Scam??

Let us know if this gets sorted out please.

Well said, maybe should add a non-refundable purchase option.

Yes it does happen sometimes but in my experience it is never a good idea to force a buyer to keep something they don't want. They usually get angry and then spread the word about their bad experience buying from you. It is far better to let them get away with it and ask them to give you a good review before refunding their money.

This way even if you do not get paid at the very least you get something back and if they are not happy with what they bought they may come back and buy something else later on or at least tell their friends they bought something from a business professional who cares about customer service.

I think it's up to cgtrader to ensure that even most stupid buyer should know that he isn't purchasing physical goods. Simple pop up window before each purchase with clear explanation on what kind of products are selling here and what rights and duties has buyer as well as seller, should invalidate all silly claims.
It's unacceptable that the single person who looses in such situation is seller, while there is no fault of hes own at all.

I think CGT should should force all sellers to have at least one wireframe screen shot of their models and to specify it is not a real life product in the details if they are selling hyper realistic cars, clothes furniture etc... things that are copies from real life (too perfectly) this way buyers won't be fooled.

Of course it won't matter if it is an original art piece like a video game model, 3D character or a futuristic or steam punk etc... because no one is going to think that is a real item.

I noticed so many sellers will create perfect copies of real life objects and not bother to put any screen shots of the wireframe... possibly to hide their horrible geometry... It only takes a few seconds to make a screen grab of your seen unlike rendering that takes forever with high poly models over 100 000 polys and it could really stop this kind of thing from happening just like limonadinis very smartly suggested :)

I looked at your models MotoS the buyer was just trying to free load... He pretended that he thought it was a real car so he could download it from you for free. It wouldn't be the first time.

Unlike other modelers you have screen grabs of your wireframe so the buyer has no excuse to say your models were real.
Some buyers are just really know how to work the system loop holes to steal models.

Yes very clear in my renders they are buying 3d, for refund CGTrader must not return entire amount for these disputes retain maybe 25 to 30 % as disincentive , also blacklist the buyer, yes its a good idea to have a popup window clearly mentioning they are buying a 3D model when they are making payment so latter they cannot make claim of wanted something else, I think this scam must have occurred to many, check for refund claims.

A similar issue happened to me: one of the artists that I work with was hit with a refund because a customer thought he was selling a real truck. Okay, sure, no one's going to sell a real human-sized truck for $50, but we think the customer thought it was a real *toy* truck.

However, I'm not sure how a site can guard against these kinds of customers. After all, the product description clearly states the version types (obj, 3ds, Max, Maya, and so on), so how can a customer think the model is real?

So I would almost say not to refund the customer since he clearly didn't understand what he was getting. And it's super-easy to contact to contact the seller BEFORE buying to get more information- at the very least, asking the size of the "toy", which would the seller would explain that it's a digital model.

Hey guys,

It's an interesting topic. Indeed, I think we'll need to think about possibility of popping up a reminder it's not a real thing - although it's only meant for the first-time buyers, since returning buyers definitely know what they're getting.

Regarding the refunds, it's always a two-way street. Sellers do not want to see refunds, but if you put yourself in a buyer situation, i.e. if you go to the shop to buy real butter and it turns out you bought "I can't believe it's not butter", you may just want to request for a refund... :)

Yes that is true... selling 3D virtual models is really troublesome for sellers as they take most of the risk. In the case of 3D prints and actual objects things would be a lot easier like if CGT sold those on Amazon or real stores like Walmart etc... if someone got something in the mail or at the store and did not like it they could return it and the seller would still get the goods back which they could in turn sell again to new clients.

With 3D virtual goods once the exchange is made or the product is stolen there is no way for the buyer to protect his product or police it.

Now it would be amazing if CGT got together with a bunch of amazing programmers who created 3 special software packages to embed into CGT models automatically once uploaded onto the website.

1. A software that makes free sample 3D models not editable or render-able by who downloads them. If someone tries to tamper with the free sample or edit it a virus is sent into the person's computer that formats their hard drive. That would stop those free loaders for good!

Also this way if people want to give away free samples they are free to do so without impacting the sales market and devaluing the value of 3D.

2. A software that automatically makes models work in most 3D software mainstream software packages like Maya, lightwave, 3DS max cad etc... which also ensures that rig and lighting texturing information transfers correctly too not like FBX which sometimes can be glitchy and you loose important data.

3. A software that auto detects your models poly count, whether it has been normal mapped, if the model has odd faces or non manifold geometry, that knows which software it was made in and that automatically fills out that information for the seller once it is uploaded onto CGT.

I think these softwares if well integrated, would really elevate the standard of CGT's website. I don't think 1 and 2 would be that difficult to code but they would really improve CGT.

Everything in software 1 except the virus can be done in Maya manually but it takes a really long time to do because you have to work in the back end and write some python code to lock things and hide others in layers etc.

Also the second software should be quite easy to make for an advanced programmer... all you need it to do is look at the maya code for instance and scan through and find the relevant data and then tell the system to print the info onto the webpage settings... how I wish I were good at programming I would have already made these and given them to CGT for free a long time ago.

What kind of model he bought? Was it your battery or tires? They do look like real thing (good job by the way). All do it might be a scam, it is also possible it was a legit mistake. There are many people who are idiots, let's not neglect that fact :D...

Anyway, i think CG trader should review attempts of refund before they are given... They are doing that i hope? Buyer should explain why he want a refund. Sometimes some amateur artist can provide false information about his model. Something might be missing, or different then in the description. In that case refund is justified. But, the buyer must provide some evidence about his claims, and the CG trader stuff should then compare what he show to the files which are uploaded on the store. Or maybe contact the artist, maybe it is some minor thing that can be solved easy and the buyer can get what he needs and what he bought after all.

The buyers had bought car models, the least the person buying the model is first send a message if there is some doubt of what he is about to buy, but they buy and send message that they were looking for some real model or software etc. and want refund, I say its scam as CGTrader is obviously a 3d stock selling site and to claim that they wanted something else is wrong.

Cg trader sells 3d printed products so that can be miss leading. Maybe they could color code the pages so that 3d prints are on a blue background as opposed to regular models being on a green background. It might help buyers. Having large font titles specifying one or the other may be a good idea.

MotoS, in that case really i think that is a pure scam. :(

I say it's scam too.

1) When you are going to purchase something online, the first thing you do is read about the website you buying from to see if it's legit. And clearly you can see that cgtrader is selling 3d stuff.

2) If you want to buy printed models, you know what format you are looking for, and in the product page you can see what format are available.

Motos! not create super realistic object :-)
buyer's excuse that he was hoping to buy a real object - stupidity.
This is not a reason refund.
I had such a case. Unfortunately marketplace (not cgtrader) returned the money to the buyer
All other questions should be addressed directly with the seller and trading platform.
It is best to pop up banner: " If you are in doubt about something - ask the seller a question!"
In some cases, I have sent to the buyer part of the object, so that he can be sure - it is suitable or not.

CGTrader if following this post should consider something for anyone asking refund, so this does not strike fellow artists.

Before buying something here, there is enough of a process to go through. That process by itself should be enough for the average person to decide what it is they're doing here. Then again, think if you were a person who knew nothing about CG art, and nothing about file types or etc etc... i guess it's possible to think you're buying real stuff. "possible". I think the answer may lie in keeping a registry of those buyers who get refunds under odd circumstances and then when we see the same buyer making the same claim more than once, CgT can then reasonably ban them.

Your idea is really good Maroans!

Thanks. I see many good ideas in the forums. Good ideas abound. Of course it is at the end of the day up to CGT what will happen with it. ;)

As a new buyer I received my download and as unable to open the attached files. Some of which were not included as advertised. I requested a new format as offered by the designer however CGT replied and said it was not possible.
Being well within the refund policy time-frame I requested a refund and deleted the unusable files.

CGT has yet to honor the refund, nor allow me credits towards the another model.

So in some cases it is not the user trying to 'scam' the system, it's actually CGT not bothering to check files, extensions and if they are what is being promised.