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Will I pay less now I have no billing support?

Faithless Babii
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Faithless Babii

Faithless Babii

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What a fandango! Who messed up tier collections? Ive had a credit card on file with LL for 4 years now..yet this month..they didnt collect what I owed them..I waited  a day..still nothing. Soo I got onto concierge live chat and asked why they didnt want my cash, was told by ******scout that LL had been rather busy with roll backs and theyd get around to it, but NOT to worry as there was no problem with my credit card..they just hadnt done it yet (or even attempted too) I questioned about the problems theyd had with local payments but ****** scout was adament..sit back and wait. So I did..

5 days later..still a negative amount showing on my account..no emails saying there was a problem..no emails saying theyd taken my cash..I was worried. So i looked up the freephone number for *billing support*, spoke to a lovely chap who although very sweet couldnt do anything as Iam a *non USA resident*..umm ok..so why have a UK free phone number for billing support then??? He gave me a number to call, which was unrecognised and unusuable ~le-sigh~ , again no mention of any problems when I asked..just theyd been "busy"..

Called billing *support if youre in the USA* again to double check this number and got a REALLY grumpy mumbling guy, who so didnt want to deal with me..was told *nothing I can do for you, youre in the UK*...is this support? I wonder if now we appear to be split into two catergories of US resident who gets support and non US resident who gets nil...do we pay less ???

Eventually procurred an email adress from grunpy guy..and used it...to receive a totally confusing email back..saying I had to buy more lindens to cover the negative amount..it appears that the new payment system works this way...wouldnt it have been SUPER if all their staff knew this and could explain to residents facing this situation? Ive never had to pay tier this way and its not been communicated that I had too..eventually I wanderd the website..and happened across the new fangled way to do it merely by chance...IF I had followed the advice given to me by Live chat..I presume my account wouldve been put on hold for non payment by now, and Id be writing one of those *my account is on hold and I dont know why* posts here.

Absolutely rubbish way to handle this LL..inform people of your changes..and make sure your staff on the *I only help US residents* line and the *concierge live chat* actually know of them also...basic business rules when implemeting change is to inform inform inform...keeps everyone happy :manmad:

 

 

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Knowl Paine

Knowl Paine

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If LL sends a grid notice to all Residents, they will storm the gates trying to update.

Sovereign Country's create financial policy.

There should be a greater visible effort to inform Residents of the changes.

I would join a UK help Group in SL.

 

Your problems could be mine with the system which is in place, for that reason, I feel your pain.

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Faithless Babii

Faithless Babii

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Hi :) it wasnt so much a help page..but I thought about the different way I now have to purchase lindens, phoenix viewer wont let me do it now and I recalled how I had to do that, via this new payment method. So I investigated further..decided to reinsert my credit card info again "just incase", to be faced with "if you do this you may experience a break in your SL service" type message. Forged ahead blindly anyway..and was taken to a page where I had to manually "pay" my bill. After paying this way I was then told "you can now use your acount normally" (or something close to that) so..I sort of wondered if I was about to be put on hold anyway.scarey.

This is different than the automated way we used to have,where they just took it from you and emailed that they had..and Im still unsure if each month I will have to do this or they will do it for me..cant wait for next month :smileysad:

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Faithless Babii

Faithless Babii

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Ciaran Laval wrote:

Faithless, are your bills usually in US dollars? I wonder if they're moving us all over to local payments, which the wiki suggests they are.

Hi Ciaran ! I get an email when tier is collected showing both sterling & us dollars, the account history on my dashboard shows US dollars. Im still rather annoyed about this scenario with no support and the lack of communication of the new system :smileysad:

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Ciaran Laval

Ciaran Laval

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Hmm I've got a billing issue too, I'm wondering now if it's this new system or whether my card info just needs to be re-entered, in the past I've just had an email telling me I've been billed, one time accounting did contact me via email to tell me a payment had failed.

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Faithless Babii

Faithless Babii

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Ciaran Laval wrote:

Hmm I've got a billing issue too, I'm wondering now if it's this new system or whether my card info just needs to be re-entered, in the past I've just had an email telling me I've been billed, one time accounting did contact me via email to tell me a payment had failed.

At this point Im unsure if it will be like this each month, or its a one off due to the local payment issues they had. No one seemed to know who I spoke to/emailed. I decided to re-enter my credit card..and then it was totally different from usual. I had to actually *pay* the amount, rather like when you buy something online? I had an email this morning from billing support saying they would look into it as a matter of urgency (but Ive sorted it myself) I replied and did ask if this was always to be the method of payment.

Id prefer it wasnt, as if Im travelling or on vacation, Id rather not have the bother of logging in to the web site to do it, much better when it was automated.

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Ciaran Laval

Ciaran Laval

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Faithless Babii wrote:

 I decided to re-enter my credit card..and then it was totally different from usual. I had to actually *pay* the amount, rather like when you buy something online?

That's what I ended up doing, it wouldn't let me enter new details until I'd paid the existing balance. They really aren't communicating this well.

 

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Ai Velde

Ai Velde

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Good grief! I knew Linden Lab support was bad but this is extremely, extremely worrisome. It doesn't affect me, but I'm completely shocked by this. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, but this level of negligence is not something I would expect from LL even on their worst days.

I am not one to scream the sky is falling, but your post raises so many concerns about using any real money on or relating to SL.

So sorry this happened to you. That's got to be stressful and quite frankly, I'd be pissed off. I don't want to sit and yell how bad LL is - I'm not a cheerleader but I'm not anti. But something like this would be enough for me to downgrade entirely. I'm glad I don't have a paid account, or have any mainland. The horror stories I've heard are just wow. Concierge level, owning mainland, and having paid accounts causes more grief and stress for people. I honestly don't think I've ever heard a single good thing about any of these services, just horrible horror stories of extremely bad encounters and situations. O_o

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Faithless Babii

Faithless Babii

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Ai Velde wrote:

Good grief! I knew Linden Lab support was bad but this is extremely, extremely worrisome. It doesn't affect me, but I'm completely shocked by this. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, but this level of negligence is not something I would expect from LL even on their worst days.

I am not one to scream the sky is falling, but your post raises so many concerns about using any real money on or relating to SL.

So sorry this happened to you. That's got to be stressful and quite frankly, I'd be pissed off. I don't want to sit and yell how bad LL is - I'm not a cheerleader but I'm not anti. But something like this would be enough for me to downgrade entirely. I'm glad I don't have a paid account, or have any mainland. The horror stories I've heard are just wow. Concierge level, owning mainland, and having paid accounts causes more grief and stress for people. I honestly don't think I've ever heard a single good thing about any of these services, just horrible horror stories of extremely bad encounters and situations. O_o

thanks for reading & commenting..

However, I must say that in the years I have owned private estates with LL, this is really my first experience of anything thats really made me want to tear my hair out. Up till now Ive always had good support, fast & efficient and courteous...but this wasnt good at all and yes...I wasnt happy. Hopefully this is a one off...I will wait and see what happens next month..unsettling though for sure.

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Roche Runo

Roche Runo

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Sounds like a call center somewhere.   And the call center may not have access to non-american areas if in a country like the phillipines.   This could be local in that the UK user base is not high enough to warrent the cost of hiring a call center, or could be goverment regulation somewhere.

And of course you know, you wont get discount.  You will probably have to deal with it through filing a ticket now.

Sadly business decisions usually cause consumer outrage

 

One thing   try calling the number during off hours  perhaps the call center was closed and the calls automatically rerouted to the amercian call answering

 

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Faithless Babii

Faithless Babii

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Roche Runo wrote:

Sounds like a call center somewhere.   And the call center may not have access to non-american areas if in a country like the phillipines.   This could be local in that the UK user base is not high enough to warrent the cost of hiring a call center, or could be goverment regulation somewhere.

And of course you know, you wont get discount.  You will probably have to deal with it through filing a ticket now.

Sadly business decisions usually cause consumer outrage

 

One thing   try calling the number during off hours  perhaps the call center was closed and the calls automatically rerouted to the amercian call answering

 

actually thats a really good point-the time of day..both times I called I got an american sounding person on the UK number...thanks I will bear that in mind :smileyhappy:

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  • 3 weeks later...
Blondin Linden

Blondin Linden

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Blog is up!

http://community.secondlife.com/t5/Featured-News/On-the-Road-to-Local-Payments/ba-p/845611

 

On the Road to Local Payments

by LindenFJ Linden on 04-29-2011 11:39 AM 

 

We recently began beta testing a new system that enables our international customers to use local currencies and other local payment methods when purchasing Linden dollars and conducting other financial transactions with Linden Lab. We want to make it easier, and less expensive, for our international customers to shop and do business in Second Life. After all, wouldn’t it be nice to use your own currency, or PayPal, to purchase Linden dollars and also save money on fees? We think so too.

Based on our beta testing to date, we’ve learned a lot and discovered a few issues that we want to change and improve. So, I wanted to share our progress and what to expect as we roll this capability out to all international users later this year.

 

  • Recent Billing Issues Will Not Affect Your Account Status: For those that have run into billing glitches, let me put your mind at ease. Some international customers have tried to pay us (to keep their account current) and they were unable to complete the transaction. If you’ve encountered this problem, then please accept our apologies. Rest assured that everyone who was not able to provide payments, due to this system issue, have already had their accounts manually restored as we work to implement a fix. The affected accounts are still in good standing and these customers will not lose their status or land as a consequence.
  • Local Payments Will be Available in all Supported Viewers: Another concern that has been raised by the community is whether users can purchase Linden dollars using local currencies in Viewer 1.23. The answer is yes, although some people using Viewer 1.23 may have run into issues purchasing Linden dollars a few weeks ago. The issue has since been fixed. Now, customers who are in this beta can purchase Linden dollars using all supported Viewers.
  • We Need to Make the Local Payments System Easier to Use: On the usability side, we have beta tested local payments with new and current international customers and we’ve found we need some additional usability work to ensure that purchasing Linden dollars (and other transactions) is an easier, intuitive experience. While we are doing that, we will not add any new or current Residents to the beta system instead they will stay on the standard payments system.  But if you have already been using the local payments beta version, then you will continue to do so while we continue getting ready for a wider roll out.


In late July, we’ll be ready to provide all of our international customers with comprehensive local payment options in a system that works seamlessly and is easy to use. I’ll be updating you again as we get closer to releasing the system. Thanks for you patience as we work out the kinks.

And, if you have additional questions about the system, then there’s a comprehensive Local Payments article with a Help and Frequently Asked Questions (including how to contact Support) in English, Français, Deutsch, Español, Italiano, Português, and 日本語.

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