Kudos to Linden Labs

The message boards and the Linden blog are always filled with criticisms about all that Linden Labs does wrong. I understand the frustration people feel, and that we all have the need to vent. But often, these comments shed more heat than light.

Yesterday while at work, I bought roughly L$7000 from LindeX. I got the confirmation email from Linden, as well as an email receipt from PayPal. When I got home, I went to pay the rent on some land and my shop, and the funds weren't there. I had the same balance that I had when I logged off the night before. I checked online, and there was no record of it on either the account transactions history or the LindeX transaction history.

I spent a while going through all the support pages, checked the blog to see if there was a problem yesterday, and went through the bug reports. Since I have a basic account, I didn't think I could open a ticket on this issue. So I ended up doing what I was dreading: calling the customer support 800 number.

I've had plenty of bad experiences with phoning customer support with other businesses--phone companies and cable companies are the worst, computer and peripheral manufacturers are the most painful, but even when the experience isn't bad, it is rarely good, either. (Surprisingly perhaps, but ISPs and airlines are usually pretty good.) I'm always polite and calm on the phone, and try to do whatever research I can beforehand. It helps, but it is still frustrating.

I put my confirmation emails up on my screen, dialed, and prepared for a good long wait on hold. After about 5 minutes (far shorter than what I usually experience), Mark answered (I'm pretty sure his name was Mark, my notes are at home). He was pleasant, very helpful, and was able to resolve the problem quickly. He was personable and made me feel like he was genuinely interested in my problem and wanted to help. The British accent didn't hurt, either. He never rushed me, and even answered a few unrelated questions.

Some might say that it is intolerable that the transaction went missing in the first place, but I've had worse things happen with banks and large companies where it was far more critical and were I would expect better accounting practices. And perhaps it should have been possible for a basic account holder to open a ticket on a matter like this. But even with the best practices and procedures, things sometimes just go wrong. What really matters is how quickly they are resolved.

So, thank you Mark (or whatever your name is), and thank you Linden Labs. I am impressed. You did good.

I can read the criticisms of Linden Labs anywhere. I'd like to hear your positive experiences with Linden Labs, particularly with customer support.

I'll be happy to post some when it occurs. I did start a post about the Lindens banning a Skin Thief. I thought that was pretty cool.

I don't have phone support and the ticket system replies to questions with exact quotes of the knowledge base which I read before submitting a ticket. The ticket system has only actually responded and fixed one issue I requested. They did it in a timely manner.

"CX"

Everyone has phone support. You just call the Billing number shown on the main page of the Support Portal.

I've had one good experience with LL...the one and only time I needed to submit a support ticket....it was resolved quickly and they were nothing but pleasant to me. I did my age verify....it wouldn't go thru on the web site so I did it via support ticket...and they were totally cool with me.

I've worked in customer service in many capacities for years and I can tell you guys...LL is doing just fine in the grand scheme of things. I used to work for an international research company and we handled customers & members world wide....it's a constant battle of putting out fires and pleasing everyone. It's never easy and some people are simply not gonna be happy ..... and big companies screw up...no matter the rank, they're still run by human beings and human beings make mistakes. It's not the mistakes so much as how you recover from them.

Right now I work for the govmt. They can't even get W2's out in time or correctly.....so when I read all the complaints about LL I just shake my head. If SL issues are your biggest problem, count your blessings man. LOL

I've always had good experiences with the live support/help system, and they always seem to be genuinely helpful - always.

my experiences with the SL staff has always been good
be it tickets, live help, in world help or phone help

I had an issue with an alt that would not allow me to log her into her account on the web, after me calling them, them calling me, back and forth a few times, some emails, etc, they eventually fixed her

no clue what the issue was, I was able to log in world, but the web said account did not exist
hehe

my experience has always been good with the folks from Linden Lab.

Thanks for the kind words everyone and to Straif for passing this along to Torley (who shared this link).

A Linden! Quick! Catch it!!!!

/me waves hi to Jeska

If you're still reading, I've sometimes wondered who there owns the customer service department. Every time I've dealt with them, Teeple Linden & Joppa Linden have wanted to make me send that VP a "these guys are great and you should pay them more" note.

I can say wholeheartedly that I've never had anything but good responses from LL. From my point of view, they've never been anything but fantastic. Every time I call with an issue, they take care of it on the spot.

I complain about bugs, and ongoing tech problems, and all kinds of things that are well worth complaining about, but never about LL's commitment to service. They've always been great in that regard, and I'm always surprised when people claim otherwise.






Actually, I do have one small service complaint. Someone, somewhere, for the love all that is decent and good in the universe, find whatever button you need to press to fix my forum account so I can access PM's and view attachments. It's been like a year and a half now since we first talked about this, guys. Surely somebody over there can figure it out.

I stand corrected I thought phone support was only for Island owners.

I had an issue with sending checks last summer since I changed physical addresses. The folks on the phone were really friendly about resolving the issue. Very professional and polite.

I was informational, patient and friendly myself, even though the issue was stressing me out.

Sometimes phenomenal occurences do happen.

They won't ever get any kudos from me, on the contrary.

I've been having a problem for over six months now with my land which the server is the cause. I've sent in more then enough requests and complaints and I've not seen any response from them at all. Recently, I did managed to get in touch with someone by phone which I had to do since I don't get any response with tickets and I'm still waiting for them to do anything.

About a year back I also phoned them about something else. Exactly three months later they finally responded. A Linden IM'ed me and asked about said complaint. I answered it was three months later, where were they when I needed them. The person never said another word and left. He was smart enough to realize three months later isn't the time to respond to a complaint that's why he didnt say a word after that.


Someone got needed help from Linden, WOW! Sometimes phenomenal occurences do happen. As you can see it's a strange world, indeed.

Concierge-level Residents have a separate number.