SLB20 Opening Ceremony Lab Gab - Announcements?

[Sid Nagy]

8 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

The easiest comparison is that California has different requirements for cars than the rest of the US.

Okay, but you think American, I think European.
Plus: Most teachers have the habit to talk too much.
I was a teacher all my life.  😂

Edited June 24, 2023 by Sid Nagy

[Gwin LeShelle]

I am Premium Plus from day one, I was bummed the homes weren't ready but was expecting to see them VERY fast. 

I got Mainland to wait there for the homes. I thought hm LL will probably need 3 months to release the first ones...foolish me.

I actually believe they never even started working on this 2048 houses until pretty recently. Meh.

Now I live a year on our huge combined parcel, and since we all know how well Mainland sells, I will just stay there when they finally are so nice to release dem PP LHs.

I bet many PP users will think that way. They just should have lowered the price at one point or just should have thrown a tad more allowance at us PP users and be like "sorry 2048 LHs won't happen".

[Gwin LeShelle]

On 6/23/2023 at 8:42 AM, Alwin Alcott said:

if they need new subscription levels, i guess the last change wasn't very successfull, we had to beg many years for more choice, and now again getting more without asking?
First of all.. give what you promised for the ones we already have please.
 
I'm mostly not that positive with announcemts like these, it's proven to be presented as shiny golden bars, but in the end it's mostly just polished copper, losing the shiny part fast. and you end with a dime instead of a dollar.

IF there comes a lifetime membership, please be cool this time and make that all is offered with it, is ready and available.
Don't make it, again, a goal to get as much money as possible to make the books shiny for new investors.
Or worse.. we'r  in the window again.. ( or soon)
 

Nah. I'm thinking it's the other way around they were far more successful than they anticipated and am now ruling out how far they can go with the user base😂

[belindacarson]

1 hour ago, Gwin LeShelle said:

Nah. I'm thinking it's the other way around they were far more successful than they anticipated and am now ruling out how far they can go with the user base😂

Don't care how many subscription levels they have - for a company with a worldwide user base that runs 24/7 give us the 24/7 live support we should have as standard.

[Theresa Tennyson]

4 hours ago, Alwin Alcott said:

when the sponsor is that big it can be sure of delivery in the whole US, i'm pretty sure they will manage to let a local cardealer do the same in Europe.. no hassle about special requirements at all.

Sure, it's easy-peasy. (<--sarcasm).

Here's what would be involved - note that the car will have to be homologated before it can be registered.

https://coceurope.eu/blog/import-a-vehicle-from-the-usa-to-europe/

[Gwin LeShelle]

44 minutes ago, belindacarson said:

Don't care how many subscription levels they have - for a company with a worldwide user base that runs 24/7 give us the 24/7 live support we should have as standard.

That's what I stated in at least 2 other threads already. But they don't care for their international customers like many American companies x3 

[Sid Nagy]

4 hours ago, Gwin LeShelle said:

That's what I stated in at least 2 other threads already. But they don't care for their international customers like many American companies x3 

Our USD have the same usability for them though.

And only 41.28% of their website traffic is generated from inside the USA.
Together with Brazil that comes in second (and on the same side of the pond) they reach 52.8%*
So not really the best customer service strategy possible, by disadvantaging almost half of the user base.
 

*Data by semrush.com.

Edited June 24, 2023 by Sid Nagy

[Love Zhaoying]

3 hours ago, Sid Nagy said:

Okay, but you think American, I think European.
Plus: Most teachers have the habit to talk too much.
I was a teacher all my life.  😂

..still alive, yes?

[Alwin Alcott]

1 hour ago, Theresa Tennyson said:

Sure, it's easy-peasy. (<--sarcasm).

Here's what would be involved - note that the car will have to be homologated before it can be registered.

https://coceurope.eu/blog/import-a-vehicle-from-the-usa-to-europe/

you can't seriously mean this post if you really mean it has to be imported. There are cardealers here too ( in case you didn't know)

Your sharpness in this matter made me lol.

[Love Zhaoying]

4 hours ago, Sid Nagy said:

4 hours ago, Love Zhaoying said:

The easiest comparison is that California has different requirements for cars than the rest of the US.

Okay, but you think American, I think European.
Plus: Most teachers have the habit to talk too much.
I was a teacher all my life.  😂

Hi, Teacher! Since there is a possibility my intent was not clear, I will make a different statement.  Hopefully this will clear up any confusion if you thought I meant that the "California" comparison was literally "better" than your NL example for Europe.  

Here goes!

Here it comes!

* squeezes out a few sentences * 

Am I to understand from your mention of NL auto import requirements, that there are particularly strict rules and requirements for automobiles (and thus, for importing automobiles) in NL versus the rest of Europe?  If so, perhaps an apt comparison for the United States may be how California has more strict rules for automobile safety and emissions than the rest of the United States.  While I am not familiar with the automobile rules and requirements for Europe or NL, I provide this comparison with the US in case it helps me to understand better why you specifically mentioned NL.

* wipes his brow, much relieved *

 

[Qie Niangao]

Now I wonder: How much of a sweepstakes does a company like Linden Lab run in-house, and how much does their marketing department simply contract it out to an outfit that does this stuff all the time and therefore knows how to follow local laws and absorb liability?

Regardless who's running it, I can't imagine they'd ever consider exporting an actual vehicle, as opposed to offering one from a local supplier. I remember the paperwork moving my personal car just from the US to Canada, the title restricting its resale, and all the extra steps there would have been to actually export it for sale across the border. Surely that would only be practical for a prize like Elvis's Thunderbird or something.

My hunch is they went to a company that manages sweepstakes, got a menu of possible prizes, and picked what looked splashiest for the buck.

It's also one of those cases where rationality may not be all it's cracked up to be. Spread across the odds of winning, that Chevy Bolt has an expected value of a texture upload or two. But when the focus is the shiny new car, it's easy to see why the ineligible are mightily offended.

[Sid Nagy]

2 minutes ago, Love Zhaoying said:

Hi, Teacher! Since there is a possibility my intent was not clear, I will make a different statement.  Hopefully this will clear up any confusion if you thought I meant that the "California" comparison was literally "better" than your NL example for Europe.  

Here goes!

Here it comes!

* squeezes out a few sentences * 

Am I to understand from your mention of NL auto import requirements, that there are particularly strict rules and requirements for automobiles (and thus, for importing automobiles) in NL versus the rest of Europe?  If so, perhaps an apt comparison for the United States may be how California has more strict rules for automobile safety and emissions than the rest of the United States.  While I am not familiar with the automobile rules and requirements for Europe or NL, I provide this comparison with the US in case it helps me to understand better why you specifically mentioned NL.

* wipes his brow, much relieved *

 

No worries, I understood your intentions.

Bottom line is, that importing a car from overseas isn't that easy.

[Love Zhaoying]

1 minute ago, Sid Nagy said:

Bottom line is, that importing a car from overseas isn't that easy.

Right, plus with the cost to import the car (if they can't just provide one already overseas to the winner), dealing with different taxes, country rules, etc. just makes it easier for LL to only provide the grand prize to US Residents.

I am certain that if you were to examine the "Rules" for most US "Sweepstakes", one of the first things written is "only US residents are eligible to enter".

LL just crosses that line because everyone is in the same virtual swimming pool. (Eww.)

 

 

[Gabriele Graves]

LL could always have offered a equivalent cash alternative to the car as an option for the winner and then included everyone globally.  Not saying they should but that was one option to solve the "car" problem.

[Sid Nagy]

44 minutes ago, Alwin Alcott said:

you can't seriously mean this post if you really mean it has to be imported. There are cardealers here too ( in case you didn't know)

Your sharpness in this matter made me lol.

From their website https://gmk.chevrolet.nl/owners/chevrolet-ceases-sales.html:  Verkoop van nieuwe auto’s stopt per 31 december 2015.
Same goes for most other European countries. There are no Chevy dealers here at the moment.

Edited June 24, 2023 by Sid Nagy

[Sid Nagy]

1 hour ago, Gabriele Graves said:

LL could always have offered a equivalent cash alternative to the car as an option for the winner and then included everyone globally.  Not saying they should but that was one option to solve the "car" problem.

I don t think that LL pays (much) for the car. The free publicity it will give in the US media is where Chevrolet and LL are after. It pays itself in goodwill and attention. And giving away a car is likely cheaper than having the same results with payed advertisements all over the US continent.

Paying high cash prizes isn't allowed everywhere without the right licensing either (if possible at all in some places) and would cost LL considerable more IMHO.

Sweepstakes are mainly a form of marketing.

Edited June 24, 2023 by Sid Nagy

[Love Zhaoying]

3 minutes ago, Sid Nagy said:

I don t think that LL pays (much) for the car. The free publicity it will give in the US media is where Chevrolet and LL are after. It pays itself in goodwill and attention. And giving away a car is likely cheaper than have the same results with payed advertisements all over the US continent.

Paying high cash prizes isn't allowed everywhere without the right licensing either (if possible at all in some places) and would cost LL considerable more IMHO.

So I do not have to use Google Translate on the article, or google anything further, can you tell me if Chevy stopped selling the Volt as imports because of the general dangers of transporting the batteries, lack of sales, European import requirements, or..?

[Theresa Tennyson]

54 minutes ago, Alwin Alcott said:

you can't seriously mean this post if you really mean it has to be imported. There are cardealers here too ( in case you didn't know)

Your sharpness in this matter made me lol.

General Motors dealers?

[Sid Nagy]

Damn, I forgot to quote.

@Love Zhaoying Chevy stopped all together because of lack of sales in Europe.

One has to produce models that appeal to the European consumer like Ford does and GM did with Opel/Vauxhall before they sold these two brands to the Peugeot group.

We generally drive more compact cars than in the USA.
Although the gap in sizes isn't that big anymore lately.
The USA has finally discovered the advantage in costs efficiency per mile that a more compact size car offers.
Gas prices became a factor too in the US (although you still get bargains compared to what we in Europe pay for gas).

Edited June 24, 2023 by Sid Nagy

[Sid Nagy]

8 minutes ago, Theresa Tennyson said:

General Motors dealers?

GM basically left Europe. They sold their popular Opel and Vauxhall brands to the Peugeot group to concentrate on the American market. Developing completely new car models every 5 to 10 years for each continent is very costly.

Edited June 24, 2023 by Sid Nagy

[Innula Zenovka]

Out of interest, I checked the UK Government website the import duty and tax I'd have to pay for importing to the UK a 2023 Chevy Bolt EV, valued in US$27,495 (the value given in the rules): £7,163.72 (about $9,100 USD).   

And that's before paying the shipping charges (at least another US$1000, according  Schumacher Cargo Logistics.

So that's somewhere north of $10,000 (£7,800) I'd have to find to import it.    That's considerably less than a new car would cost me, of course, assuming I was in the market for one, which I'm not, but then I'd have to worry about finding spares for the vehicle and a garage capable of maintaining it for me.

https://prnt.sc/eT_EPNANh5_K

 

[Love Zhaoying]

At least LL didn't choose a Tesla, what with Elon Musk's controversial personality and continued statements/behavior!

 

[Gwin LeShelle]

4 hours ago, Sid Nagy said:

Our USD have the same usability for them though.

And only 41.28% of their website traffic is generated from inside the USA.
Together with Brazil that comes in second (and on the same side of the pond) they reach 52.8%*
So not really the best costumer service strategy possible, by disadvantaging almost half of the user base.
 

*Data by semrush.com.

We japanese are a quite big crowd too  and many from outside the US even pay more thanks to VAT and the bad conversion rate LL uses

 

[LittleMe Jewell]

My guess is that since the car and laptop are RL physical items, it has something to do with Sweepstakes laws.  

[Arielle Popstar]

2 hours ago, Love Zhaoying said:

At least LL didn't choose a Tesla, what with Elon Musk's controversial personality and continued statements/behavior!

 

A tesla would have been preferable both in reputation, quality and the fact that they are international.