Hello dear forum,
A couple of weeks ago, I decided to downgrade to Basic again after about a year at Premium. This is the only avatar I've kept at Premium during this period, although I have had premium accounts for most of the past several years, often more than one. Although I did take a break for a year or two, I feel I have a good handle on managing land, and most of the quirks of billing as relates to group land.
After releasing my Mainland parcel (abandoned), and removing my tier contribution to the group land, I then proceeded to the dashboard to set to downgrade even though I had 2 months left at Premium. Of course, the stipend does continue to be paid to me every Tuesday, but all other rights seem to be revoked. Specifically, there is no option to claim a Linden home for the duration of my prepaid premium period.
Also, the premium account on the dashboard is locked; showing a light brown narrative window that states my downgrade date in mid-November, so I cannot change it to monthly billing or make any change at all. It is locked on course.
What I would like to know is whether one is allowed to claim a Linden home before setting the account to downgrade to Basic at some far off time in the future. Or does the downgrade process require you to surrender even the Linden home, despite that one might have a long time left in "prepaid" premium status, especially if the renewal was set for annual. There is a warning on the premium page that states:
"All Premium benefits will be lost"...ok, got that, but when? Wouldn't most people think this implies that those "benefits" will be lost at the effective date of the downgrade, and not immediately?? That's what I thought, although I'm sure I should gotten a clue when it made me release my land tier first.
For the future, I would like clarification on this, so that I can make a note to not downgrade until closer to the end of the paid Premium subscription.
And yes, I did file a ticket but haven't heard anything, although I guess it's a bad idea to pose a rhetorical question in a Billing support queue.