Choose your Linden Home concierge service. Issues/Fixes

[Mark Aji]

So, first let me say. I'm a huge believer in Linden Homes. I'm one of the weirdos who feel this will be the future of SL housing. 

I updated to Premium Plus, for literally one reason. 

 

I feel that "Choosing your Linden Home, Concierge Service" is an amazing idea! So I did just that! I worked very hard for two weeks. I contacted some people and was able to find a couple of homes available on "demand". So I contacted the concierge phone support. They have nothing to do with this option, I was directed to the FAQ. So I could send in a support ticket, Ok! Let's do this! I sent in a ticket! I responded with what I expected, they can't guarantee that if I'm standing with a friend, and they drop the lot..I will be the first person to get it. Even after putting in a ticket and letting them know. I'm sorry but with all respect, I don't agree with this!! So! Let's move forward, let's do what THEY intended us to do. Even though I personally already predicted this, which is why I found some friends who don't use their homes. Location is important to me!!

So here we go! Three days, I finally found it. A woman who was releasing her Linden Home, Perfect!! I was there and submitted my ticket! We got this! I'm excited-ish. So she pulls the trigger, and the lot is empty! My ticket is submitted! I'm standing there for almost 39 minutes!! Dun Dun Dun! Boom! Someone grabs it via the website, but we KNEW that was going to happen once we learned that we don't actually have a live concierge service to help us receive the home. Finally, a response to my ticket about 15 minutes later.  "This one has already been claimed, unfortunately. " Now they did offer to hold onto a Victorian for me, but without the eye for location, which is the most important part for residents like me who actually want to live and use the property. 

I'm sorry but I feel this system is FLAWED. Can't we do better for 29 dollars a month? I'm not here to complain, I'm truly not. I'm here to try and help! 

The obvious answer would be to add a LIVE concierge service, but that would take more man/office hours let's face it, not many companies will do such a thing. So how about, a live chat feature? Well, that poses the same problem. Perhaps adding a BUTTON or automated service ON the land itself!!! For an "Empty" lot. I feel that would be simple enough, no? Premium Plus member walks up to an empty lot; said person selects the lot and claims it. This would solve this problem? Don't you think? The houses could be put into the website the same way, causing no disruption there. The houses could be claimed PERSONALLY for the upgrade of Premium Plus, without the need to waste time sending in "Support" tickets that in reality, you'll most likely LOSE the house, you actually want via the website. I know this probably won't be fixed or added & most people probably don't care. I just think that this could be an amazing feature & advertised as such so it actually holds meaning because I'm fully disappointed with the service that in my opinion is misleading and not that effective considering even when knowing the house will be "Empty". That's not good enough, because we don't have a "Live" agent to help. 
 

 

Thank you for reading & your time. 

 

[Sylvia Tamalyn]

I thought they said up front that this "pick your LH" thing applied to houses that had not yet been released into the pipeline (but I admit, I'm not really interested in Premium Plus so I haven't paid all that close of attention to it). Anyway, if you look and find one of those not-yet-released homes, you won't have to worry about someone claiming it before it's assigned to you, because it won't be on the land page *to* be claimed. 

Edited July 26, 2022 by Sylvia Tamalyn
midnight typos!

[Alwin Alcott]

3 hours ago, Mark Aji said:

My ticket is submitted! I'm standing there for almost 39 minutes!!

 

that's not how it was announced, described and works..

you can stand for weeks if you expected that.

[Elena Blossom]

Sorry you had that experience @Mark Aji, and I do hope you get a nice home. Last month I got a random great Victorian, so there are really nice abandons out there

As for the P+/linden home, the FAQ page is clear about the process:

 

Yes, it is! Premium Plus members can request a specific Linden Home, as long as the home is not occupied and they do not currently have another Linden Home. To do so, Premium Plus members can request a Linden Home by submitting a support ticket (click Submit A Ticket on the top right of this page!) and choose the Issue Type of Land & Region with the subtype of Linden Homes.

Please note that Premium Plus members can still only own one Linden Home at a time.

Edited July 26, 2022 by Elena Core

[Nika Talaj]

4 hours ago, Mark Aji said:

So, first let me say. I'm a huge believer in Linden Homes. ...

I worked very hard for two weeks. I contacted some people and was able to find a couple of homes available on "demand".

Sometimes, when we're REALLY enthused about something, we rush ahead without reading thoroughly about it.  I'm sorry, but this appears to be what has happened to you.

LL has been very clear that PP choosing a house can only be done via support ticket, and that this ticket can take days to be processed.  They have stated that this process works best when there are named regions full of unclaimed parcels which are named "Linden Home".   [I believe that such regions exist for Chalets, Stilts, Houseboats and perhaps Sakura.  Soon there probably will be Newbrooke and Fantasy regions available. No such regions will exist any time soon for Traditional and Victorian themes.]  I suppose this process could also work pretty well if there are a whole lot of parcels in a theme's allocation queue, so that a parcel could take a week to make its way to the land page.  This might, for example, be the case for Campers right now.

LL has also stated that, in the future, they would like to create an automated process for PP Linden Home claims.  They have not made any promises about when this might happen, or how it might work.  If I were to venture a guess, tho, I would wager that an automated process still would not help you with what you were trying to do, quickly hand a parcel from one owner to another.  Creating a process to make that very easy would open the door to people "selling" a wonderful parcel to another person ... and I doubt LL wants to facilitate that.

[Teresa Firelight]

ok, I am curious... as a PP member, you should have had 5 tries on the LP. Why not try for the home you wanted  with those while waiting for support to get to your ticket? Maybe you would have landed it while waiting.

Also, it sounded like the response time for your ticket was less than an hour (39 minutes you stand there plus the 15 minutes later to get response is 54 minutes). That is an incredibly fast turn around for responding to a ticket. Support seemed to be pretty responsive in this case.

[Teresa Firelight]

Also, your suggestion that maybe they could eliminate the middleman and automate the PP land selection is a good one.

If I understood Patch correctly in one of his public addresses, I think that is a goal they are working towards, along with increasing the number of tries a PP member can have in a 24 hour period on the LP. I am not sure if they will implement either one, but at least they are looking into those possibilities.

If they do implement either of those, it will definitely make PP more attractive to some of use Premium members.

[Sparkle Bunny]

Given that, historically, people have been kinda obsessed with snagging coastal Victorians, LL should really have been able to foresee that some customers would expect their extra money to buy them a coastal Victorian and implemented a procedure to deal with that, whether it's putting somebody on full-time LH concierge duty or making the limitations of the feature clearer when people sign up. You can't expect everyone to go digging through transcripts and forums to find out that the perk doesn't actually work as advertised:

5 hours ago, Elena Core said:

Premium Plus members can request a specific Linden Home, as long as the home is not occupied and they do not currently have another Linden Home. To do so, Premium Plus members can request a Linden Home by submitting a support ticket (click Submit A Ticket on the top right of this page!) and choose the Issue Type of Land & Region with the subtype of Linden Homes.

Nothing there about how it has to be in an unreleased region, just that it has to be unoccupied (which it is! as soon as your friend releases it!) Anyone who reads this subforum knows that a desirable house isn't going to hang around long enough for a Linden to take it out of the queue and reassign it; but, again, that's not going to be obvious to everyone.

[Hymn Celestia]

On 6/22/2022 at 8:45 AM, Patch Linden said:

Please go back and re-read this post:

@Nika Talajaccurately describes how this will work.  We usually release homes in large batches.  When the house-o-matic starts giving them out, it starts in a few particular regions out of that batch.  You all typically figure out very quickly where that is happening.  The key here will be for folks interested in picking a home, or a few homes with their friends to look out and away from where the house-o-matic is currently serving up homes.   With some patience it'll work, it is going to be a manual process for now.  The LandOps team will also work with you to choose another when your ticket comes up if the initial home you chose becomes unavailable and will continue to try to help you find a home until it is resolved.  I see this as better than doing nothing, and we're trying to do something of value that you all have requested since the beginning.  I don't see this as a bad thing.  

Patch explains the house-o-matic process here. 

For what it's worth, I found the system to work exactly as advertised.

[diamond Marchant]

When I first heard of this PP feature, I was like "wut?"  The idea that they have a feature that requires an (expensive) support person AND that the outcome is not guaranteed... it's crazy. Why didn't they automate it and make it a slam dunk.

An unrelated question... is anyone joining PP for a month so they can pick a Linden Home, then reverting back to Premium?

[Jenna Huntsman]

3 minutes ago, diamond Marchant said:

Why didn't they automate it and make it a slam dunk.

I agree that P+ shouldn't have launched as half-baked as it was.

The good news is that LL is working to automate this part, but there isn't any ETA for it yet, which likely means not this year at least. I could be wrong, but that was the impression I got from the UG meeting where it was spoken about.

[Abnor Mole]

I don't believe the Premium Plus perk of being able to request being assigned an unclaimed parcel location was ever intended for the purpose the OP is describing: i.e the trading of a specific Linden Home parcel between two residents. Nor do I personally think that is something that we really want to consider as a desirable function of the system for a very good reason. The random nature of parcel assignment does something very important in regard to Linden Homes, it prevents them from becoming a commodity that can be bought and sold between residents. 

The Premium Plus perk of being able to request an unclaimed parcel is a great benefit but there is not a guarantee that you will get that parcel, even if the person immediately releases it and the ticket is responded to in a timely manner (as the OP discovered).  If there were an implied guarantee it now sets up the possibility that an exchange price could be agreed to beforehand, opening a back door for parcels to be bought and sold. I don't think that would be a good thing personally.

Edited July 26, 2022 by Abnor Mole

[Kylie Jaxxon]

7 minutes ago, Abnor Mole said:

I don't believe the Premium Plus perk of being able to request being assigned an unclaimed parcel location was ever intended for the purpose the OP is describing: i.e the trading of a specific Linden Home parcel between two residents. Nor do I personally think that is something that we really want to consider as a desirable function of the system for a very good reason. The random nature of parcel assignment does something very important in regard to Linden Homes, it prevents them from becoming a commodity that can be bought and sold between residents. 

The Premium Plus perk of being able to request an unclaimed parcel is a great benefit but there is no a guarantee that you will get that parcel, even if the person immediately releases it and the ticket is responded to in a timely manner (as the OP discovered).  If there were an implied guarantee it now sets up the possibility that an exchange price could be agreed to beforehand, opening a back door for parcels to be bought and sold. I don't think that would be a good thing personally.

Totally agree!!

 

[AzureWaves]

3 minutes ago, Abnor Mole said:

I don't believe the Premium Plus perk of being able to request being assigned an unclaimed parcel location was ever intended for the purpose the OP is describing: i.e the trading of a specific Linden Home parcel between two residents. Nor do I personally think that is something that we really want to consider as a desirable function of the system for a very good reason. The random nature of parcel assignment does something very important in regard to Linden Homes, it prevents them from becoming a commodity that can be bought and sold between residents. 

The Premium Plus perk of being able to request an unclaimed parcel is a great benefit but there is no a guarantee that you will get that parcel, even if the person immediately releases it and the ticket is responded to in a timely manner (as the OP discovered).  If there were an implied guarantee it now sets up the possibility that an exchange price could be agreed to beforehand, opening a back door for parcels to be bought and sold. I don't think that would be a good thing personally.

Patch did say the idea of Premium Plus concierge is for friends to live together, so wouldn't facilitating an abandon that happens to be next door be consider part of that perk? The way Concierge requests are handled now, most people have no idea what regions are available that would be a candidate to request tickets for. It would be helpful if a list was published and updated frequently. I thought PPlus was meant to reduce the random nature of Linden Homes and give residents the illusion of 'choose' your linden home.

[MoiraKathleen]

6 minutes ago, AzureWaves said:

Patch did say the idea of Premium Plus concierge is for friends to live together, so wouldn't facilitating an abandon that happens to be next door be consider part of that perk? The way Concierge requests are handled now, most people have no idea what regions are available that would be a candidate to request tickets for. It would be helpful if a list was published and updated frequently. I thought PPlus was meant to reduce the random nature of Linden Homes and give residents the illusion of 'choose' your linden home.

There are a lot of residents who follow what's happening with new regions very closely and people who often have explored regions new regions once they are accessible but not released yet.  Once the parcel names in a region are appearing as "Linden Home" they are eligible to be requested.  

If you follow some of the threads here, especially the SSP thread, you'll often see posts about new regions being sighted on the map.  I've also seen posts where someone has scoped out new regions and has posted about finding a perfect home and waiting for that particular region to be released, so that they can hope to get the parcel that they like there once the region is released.  This is the situation I think that is behind this PP+ perk of being able to choose your home.

I think the idea about friends living together was not so much about being able to get a recent abandon close to a friend's existing home, but a group of friends finding an unreleased region that they like and all requesting a home there. 

[AzureWaves]

Even if new regions are the target, only a small fraction of people signing up for Premium Plus follow the forum, and even less follow Linden Homes so closely to know what's coming up soon/next. It's just an idea. Make it extremely easy for people to feel that this perk is really available, show them what's out there, what they can choose.

[Polenth Yue]

I watch the regions being released pretty closely and I wouldn't want to maintain a list of ones with nobody living on them across the whole Linden Homes area (plus those with just a few ticket claimed homes, where the others are still likely candidates). Everything shifts around, so it'd be hard to keep it accurate and updated. Trying to track abandoned houses that have sunk in the queue and been empty for days is something I wouldn't even want to think about. It'd be a nightmare.

However, it is pretty easy to see on the map once you know what you're looking for. A named region, no border on it, and the homes set to "Linden Home" (you can just click houses on the map to see this, no need to visit at this stage). If most or all the houses in a region are "Linden Home" there's a good chance of getting that spot. Also, if you want a 512 in a region where the 1024 houses have gone, your odds are pretty good there as well. For inhabited regions, you're searching for abandoned houses that aren't being claimed for some reason. Sometimes a house does seem to end up pushed down the queue and empty for days.

Fantasy, chalets, sakura and newbrooke have a lot of free houses still. These are ones that nobody has ever claimed, so they're likely to still be there in a few days. You can sometimes get lucky with other themes (people have reported campers, logs and stilts as ones they've successfully claimed), but you want ones you've found that are sitting empty. Not ones that someone has just abandoned as those are likely to be at the top of the queue. When you know a certain house is being abandoned, your best bet is to try getting it with the normal website system.

It wouldn't have been an advantage for them to hold back the system until the automated version was done. It'd just mean that everyone who has ticketed a house so far would not have been able to claim a house. Much like people saying they shouldn't have released premium plus until the big houses were ready, which would mean anyone who wanted plus for other reasons would have also needed to wait for no real reason.

Edited July 26, 2022 by Polenth Yue

[Persephone Emerald]

33 minutes ago, Polenth Yue said:

I watch the regions being released pretty closely and I wouldn't want to maintain a list of ones with nobody living on them across the whole Linden Homes area (plus those with just a few ticket claimed homes, where the others are still likely candidates). Everything shifts around, so it'd be hard to keep it accurate and updated. Trying to track abandoned houses that have sunk in the queue and been empty for days is something I wouldn't even want to think about. It'd be a nightmare.

However, it is pretty easy to see on the map once you know what you're looking for. A named region, no border on it, and the homes set to "Linden Home" (you can just click houses on the map to see this, no need to visit at this stage). If most or all the houses in a region are "Linden Home" there's a good chance of getting that spot. Also, if you want a 512 in a region where the 1024 houses have gone, your odds are pretty good there as well. For inhabited regions, you're searching for abandoned houses that aren't being claimed for some reason. Sometimes a house does seem to end up pushed down the queue and empty for days.

Fantasy, chalets, sakura and newbrooke have a lot of free houses still. These are ones that nobody has ever claimed, so they're likely to still be there in a few days. You can sometimes get lucky with other themes (people have reported campers, logs and stilts as ones they've successfully claimed), but you want ones you've found that are sitting empty. Not ones that someone has just abandoned as those are likely to be at the top of the queue. When you know a certain house is being abandoned, your best bet is to try getting it with the normal website system.

It wouldn't have been an advantage for them to hold back the system until the automated version was done. It'd just mean that everyone who has ticketed a house so far would not have been able to claim a house. Much like people saying they shouldn't have released premium plus until the big houses were ready, which would mean anyone who wanted plus for other reasons would have also needed to wait for no real reason.

I just want to add to the good advice above, to look for regions on the map that show yellow or red borders. Go there and look around. Take a LM for any parcels you really like.  Then when the colored border disappears, you can file a support ticket to ask for the specific parcel you want.

[Sparkle Bunny]

4 hours ago, Abnor Mole said:

I don't believe the Premium Plus perk of being able to request being assigned an unclaimed parcel location was ever intended for the purpose the OP is describing: i.e the trading of a specific Linden Home parcel between two residents.

Of course it wasn't, but anyone familiar with Game of Homes could have predicted that people were going to try and use it in that way.

[Mark Aji]

I appreciate the responses, but I think the focus should be considering implementing the button ingame or perhaps a better feature than the ticket? It would fix the majority of these issues. I agree with @Abnor Mole 100%, the sad truth is, that is already happening. People are selling their homes out and charging rent for nice properties/locations. That will always happen with real estate, which should be expected. I don't feel the original intent of the homes was having people pay for 5-6 accounts to land that dream spot being ideal either, but it works out for SL, which is great. It's still something that is being done. Real estate in any world, real or fake will be sought after, bought, or rented. That's just the way of real estate.

Couples and families have tried to live together for the last couple of years. I appreciate all the hard work of the people who have dedicated themselves to this project and I look forward to seeing what the future holds. I just think the current system isn't where it could be & could easily be advanced. I apologize for not understanding or finding the separate release of notes/conversations that Patch was kind enough to explain. I just know that a lot of people I've spoken to about it aren't happy with the current system because it implies being able to choose where you live & I don't really see a difference if the home is abandoned in a new zone or an old zone. That would be quite silly if that was the original idea and sad for people searching for a home.

Edited July 26, 2022 by Mark Aji

[Elena Blossom]

14 minutes ago, Mark Aji said:

People are selling their homes out and charging rent for nice properties/locations.

Do you mean in Bellisseria?

[Polenth Yue]

20 minutes ago, Mark Aji said:

I just know that a lot of people I've spoken to about it aren't happy with the current system because it implies being able to choose where you live & I don't really see a difference if the home is abandoned in a new zone or an old zone. That would be quite silly if that was the original idea and sad for people searching for a home.

The difference is simply the odds. If a house has only just been abandoned, it will almost certainly be near the top of the queue. That means it will probably be automatically assigned to someone else before a ticket is processed. If the house has been empty for some time or has never been assigned to anyone, the odds are much better, because it's not at the top of the queue.

Basically, if you want those houses in regions where the automatic system is working, use that system (and no need for premium plus for that). When you're standing there as it's abandoned, this is the time to use the automatic system to try to grab it. Save the tickets for those houses that just aren't getting to the top of the queue.

[Abnor Mole]

2 hours ago, Mark Aji said:

the sad truth is, that is already happening.

So.. something that is against the covenant and detrimental to the experience is happening... sooo... we should make it... easier? 🤔

If you have irrefutable proof I encourage you to abuse report the persons doing this. Yes, I know it's difficult to prove, but anyone caught renting out their Linden Home(s) as a business to make L$ runs the risk of serious consequences. 

[Mark Aji]

That applies to Victorians, sure. However not every home has this same solution. @Polenth Yue       

 

Yes.@Elena Core

[Mark Aji]

@Abnor Mole

I'm not looking to cause issues for anyone here. It's starting to feel that this post isn't being focused on the point I was trying to make & is being redirected into another area. So I'll end my words here but I do appreciate all the hard work from the moles and everyone who lives & supports Bellisseria. Everyone I've had conversations with, it's clear that it's a broken system, and not all, but a good amount of "Game Of Homes" players are abusing the same system that people want to protect. The only difference is, that SL is making money off of that & so are the residents who are renting out multiple properties making money. Again, wasn't anything I was even trying to talk about today, but it seems to be funneled back into that direction. 

Sadly, none of us will ever be able to control real estate. I agree and support your vision & totally wish it was actually that way, but a "randomized claim system" isn't going to help that cause when there are 24/7 Bots using Auto Hot Key to claim homes that are constantly refreshing the Que on multiple accounts. I wish everyone the best and thank you for your time. I apologize for any confusion I had with the Linden Home Concierge & hope to see you all out on the waters!