How is this legal?

And honestly, if she could, she would. She's willing to write off her entire balance of lindens if that's what it takes to get back in SL -- a little extreme, I know, but honestly, if it's that she received disputed lindens, why *don't* they let her surrender them and move on? When you get passed a counterfeit $100 bill, are you arrested as soon as you get it? No... heck, you're probably not arrested if you pass it yourself, if you didn't know what it was. You're out a hundred dollars, is all.

The last time I switched, it was from credit card to PayPal, and it DID delete my credit card as the active payment method.

The fields do all have this alert as well:


Of course, we all know SL doesn't always work the way it's supposed to...

Ok... Did she ever get this mess straightened out. This has been like reading a forum soap opera and I'm not trying to make fun of this serious situation. Just wanted to know she ever get it fixed.

Not yet, unfortunately ... she still hasn't *called* in, which definitely bugs me, but I can't force her to do anything, and she's still not convinced it'll make a difference, not after her lawyer friend made it clear to her that she has no legal right to her account. To which I've said, and repeated, "Yeah, but they won't screw around with a customer, unless they're convinced that customer abused the system, and right now, an algorithm says you're guilty, and you haven't given them a reason to doubt that algorithm, so call, what do you have to lose?"



I'm personally convinced that either it was a glitch in SL's billing system that didn't remove the credit card properly, or, just as likely if not more, it's a misunderstanding on her part (as in PayPal charged her credit card, not SL). I will make sure she double-checks a) the names on the statements both read Linden Labs or the like, and b) that she really *has* cancelled the dispute on her credit card as well as her PayPal account. I'm starting to wonder, considering the line from her live chat about '*multiple* disputes and chargebacks', whether this might be a simple case of her credit card company pressing the issue and continuing to refuse to pay the fee, or something. (Okay, I just said simple in description of this situation. Smack me, please?)

New Update -- she got an e-mail from one of her tickets saying "We have proposed a solution to your issue, please check it out and comment or close the ticket."
She logged on... to find the ticket already closed without any proposed solution.
Her profiles are still available to her friends, but only them, and she doesn't show in mutual groups.
This is getting massively frustrating.

Was the ticket signed "Kafka Linden"?

Reopen it.

And she really needs to call. If the person she first speaks to can't help, she should ask for a supervisor. In her position, I would remain calm and polite, but refuse to disconnect until someone provided a reasonable answer.

She already re-opened the ticket, though she's "not optimistic". Not sure when she'll finally call.

EDIT: She has called, and says this about her response:
--they are holding all the account that receives a large sum of linden (5k?) by direct payment (whatever that means) and would have them banned until the matter is resolved, at this point they dont care who or which is actually responsible or if he/she is my alt or not
--: and they "can't" give me any details regarding the issue
--so im disabled until either that resolved, or forever. sounds more like forever to me
-- also during this matter, i am practically banned from second life, and not allowed to create a new av

Also, four tickets from three of her accounts have been closed without comment, even this most recent one that claimed to offer a solution.

If this is the whole story,

It really sounds like the fact she disputed the charges got her put on the billing shit-list and this is just all nonsense to hide that fact.

Basically like if you bounce a check to a landlord.



--------

The only option I can see is No payment on File alt and rent instead using SLX.

course they would surely ban that alt to if they catch her.



----------------



((this is all pure speculation by me of course ))

Not signed at all, and unfortunately she has no sense of humor at all about this situation, though she is trying. The Email was signed Ashleigh, though.

This is starting to genuinely smack of harassment, whether intentional or accidental. Like I said, she seems to be getting punished for being passed bad money, or just being in business, but it can't be that -- Ortega Fratica from Superheroes Unlimited gets up to 10k a costume, and I still see *her* online...

This is unbelievable. I know they have the right to just take her account and never tell her anything, legally, but it's past ridiculous for them to pass judgement like this. She's sure they'll never give her account back to her or let her open another one at this point.

Rent instead using SLX? ... Okay, I'll mention that. I guess.

I find it hard to believe she is banned for 5000L she didn't actually steal and sell.

Or at least that LL thinks she stole and sold.

------------

I really think it was the Charge dispute. Billing departments tend to not like you after that.

She's had problems ever since she did that right?

She should have gone to billing first not her Credit Card, but hindsight is 20/20.



((this is all pure speculation by me of course ))

Most definitely. She hadn't had a problem before that. Makes perfect sense, truth be told... or else the alleged 5000 lindens where from someone with a flag, and they put a SERIOUS flag to her account after the billing issue.
EDIT: There may be an issue with the fact that after the first dispute hit, her billing information was reset, and she never entered new information. Having said that, she was paid up for three months on her primary account. And she really didn't have time to fix the situation.

Not sure if it'd work:

Disable the old network card, Install another ethernet card.
New Card = new MAC address.

A nice lil' $14 fix for those that might be banned by hardware ID's.


All about MAC Address: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MAC_address

that wouldn't change the IP address. Which for purposes of compliance and keeping my own butt out of a sling I won't go into great detail here. But google is your friend's friend. Learn how IP's work. LL can't prevent someone from educating themself. And she'll need to make sure to never cross the streams, that's "bad".

I'm sorry to hear things didn't work out, but your friends assessment is prolly correct. LL makes millions, they will sack one person if they are nervous about them. Given all the brown-matter-hitting-the-fan on this one I'd say they sound nervous.

Good luck.

Alright, I may, or may not, directly assist her with this concept.

I swear, though, it shouldn't have had to come to this -- where we're all convinced that Second Life has it in for my friend, genuinely. Where she loses approximately $300 in cash and items and probably can never have the same experience ever again that she once did... not to mention that, one way or another, she's never contributing to the economy in any way, shape or form.

But just in case there are no other ideas, thanks, everyone. You've done so much more than the actual support people have in this matter.

So, we're talking about pie now?

I don't think pies involve stirring...

Well, okay. My friend, Micheille, took the advice of two people on this board to attempt to get back on, I will not say who.

And all was well until this Monday, when her most recent alt was blocked.

The good news? They sent a reason for this blocking.

The bad news?


(Valerie's her primary alt's name.)

Considering her last two alts had attempts to disguise her identity via different e-mail addresses, and all of her alts save the primary weren't paid for (though I could argue lack of understanding for the first one, seeing as they say you're due one free one), I don't think this is the original problem they're banning her for ... I think it's her desperation at being back that did it, coupled with her lack of patience.

I'm still pissed that they left her hanging, without any indication as to the time to resolve these issues ... and I'm afraid for how she'll react to this. She actually had to be hospitalized twice because she couldn't sleep, because she kept dreaming of being in SL with her friends, and kept waking up crying. And that was a month ago, hence my angry response to the people who doubted how seriously she took this world.

Oh well... It's quite likely that I'm leaving over this myself. I don't blame SL for its actual reason, but Jesus, they were complete and utter dicks the entire time leading up to it, and they don't deserve my money. So anyone who wants to give a reply to this post, you probably don't have much time for me to see it.

But again, thank you.

Still doesn't say what she did wrong.

That is outrageous.

If they ban you they should very specifically say WHY.

I agree. But whatever it was, it must have been something truly awful. LL does not issue permabans for small reasons. If Phoenix's friend really doesn't know what she did wrong, she should respond and request a more complete explanation.

Umm you can get lindens from other sources legitimately
http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/L$_Marketplace

Its quite possible that LL .. as a business ..

Might have seen "Disputing their CC charge"

as truly awful though.

Wow.

Honestly, the permaban might be a good thing if it was affecting her this way. I don't think it's right that they took her property but being affected that deeply by SL... yikes. She needs a different hobby. I feel for her, but that is not healthy.

Well that sucks, I'm sorry to hear this. Part of me says your friends level of addiction to SL is frightening anyway. But I also hate when big corps step on the little guy without any care of how it affects real people's lives. Maybe she should sue LL for emotional distress

Realistically, maybe you and your friend should both try hanging out on one of the many other social networks out there. Hopefully you will have a better experience. Also, keep and eye on the OpenSim/OpenLife stuff. As those improve, maybe someday you'll be able to host your own small group sim?