Bad Ige Customer Support

Performed a large L$ sale with IGE.COM, requesting they send me a check in payment. Character by the name of IGE WHELLING was Johnny-on-the-spot logging in to take my L$. Was told I would receive a check within 10 days.

10 days came and went. 11th day I contacted them by email and asked them to check into the matter and get back with me. No response.

12th day I contacted their Live Support line. Was told Live Support cannot help with existing transactions, that I'd have to contact home office. I asked for the phone number. Was told there IS NO HOME OFFICE PHONE NUMBER, that I'd have to contact by email. I explained I'd already contacted by email and received no response. They told me it was "after hours" for the home office (I later discovered that to be untrue. Some people ARE able to examine a world time clock, IGE) I asked them where the home office was located. Live help was suddenly disconnected. I emailed the company expressing my dissatisfaction with this treatment.

I immediately contacted another Live Help person, who apologized for the ill-manners of the first person and told me IGE.com is stationed in HONG KONG (lots of recourse *there* should a company rip a person off!). Was again told to email the company. Explained I'd already sent 2 emails. Live Help said there was nothing they could do. I sent another email asking the company why they were not replying to me and why there was no customer support telephone number.

13th day I called their Live line. A person with a decidedly East-Indian accent told me they could not handle existing transactions over the telephone, and yes, once again I was told to contact the home office by email. I sent another email, in which I should have threatened to drop a mastodon on their home office, but refrained. Did tell them I was contacting Linden Labs regarding their failure to reply to my inquiries.

14th day I emailed the home office twice, mentioning this is a poor way to run a company and continuing such would guarantee loss of clients. End of 14th day, still no response.

15th day check finally arrived.

You know, I don't mind the check being late. It was inconsiderate and caused some scheduling problems, but stuff happens.

But there's just no excuse for a company ignoring its clients and refusing to respond to customer inquiries.

BIG THUMBS DOWN on IGE.COM. Unfortunately, they're one of the FEW ways to sell L$, but very unreliable and client support is non-existant.

I still think there's a big need in Second Life for Linden Labs to enstate a strong contract-enforcement system. It could be done, conducted by mature, experienced users, and would protect people from the constant rip-offs that occur on SL every day.

In the meantime, IGE.COM deserves a big neg-rating.

mmhmm I agree 110% =)

I'm still amazed that anyone would do business with IGE. For every handful of good results I've heard about, there's at least one absolutely horrible situation. Dealing with IGE is like playing Russian Roulette: you're inevitably going to wind up with a bullet in the head.

By contrast, every contact with GOM which I've had has been beyond reproach. They're always quick to respond to questions, and the few times I've had a minor problem they've been nothing but helpful. The honesty and efficiency of GOM has made it the best currency exchange options to date.

I use GOM invariably, and liked them enough to want to keep a GOM ATM on my property.

This seems to be a standard for IGE. People selling $Lindens are having issues in getting their $. I use IGE for buying...and have never had an issue in that sense. Have never waited more than 10-15 minutes for delivery. I wonder why there seem to be so many problems with selling...

I have used IGE to sell Lindens many times, never having a problem. I always get paid via Paypal in a couple hours. My friend, on two different occasions requested a check for payment after selling LIndens, his took 4 weeks to get one time, and 3 the other. It seems that payment via paypal has no problems, that i have seen, or heard of via my friends.

To the point of LInden labs needing to be involved in IGE or GOM sales, thats ridiculous. First up, LL has NO control over IGE or GOM, or any others. Those are totally seperate businesses. If you dont trust them, dont use them. Theres lots of ripoffs in Sl, indeed, but its buyer beware. LL cant be responsible for everything that happens in a USER CREATED world. People are not always good and honest, we all know this. Sucks that u had bad luck and it took a few extra days, but thats life.

I find GOM much cheaper from which to buy L. IGE usually pays more for L. When I sold to IGE it was a bit of a pain, I had to wait for Ige Wheeling to IM me, he never answered my IMs. Once I sent the L before he contacted me and the sale wasn't recorded. After a few explainations to live help( I told them when I made the transfer) they sent the money to my paypal account.

I wonder, when they say 10 days, does that mean business days?

In a year of selling to IGE, I have only ever had one problem - when I chose the bank wire option, and that was resolved within a day. I have never used the check option - I have it go to my Paypal account and then do a free transfer to my bank account (which takes 3-4 days max), though lately I have just been leaving it in there and using the Mastercard debit card. To each their own - some people have had problems, some people haven't - I have always found them to be very professional, helpful, and they generally have the higher payout rate, which is exactly the rate that ends up in your account. I understand people's loyalty to GOM - people use whatever works for them, what they are comfortable with, and what they choose to support.

True, GOM has a fee it charges so it doesn't pay quite as well as IGE. And I have no problem really with a check being a bit late (however, when a company says 10 days, I expect 10 days). One thing I do prefer about GOM is that it's all online, no "IGE WHEELING" showing up an hour late to collect L$ and leaving you an IM saying, "I was here and you weren't". Not a good way to do business.

My main problem was IGE's unprofessional attitude. The fact that I was lied to about it being "after hours" for the main office-- that Live Help wouldn't tell me the home office location (of course, that may have just been that person having a bad day) and the "no main office phone number" all stack up to unprofessional attitude. But the true score of the company was its total failure to answer emails inquiring about the payment. That's just plain poor business.

A service-oriented company must maintain service to retain clients. It's apparent from the majority of the comments here that IGE has garnered a bad reputation for itself.

And I know several folks who have purchased 'x' amount of $L and received several times what they bought -- and in spite of reporting it to IGE, never got an answer. IGE's loss.

Which makes me think that they're just very badly run. They won't get a red cent from me.

hmm...

IGE is just a big impersonal business. With that comes impersonal service. I've sold L$ to IGE many times, and have been mostly happy with the results. They have good selling rates, and you do get your money if you have them pay PayPal.