For all those thinking about going Premium..

Last year we splurged huge (for us - recession, blah blah blah) and got me a premium account. Make no mistake, I love my SL... uh... life.

Today, the anniversary of that account, we were charged again for a year - the card on the account is presently in PENDING status. We had put a card out a week ago to add some Linden and forgotten to take it off the account - our fault. However we do not want another annual membership. The charge is PENDING right now.

We contacted them immediately and told them we do not want another annual account, blah blah blah. We're not rude people. We just can't afford it. Bear in mind the charge is still PENDING.

We were told "there's nothing we can do. We cannot issue you a refund once charged. We cannot remove this issue from Pending status." A semi-polite version of we can't be bothered to look into this, we're not going to help you, we don't give a rats ass.

I would be more than happy to have paid for a month of Premium service, but unless you're a mobile phone company, this kind of crap is completely unreasonable. LL has made plenty of money off me over the past 4.5 years through a variety of channels, not the least of which are massive uploads on a regular basis to make things they can parade around as part of the wonderous variety and creativity that attracts more users to SL. I just can't afford an annual membership right now.

Thanks for the Christmas Present, Linden Labs. You just got all my discretionary holiday income. How nice for you.

Anik Pavlova

I have to say that I've always had excellent assistance from support. Maybe it's because I get concierge support, but whatever the reason, it's always been excellent.

Call your credit card company tell them its an unauthorized charge and they are taking the money with out your permission.. its gets changed pretty fast lol

Watch out you don't do something nasty to your credit rating though.

Did you try any of these?

Found on SL Support page:
........................................................

Contacting Linden Lab Billing



If you have a non-technical issue with your account related to billing concerns, you can call the Linden Lab Billing team at the following toll-free numbers:

US/Canada: 800-294-1067
France: 0805-101-490
Germany: 0800-664-5510
Japan: 0066-33-132-830
Portugal: 800-814-450
Spain: 800-300-560
UK: 0800-048-4646
Long distance (not free): 703-286-6277

The Billing team is available twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

Did you actually cancel your premium account or change the billing cycle prior to the anniversary date? If you didn't then it was a legitimate charge and reporting it to your credit card company as an unauthorized charge would constitute filing a false report. There is not a lot you can do if this is the case. Unless Linden Lab is feeling magnanimous you wont get your money back.

I have never been double billed so maybe if i had i may have encountered a problem - but in all my years here and what times i have used support i have never had the slightest problem. Support has been quick and helpful and truly resolved my problems - As much as some thngs i see LL screw up - this isnt one of them.

I am sorry this happened to you - OP, et al ... but your experience is not global.

Live Chat's always worked fine for me..............

I have never been a premium member, and never will be. There are no worthy benefits to being one, especially now days.

And with that attitude I bet you still demand excellence in support too.

I've said it many times. I've not had many occassions to use support but when I have, I've received nothing but excellent service. Twice on billing.......phone calls answered promptly, problem resolved while on the phone (I use the phone since I do have a number to call). Several times by live chat.......chat attended to almost immediately, problem (mostly griefing episodes) resolved within minutes. Once via a support ticket..........answer less than 12 hours, resolved with the instructions received from support.

Yes, I'm premium and have been since the third week of downloading SL. So maybe that's why I've had such good luck........but I doubt it. I think it's the attitude one has at the time of the support request more than anything. Coming off with an attitude over lost inventory (which is clearly stated in the ToS that LL is not responsible for) will probably get you an attitude right back, especially since they are not legally responsible for it in the first place. Not following the correct way to terminate your premium account is another way to get disappointed..........a phone call with a full explanation could very well get things straightened out to your satisfaction (or at least explained to you what went wrong). The people I see screaming about support are mostly ones who, for one reason or another, did not follow the instructions, or follow up with the proper support request. If you messed up and want a chance to get it straightened out then it's up to you to ask for the help.............but don't expect them to be able to do everything you want. If they screwed up (which they do.........just like any other business) then it's another story. The one time I had that happen, they cleared it up immediately.............with a big apology to boot.

Since LL refuses to use enough server capacity to run the grid without lag, I refuse to pay them any money. So don't worry.