I can't upgrade my account or buy money, billing info is correct

When I signed up two days ago, I wanted the Premium annual account. I had spent enough time deciding whether SL was something I wanted to be a part of and was ready to skip the basic account and go right to premium. However, when I selected the annually billed Premium account and clicked Continue I was brought only to a blank page. Figuring something was wrong with the website, I decided to just sign up for Basic so I could get to playing, thinking maybe the website would work properly later.

Well, it's STILL not working. I've tried at least 50 times with 2 different web browsers and I always get the same blank page. It's not an issue of simply waiting for it to load, either. It only loads for a second (displaying "Done" in the progress bar) and then nothing comes up at all. So I can't upgrade my account (and I've also missed out on any bonus I may have gotten from signing up for Premium immediately, I'm not sure if there is such a thing).

The site also will not accept my billing information. I have a Paypal account and a Visa debit card which both pay directly from my bank account which at this moment holds more than enough to pay for an annual account several times over. Since I can't upgrade my account, I decided that for now I would just buy some Linden dollars and get some new clothes for my avatar, but I can't even do that. I cannot buy credit for my account. I can't buy Linden dollars. I've tried both my Paypal account (which simply gives the result that I don't even HAVE any billing information entered even though I updated it several times over just to be sure) and my Visa debit card, which won't work. There's always a problem with it and I am repeatedly prompted to update the information. I've double and triple-checked it and it IS correct, and there is no reason whatsoever that my card would be refusing the charge, and I also am not even close to overdrawing my account. And yet the site will not accept my billing information. I do not have a credit card or any other form of payment that I can use. I have a bank account, with Paypal and a Visa debit card drawing directly from it.

Is there a way I can just go around the website and possibly give my billing information over the phone? Can I upgrade over the phone, since the website doesn't even load the page? I just want to upgrade to an annually billed Premium account and buy some Linden dollars. I can't do anything!

Also, I can't log into the Support section. Entering my information just reloads the screen, so that's why I'm posting this here.

hmmm well, welcome to SL anyway! It sounds like you have more than one problem.

I've never heard of the billing pages simply not coming up. As it happens, you joined at a moment when the website was completely messed up, and I bet your local browser(s) may have cached some bad pages, and/or your router has some bad addresses. Try clearing both: if you're using IE, I would clear both the temporary files and cookies (under IE's Tools/Internet Options menu). Also power off your broadband modem/router for 10 minutes, so that the head-end equipment forgets about you completely. Hopefully when you try again the website will at least load correctly.

If the website is now working for you, you can try the support portal. If you fish around in the "Solution Finder" there, you will find a lot of fairly useless information on what to do if your credit card doesn't work. OR, you can call the magic numbers below (buried deep in the Solution Finder), any time of day or night. Even as a Basic member, you are entitled to billing support.

"You can also call our Billing team at the following numbers:

800-294-1067 toll-free (US/Canada)
703-286-6277 long-distance (not free)"

At the very least, they should be able to take your money and make you Premium!

Oh, and, I don't think there is any such bonus.

I may not be a pre,ium member but I spend a lot of money in SL. Every time I think about upgrading, I get scared away because of problems like this. I now can't buy money with my perfectly fine VISA. This is so frustrating. I don't get to enter SL all the time because I travel a lot. When I log back on, I spend days trying to sort out problems. Why would my card not work all of a sudden. I have used it plenty of times before.
It just says 'error'...?

Its not hard to solve this problem File a ticket with support and they take care of you. There is always the possiblity of calling. Try teh support portal under the support Tab. They always answer tickets and almost always they fix the problem.

Good Luck

Usagi

Second Life related transactions are being rejected by some credit cards for reasons about which we can only speculate. The situation doesn't affect all users of those cards, and that is just one of the mysteries of the situation.

Unfortunately, when your CC company rejects a payment, Linden Lab then block all further transactions (evidence of this in a support ticket I've quoted below). So you need to do the following:

1) Call your CC company's authorisations dept. and request they authorise the next transaction charged to "Second Life 800-860-6990". (Note, it doesn't say "Linden Lab" in the transaction ID. Common misconception.)

2) Visit support.secondlife.com and raise a ticket, pointing out what happened, and ask them to *accept* your next CC transaction.

3) When they get back to you (could take a few hours on a weekday), they'll tell you to delete your card details and re-add them.

Once you've done that, you should be able to use your card.

For reference (and to corroborate my story):

Good luck.

As I said a on other threads about payments not working. File a ticket and they take care of this. I had this problem occur and it took about 2 hours before the matter was closed and fixed. FIle a ticket and make sure you get the closure to this problem. I had taken me 2 hpurs and a 3 tickets later to resolve my billing problem.



ZKeep up withthe support and you will get your problem resolved and fixed

Usagi

I'm having this same exact problem... it's really pissing me off.

I couldn't buy Linden's over the weekend either. A message came up that said my c/c company had declined it. I called my c/c company and they said they had not that it had to be on sl's end. There was a problem in the UK at the time and stuff was being rerouted to Paris I think I read. I think the UK is where our billing is handled from now, not sure. So I waited until Monday to see if I could buy Linden's again, and yes I could. Not sure this will be a help to you though, but it might be part of the problem if you tried to buy on the weekend.

Best of luck getting it fixed.

You are not the only person that is having problems making payments. For over one week I have be unable to use my PayPal to pay Linden. I think I am on number 6 for the reason I am at fault and not them from the solution center. They are telling me that I need two ways of paying into PayPal before Linden will be able to charge my account. I have never had this problem with any other company before. There are two ways now as i have set it up but they still can not charge the account. Also they do not answer my inputs for help now. Seems that all this has been turned over to a company in England, who do not seem to know what they are doing.

I also have the problem of blank pages showing up. Told the solution center who came back with a way to bypass the problem but that does not work either. To me this just shows they are not able to handle the job they are being payed to do.

I have also asked to have the problem transfered to the USA to see if I can get some action. This has not been done.

Can someone please give me an email address or a way where I can get someone who understands English and is willing do something.