[opensource-dev] This is how Linden Lab treats it's customers...

Latif Khalifa latifer at streamgrid.net
Sun Aug 29 02:09:28 PDT 2010


It's still far safer not to have a premium account. You don't run a
risk than when your premium subscription expires and your payment info
is not up to date that your account will get suspended.

You get locked out of you account, with a message "call
1-xxx-xxx-xxxx". This was not very helpful for a friend of mine from
Croatia who is deaf and could not use a phone. My attempt to mediate
and help sort out issues failed because LL told me "we do not disclose
information about other people's accounts". Faced with a double wall
like that, she just gave up on SL after being a premium member for
over 3 years.

Why LL doesn't simply downgrade accounts to basic instead of locking
them out is beyond me. Because of this policy I recommend to my
friends not to "upgrade" their accounts to premium, because they risk
losing their accounts, and nobody would be able to help them if they
themselves don't have the ability to communicate in English and over
the phone.

On Sun, Aug 29, 2010 at 6:08 AM, Yoz Grahame <yoz at lindenlab.com> wrote:
> This *was* a serious bug, but fixed over a year ago. Now a premium account
> in default is merely suspended with the ability to fully restore on payment.
>
> On 28 August 2010 10:19, Gareth Nelson <gareth at garethnelson.com> wrote:
>>
>> That's a serious bug in LL's business model - your account is safer as
>> a basic, since a premium account that quits paying means the account
>> is deleted (rather than merely downgraded).
>>
>> On Sat, Aug 28, 2010 at 5:35 PM, Tigro Spottystripes
>> <tigrospottystripes at gmail.com> wrote:
>> > -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>> > Hash: SHA512
>> >
>> > btw, if you're considering changing your account from premium to basic,
>> > be sure to pay any money you own to LL and then downgrade your account
>> > thru the site, do not just stop paying, if you stop paying them while
>> > still being a premium they will wipe out all your account's data,
>> > inventory L$ balance etc (i've seen some people that had the
>> > misconception that to downgrade all you had to do was stop sending money
>> > to LL, the ones that didn't got set straight in time lost everything)
>> >
>> > On 28/8/2010 13:01, mysticaldemina at xrgrid.com wrote:
>> >> I don’t think anyone disagrees with.  The problem is you can’t get a
>> >> homestead unless you have a full sim already and so you need to rent
>> >> from someone and this puts you dependent on someone else which is
>> >> frustrating for people.  So to log in one day and see all your hard
>> >> work
>> >> returned to your lost and found isn’t a pleasant experience and seems
>> >> SL
>> >> if they are serious about the user experience would have some better
>> >> ways to handle this.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> I don’t know if you rent from someone else if you can do a restore of
>> >> your region to the new location.  But seems like there are ways to make
>> >> this better if not just let people rent homesteads which to me I
>> >> believe
>> >> would be a huge market.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> Anyway this whole subject is off topic for this mailing list and
>> >> probably should be on the SL forums.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> M.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
>> >>
>> >> *From:* opensource-dev-bounces at lists.secondlife.com
>> >> [mailto:opensource-dev-bounces at lists.secondlife.com] *On Behalf Of
>> >> *Joel
>> >> Foner
>> >> *Sent:* Saturday, August 28, 2010 11:49 AM
>> >> *To:* Aleric Inglewood
>> >> *Cc:* opensource-dev
>> >> *Subject:* Re: [opensource-dev] This is how Linden Lab treats it's
>> >> customers...
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>     After being a paying customer for more than a year, renting a
>> >> homestead,
>> >>     and thus paying Linden Lab ~ USD$ 1000 or so ... they just take the
>> >> sim
>> >>     offline, with no opening to even discuss the matter.
>> >>
>> >>     Why? Because of something I did? No. The reason is that Linden
>> >>     Lab isn't interested in the "little people". Unless you have a FULL
>> >>     sim of USD$ 300 per month, you don't count.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> There is a simple answer for this. You are the customer of your
>> >> landlord
>> >> in this case, not Linden Lab. Yes, you have a Second Life account, but
>> >> you are not renting your land from Linden Lab. You are renting your
>> >> land
>> >> from another avatar in Second Life. Linden Lab is not a party to your
>> >> decision to rent... so why are they accountable if some other avatar
>> >> bails out and decides to "level their city block"? If the landlord
>> >> decided to stop renting, boot everyone off and re-terraform the region
>> >> for some completely different use, would you think Linden Lab would
>> >> have
>> >> any responsibility for stopping that or somehow compensating you? It's
>> >> the landlord's land, and they can do anything with it they choose to,
>> >> including shut it down, leave, take it over from the renters, or shut
>> >> it
>> >> down and let no one else in at all.
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> Joel
>> >>
>> >>
>> >>
>> >> _______________________________________________
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>> > _______________________________________________
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>>
>>
>> --
>> “Lanie, I’m going to print more printers. Lots more printers. One for
>> everyone. That’s worth going to jail for. That’s worth anything.” -
>> Printcrime by Cory Doctrow
>>
>> Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.
>> See http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html
>> _______________________________________________
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>
>
> _______________________________________________
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