Odd method of banning.

It would seem that an account (of someone I know), was banned due to having more than 5 accounts on that same credit card when one of the accounts was upgraded to premium membership. There was no email notification of the ban and no contact for 3 days, in which a support email that still goes unanswered 8 days later (now) was sent. And at the same time, a phone call to linden labs was made only to be told to send an email to billing support about the situation, in which billing support has not responded to yet, in 7 days. This seems kind of strange to disable an account ( Place it on hold) and not notify the user via email or anything else. Regardless if having that many accounts on one credit card is against the TOS, the player has no idea when the account may be in use again, seeing as linden seems to ignore the player.

I guess the question is: Has anyone ever been in this situation before? Or have any information as to what this situation generally leads to? Because a permanent ban of a paying customer because of a few more accounts than the permitted 2 seems to be a bit silly, and doesn't give a chance for that player to learn his lesson. Thanks, and have a great day to anyone reading this =).

What I know is that the maximum number of accounts you are allowed to link to a single payment method is 5. This I've known since I created my account.

Have no idea what the consequences are for exceeding that but the 5 account limit is explicitly stated.

You don't get banned for going over your AV limit. When you try to add or upgrade #6, the website clearly tells you and stops you. (It also makes the name you were trying to use unavailable, so be careful).

This from experience.

"It also makes the name you were trying to use unavailable, so be careful"

I think that counts as a "ban" for that account, no?

So aaron levy, if spoken from experience, when did your account become active again? Seeing as this seems to be an unfixable problem if linden does not respond to emails in a week+, it would appear this is a permanent ban. LL said to email billing explaining the situation, I guess this was a method to get the person to hang up and end the conversation =).

Also, there was no stopping nor warning. While yes, it was against the tos, and it was overlooked, its been this long with no information of how it is to be solved, and i've witnessed far worse TOS violations that went with simple warnings. The lesson is learned, no more accounts will be made, so what does one do? =)

You don't understand. Thre was no ban, I was just unable to sign up a new avatar... My main character or my alts were not touched in any way.

Ah sorry, I misinterpreted. Grr, what a mess.

@Aaron

Something might have changed much more recently, like on 6/6? Maybe we need to ask the Lindens what happened.

Well to me, it seems like it is a permanent ban and they are saying "Just deal with it, it's gone forever stop emailing and calling us. Just for making 5+ accounts .

i dont see why anyone would need 5 paid accounts Oo .. but thats just me.

Families.

Perhaps they used an exploit, what happens when you make new accounts with the 250L over and over again? Just a thought, do not know for sure. Either way, still a bit harsh

The thing that gets me is not the harshness. A rule that was aimed at preventing exploitation of the system was broken. Just make sure you read all the important documentation and you are sure to come across this rule before your account creation is complete.

What gets me is the lack of feedback.