Account Cancelled: Inventory Purged

Hi everyone,

I just wanted to see if anyone had a similar issue with a cancelled account being purged LESS than 60 days after the account was closed.



In January, I lost my real life job due to the economy here in the US and needless to say, in early April 2009, my active Premium account was closed by LL for non payment. My last payment was made in April 2009 to LL I believe.

Today, I reactivated the account as saw that my inventory was 'purged'. Gone. Entirely, although all my landholdings and items on the land were intact. I am not sure why this has happened, less than 60 days from my account being closed.

Naturally, I was told by support that there was nothing they could do.

Aside from the fact that I have spent close to $3,000 in SL since last July, running a virtual business, my inventory is critical for me to stay and pay my $195.00 tiers to LL under a premium account.

I saw this earlier at the account cancellation screen and feel that it is misleading:

"After expiration, we'll put your account into hibernation for 60 days.

We'll hold on to all of your in-world stuff for awhile, so if you
reactivate within 30 days, everything will be pretty much where you left
it. We'll keep your inventory and avatar a bit longer, so if you return
within 60 days you'll still be you! If you want to reactivate your account
during the 60 day period, you can do so at any time just by visiting
https://secondlife.com/account. However, there will be a reactivation
charge based on your original account type."

Does anyone know if others have had inventories being purged less than 60 days out from an account being closed?

I am disturbed to know that free members who do not pay any fee to LL can close their account and have their inventories remain fully intact, thus occupying server storage while paying premium accounts suffer a penalty of a data wipe in the event that an account is closed.

I'm not going to stay here in SL if I cannot get this inventory back, since there is too much RL cost to replace 20k or so items.



Thanks for the help.

Ravenmyst Twine.

I guess there was never any policy change with respect to this thread: /139/e6/149920/1.html

http://jira.secondlife.com/browse/MISC-1961

It is just shameful.

This is QUITE disturbing to read all of this. Thanks for the quick response Q.

I forgot to add that in addition to the inventory that was 'purged' so was my L$ dollar amout of approx L$106,000. I guess that must be hard to verify on LL's end....hmmm?

I should add that the jira isn't specifically about being short-changed on the 60-day grace period, which is a new one--and may be grounds for making an extra big fuss to Support about it in hopes of getting *some* sort of relief, if they can't get your account back to the status quo ante. Pretty sure that Jack Linden is the Director in charge of Support (among other things); you may need to send him an email about this.

so, they've deleted your inventory and stolen 400usd? I must say that is impressive even by their standards..

Have you lodged a support ticket and provided a copy of your few last monthly transactions demonstrating the money was there?

you probably also need to go to your rl consumer affairs people. LL should have refunded the money not kept it.

Yes. I was able to go on and view and print out my transaction reports which ended with the last sale and an account balance of $106k which was around mid may I believe. I reactivate the account today....and ZERO balance. Nice huh? I guess an out of work lawyer now has some RL work in my personal time...



Date: 05/19/2009 22:31:36 Cancel Account Destination: SYSTEM
L$106,303 balance —

Note: the __ being zero balance.

If you were bummin for cash why did you not tap the 106K?

Maybe someone who is going to Blue's office hour can point him to this thread. It probably isn't his area, but perhaps he can get the right set of eyeballs on it. This is definitely unacceptable.

Cause I was locked out of the account....and you cant transfer or use L$ when an account goes into arrears.

I am really sorry to hear this has happened to you..it has always boggled me how a premium account could lose everything but all other accounts could stay offline for a year or forever for all we know and come back where they left off..
it just never seemed right and never will make sense to me..

i could see dropping someone to basic and taking the lands for nonpayment..but why the inventory and deleting an account within 60 days??
it's like being punished for investing..

again i am sorry this happened to you..i hope one day they change this..

I sincerely hope the Lindens sort this out for you, Ravenmyst.

I'm just wondering what would have happened if you had downgraded your account to Basic in advance of getting locked out?

One of those cute orange posts from a Linden explaining the rationale behind what they did here would be appropriate.

The weird thing is that my land holdings were all there, and I had full access to them after my account was reactivated. I thought when an account went into arrears, the land reverted to Linden. I still dont understand why 1) my inventory was deleted and the land was active and 2) where the L$106k went... *scratches head*

Am probably out in left field, but could it have been used to pay the delinquincy? If you paid in April, then would have owed for May and June?

My support history:

Amber: Hello Ravenmyst_Twine, I may be dealing with several residents at the same time. Please enter the details of your question and I will be with you shortly. Thanks
Amber: Hi, how may I help you?
Ravenmyst_Twine: Hello. I recently reactivated my account today which was closed in April 09. All my inventory items are missing. Is it possible to retrieve any of this?
Amber: Let me look, but its likely not going to be retrievable
Ravenmyst_Twine: it is less than 2 months....
Ravenmyst_Twine: is there a character backup file than can be restored that is specific to my account?
Amber: If its been purged and it looks like it was, I'm afraid we don't have a backup, I'm sorry
Ravenmyst_Twine: why would this take place less than 60 days?
Ravenmyst_Twine: so my entire business inventory is gone? Is there anything that can be looked into this since i have invested thousands of dollars into SL....
Amber: I can transfer you to one of our concierge operators Ravenmyst.. our chat goes with you so no need to repeat
Ravenmyst_Twine: another resident whom i know had his account closed for 5 months and his inventory was completely intact
Ravenmyst_Twine: ok ty
Amber: I'm sorry I wasn't able to help you
System Message: Please wait while chat is transferring ...
System Message: You are now transfered to Emerson Linden.
Emerson Linden: hi Ravenmyst, sorry to hear of your inventory loss. accounts over thirty days disabled may have they inventories purged
Ravenmyst_Twine: hello again Emerson.... 30 days?
Ravenmyst_Twine: i had an account as did another resident where the inventory was there for 5 months
Ravenmyst_Twine: is there anything you can do to double check this...I have invested thousands of dollars here in SL and that business inventory is critical
Emerson Linden: yes after thirty days we cannot guarrantee the inventory will still be present so after that it becomes touch and go
Ravenmyst_Twine: are there any backups that are not purged?
Emerson Linden: ravenmyst my deepest apology once the inventory is purged it is not backed up nor stored
Ravenmyst_Twine: sad to hear this....i dont understand why some accounts get purged after 30 days and others remain dormant for a longer time. I believe many business owners would be disturbed to hear of this. Thank you for your assistance

so what did they say about the money? Was your monthly premium and tier more than $400?

Isn't early April 60 days ago?

She said $195 per month, earlier, so is right at $400, if it was 2 months, that's why I was wondering if they used it to catch her up. OP said can't use lindens to catch up arrears but 'they' probably can, even if she doesn't have access to do so......?

What is the most telling about this whole sorry episode, is that despite the anecdotal comments supporting this jira, and all the votes in favour, and all the harrowing personal experiences attached, there has not been a single Linden response to this jira, opened in Nov 2008, and the issue is still 'unassigned'.

Shameful.

Rock

The matter of the missing lindens is explained by the deduction for tier for two months but the question of the OP's inventory is serious. Her inventory represented a considerable investment in SL and I'm shocked that it would have been purged after only one month when they were still prepared to charge tier for two months.

It seems someone screwed up at LL. I can't believe they would have done this as a matter of policy.

You might want to create a post about your problem in the Second Life Answers area, not with hope of getting any better answers there than here, but so that it's publicly viewable and indexed by search engines.

More transparent that way, you know?

Update: Nothing to report. I sent two NCs off to various Lindens as recommended by a few fellow community members; one being Jack. No response as of yet.

I am sure that I will hear something within the next 24/48 hours and I promise to keep you all updated.

Granted, I will never opt for a Premium account again....muchless invest in mainland. Sad thing was that I took the time to patiently acquire most of a mainland sim, plot by plot. *sighs*

Darn real life economy...darn LL...darn t.

Yes, I agree. The 'lost' lindens are a smaller problem, and I can deal with that being applied to tiers in my absence. However, if this was the case....why should all L$160k be deducted at once. Wouldn't it be logical to deduct an amoutn equal to my monthly tier of $195 for that particular month and the remaining L$ be applied to the following month(s)? It's showign on my transaction report that on May 19th, in one fell swoop, the L$ ended up in the SYSTEM.

I can deal with this, if this is the case and I understand that I am bound by tiers even if I am not present or 'logged' in. This is my problem not LL's but I do want an explanation in a documented written policy and not a guess as to where the L$s went. That's only fair.

The inventory is the more deep concern of mine. This will influence whether I return and resume my SL life or whether or not I decide to pursue this and attempt to recoup my substantial investment of $US via other RL remedies availabel to me.

Cheers,
Rave

that hurts.. I would be kicking their door down haha

Indeed you have and a lawyer is the wrong person to rip off.

There are links at the jira item MISC-1961 in 5th post about the Braggs vs Linden Lab case. Braggs is also a lawyer. Linden Labs settled out of court. That must have been really embarrassing.