Monopoly and Rudeness of SLExchange

Lack thereof...

Your English is very good. Your post, apparently written in haste and emotion, doesn't sound to native speakers exactly as if you are one of us, but it is clear what what you are trying to say. I only wish I could speak another language as well.

I'm not sure if I've read everything here carefully enough but I don't think you have fully explained the exact nature of your original problem, or exactly what the first unsatisfactory answer was.

It sounds as if you were already frustrated when you contacted SLX for the first time on this matter. And you mention that you are not only frustrated with them but also with customer service other places too. Which I'm sure we can all understand. But I guess it makes some of us suspect that impatience on your part may have somehow provoked the less than satisfactory responses you say you got from the person at SLX who answered you.

Without being unsympathetic to you, it's possible to also have some empathy for the person who has to deal with complaints.

I hope it all gets straightened out for you soon.

edited: I do think it is the best business practice to always try to sooth customer feelings no matter what. I know I feel a lot more like continuing to do business with them if they say, "We're so sorry you had to experience [whatever it was]" than when they say,"Well it's not our fault, don't blame us."

I use SLX all the time - if I want to buy something specific, it's often easier to do it on SLX rather than find the shop and spend half an hour trying to find the item I want in it. Of course, when I'm not in a rush, I love in-world shopping too

The staff at SLX are *usually* responsive and courteous, but when I first joined up I couldn't understand how the currency exchange worked. The staff there gave me a response that was technically correct, but I still couldn't really understand how to do it.

A while later, someone else posted with the same problem as me. Someone else (an SLX user, not staff) replied, explaining it all very clearly, and that made a lot of sense. I was quite shocked that that poster then got what looked to me like quite a rude response from the staff for answering the question instead of them.

I happen to like SLX, and use it for all my currency trading and a lot of my shopping. But I think they are a little touchy; when I said it was confusing for newbies, I was told "well, I don't know how we could make it any simpler!" and my polite response where I suggested how it could be made simpler from my pov as a newbie was simply ignored.

It's a shame that the OP has had these experiences. I was very nearly put off using SLX, and I know lots of people who have been in-world for a long time (including the person who showed me how to use Second Life in the first place) who tried SLX once, couldn't understand it, and never went back. It *is* worth persevering with, though - the exchange rates are good, it's easy to transfer money, buy stuff, buy gifts or just withdraw money in-world, and it's a very useful shopping site too. And generally, their customer service is very good - just a little abrasive sometimes.

For clarification i am pasting original emails (capping the names since it is againts the rules)


This is mine to them:
> Last day i was trying to transfer some money to my paypal account
> (my paypal account), i got a message saying this email was on the
> PayPal Black list,after a few days my transfer was denied, i
> contacted PayPal, they said they have no such list and i should
> contact you, I contacted you last day asking what was the reason
> for being denied, i just got a short message saying sorry we can
> not accept your lindens, that is it. no explanation what was the
> reason and how i could avoid this, nothing. Can you please explain
> the situation to me since i do not think i bridged any slexcange
> rules, it can not be linden lab because they transfered my money
> with no problem.

This is the response i got from them:

MW, I have answered this question in previous e-mail. I will not
repeat myself and none of the SLX staff will communicate with you any
further on the issue of your L$ and USD restrictions.

But what did the previous email say?

It is not the explanation he received - it was the rudeness of teh customer service person. In his frustration he posted here regarding it. He was looking for alternatives to SLX since the CS person there upset him so.

I do not see any bashing from this paying customer.

my problem is about the style they responded, i didn't understand the first mail and it is my right to ask for better explanation and it is my right to ask many times until i understand the situation. If i didn't understand how the things worked and they said we wont respond to you any more, you feel pretty weak, what am i supposed to do, only thing i could do to write here and see if there are others experienced a similar situation and how they reacted. If it matters here is the previous mail:

"Hi MW. I'm very sorry we cannot accept your L$ and allow you to cash
them out. But the same screening system that blocked your alt account
from being able to deposit USD is keeping you from being able to cash out."

(what i didn't understand: what was the reason?, what I could do to solve the problem and some guidence:customer service)

It sounds like the Risk API. A lot of people don't know what that is, so that may be why they used 'screening system' instead. Have you tried cashing out via the Lindex? If you can't, that would confirm that it's the Risk API and you need to talk to someone at LL.

It sounds as if:
1. They never really explained what the problem was and what if anything the customer could do about it.
2. They were pretty abrupt and rude about it.

Customer service representatives should not be required to take abuse from customers but it is good business to always be patient and polite even if the the customer is being difficult.

"Hi MW. I'm very sorry we cannot accept your L$ and allow you to cash
them out. But the same screening system that blocked your alt account
from being able to deposit USD is keeping you from being able to cash out"

Their initial answer was both polite ("I'm very sorry" and explainatory. They apologized they could not help you and gave you the reason why. *shrugs* The risk api, as I understand it, is to help combat fraud and money laundering in Second Life, and it is a system created and operated by Linden Lab, not SLX.

But in your second email to SLX, you said, "I contacted you last day asking what was the reason for being denied, i just got a short message saying sorry we can not accept your lindens, that is it. no explanation what was the reason and how i could avoid this, nothing."

You said in that second email that "no explanation" was given by SLX. This is not true. You have quoted their first email and they did in fact give you an explanation ("the same screening system that blocked...etc....".

I'm just not seeing rudeness here, certainly not enough to title a forum thread with "rudeness" and name an actual person in the complaint. The risk api thing perhaps needs tweaking so that it doesn't accidentally snag innocent customers, but that is a problem for Linden Lab to deal with, and it is to Linden Lab that complaints of that nature should be directed.

I do understand your frustration when stuff like this happens, but in my opinion, you shot the messenger for bringing you bad news which was out of their control.

But so far I don't understand exactly what that "same screening system" was. This thread is the first I've heard of "risk api" and it isn't mentioned or explained in the above quote. (I've always cashed my L$ out through the SL website.) Could it be the OP didn't know either?

It also seems as if the people at SLX might have suspected Op of trying to do an end run around the rules by using an alt. Perhaps there was an answer before this one that did explain it. But even if that were true and/or the OP was over reacting to the situation it might have made her feel better if the person at SLX had gone ahead and patiently explained it again.

I'm not taking sides. Or even pretending to understand what happened.
Really I'm just in here killing time because I don't feel like working.