I have a friend from my VRML days whom I persuaded to try Second Life. She had spent the last four years in an immersive MMORPG and was pleased she could be her character in SL too. She got land and enjoyed getting back into 3D creation. Things seemed fine.
She plunged back into her game for a couple of months for whatever reason and found on her return to SL that access was blocked until she paid back tier. This is entirely understandable and she was ready to pay.
She's not in the USA, and initially used gift cards to pay for tier. For some reason the payments weren't going through. She put in a ticket, spoke with live chat... inexplicable error to staff it seemed. For TWO WEEKS and many many hours of live chat, phone, and tickets, it became apparent that gift cards were no longer accepted. They gave her an extension while she set up a PayPal profile. Except not being in the USA and not having a credit card, extra time was needed to verify her bank account. Finally 3 months of membership and tier was paid.
It became clear that owning mainland was ill suited for her needs. She had to sell her land and get down to basic as soon as she got back in.
She got in. After one day: BAM! She was locked out. She owed the new month. She had to wait for payday.
What happens next seems a bit foggy, but by this time we were in early December. She would systematically pay, get in for a day, then be locked out for some other fee which wasn't presented previously. She could barely get in long enough to set the land for sale (which sold in a day) before she was locked out and she couldn't access her account on the site to change her membership status to basic.
She was finally able to do this. She found a rental and enjoyed it for a week or so, then:
BAM! Locked out for the umpteenth time.
They wanted one more tier and fee out of her in February for January.
But wait: if she wasn't perpetually locked out, she would have gone basic in December.
SL is **liable** for her inability to change her status with them. This has nothing to do with using the grid's resources. She was not allowed to edit her membership. Can you believe such a thing?
This can't be legal.
SL should and MUST waive that month.
"my ticket has said work in progress for over a week"
She means her latest ticket. Yes, they are lingering on this. Thank goodness she got out of premium when she did or they would have filched another month of money from someone for whom money does not come easy.
**PLEASE**
Someone in the organization must be able to do right by her. She doesn't deserve this. Tickets didnt work, phone didnt work, and chat didnt work. There must be a responsible Linden who can reach out and end this AND satisfactorily compensate her by waiving this latest charge.
I work in Tier3 support for RL. That translates into "damage control." A subscription site. If there's one thing we can give people whose account or service was botched, it's free time. I would have had these people's ass in jeopardy by now believe me. And that restriction from account status is damning and would have long been fixed.
So Linden Labs: Please be professional. Reach out to her. SL is a wonderful place where she can truly flourish. Don't ruin what little spirit or faith she has left in your organization. Don't break up friends from a place they can both exist. Be the good guys you see yourselves to be. Pick her up off the floor and let her back in.
Thank you.
Does the post-Philip, M-managed Linden Research actually "see themselves as good guys"?
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