Suddenly my money's no good.

I've been using SLX for my Linden transactions since November. Thye've been great so far.

until yesterday.

Yesterday (Sunday) I go to replenish my Lindenage as usual,. and I get told "Your account is not allowed to send payments via PayPal or credit card."


Email ensues.


Me:


> Hi!
> I went to deposit USD Via Paypal, as I have been doing for some time,
> and today I get the message:
>
> "Your account is not allowed to send payments via PayPal or credit
> card."
>
> I am anxious to get this cleared up and go back to business as usual.
> What can I do?
>
> I did find that the email address I had on file was no longer valid. I
> have updated it to a valid one.
>
> Please help/inform/advise.
>
> Thanks.



Reply:
>Hi _______,
>
>Your account did not pass our approval for USD deposits. I cannot
>detail exactly what prohibited it from passing because that information
>is confidential.
>
>Regards,
>--
>xxxxxxx xxxxxxxxx





?!

It's a damned SECRET? I'm not allowed to be their customer?

I have several months worth of good reputation and no-trouble transactions, but suddenly I do nto qualify.

I specifically asked what I needed to do - I'm begging to be their customer. No reply at all.




If you came here hoping to read a Drivin Sideways light-hearted comment, I apologize. If came to hear a good rant, I also apologize. I don't rant much, so I'm not very good at it.

IF you have any functional advice, anyone, TIA for helping me.

have you made any unusually large in-world payments to another avatar, like 30,000 L or more?

:\ i know in -theory- it shouldn't matter, but what country are you in?? :\

Snowman, no.

Nyoko, USA.

Drivin,

Reply to that cryptic email as follows:

Dear xxxx,

I've been doing business with SLX since [date] using my PayPal account, and my deposits have always been accepted up until now.

If you are not able to tell me what has changed, or what I can do to remedy the situation, I respectfully ask that you forward this issue to your supervisor or manager.

Thank you,
Drivin Sideways
Puzzled SLX Customer

(ps: I thought of all kinds of sarcastic comments that you could make, I REALLY wanted to make them. It's ludicrous that someone would tell you, "nyah, nyah, I know why we bounced you but I can't teeeeellll you!" But it will be better to ignore the stupidity of that reply and keep digging politely for the facts.)

re: previous/recent statements that the lab performs 'by-hand' checks upon l-to-$ conversions/transfers (PS over $10 us) - did not apply to slEx.

then very soon: being the other only 'defacto' currenctly exchange, slEx probably was called upon to perform the same checks. (i think this is why there were recent outages/updates over there.)

call me 'tinfoil' on that, but hey that's just sherlock holmes takin' things too far.

Talk to Apotheus directly.

He's very much a competent businessman and I can't imagine him not giving you a straight answer.

Why don't you just use the LindeX?

that is strange, they can not tell you... why you.. can not use their service

I could understand if you were asking about someone else...

good luck with it (I never buy lindens on there, only sell) not sure what would change

I'll take your money.

I'll agree with Desmond, talk to Apotheus. Usually when I need help from them, I've gotten swift answers.. so this is kind of dumbfounding. Now if you were talking about Linden Labs, I wouldn't be the least bit surprised.

As to why not use the Lindex? Well, first off, SLEx usually has superior customer support compared to LL and they are a heck of a lot faster, especially on the selling/cashing out end.

I do have to wonder if the stupid Risk API now imposes the daily/monthly limit from your SL account..

Facts are a resource, and banks guard them jealously. Let me give you an example; when I worked for MBNA we had a regular round of what we called "repricing". Basically, it mean't putting people's contractual rates of interest on their credit cards up. When they called to complain, we were instructed to tell them politely that we did it because we can. There was a script, as usual, filled with waffle about "competitive sensitive information" and "best business practices" etc etc, but the basic thrust of it was "we can charge what we like and if you don't like it then you know where the door is". Of course, the customers that got repriced couldn't go elsewhere because they had appalling credit ratings and Satan himself would hesitate to enter into a contract with them.

It didn't matter if they spoke to one of my call centre agents or me. If a call was elevated to me as a manager complaint, I said the same thing. There was no one above me they could speak to either, as the next person above me was the Vice President of my division - who probably didn't even know we did credit cards, let alone what our pricing policy was.

I think you will have to take the response you've been given and just accept that they don't want your business.

maybe he's done something iffy, well he's not going to admit to that in here either, but of course I'm sure the OP is as straight as a die

#1 - The first rule of Risk API is, you do not talk about Risk API.
#2 - The second rule of Risk API is, you DO NOT talk about Risk API.

Like it or not, The lindens will not talk about the Risk API, nor will they allow their third party users (Such as SLX) to talk about it.

The only advice they will give is try it again later, maybe it will work.

Thanks to all who took the time to try and be helpful rather than just call my integrity into question.

Clearly, Lindal and Desmond have the sanest advice.

Lindal, I wrote back to them before I read your post.. good advice there I think. My letter isn't too different than what you recommend, except for the request for escalation (which is probably the best part). One thing concerns me about escalation, the perosn who responded was identified as "SL Exchange Service Manager" - I'm not sure if that really means they have much rank, so I"m not sure what escalation is available.

Desmond:
thanks for the recommended contact name. I will probably go to him if I get no answer VIA my current channel.


***


Kitty:
Why not Lindex? SLX has better rates than Lindex, and until now the service had been better as well. MANY ppl use SLX for their Lindenage. Apparently, I may soon be forced to take the poorer rates Lindex offers. Not long ago I would have considered that a big step DOWN in service level. Time will tell about SLX.


Dekka:
I'm nobody's "player", I just like to dance and make puns. my WHOLE POINT IS that if something appears questionable in my account I'd like to know about it instead of getting this double-top-secret-nanny-nanny-boo-boo attitude. Gee, maybe I could ... I dunno .... FIX THE PROBLEM? That's difficult to do if I have to damned guess.




I have been known to make alts on occasion, and when I do I spend real money on Avis and clothes and accessories for each. IMO that doesn't make me shady, quite the opposite it makes me a desrieable customer. None of the family goes around looking like a n00b - I'm not buying for one, I'm buying for six (hypothetically speaking). This makes me a good customer not only for for SL but of course for SLX merchants, thus a desirable customer for SLX itself.

If I were to walk into a motorcycle dealer to buy motorcycles for 6 people I would not expect that to bring suspicion. In fact IRL I would expect it to earn me special treatment. I'm not asking for special treatment here, I just want business as normal.

There's the only thing I can think of.. maybe the alts come into play somehow. Each has an SLX account, but the one main account does all the business. Most of my transactions are "buy as gift". It's not shady for each to have their own account - it is necessary by SLX policy. The main cant' buy things for them unless they each have an account.

But, I reiterate, there has never been a problem in the past. SLX Has always gotten my money.




I have no idea what RiskAPI is, I have never paid attention to the topic. I assume form context that is is some type of algorhythm by which decisions - such as the one which is currently frustrating me - are made.

I have no advice to offer,but I do hope it gets worked out for you quick Drivin. It is good to see you though.

/me waves to Rioko.



I hope business is booming for you.

Doesn't really look that different to me?

Limit buy on the LindeX: L$274/$1 should fill within minutes
Best rate on SLEX: L$279/$1

It's odd that they wouldn't tell you what the issue was. If it was a Risk API issue, they should have some party line sort of statement that says, "your account has been suspended due to suspicious activity...blah blah for your protection...blah blah...etc." Conan made a good analogy about how they don't really have to tell you anything, but this situation is different. In his case, they increased rates on people with bad credit who were unlikely to leave. In your case, they took a good customer and cut you off completely. If Conan's bank had taken good, paying customers and cancelled their credit cards, then just refused to do business with them anymore, the analogy would be complete. It would also be weird. What bank would do that?

At any rate, if you escalate it to Desmond's sugested contact person and they flat refuse to even give you the party line explanation, then I guess your option is to take your business elsewhere. I stopped doing business through SLX when I felt like they were supporting the griefer community by allowing sales of items that had no practical purpose other than to grief people.

Now, you don't expect me to believe you don't have a Deformer in your inventory, do you?

lol - I don't. I don't even have any basic defensive tools. I just don't feel like I need them. If someone is giving me a hard time, I leave. If someone were to really give me grief and follow me around, I would log off. Problem solved.