In all the fallout of the Third Party Exchange issue, the LindeX has came under the spotlight and is found to be extremely short of providing the service users crave. There’s no doubt now that Linden Lab are disallowing the use of third party exchanges, Virwox have updated their page to state:
“Linden Lab has recently changed their Terms of Service. Under the new rules, we will no longer be able to offer our service to Second Life residents. Linden Lab insists that our in-world terminals (ATMs) have to be removed.
This means that we can currently not accept Linden Dollars from Second Life or pay Linden Dollars to Second Life. Other virtual currencies are not affected.”
This should really put an end to questions about the blog post contradicting the terms of service, the blog post was correct, use of third party exchanges is not allowed and actions are exemplifying this. However why are people miffed about the end of third party exchanges? The reason is simple, third party exchanges offered a more efficient service with a wider range of payment options. The question therefore is why can Linden Lab not compete?
I’ll give a personal example, this TOS change has left me in a rather large pickle because a transfer to Paypal I was planning via VirWox now can’t take place. Why does this leave me in a pickle? Well that’s my own fault, I wanted to transfer funds before this weekend and was waiting for as much to transfer as possible, by using VirWox I would have been able to do this. However now that I have to use the LindeX, my plans have all gone tits up.
However this isn’t Linden Lab’s fault, it’s my fault because I should know by now that Linden Lab are quite happy to make announcements with no forethought, no warning, no consideration and no respect and as I have long known this, I should make all plans related to Second Life with that in mind, so it’s my fault for forgetting how Linden Lab operate. However the question remains, why on earth do Linden Lab take so long to transfer funds?
I can understand delays to start with, this is standard practice, I had a delay with my first VirWox transfer. I also had a delay when I first transferred funds from Diablo III. However if you’re transferring funds to the same Paypal account, it really shouldn’t be as inefficient as Linden Lab’s process is.
The only reason I ever went to VirWox was because of the delay in withdrawing funds from Linden Lab and at that time, I was plannning five working days ahead but read posts on both SLUniverse and the official Second Life forums that transfers were taking 8,9 and 10 days. Therefore I went to VirWox and received an extremely efficient service and even though the exchange rate wasn’t as good, I was happy to pay what I considered a premium, to receive that more efficient service.
Then we come to payment options, the third party exchanges offer far more payment options than the LindeX does, they offer far more ways of receiving money too. The LindeX by comparison is vastly inferior. Why on earth is the biggest Linden Dollar exchange and now the only exchange whereby your aren’t breaching the terms of service, so bereft of options, efficiency and customer service?
The LindeX should have blown all competition out of the water by being the best in terms of efficiency, speed and options, that it isn’t remains one of the biggest disappointments of this whole sorry affair.
Seconded, thirded and fourthed.
I hope that Linden Labs suffer a massive recoil from this decision.
VirWox had a 24h trade volume of a bit more than 85 million L$ when I wrote this.
At the same time, Lindex had a trade volume of about 54 million L$.
VirWox is clearly a huge part in Linden Labs success with Second Life and their “Linden Dollar programme” and now they’re basically shut down entirely in SL.
Nice way of thanking them for the help.
And all this just so they can have monopoly on gaining commission on “changing the holder of the linden dollar license”. As if they didn’t already make a shitton of money from people paying their land fees and marketplace fees with linden dollar that they got from people buying L$. Oh wait… 85 million, 60% was bought from VirWox and only 40% from LindeX… not counting other 3rd party sellers. Myeah… I guess there won’t be as much products sold and land fees paid anymore. At least hopefully not, because they don’t deserve it.
*goes and cashes out in USD on VirWox and takes them to ebay instead*
Thank you in advance for letting me rage on your blog, it was needed after finding out an hour ago.
If they delay payment for 10 days that can stack up some serious money. A smart financial officer would have that money invested and working. Even if they just put it in a CD they could pick up another $50k+/-
Its to the payers advantage to be slow.
its another way of saying LL is a non trustable partner to do business with but We all know that by now, no wonder open sim grids are flourishing in commercial ventures whiel SL decays every day!
I wonder if something like this could happen http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_v._Microsoft only with Lindex and the other former L$ exchanges.