Pussycat Catnap Posted January 7, 2012 Share Posted January 7, 2012 I have 5 premium accounts. I've not checked to see if there is some new fee now associated with them. Got a few abandoned alts out there as well - this is on the dashboard of the website then? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ConnorBrady Posted January 7, 2012 Share Posted January 7, 2012 The pic that the OP showed the charge was on the dashboard. Under account. And then account overview or something like that. Account summary... I have oldtimers. I can't remember... Even after doing it 7 times today. I need a brain transplant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pussycat Catnap Posted January 7, 2012 Share Posted January 7, 2012 checked across a couple of accounts and I couldn't find it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rc Rexen Posted January 7, 2012 Author Share Posted January 7, 2012 No payment information on file Linden Dollar Balance US Dollar Balance L$ 0 USD 0.00 Saved Payment Methods You have no payment methods on file. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceera Murakami Posted January 7, 2012 Share Posted January 7, 2012 The only explanation I can offer is that they may be experimenting with a new method of account creation that actually bothers to try to collect that fee. Since 2006 they supposedly had that fee for any 'second and subsequent account', and yet they never, ever, collected it, unless you opened a help desk ticket or contacted billing yourself and insisted you wanted to pay it, or unless you were seen by some LL staffer as 'abusing' alt creation, and they decided to charge you the fee to keep the alt account (as a way to trim back 'alt armies' created by griefers, for example - make them pay $9.95 each to keep the accounts.) But if those alts have no payment info on file, and never have, then that fee marked on that field is meaningless anyway - they have no way to collect it! Until and unless you enter payment info for them, LL has no way to bill for that amount. The worst they could do would be to notify you that the account owes that fee by a specific date or will be suspended/deleted. They do not, to the best of my knowledge, do any cross-linking between the accounts that you own, for billing purposes, so they couldn't charge your Premium account for the alt accounts fees. The only time they take any action that affects more than one account is when they are suspending or banning accounts, and not always even in that case. I guess I will watch for this the next time I bother to make an alt, though I don't have any immediate need to bother making one right now. I do know they are revamping the billing information system in the USA, so maybe this change is somehow linked to that change? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rc Rexen Posted January 7, 2012 Author Share Posted January 7, 2012 I finally created a free ALT account. The only thing I did was remove a payment method that was not used anymore from my premium account. I also noticed that I had to put in the code and check my email to activate the account. I did not have to do that before when I created a free ALT account. Not sure but I think before it was putting the free ALT accounts in with my premium account. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ConnorBrady Posted January 7, 2012 Share Posted January 7, 2012 All very odd... When I made my alt accounts last weekend I had payment info in my main account and one of my previous alt accounts. I used the same email address and all identical information when setting up the alt accounts. I chose the FREE option. I did not add payment information at the time I created the accounts, but I did add that information about a week later. And I used identical payment information to the other two accounts that have payment information. Oh and I never had to enter any code or confirm by email. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ceera Murakami Posted January 8, 2012 Share Posted January 8, 2012 If you saw some sort of activation code requirement, then that has to be some new registration method that they are experimenting with. The normal method, since 6/2006, hasn't ever needed an e-mailed verification code to activate the account. Another thing that they have never done, at least since 6/2006, was to in any way 'link' payment information for accounts created with the same name and address information, or created from the same IP address. The closest they have done on that has been to prevent more than two accounts per day being created from the same IP address (to prevent creation of alt armies), and limiting the number of accounts that can use the same credit card for their payment info to five accounts (which seens to be eliminated in a change to the billing information page for US accounts that they recently released.). For example, creating two alts both registered to real name 'John Smith', at street address 123 anystreet, anytown USA 98765, would not link them at all for billing purposes, or even for detecting in any way that they were owned by the same person. Thay had that information, and could manually search in order to ban the alts of someone that they banned on another account (assuming the alts used identical info), but that was it. In a way, I would be very glad to see LL going for more strict validation and actually collecting that fee, even if it means that any future alts I bother to create will in fact cost me $9.95 each. Requiring authentication of some sort, and requiring payment for second and sebsequent accounts, would eliminate a LOT of the griefer accounts. With the current registration process, they can get perma-banned and be back in minutes with a shiny new anonymous alt, at zero cost for them. Griefers will still exist. Some griefers even use Premium accounts. But a lot of the casual, script-kiddy griefers that just do it for LOL's will be deterred if they have to provide itentifying information and a credit card that works, and get charged ten bucks for their account. Don't forget, that Premium account you removed the payment info from will need valid payment info restored before the next time its dues payment gets billed, or you'll need to be 100% certain you have enougnh money in the account's USD balance to cover the dues, or else that account will get suspended for non-payment of dues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rc Rexen Posted January 9, 2012 Author Share Posted January 9, 2012 It does look like the Lindens are changing the account dashboard. When I click on premium account I see this now. I do not remember seeing that before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ian Undercroft Posted January 9, 2012 Share Posted January 9, 2012 For the reasons Ceera has mentioned, and also because I think it's only right that people should pay for the entitlement to maintain alts on LL's servers, I hope that in the future this fee is universally or more routinely applied and that, if the fee is not paid, the account is deleted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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