"Plus" Membership Doesn't Include Linden Home?

[TeineGelach]

I upgraded my account to the new "Plus" tier because my friend said that it included a 512 home, but I am not able to claim any of the old 512 styles nor any of the 512 Camper, Sakura, or Newbrooke on the website. From my account page, I click the orange "Get your home now" button, I select Bellisseria, Camper, and when I hit Next, it takes me to the "Choose your membership plan" page but says I already have a Plus account.

If this is intentional and LL assumes we are going to buy mainland from land barons on top pf paying for the membership, I'm going to have to request a refund.

[Eowyn Southmoor]

A Linden Home is not included as part of the Plus membership, so your friend has given you bad info.

You'll need to purchase mainland yourself but it's quite easy to find abandoned areas , then you'll only be paying 1L per sqm.

[TeineGelach]

Are there instructions available somewhere about how to claim abandoned land? I can't seem to find this information as easily as I hoped. And it's false advertising everywhere I've seen because how is anyone supposed to know that the Linden home options aren't considered "mainland"?? I wouldn't have upgraded if the information was clearer about this when signing up. 😅

[LittleMe Jewell]

5 minutes ago, TeineGelach said:

Are there instructions available somewhere about how to claim abandoned land? I can't seem to find this information as easily as I hoped. A

 

[Nika Talaj]

Your question is reasonable, I think.  Personally, I think it is rather weird that Plus does not include a 512 Linden Home.

However, the FAQ for Plus is very clear about what is and is not a Plus benefit.  Although the FAQ was mentioned in the original Plus Blog post, I think they should have made it much more visible.  The Upgrade page is also very clear, BUT you have to scroll down to see the less bold print! 

If your main interest is land and you suspect that Plus may not be all that great a deal compared to Premium, there's a reason for that, which Gogo gives her succinct opinion about here:

https://juicybomb.com/2022/11/new-second-life-membership-plans/

[Kaleb Nightingale]

With the new plan, comes the news for Europeans, that all plans will no longer have VAT added to the plan cost. That is a very big give from LL.

Oh and land tier costs have been reduced.

Edited November 24, 2022 by Olivier Marques

[Alwin Alcott]

1 hour ago, Olivier Marques said:

With the new plan, comes the news for Europeans, that all plans will no longer have VAT added to the plan cost. That is a very big give from LL.

Oh and land tier costs have been reduced.

but they do for the landholding above the 512
and the tier levels are only cheaper above a fair large part of land.

[diamond Marchant]

5 hours ago, TeineGelach said:

but I am not able to claim any of the old 512 styles nor any of the 512 Camper, Sakura, or Newbrooke on the website

I feel your pain.

It is reasonable to expect a 512 Linden Home. But the plan does not state that a Linden Home is included. LL should have put this sentence in the plan description at the beginning where you can’t miss it... LINDEN HOME NOT INCLUDED.

Hope you bought a monthly so your loss is minimized. Land ownership in second life is complicated so look carefully before you leap again. The blog that Nika references above is excellent (Plus is a bad deal).

Edited November 24, 2022 by diamond Marchant

[animats]

25 minutes ago, diamond Marchant said:

Land ownership in second life is complicated so look carefully before you leap again.

Yes. Sadly, Lindall Kidd is no longer teaching her land class at Caledon Oxbridge. Something like that is needed. That was a good class. You went to mainland, vacant land, estate land, Linden homes, and Kidd's own apartment building. Anyone want to take on that task? Someone who's dealt in SL land would be best.

[Coffee Pancake]

Buying land to go with a basic subscription shouldn't need anyone to visit a class !!!

[Chloe Bunny]

I always press the  "cancel request" button  if I want to go back to my previous premium level right away. I chose Plus to get me through this harsh financial winter, it meant no LH but as I need to focus on other things that is okay as LH can be one of my largest distractions and it allows me to keep my existing 512 mainland for building so I can still be a part of events and remain a premium member. I pay a tiny amount of rent for another parcel which allows me land rights and the same prim allowance of a LH 1024 but I put my 35li build on it and I can have a fully decorated home with a fully landscaped and seasonal garden - snow and all the other seasons. So for some situations they can make the Plus work quite well, in fact it came in at a very good time for me. 

[Marianne Little]

4 hours ago, Olivier Marques said:

With the new plan, comes the news for Europeans, that all plans will no longer have VAT added to the plan cost. That is a very big give from LL.

Oh and land tier costs have been reduced.

Annually paid Premium was already VAT free. It is good that people who can't afford to pay annually, are not having to pay VAT anymore.

It makes me wonder, does LL pay VAT for us now? Or have they found a loophole for membership? Maybe it is possible to find a loophole for tier?

One can dream.

But back to the Original Post:

You think it's bad that you don't get a 512 Linden Home? Wait until you can't get in a Premium sandbox. Even that small perk of entrance to a safe sandbox, is not coming with Plus. It does not cost LL anything, and they have lots of sandboxes. 

Maybe it is time to rename Plus to Minus?

[Chloe Bunny]

 

12 minutes ago, Marianne Little said:

Maybe it is time to rename Plus to Minus?

They can't call people like myself who are budgeting their virtual life "minus members" though- that opens up something unethical. I know I could stay PP but I have re evaluated what I want to spend on SL rather than pushing the top of what I can spend. I pay monthly though too as I fluctuate quick. 

[Alwin Alcott]

29 minutes ago, Marianne Little said:

It makes me wonder, does LL pay VAT for us now? 

Paypal has nothing to do with the purchase of LL products other than make the money transfer. You buy nothing from them, their payment is in the PP transferfees/$ xchange for non US people. 
[edit added "their" to paypal payment, these fees are not the LL/Tilia fees)

Edited November 24, 2022 by Alwin Alcott

[Marianne Little]

12 minutes ago, Chloe Bunny said:

 

They can't call people like myself who are budgeting their virtual life "minus members" though- that opens up something unethical. I know I could stay PP but I have re evaluated what I want to spend on SL rather than pushing the top of what I can spend. I pay monthly though too as I fluctuate quick. 

Oh, I am sorry! I was disrespectful. 😢

I have had this brewing in me, so it was a snark to LL. As I realized that not even access to sandboxes was included, I was getting angry.

[Marianne Little]

3 minutes ago, Alwin Alcott said:

Paypal has nothing to do with the purchase of LL products other than make the money transfer. You buy nothing from them, their payment is in the PP transferfees/$ xchange for non US people. 
[edit added "their" to paypal payment, these fees are not the LL/Tilia fees)

I must clarify, does LL cover VAT for all membership subscriptions now?

Before this change, it was VAT on shorter ones like quarterly and monthly. I thought that LL covered VAT on annually, to entice people to buy annually and not have to pay 20 - 25% more.

[Gabriele Graves]

I think that because for the longest time, "basic" meant one thing and "premium" meant another with an easy to explain delineation that it now puts "plus" into a difficult spot.  It's parts of both and so it's also neither one thing nor the other.  If it had been called "basic plus" it would have set the expectations better in some ways but it could have also have had the effect that some might say "I'm not paying for basic, basic should be free and I'm especially not paying that much for more basic".  If LL had called it "premium light" for example, it would have set expectations that more perks that were previously premium only should be part of it.  I think that is why they probably just called it "plus" to try to avoid creating a situation where some feel that it should have been more for the price (which is a perfectly reasonable stance) but I'm not sure that the naming strategy worked that well.  It's really a difficult call when trying to figure out what something like this should be called.

The naming and issues with expectations would all be resolved if it were all a choose your own buffet.  There would be no basic or premium levels, just a subscription and you add the bits you want and call it what you want.  If you want a Linden home, you add one in, you want "premium" sandboxes, you add that in too.  As long as a la carte doesn't just become an excuse to raise prices, it would be much better place to land than where we are currently.

Edited November 24, 2022 by Gabriele Graves

[Chloe Bunny]

1 hour ago, Marianne Little said:

Oh, I am sorry! I was disrespectful. 😢

I have had this brewing in me, so it was a snark to LL. As I realized that not even access to sandboxes was included, I was getting angry.

It is okay, I realised the snark I can see frustrations others have with it, I find the option of the Plus quite agreeable at the moment - sandbox option would be good as well as your 512 option being an LH, I can see that

[TeineGelach]

On 11/23/2022 at 6:03 PM, Nika Talaj said:

I think they should have made it much more visible. 

100% agree.

On 11/23/2022 at 10:51 PM, Coffee Pancake said:

Buying land to go with a basic subscription shouldn't need anyone to visit a class !!!

I also agree with this.

I'll still try looking for abandoned land since I unfortunately paid for a whole year out of excitement for a Linden Home that apparently wasn't part of the deal. I believe it is incredibly sneaky that Linden don't say this flat out and up front.

[AzureWaves]

20 minutes ago, TeineGelach said:

100% agree.

I also agree with this.

I'll still try looking for abandoned land since I unfortunately paid for a whole year out of excitement for a Linden Home that apparently wasn't part of the deal. I believe it is incredibly sneaky that Linden don't say this flat out and up front.

You can upgrade to PREMIUM for just a few dollars more. They'll prorate your cost. You're not stuck with the Plus plan.

[TeineGelach]

2 minutes ago, AzureWaves said:

They'll prorate your cost.

Oh really? Thank you for the tip! I may just go do this to save the headache of looking for mainland. Many thanks! ♥

[AzureWaves]

11 minutes ago, TeineGelach said:

Oh really? Thank you for the tip! I may just go do this to save the headache of looking for mainland. Many thanks! ♥

Try to upgrade, the checkout screen will tell you how much it costs before you have to commit to yearly or monthly.

Edited November 25, 2022 by AzureWaves

[Mercedes Avon]

I hope LL reconsiders offering 512m2 Linden homes to plus members. There are a ton of 512m2 Linden homes open in Newbrooke (as an example) and they might as well put them to good use.

[Miguel Rowley]

5 hours ago, Mercedes Avon said:

I hope LL reconsiders offering 512m2 Linden homes to plus members. There are a ton of 512m2 Linden homes open in Newbrooke (as an example) and they might as well put them to good use.

I think that's unlikely because it would defeat the main point of Plus that is to get more people to buy mainland. But I do agree that it would be nice if they did that.

[Nika Talaj]

22 minutes ago, IGarrett said:

I think that's unlikely because it would defeat the main point of Plus that is to get more people to buy mainland. 

I think you're right.  But ... I don't think this program addresses the major barriers to more people owning mainland.  I truly do not think it's the price.

1. Finding and buying mainland is HARD.  And even once you've found it, keeping it is HARD ... tier is just weird, nothing like any RL rental payment scheme anyone has ever encountered.
2. Much of mainland is ugly, even the land itself can be ugly, with textures so stretched they're just a blur with a couple repeating waves, that can't be fixed by the bulldozer.  And, being completely covenant-free, if you just get your feet wet with a small parcel, one's neighbors can be an endless source of teh uglies.