Store credit

[HeyJenJen]

Hello,

 

I shopped at a location that required you to purchase credits to purchase their products. When I had credits that weren't needed, I requested a refund of remaining credits. I was advised by their Support Portal that they could not refund my lindens due to it being a LL TOS violation.

I requested that they supply me a link to the cited information, but they declined doing so, by telling me that I have to do my own research in regard to it.

Would anyone be able to direct me to the location of LL TOS regarding this matter?

Thanks.

[Rolig Loon]

That sounds fishy, but there may be more to the story than you have told. Anyone may give L$ to another person,  so there should be no TOS issue with a simple refund. 

[Lillith Hapmouche]

You actually got a reply from the non-existing TMP support, albeit not a helpful one? Wow! 

Their shopping credits routine to use the tedious shopping HUD has always been criticized... rightfully so. I suppose their "no refunds on credits" policy is based on the train of thought that your L$ is exchanged for another sort of currency and can't be changed back due to LL's own LindeX being the only legal exchange. More insight into the topic: 

http://blog.nalates.net/2013/05/10/tos-l-change-update/

[Rolig Loon]

Aha.  I knew there was probably more to the story. A store in SL accepts your L$ and says that their "store credit" can only be used credit to buy their products.  If they say that up front, so that it's clear before you buy the credit, there's nothing wrong with the policy.  You can't copy, transfer, or modify the credit, but the store will be glad to "trade" it for other things that they offer.  Any merchant can declare that they have a "no refunds" policy.  Stores in RL do that all the time, and there's nothing in the TOS that says they can't do it here.

The line about it being somehow against the TOS is bogus, since any transactions involve only L$ and in-world assets, which residents are free to give to each other.  The only time there could be a TOS violation would be when you or the merchant offers to sell L$ for a real world currency.  That's not what's happening here. So .... yes, the store can decide not to refund your L$, but they can't blame their policy on the TOS.

As usual, I should say that I am not a lawyer and am only offering a personal opinion.  If you want credible advice from a professional, I suggest hiring one.  For the small amount of money in this case, though, that's probably not worth it.

[HeyJenJen]

I understand the 'no refund' policy, and I have absolutely NO problem, if that is their policy. 

What I did have a problem with was the "can't, It's against TOS" smoke-screen, without any actual proof. I simply asked them to direct me to the proper documentation.

In RL, stores have to have "NO REFUNDS" posted in a highly visible location to be able to point to it and go "SEE?!".

I've already written off the L$ as 'my bad'. I'm just the type of person that likes to see 'the talk' that matches 'their walk'.

Thanks for the responses, I really appreciate the clarifications!

[Lindal Kidd]

Lesson learned, Jen.  In the future, be very wary of any store that requires you to purchase any sort of in-store "currency" to shop there.  These are very few and far between...almost every store owner deals in Linden Dollars.  (However, lots of stores have gift cards you can buy, or store credit that accumulates with each purchase...those are perfectly OK.)