or at least visit. (Gwyneth LLewelyn, one of the most articulate and learned bloggers out there, has the most provocative post on this subject. I am still pondering what she wrote and while I’m not sure I’m exactly comfortable with this realization, I think she has me ‘pegged’.) I have been telling my coworker J for MONTHS that he needs to come inworld. I have answered him on blogs, IM’d him, chatted on the phone, always to the same point: he can have team meetings, work, be productive and bond with other coworkers in a virtual setting.

Hallelujah! J came back from a corporate indoctrination session. *grin* Hey, I like those courses too, but let’s be honest. J and 21 others were together for a week. He told me they bonded in “our” old-fashioned way (J and I used to meet when we all came together for the yearly corporate extravaganza.) I laughed and said “Beer?” J replied “And POOL!!! Never forget the POOL!!” I laughed. I will never forget Pool night at MacClaren’s. McClanahan’s? McGovern’s? Okay. I can’t remember the place, but I remember the fun. And the team building. And oh yes, the photos. I paid a LOT for those photos. *grin*

J has come around to my way of thinking. He wants to bring his classmates together monthly so they can continue to work together and build on what they accomplished this past week. See – indoctrination DOES work. 🙂 So J wants my help. Time to put your money where your mouth is, Ahuva.

I told J who to contact officially in the company, to get into the corporate vw systems. But. J kept saying “Pool. I want to play pool. We all played pool. We could build on that.” /me rolls eyes and sighs dramatically. I checked but I knew it before I checked – even our wonderful corporate game master has NOT created a pool table. No pool yet in the corporate world. Ah, Oura, what would I do without you??? I sent an agitated IM to Oura saying “Find me a sex-free, working pool table!!!” Being Oura, of course she found one. In less than 30 minutes. Perfect. FW Supplies at Celestial Game Tower. Calli tp’d in to give her opinion. Turns out she has used this table – another friend has it. She said it really does work. The sex animations are an additional purchase if you are interested. 🙂 I did buy the cue stick rack. I am still considering the overhead lights (“If you got the optional pool lamp, rezzing it will make it automatically jump in place over the pool table. The lamp is MOD allowed, in order to extend its support up to your ceiling.”).

The other night Oura, Jonah, DZ and I unpacked my pool table and gave it a try. First, I had to change the felt to green. I don’t play pool in RL (nor in SL) but I DO know that the table has to be green. Not blue. There are 3 sets of instructions: for the owner, the player, and basic 8-Ball rules. You wear a HUD to play. DZ and Oura racked up first, Jonah and I cheered them on. Although I have the table at home right now (*giggle* it’s on the same level as my pool) I intend to move it to my SL office. I’ll take out the sofa and chairs, add the pool table and cue rack. I’ll leave the big conference table for the pizza and beer.

There were realistic sound effects, you can add power and spin to your shots. I have been assured that yes, this really IS like playing pool. *grin* I am going shopping for the beer and pizza NOW. I hope J and his gang remember to clean up after themselves. *grin*

So…. taken from my notecards, and yes, this is probably copyrighted, etc.:

• Truly realistic gameplay using extensive random physics, including possible strike miss
• Realistic custom pool table sounds and balls behavior, nice balls triangle animation and particle effects
• Balls roll on table and falls down in pockets, then slowly slide down the ramp on each side
• Really intuitive and user-friendly HUD-driven game, NO painful keyboard control NOR required MouseLook mode
• Includes automatic player’s camera control for table top view or cue view
• Balls tracking security system with automatic kill upon table eject, to avoid buggy balls remaining around on your parcel
• Owner can set table for pay-required games and choose felt’s color at will
• 8 Balls pool game rules strictly respected and handled by script

Player notes:
Player just needs to click on pool table frame to receive its Pool HUD, play instructions and pool rules. As soon as worn, the HUD searches for pool table around in a 20m range. If found, the player can then “Join Table”. Once table is joined by one or two players, the game can start by clicking on “Start Game” button. This brings the balls on table, then the triangle moves up and first player can strike (first player is always the one having started game).

8 Ball rules:
1. The game is played with one cue ball and 15 numbered object balls.
2. The balls are racked in a triangle at the foot of the table with the 8-ball in the center of the triangle, the first ball of the rack on the footspot, a stripe ball in one corner of the rack and a solid ball in the other corner, as the above illustration shows.
3. The object of the game is to make one group of numbered object balls, either stripes or solids, and then LEGALLY POCKET THE 8-BALL which then wins the game.