So as I was assessing the fire damage on my Tavern on my roleplaying sim, I noticed a note in my mailbox next to the tavern explaining how Linden Lab’s billing system had created so many problems for one of the roleplayers that they’d been suspended and wouldn’t be able to continue that character, a paying character I should add.
The damage to my tavern is virtual, so far we’ve placed boards across the doors and doused the fire, we don’t want people entering the tavern and getting hurt by falling debris:
However the damage to the account, that appears far more serious.
The Tavern can be rebuilt, trust in Linden Lab is not so easily rebuilt unfortunately. The notecard said (with names edited):
Attention
RE: My RP Avatar
This is an alt, a second SL account of the rl person who is RP Avatar–the old woman here in your RP sim. Unfortunately, SL has begun to punish me for the billing mess it created. I have been suspended; ironically on the same day I got an email saying I had a month to resolve the billing problem I did not create. A resolution might have been to use “Click and Buy”…I tried it…but it is European and will not recognize my home address in Canada. I would have to phone Europe and that is where I draw the line.
My alt will continue the rp he started, but I am beginning to say goodbye to Second Life altogether. Feel free to create a story about the demise of my RP Avatar. I feel sad and frustrated about this and will consider creating a life at Inworldz, a young and up and coming virtual world. I wish you well and lots of fun.
Second Life Avatar”
However, these billing issues have been going on for quite a while now, this isn’t the first avatar to tell me they’ve had trouble with their account, nor are they the first to tell me they’ve found themselves suspended when trying to login to try and resolve an issue. Linden Lab need to get a grip on this because there’s a knock on effect here, if people can’t buy Linden dollars, they can’t pay landlords and whereas some landlords will be understanding for a while, not all will and then we have more disaffected residents.
Linden Lab have said they are looking into it, but this issue has been going on for a while now, it’s time to really get to the bottom of these issues.
Sadly Im in no way surprised by the mess in LL billing.
I do feel for Rod having to deal with this mess. Why do I have a feeling he knew nothing of the mess LL had before accepting (if he did, he is more brave that I would have imagined)
I think Rod is maybe uncovering more than he would like to uncover on the workings of Linden Lab, but he does seem to be getting a lot right.
One of my residents had a similar “billing issue”… after 3 years of being a faithful premium account.
OK, I don’t know this as fact… but there was a rumor yesterday that Rod himself intervened in the Elf Clan billing fiasco. If that is true, and if I was Mr. Humble, somebody/bodies would be reading the help wanted ads today.
And.
After four years in Secondlife and in excess of $23,000 USD paid in tier, I have purchased a region in another world. I’ll stick around as long as I can, but someone better fix stuff like this qwik.
The Elf Clan themself suggest that Rod Humble got involved somewhere along the line:
http://elfclanvr.grouply.com/message/1669
They’ve also accepted the offer of compensation:
http://elfclanvr.grouply.com/message/1697
A few of my SL friends are encouraging me into other worlds, I’ve taken a look and there are some nice developments but there’s also the time factor but I absolutely think the more the merrier with these virtual worlds.