Linden Labs stole my money!

I was a premium member for some time and purchased alot of items, worth hundreads of euros. I even paid for many months without even using my account (without downgrading) which is basically donating money to them. But as soon as one of these payments (donations!) failed, my account was deactivated.

I contacted Linden Lab because I was unable to access my account. They then said that by restoring my account my inventory items "might" be lost. Optimistically, I updated my billing information and restored my account. When logging in, I noticed that my appearance had been reset to a default avatar, and my inventory was completely cleared of all items that cost any money.

I contacted Linden Lab and demanded that they restored my inventory or credit me for the items that I owned and that they had taken, so that I could repurchase them. They used to reply quickly in the past but now all of the sudden they are completely ignoring me.

All I ask is that my inventory is restored or that I get credited so that I can repurchase the things that I rightfully own. Linden Labs wouldn't loose any money by doing so, which must mean that they are trying to make extra by stealing peoples inventories so that they have to pay those extra hundreads of euros again.

Saying that the inventory "might" be lost, when they know it will for sure, and not crediting their customers when it costs them nothing, is clearly fraud! Now I want to know what can be legally done to stop them from carrying out these deceitful actions? Hopefully, I can file claims at PayPal so that they do not get any of my money spent on inventory items.

I can't believe they rather loose a, perhaps life long, customer than to credit him/her when it costs them absolutely nothing!

Arrrgh! See . Seems to be a daily occurrence, all of a sudden.

Unfortunately, legal sabre-rattling in that thread notwithstanding, there's probably not a damned thing you can do about it.

I feel for you, but I must point out that LL isn't going to really be making money because you have to repurchase the items. LL were not who you bought your products from (yes, I'm assuming, since the huge majority of content is created by residents), so you will not be giving them your money to rebuy the things.

It sucks that they cannot or will not (whichever maybe the case) restore your items, but understand you aren't repaying LL for the items you lost if you have to. I agree LL should restore the items if possible, though.

One thing you could do is contact the creators of the items in question and see if they can go back and check their records of purchase and see if they won't send you a fresh copy of the item/s in question. Most creators are more than happy to do this so long as the items were copiable and not transferable.

Best of luck to you.

This kinda makes me glad I never went premium. To me, this seems like an extremely shitty way for LL to treat its paying customers. I don't know of ANY other MMORPG that immediately deletes the inventories of their subscribers the instant their subscriptions expire. There's just no excuse for LL to do this.

Hmm..this is a reminder for me to pass everything I can full-perms to my alt with the free account. She sounds more secure than I do, stupidly.

I really do feel for you Toyko, and anyone this happens to.

I'm sorry to hear about this. If it's at all possible to do so, I hope LL will restore your inventory. Obviously it's fair enough for defaulting Premiums to lose their land (after sufficient warning) but I can't see whay they need to lose their inventories.

Although it's too late this time round, it's a good idea to have an alt with a basic account that you can transfer all your copy + transfer items, so that you can get them back if you lose them.

....mental note - I must get round to doing this myself!!!

Oops - I just noticed I've said exactly the same as the post above!!!

Passing copies to an alt is really really boring!

I suspected that Dekka. That's why I put it off so long, and now it's going to be really momentously brain-numbingly tedious.

That's exactly what I was thinking. Another reason NOT to have a premium account.

I call shenanigans.

I 2nd. Wonder why? What's the point?

I noticed that too when I read the post just now but you were here first, and your reply was much better than mine would have been

Well spotted!

--
Aes

It is possible Tokyo read Chance's thread and did a bit of a "copy n' paste"......one could double check the profiles in-world and see if there's a connection.

Ohhh!!! A mystery wrapped in an enigma wrapped in controversy--how EXCITING!! (Is it Friday yet??) Where's my pie?

I pay for [basic] cable, and rarely watch TV.
I'm basically donating money to them.

I pay for telephone service, and rarely make calls.
I'm basically donating money to them.

I subscribe to magazines and don't read every word.
I'm basically donating money to them.

I guess I just don't get the OP's attitude.

I was sort of thinking the opposite - keep the alt at premium and downgrade Lil to basic. If something happens to payment info with the alt, I have not lost much.

Even more so since this is the OP's first forum post.

And last forum post - so far.

This is my approach... Allie is basic, my alt is premium, and has payment info on file, so all the $$ route through her account. I originally did it to safeguard my password while on this insecure forum, but it's worked out well for safeguarding inventory too. As an extra benefit, since I have to log another Av on to access $L, I find my spending is a bit less, and certainly less impulsive!

I live dangerously. There is just one me. If something like this were to evey happen, I'd just walk away. C'est La 2nd Vie.

i had a friend that lost his whole inventory for like a month..he walked around with a default ava saying he wasn't going to buy another thing..they eventually somehow got it back for him..maybe it was that it wasn't missing for that long or something but about 3 weeks to a month later he had gotten it back..

I guess if you can get to it in time you can get it back .but maybe after a month or so it gets cleared..he wasn't a premium either..he hadn't lapsed on any kind of payments or had a glitch to pay anything..
He must have been one of the few lucky ones..also there were not as many people in sl back then so that may have been why too..

I used to be premium myself and had thought of going back at times..but the more stories i hear like the OP's..it just makes me glad i am basic now..

I'm really sorry for your loss of things you bought..i know i would probably just close up and leave if i lost mine..i could never remember all the things i had bought ..but i wouldn't be able to have the heart to go out and get everything again..
Some things don't exist anymore that i could never get ..

This may be worth a try..i don't know if it will work but when all else fails anything is worth a try..
read the first post of this thread..it's a trick people use to get items back they had lost from their inventory..it's not a sure thing but it's worth a try..

I can see the logic in this. Except for me, I own the land, and my working shopgirl alt has zip. (Which is as it should be; that girl does nothing all day, I swear.)

And at which point do you become your own alt?

Gee, this thread brings back fond memories of the "I was ripped off by a landbot" threads back in the day.