Free account periods are a great time to get friends on SL

Trust me. A lot of friends who are wary of spending money at all on the internet will go ahead and get an account if it's free.

I'm trying to refer as many people as I can during this period =O

This is not a period, it supposedly lasts forever.

Are you serious? Why did I pay $10 then... >_>;;

Lol because you signed up before they announced the change?

o rly =P

Well I dunno.. Could be a conspiricy.. I like a good conspiricy.

Ah, I've made 3000 L$ in referrals today and yesterday so far...

Im still confused by the whole thing. I tried to get a friend to sign on the other day, because i thought it was free. He then kept asking me why they wanted a credit card number, and i said, probably to verify age or future upgrades. And he was like are you sure this is free. and im like ABSOLUTELY>. and hes like Rice, read it again.. so i did.. and it says free 7 day trial.. and then u get billed 9.95 again... which is what it always was..

So am i missing something here? Is it really, really free??? or is it just a 7 day trial? Because if you click on that FREE BANNER.. it takes u to sign up.. you pick a name .. click next.. and theres an indication, that after 7 days u will be billed for a basic acct..... Can someone please clarify?

I have had that problem too. 90% of potential players (I've tried to get on here) stop because of the Credit Card verification.

Kujila..

Since you have had some friends sign up under this "Free" umbrella, could you please let me know if they get billed after 7 days.. It would be an experiment of sorts.. I would greatly appreciate an update.

Thanks

Well I will but I'm 99% sure they will not be charged at all.

I just went through the sign up pages and this is what it says:



It may confuse some that don't read it carefully, but it says your first account is free. They(LL) should probably move the part about paying for additional accounts off that first visible paragraph.

Well a friend of mine who had a 7 day trial account wanted to get back into SL and couldn't create a new account because his old one still existed. He had to downgrade from 7 day trial to free basic account.

So, it seems very much unlikely that you'll be billed after 7 days if you join now.

thank you for the clarification. It was the word ADDITIONAL that i had overlooked.

Regards

I'm getting the same confusion. People tell me "But when I read the fine print"... only they don't comprehend the fine print. Linden Lab should make it MUCH more clear that the first account is free and additional are charged. There's a whole slew of people out there for whom the concept of an "additional" account is foreign (why would they want more than one?).

I agree. A lot of folks keep saying to me: "If it's totally free, then why do they need my credit card?"

It says, "for verification purpose"...
How else are they going to check if you register for more than one account?
How else are they going to check if you are an adult?
These are simple instructions, why would they need clarification?
First account is free, additional account get 7 days free trial, then get charged.

The only simplification I can see would be to remove the 7 days trial, since that only applies to additional accounts. If you want more accounts after getting your first one, lyou don't need a trial period, cause you already know what SL is about... no?

Well put.

Moving references of charging a credit card are still probably a good idea. It's quite amazing how easily overwhelmed new people can be.

SL, really, is overwhelming just in concept alone, nevermind a full page of text.

Ya rly.

Don't think like someone familiar with any of this. With the Sims. With any kind of online account. Yes, the verification purpose should be sufficient and understandable. And sad as it is, we shouldn't need warnings on plastic bags to keep people from suffocating, but we do. Companies that sell product have to understand not just how someone should interpret something, but how they might misinterpret.

I suspect people care less about the verification issue (which might explain past incidents surrounding underage players and how their parents didn't mean to get them kicked out of an "adult" activity), and more about giving out their credit card info. That issue - potential Identity Theft - is overwhelming to those who've perhaps never given out this information online. Consequently, LL needs to instruct those individuals. And to be honest, one acquaintaince of mine who works tech support for websites misunderstand the instructions as well. That's not good.

I signed up yesterday with a Visa Card I never use. Visa 'Loss Prevention' department called this morning (approx. 12hr after using my card), to check if the purchase was fraudulent.

It looks like Linden pre-authourize (sp?) $1.00, but according to Visa if they never send the 'stubb' it just stays on my account as pre-authorized and isn't charged.

So as far as I can tell, there's nothing to worry about. You should always keep a low limit card for internet use anyway (but that's another thread...)

Why would visa call about a $1 pre-auth? Do you have some special flag on your account?

It's a card I never use, the last time I used it was about 3-yrs ago. I only used it this time because if I used my regular card I wouldn't see if Linden put through a charge (it'll be hidden in about 3-pages of transactions). I was just being overly careful since I didn't know who Linden were.

I thought it was pretty funny, Visa called within 12hr of me making the application to join SL. They called my home and left a message then called me at work!!? I'd hate to actually owe them money...

I was pretty impressed though that they would go to all this trouble for $1.

I'm off to e-bay now to see what I can buy for $2 and see what happens

Aha do it... or buy a house with it and see what they do XD