Message to the Lab: Tier Payment Delinquency

[Charissa Korvin]

Dear Linden Labs,

I have been a resident of your service now for the past 6 and a half years.

For roughly half of that time, I have been an estate owner, paying a monthly fee for continued use of and service for my island estate.

On 2 occassions now I have missed a payment cycle and had my Second Life account frozen due to non-payment. When my account was in this frozen state, I was unable to utilize the Linden Dollar balance on my account to pay off the missed payment. 

Keeping in mind that SL has been my sole, primary source of income for the past 3 + years, it should be a no brainer to figure out that if I am unable to withdraw my linden balance via the currency exchange, then I can not pay off a missed payment.

The first time this occured, I was perhaps lucky enough to get a sympathetic customer service rep who was able to get my web site access unlocked to where I could perform the currency exchange and pay off the past due balance.

Today however was a different story.

The first time I called your Concierge line, I attempted to speak with a lady at the billing department. This was after being on hold for 30 minutes waiting for a live person to speak with only to be told that she could not help me with the issue and I would have to speak to someone at Concierge support.

I then recalled the Concierge line, pressing 0 to attempt to speak with a Customer service rep. After waiting another 30 minutes, I finally got a live person on the phone. She informed me that she would have to get a supervisor to assist her in unlocking the account to perform the linden exchange. After 20 minutes of waiting, she returned to tell me the Supervisor told her he would not do it and that I must have the balance paid before it goes into delinquent lock down.

Thankfully I was able to get the balance paid off with the help of a friend using a credit card and thus, withdraw my funds from my linden balance to pay them back.

However, my point in this post is to simply outline to you how massively inconvienient this way of doing things is. And to further suggest that you look at providing your paying customers the option to utilize their existing linden balance on their account to pay any outstanding account billing.

 

Waiting an hour and a half to get resolution to an issue such as this is preposterous and absurd and demonstrates to me how far out of touch The Lab is with it's user base. 

 

 

[Phil Deakins]

Since your SL earnings are so important to your RL, I can't imagine why you would allow your billing date to come around without making sure you had sold sufficient L$, well in advance, to cover the tier. I can't fault LL for the stance they took. If they were to accommodate such things as the norm, then people would do it far too often, without caring because LL will sort it out, causing unnecessary work. And it's not the first time.

 

[Mikey Hax]

It wasn'r really a matter of "expecting Linden Labs to sort it out" was it? It was just the user wanting access to her own funds, being held by Linden Labs in order to pay a bill to Linden Labs. Why should Linden Labs prevent her having access to her own funds at the same time as insisting she pay the bill? It makes no sense.

[Phil Deakins]

The point I was making is that, if LL did it whenever people didn't pay on time, people would realise it and some wouldn't be too bothered about making sure the payments are on time, which would create more work for LL just because some people don't bother. This was the second time, incidentally.

If I'm not mistaken, LL doesn't close the door the instant a payment is overdue.

I understand the OP's situation, and it does seem a bit silly to have the potential money (it would still need to be sold) and can't get at it but, if I'm right about LL not closing the door instantly, then, if I put myself in their shoes, I wouldn't just sort it out every time, because I'd know that people will take advantage, especially if it's not the first time, and I'd end up doing it much too often, when I shouldn't need to do it at all, except in exceptional circumstances.

[Innula Zenovka]

Yeah, but when I want people to pay me, in RL and  both, I try to make it as easy as possible for them to hand over the dosh.

I really don't see why it shouldn't be an option, if you find yourself locked out of your account like that, to authorise LL to sell your L$ at the market rate (and to take a fee for so doing) to set off against your debt.  

 It can't take much more time to do that than it does to explain to someone you can't do it, and you could charge them for the service.

[Phil Deakins]

Making it easy to pay is one thing - for a one-off - but, if you lend money regularly to someone in RL, and all too often they don't pay on time. It wouldn't take long before you stopped lending money to that person. I would certainly stop lending to that person.

It could be that, in the past, the sorting out of such things wasn't rare and was becoming a nuisance, and so LL decided to be firmer. I can't imagine that LL would be so concerned about every bit of income that they would bend over backwards to accommodate lateness when it means more work. They did it once already for the OP.

Somebody can correct me if I'm wrong, but LL doesn't close the door the moment someone owes money. I'm sure there is a period of time before anything is done, and not just a few days. So it seems to me that the OP was well overdue, and not for the first time. And, since she didn't mention any unavoidable circumstances, I assume there weren't any. If all that is true, then I can well understand LL's reluctance to go down the same path for a second time. If I were on the other end, I'd be thinking, "If you can't be bothered, neither can I." It's not as though the OP is unable to deal with it herself. Everyone else manages to make sure there is enough real money in the account to cover tier every time.

As far as LL selling the OP's L$ to get the money, I definitely wouldn't do that if I were on the other end. They don't (yet)allow the payment of tier in L$, so why would they do it for someone who just didn't get round to doing it for themselves?

LL, as a company, is known for not caring about their customers, so it doesn't surprise me that they don't want to bend over backwards in this case.

[Annemarie Perenti]

I have been in SL since 2006 and I was a sim owner lucky enough not to need Linden customer service until few days ago. Actually I used the chat and they were always very good. But now I am not surprised by this post. I had a problem, tickets wouldn't take me anywhere so I called the phone line also. I was on hold for 20 minutes and my calls were dropped 3 times. Once I was able to talk to somebody she was so rude and unprofessional I couldn't believe who I was talking to, and of course she couldn't help and no supervisor was available. So good luck with the Lindens.

[Annemarie Perenti]

And regarding the topic of this post, LL doesn't have any interest in you using L$ to pay them. You forget that L$ are fake money and the real money has alredy been spent in SL and it is in their pockets already. When you convert L$ to real money they take away their fat share, but is much better for them to receive real fresh money to get you back into the system than using fake L$ currency.

[kiramanell]

When you don't pay your dues, your account gets frozen. That's incovenient, for sure; but the solution is fairly simple: don't fall behind on your payments. It's a no-brainer, really. Especially when you tied your RL livelihood to it.

 

If you can't really afford a full region, then maybe you need to ask a few fundamental questions. None that involve Linden, really.

[Monica Querrien]

I recently had to give someone money so they could unfreeze their account. Linden Labs was clear when i called them in that you need to pay on time or else your account gets frozen. I agree with the rest of the people - if it's that important, don't fall behind in payments.

[Kelz Spiegel]

This had happened to me once also...in the 4 yrs i been here.I called customer support and they unlocked my account right away.Probably because ive been a premium since day 1..the OP has a point...Depending on how late you are with your payment..they should lock the account.

Or if you know you cant afford it..downgrade..i mean..we have idiots and griefers running all over inworld..and they get to do it for free!