Downgrading Land tier

Ok, so i am a littler irrate right now because I acquired some free land from a friend who needed to leave SL pronto. She sold it to me for 0L but it sent my tier up to the next level. I immediatly sold the land the following day. Went into my account settings, changed my tier back down etc.

BUT my monthly billing fee is still at the high tier. I was like 20m into that other tier group, and now I am having to pay $50 more? Kinda makes me wish I had kept the land till the end of the billing cycle.

I tried Live help to see if they could offer any kind of assistance. They can go in the records and see that I only owned the land for 1 day and that it was sold to me for free...of course being a concierge member means nothing to LL.

Is there anything I can do? I really dont want to pay $50 for something that I dont have.

You can contact LL and request that your tier be reduced or eliminated. This happened to me one time and they cut me a break. I would call them on the phone.

Thanks Steve,

I think I will do that...on the flip side, if it doesnt happen, I might just buy this other lot I have been eyeing for several weeks now and actually move into that tier group.

Just to set expectations, Vanya - if Linden gives you a break on this, they'll be making a special exception for you, and its somewhat unlikely that they'll do so.

Land Tier charges are based upon *peak* usage for the month, and this is explained on the Tier page. This means that even if you have peak land holdings of 16km for 30 seconds, you'll still be charged at that rate for the month. The following month is when you'll drop down to the peak for that month.

A lot of folks have only skimmed the Tier charges page, and miss the whole concept that Linden charges based upon *peak* usage. What may seem like a simple transaction can turn into something unexpectedly expensive once the tier bill comes.

While I'm sure there are better ideas on how Linden could charge us Tier, the reason they go with the peak model is to prevent folks from playing 'musical parcels' to the point where they pay little or no tier at all.

Good luck!

I agree Travis. They had every right legally to charge me, but they had mercy. That was a good business decision, IMHO.

Well the reason they have the tier system they have at Linden, is because it simply gets them the most cash out of us, IMHO. Billing a person $50 for an extra parcel for a day, is plain stupid, as is the way i see the whole tier system. How difficult is it to have a system where one payed for what one actually uses, not that difficult i guess.

Yes I am premium, but I moved to island land. No VAT to be paid there , better quality of land, weekly payable tiers, and even lower tiered then mainland too. And when i buy another parcel, i pay for that land per week. When I buy and sell a parcel, tier goes along with it. Makes much more sense then the peak usage rule, as thats simply based on holding a person upside down to shake the most money out of them...

My 2 linden (peak), Marcel

Worst yet, the tier -down- process is not automatic, not documented well, and hidden in a non-obvious place. I think a significant part of LL's income from tier is from people who just plain don't know how to dial their level down.

Which, incidently, is reached by going to your Account page and clicking "Land Use Fees" (http://secondlife.com/account/landfees.php), then scrolling down, past the filler text and silly calculator at the top that effectively hides this function.

Make sure you go into your land use fees page and lower your tier to the desired level manually or you may be out another $50 next month.

Good point. Also check to make sure you have not donated any land to any groups.

thanks...yeah, I did all that. I will give LL a call and let you guys know what they said.

<3

Van


Not sure if I can do this, but this is the "support" i got from the live chat....she answered me with a simple copy and paste message and then didnt even bother to ask if I needed anything else. I ended up logging out of the chat 10 minutes after, waiting to see if she would at least have some decent customer service skills...not even a goodbye...lol

Harmony: Thank you for contacting us. Your Linden helper is probably talking to multiple people at the same time, so please describe your issue in detail while you wait for them to become available.
Harmony: Hi Vanya
Vanya_Rennahan: I recently acquired some land in Hyland...actually just 2 days ago. A friend of mine just gave it to me for free. this had the effect of setting my tier up to the next level. Yesterday I sold the land, and I am now back to the tier group I was in before, but the monthly billing costs are still showing as the previous tier fee
Vanya_Rennahan: Hi Harmony
Harmony: The monthly tier costs are based on the amount of land you've owned in the 30 days before your billing date - so you'll stay at that fee until your next bill date.
Vanya_Rennahan: wow...so owning it for 1 day and selling it right away is gonna cost me 50 dollars more?
Vanya_Rennahan: I didnt know this...I thought it was based on the amount of land you own by the time the billing date arrives
Vanya_Rennahan: so much for support.

Yeah, sorry Vanya. It it actually by peak usage. It's really frustrating when you get in between that $75 and $125 range.

Well the land that set me up to the next tier I owned for 22 hours before I sold it...less than a day. I spoke to someone in LL and they understand my issue, and filed a ticket for me. I guess I have to hang tight and see what happens.

Hi:
I once was playing around with changing some group owned land to my ownership, and bumped myself into the next tier. I reduced it right away, and got on the web live chat box. The Linden looked around a bit and said he would as a one time service not ding me the month tier. I imagine we all have a box in their Customer Service system that says 'Idiot user? [ ]Y [ ]N', and mine was changed to yes that day. *sigh*
I find tier and group land ownership to be complex, and paying $35 for a mistake is something to cry about.

Good luck!
-s

Edit: Vanya, I've found the Lindens to be a lot like any other group out there. Some are good and some are bad, and there isn't anything that says you can't ask again when you get a bad one. I've had lindens outright hang up on me without even a hello. While others really are professional and outgoing, given the volume of 'calls' they must get a shift.
still -s

I totally agree, the woman I spoke to on the phone was very nice and understanding. As opposed to the robotic cold feeling I got from the live chat rep. Its still pending on the ticket, I will call again later this afternoon and see whats up.

It's very unlikely that the "peak" rule would be changed, because "pay only for the land you have on your tier date" could so easily be abused, but yes, it's awful when you are on the 16384 or higher tiers.