Be Careful When You Submit Support Tickets

[Rufferta]

Last year when Second Life was offering discounted Premium membership renewals, I got carried away and set up all my alts for Premium. A few days ago, when the first $99 automatic renewal hit, I realized I needed to rethink my budget.

My expenses have gone up, and my income has gone down. I was also thinking about 'what if' someone else had to handle my finances in the future - would the premiums be automatically renewed every year even if I was no longer able to enjoy Second Life? - so I sent in a support ticket asking that my premium alt memberships not be automatically renewed NEXT YEAR.

Instead, they demoted all my premium alts to BASIC, and all my land has been emptied and marked as 'abandoned.' I had planned to gradually sell off land and downsize until things got better.

Perhaps it is all for the better. Even if I've lost all my premium benefits, money I paid for premiums, and any profits from land I could have sold, I no longer have to pay tier.

I am sorry, in response to "how did we handle your support ticket?" I wrote that the person who handled it was probably a Trump supporter.

Please learn from my mistake.

[LittleMe Jewell]

12 minutes ago, Rufferta said:

I sent in a support ticket asking that my premium alt memberships not be automatically renewed NEXT YEAR.

Instead, they demoted all my premium alts to BASIC, and all my land has been emptied and marked as 'abandoned.' I had planned to gradually sell off land and downsize until things got better.

That is how it works.  Part of agreeing to Premium membership is agreeing to the automatic renewal unless you downgrade to Basic.  The only way to stop the renewal is to downgrade your accounts.  If they had hit their renewal date, then LL's only way of immediate downgrade and not charging or reversing a recent charge is to take the land first rather than giving you time to sell.  Granted, the person that did it should have explained it all to your first.

IF the accounts have not yet hit their renewal date, then you will still get your L$300 weekly and you'll maintain any other Premium benefits until the paid for time actually runs out.  You cannot own any land or use any Tier once the downgrade starts though.

 

12 minutes ago, Rufferta said:

in response to "how did we handle your support ticket?" I wrote that the person who handled it was probably a Trump supporter.

No clue how those 2 items related.  Apparently you are simply one of those people that blame anything negative on whatever party you don't support.

 

Edited August 4, 2020 by LittleMe Jewell

[Lindal Kidd]

That is extraordinarily active for Linden Lab.  I would have expected they would just point you at the Knowledge Base article on "How to Downgrade", not take your land and downgrade your accounts themselves.

[Gabriele Graves]

I always assumed what Lindal said and am also surprised that the land was abandoned and accounts downgraded.  I thought that was the point of disabling your accounts until you paid up when in arrears.

I wonder what they do if your land is deeded to a group.  Do they just remove your tier contribution or do they go further than that.  I cannot see that it would be easy for them to pick apart who owns what in a group where land is owned for more than one RL person.  Though if they for sure know your alts and the groups they have contributed tier in only have your alts in then I could see it being possible to automatically do this for groups too in those circumstances.  Not easy but doable.  Of course, if your tier is in some else's land group, it would seem that only removing the tier (as I assumed happened anyway) is viable.

Edited August 4, 2020 by Gabriele Graves
corrections

[AdminGirl]

Maybe you could try commenting on that support ticket to explain an error has been made and see if it is reversible.

[Marianne Little]

Well, what I do is to set up a warning on my phone 1 week before the account will be renewed.

But as a safety net, I also change premium plan from yearly to monthly. In case my phone is lost or something else happens, it is a month and not a year withdrawn.

I agree that they could have read the ticket better, and instead reply that your land and Premium benefits will be cancelled immediately, confirm that you want this. They must have missed the "next year" part.

That would have been excellent service. What you got was the standard bored person that has a list over what to do."The ticket say she will not renew, my instructions has no option for stop renewal when it expires. My only instruction is to cancel now." Done the job, next ticket.

[Alwin Alcott]

Perhaps i'm a bit weird... well a bit... but i have a little file with the expiration dates, and a few other details in case something happens with the accounts and i need some additonal info like friendnames, spendings, shops where i regulary go and a few other details. These are questions i got in the past from support for proving identity without directly have to send ID and other docs .
In this case perhaps the message is taken a bit too forward, but asking for downgrade is normally having instant consequences.

Edited August 5, 2020 by Alwin Alcott

[Jumpman Lane]

You can contact Linden lab and get your abandoned land back THEN sell it and downgrade lol. Geeze Linden Lab isn't exactly what I'd call heartless. You did it wrong is all. You agreed to the renewal and YOU forgot. Handle your business. You wasting time looking for virtual hugs in the forums.

Edited August 5, 2020 by Jumpman Lane

[LittleMe Jewell]

My guess is that one or more of the Premium fees had already billed and the OP wanted them refunded.  If that was the case, then I could see LL seizing the land rather than allowing it time to sell.

Granted, even then, LL should have told the OP what would happen.  Then again, maybe LL did tell the OP that.  We often get an abbreviated version of the real story around here.

 

[Cindy Evanier]

31 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

Then again, maybe LL did tell the OP that.  We often get an abbreviated version of the real story around here.

My thoughts exactly

[ChinRey]

16 hours ago, Rufferta said:

Instead, they demoted all my premium alts to BASIC, and all my land has been emptied and marked as 'abandoned.' I had planned to gradually sell off land and downsize until things got better.

The most important thing to remember about support tickets is that if the first repsonse you get isn't satisfactory, reply, tell them what's wrong and ask them to correct it.

If this happened less than four (I think) days ago, you can still reopen the ticket and since this clearly seems to be a misunderstanding from LL's side, they should be willing to at least upgrade your accounts to premium again. Whether you can convice them to give you back your land is another question but most likely they'll do it "as a one time courtesy".

If it's too late to reopen the ticket, there may still be a way, just open a brand new one. They may be a bit more reluctant to help but generally I've found the support Lindens to be very helpful and doing their best to solve your problems.

[AdminGirl]

ChinRey's right. I have never done the same with cancelling premium before, but I did accidentally abandon land and when I submitted a support ticket, they gave it right back to me by selling it to me for L$0. I wouldn't wait on it though. Any issues, just open a new support ticket.

[Kyrie Deka]

18 hours ago, LittleMe Jewell said:

Part of agreeing to Premium membership is agreeing to the automatic renewal unless you downgrade to Basic.

To be clear, this reads like all or nothing at renewal.  So come renewal time one cannot downgrade to monthly from annual without getting instant basic/loss of all premie benefits first?  

[Rufferta]

Update: Support has agreed to restore my premiums' statuses (stati?) and restore some of my land. I am very grateful that I can now make a more graceful exit...

I am still a bit in shock - over the years I have tried to be a cheerleader for Second Life, even though I sometimes pointed out problems that could be fixed. I even set up an Unofficial Tourist Information Center online and inworld. The sudden realization that I was just a silly old woman trying to build castles on the sand hit me hard. All that terraforming, landscaping, castle-building, etc....just blown away like dust in the wind. (Picture silent movie heroine with a handkerchief clutched to her bosom, here...)

I apologize for being political. I realize that people who disagree with me are not ALWAYS wrong.

On the 'being kicked back to basic' thing I blame myself for not communicating better. I still don't like the "automatic renewal" thing and I will set my calendar to cancel before the next renewal comes due.

I hope my rant will help someone else avoid problems.

 

[LittleMe Jewell]

21 minutes ago, Kyrie Deka said:

To be clear, this reads like all or nothing at renewal.  So come renewal time one cannot downgrade to monthly from annual without getting instant basic/loss of all premie benefits first?  

Not true.  If you want to downgrade from paying annual to paying monthly, anytime before your annual bills you just need to change to a new billing plan.  You can do that at any time, before the next billing happens.  On the "Your Premium Membership" page, select your new billing option:

 

ETA:  The comment about "all Premium benefits will be lost" if you downgrade to Basic is the part that is not fully accurate.  You must relinquish all land and tier usage before you can downgrade.  However, since Premium is a pre-paid thing, all other Premium benefits will remain in effect until the already paid for time period ends (weekly stipend, priority access to events, access to Premium only locations, etc...).

 

Edited August 5, 2020 by LittleMe Jewell

[SpiritSparrow Skydancer]

11 hours ago, Jumpman Lane said:

 Linden Lab isn't exactly what I'd call heartless.

Well, I would not go that far... Except Patch... He is awesome.

Edited August 5, 2020 by Tarina Sewell

[Kimmi Zehetbauer]

15 hours ago, Alwin Alcott said:

Perhaps i'm a bit weird... well a bit... but i have a little file with the expiration dates, and a few other details in case something happens with the accounts and i need some additonal info like friendnames, spendings, shops where i regulary go and a few other details. These are questions i got in the past from support for proving identity without directly have to send ID and other docs .
In this case perhaps the message is taken a bit too forward, but asking for downgrade is normally having instant consequences.

I have the date marked for my avi's anniversary date on a card.  A week before the date I plan to go in and demote it to Basic.

[Paul Hexem]

On 8/4/2020 at 4:55 PM, Rufferta said:

I am sorry, in response to "how did we handle your support ticket?" I wrote that the person who handled it was probably a Trump supporter.

 

12 hours ago, Rufferta said:

I realize that people who disagree with me are not ALWAYS wrong.

Is that like saying "Leave it to a democrat to buy more than they can afford"?

More on topic; LL's first support tier is so often incompetent on so many different subjects, at this point I think it's just a default state for them. Gotta be escalated to get anywhere, every time.

[Kyrie Deka]

On 8/5/2020 at 12:11 PM, LittleMe Jewell said:

Not true.  If you want to downgrade from paying annual to paying monthly, anytime before your annual bills you just need to change to a new billing plan.

Awesome! That's what I thought was the case and glad I didn't miss a notice. Thank you!

EDIT: Thanks for the sub screencap.  I see quarterly is still there.  A surprise, as I thought at one point the plan was to do away with the Quarterly subs.

Edited August 8, 2020 by Kyrie Deka
Afterthought

[ItHadToComeToThis]

On 8/4/2020 at 9:55 PM, Rufferta said:

Last year when Second Life was offering discounted Premium membership renewals, I got carried away and set up all my alts for Premium. A few days ago, when the first $99 automatic renewal hit, I realized I needed to rethink my budget.

My expenses have gone up, and my income has gone down. I was also thinking about 'what if' someone else had to handle my finances in the future - would the premiums be automatically renewed every year even if I was no longer able to enjoy Second Life? - so I sent in a support ticket asking that my premium alt memberships not be automatically renewed NEXT YEAR.

Instead, they demoted all my premium alts to BASIC, and all my land has been emptied and marked as 'abandoned.' I had planned to gradually sell off land and downsize until things got better.

Perhaps it is all for the better. Even if I've lost all my premium benefits, money I paid for premiums, and any profits from land I could have sold, I no longer have to pay tier.

I am sorry, in response to "how did we handle your support ticket?" I wrote that the person who handled it was probably a Trump supporter.

Please learn from my mistake.

What they have done is cancel your premium membership and refund you the money. You will probably see it in your bank in a couple of days. Be aware though they only do this as a one time thing. In future, if you forget about your renewal date then it will be tough luck and your account will be set to downgrade at the end of your current premium period. I have been caught out on that one a couple of times.