Upgrade to Premium . You changed the price on me

[Fabuluz]

You had a special the other day to upgrade to Premium membership.  The special was for paying quarterly.  No special for monthly or yearly was offered.  The savings were considerable.  Quarterly you quoted a price of 11. 75 or approximately.  It was a savings of about 30 dollars.

Now I find out you changed the price on me.  Added 10 dollars to each quarter.  That's unacceptable.  I know you expect me to make payments to you by due date.  I expect of you to honor the agreement we had and go back to the original quarterly cost you offered.  

We've only been doing business for a short time. I hate to think we're going to get off on the wrong foot with each other.  This isn't so much about the money,that's only part.  If I can't trust you and not pull a shell game on me, that's just bad business. I would hate to think that's how you treat your customers. 

I would like for you to fix this billing error, honor the contract we had with each other so we can move forward.  

Game name is Fabuluz.  email is binsPlace@gmail.com.  I would expect to hear from you withing 7 days. Shouldn't take a big outfit like SL too long to clear up this matter.

[Marigold Devin]

Firstly, welcome to Second Life Answers, Fabuluz.

Secondly, you are on a public page, so absolutely everyone on the internet now has bot your email, so I suggest you remove it.

Thirdly, The quarterly rate special offer may have expired (always read the small print). 

[Alwin Alcott]

36 minutes ago, Fabuluz said:

You had a special the other day to upgrade to Premium membership.  T

yes that was for people who didn't have any subscription at that moment, it doesn't count for people who are premium already

36 minutes ago, Fabuluz said:

 I know you expect me to make payments to you by due date. 

NO... Linden Lab doesn't expect that at all.. They will TAKE your money from the payment method you registered. If that fails your account will get locked. And only than you can/MUST pay manually to get access again.

36 minutes ago, Fabuluz said:

We've only been doing business for a short time. I hate to think we're going to get off on the wrong foot with each other.  This isn't so much about the money,that's only part.  If I can't trust you and not pull a shell game on me, that's just bad business. I would hate to think that's how you treat your customers. 

aiming on bad feelings doesn't really work for a computer controlled feature as billing... simply won't work.

36 minutes ago, Fabuluz said:

I would like for you to fix this billing error, honor the contract we had with each other so we can move forward. 

Oh we all will move forward, including LL.. and i think it's not a error, but most likely you were premium already, so the system bills you at normal rate.

Edited April 22, 2017 by Alwin Alcott

[angeoco]

This is a community forum for users of Second Life; it's not a way to contact Linden Labs.

The description of the rates on the Premium Membership page at https://secondlife.com/premium/ is slightly misleading, where it highlights quarterly payment as easily the cheapest option, but in fairness they do point out in a roundabout way and specifically in the small print that this rate only applies to the first quarter. It's unrealistic to read it any other way. And if you do the sums, you will see that in return for becoming premium the weekly 300 L payment and the once-off 1000L signup bonus work out at about 66 USD in benefits for the first year, as well as a free house and land.

However, at the Change Membership Plan page at https://secondlife.com/my/account/membership.php?lang=en it simply quotes the quarterly rate as 11.25 per quarter, with no mention of it only applying to the first payment, though the fact that that is barely more than the monthly rate and doesn't even cover the payments that a premium member receives, might prompt a sceptical mind to investigate further. That is certainly misleading.

It's your decision whether you want to pursue this further (https://support.secondlife.com/?lang=en-US), but if it was me I would probably just put it down to experience, and decide whether to go back to the free basic plan or maybe switch to annual payments, which is the cheapest premium option.

[LittleMe Jewell]

4 hours ago, Fabuluz said:

Now I find out you changed the price on me.  Added 10 dollars to each quarter. 

They only did exactly what they said they would do -- right there on the same page as the Offer. 

Edited April 22, 2017 by LittleMe Jewell

[Alycia Blaylock]

Live and Learn, Fabuluz.  The quarterly discount comes around a few times each year. It's designed to hook new users into continuing to pay for Premium membership at the regular rate, but if you're careful, it can actually pay you back more in the weekly stipend than it costs to get it. The trick is to go back down to Basic Membership *before* your 3 months are over.

Since you tried to get the discounted rate when you were already a Premium member, this won't work. You have to be at the free Basic membership when you sign up for the discounted rate in order to get the discount.

What you can do now, is either drop back down to Free before your next 3 months are over or sign up for the annual rate for Premium membership. The annual ends up costing about $ 6/ month when you figure in how much you get back in lindens for your weekly stipend.

I'm sorry you're unhappy with how things worked out, but you need to remember that Linden Lab is trying to make a profit by getting as many continuing Premium members as they can. You can try to complain to them about how you were confused by the small print, but chances are they won't give back your money. If you don't like the problems associated with being a Premium member (such as the potential of being locked out of your account if and when there are billing problems), then stay with the free Basic account or sign up for a new avatar with a free Basic account.

[Fabuluz]

Let's take a deep breath and slow your roll.  First and foremost I've never been a Premium member. You all may be assuming since my account started over 6 years ago that I was.   

I started the account yes 6 years ago. Spent the first 2 days not even making it to a help area.  I had worked on making a decent looking avatar.  After 2 days what I was left with was a very large amount of frustration and half my avatar had disappeared.  Since I wasn't making any progress, hadn't even got in the door I figured "Who needs this?"   My take on Second Life is still, things are made unnecessarily difficult.  The number of decisions, the minutia of needless detail to wade through I think makes this program less desirable.  People want to do stuff when they get here. Instead they find out there's a steep learning curve.  Look, I don't wish to build the highway, I would just like to have it there when I need it.  Alpha, mesh, AO, physics and the laughable amounts of linden needed all appear unnecessary.  And please, no more lectures about "They have to make a living"  Umm - no kidding. .

So, yes my account started over 7 years ago. I never did apply, ask or want a Premium.  That's just not checking facts. As for the part timer and the grumpy customer service rep. if that's an example of the best you can do, personalize and get snarky you apparently are not able to differentiate company and individual.  I put the address in my message because after hours trying to figure out how to contact SL I had no clue how you might respond or if you would.  Instead of the "Ha ha look what you did to yourself. Not as smart as you think are ya".  If you knew you would be printing that address it would have been prudent to take care of the customer.  Apparently you were in a different mode. An attempt to embarrass as well as teach a lesson. You did the opposite, confirmed what I suspected.

[LittleMe Jewell]

As someone already said, this is a Community forum.  There are no Linden Lab folks here -- though a few do pop in from time to time for moderation only.  We, as simply other SL residents, can offer explanations and advice, but we cannot fix anything, nor do we have any way of directing LL to fix/change anything.  That is why there was a suggestion that you might want to remove your email address -- nobody at LL will be reading this.  Additionally, as my post above shows, the terms of the "deal" were spelled out right there on the page when you clicked the link. It specifically stated that the price was only good for the first quarter and that subsequent quarters would be billed at the normal quarterly rate.  Therefore, there is no wrong-doing on LL's part as far as billing goes -- at least not if their only crime was charging you the normal quarterly rate after the first quarter was up.

Edited April 23, 2017 by LittleMe Jewell

[angeoco]

?

[Alwin Alcott]

2 hours ago, Fabuluz said:

 As for the part timer and the grumpy customer service rep. if that's an example of the best you can do, personalize and get snarky you apparently are not able to differentiate company and individual.

i beg you pardon?... you still don't get it is it?

We are no customer service reps, we are just residents who TRY to help explain things or put it in place.

And the remarks about grumpy or part timer ... it are just subtitles for our characters here, it's bloody rude to talk to us this way.

 

[Chic Aeon]

AND for anyone doing the math the YEARLY DEAL IS ALWAYS THE BEST!!!!

Not sure why folks don't get that :D. Even if you "quit" partway through and just left your avatar here you get back most of your money in stipends.

So this never really WAS a DEAL - LOL. Or at least not a great one. 

[LittleMe Jewell]

The current deal is a great deal if you have good calendar disciipline and either cancel your premium before it renews or switch it to annual just before it renews -- and you can bet LL is counting on folks not doing that.  The annual $72 works out to $6 per month, whereas this deal will give you 3 months at $3.75 each.

[Marigold Devin]

On 4/22/2017 at 1:49 PM, Marigold Devin said:

Firstly, welcome to Second Life Answers, Fabuluz.

Secondly, you are on a public page, so absolutely everyone on the internet now has bot your email, so I suggest you remove it.

Thirdly, The quarterly rate special offer may have expired (always read the small print). 

Whupps, I meant got

   not bot !

Bots on the brain.

[Rhonda Huntress]

Maybe you should go back and read the Premium offer page again.

Here's the small clip with the offer and that should explain a lot right there.

 

Normal price is $22.50US but if you sign up now, your first Quarterly subscription bill will be %50 or $11.25 for a savings of $11.25 on your first Quarterly bill.  If you are already a premium member, your first quarterly payment has already come and gone.  So you do not qualify for this Special Offer.

Did you also miss the notes?
† TERMS & CONDITIONS FOR 50% DISCOUNT This offer begins on April 13, 2017 at 8AM Pacific Time (PT) and expires on April 24, 2017 at 8AM PT. To qualify for this promotion, you must 1) have an existing Second Life ("SL") basic account or create a new account, and 2) select quarterly (every three months) billing for your SL account. The fifty percent (50%) discount will be applied to your first month's bill and future months will be billed at the standard Premium Membership price (currently US$22.50 per three months). For new accounts or accounts not previously upgraded to Premium Membership, after initial login through the Second Life viewer following upgrade to Premium Membership and: 1) following your first full week, the L$300 weekly stipend will be deposited to your account every Tuesday for the duration of your Premium Membership; and 2) after your account has been active for forty-five (45) consecutive days, the L$ sign-up bonus will be deposited to your account.

If you want more details, you can find them on the linked page.

On 4/22/2017 at 7:32 AM, Fabuluz said:

Shouldn't take a big outfit like SL too long to clear up this matter.

The matter should be cleared up now, right?
Also, I wouldn't call SL a big outfit.  Sl is a software package after all. If you mean the company that manages SL (Linden Lab) then they are rather small as far as companies go.  If you mean the SL community (whom you are addressing here in this forum) then I would say it is a modest sized "outfit" at best. Anyway, none of that is here nor there but it helps to know your audience.

I would like to caution you once again, Fabuluz, to edit the OP and remove your contact info before it is picked up by a bot or just some random troll that decides to use it to sign you up for a few spam lists just for spite and giggles.