Classified Ads Refund?

Will we be reimbursed for the time search does not work? Yes, it's only $30 a week, but if you have many lots under search, this is money going down the drain.

Not to mention this post:
/invalid_link.html

But how about all our classifieds that have been down for almost three days? Will you add days to our classifieds? Almost half the week is down the drain, but even if almost everything else in SL is borked, you still manage to charge for them. That part obviously works just fine!

I'm out at least 5K this week for classifieds that haven't been available for a significant part of the time. Others have paid waaay more than me.

Some reimbursement would be a nice gesture.

In the thread about classified ads further down Torley posted this:

[UPDATE] Thanx to Phoenix, found out that *yes*, in the midst of recent database load changes, Search functionality was tweaked. This includes:

* classifieds searches use name prefix matching instead of word in
name or word in description
* group member titles are no longer part of the search
* group name searches use prefix matching
* groups are not retuned in any particular sort order
* event searches only use name prefix matching instead of word in
name or word in description

Tentatively, we're open to changing some of this back, but we need to figure out first what's the root of the problems. Hope this helps!


Okay, I'm pretty confused here. First off, are these changes permanent? The last line implies this is a temporary change, but it's not clear. If it is a permanent change, I think it's pretty bad. For example, now searching "animation" turns up just two listings. And even "motion" isn't good enough to find my store, you have to type "the motion."

Name prefix matching means the classifieds search is now pointless. I was a little concerned before about how useful the classifieds are, but this is a step from "questionable usefulness" to "not useful at all." I mean, in order to find a listing for a store you already have to know the name of the store and type in the name! That certainly removes any incentive to pay more than the minimum amount for the ad, since there is no longer a list of names to pay for high placement in. Meanwhile, a person looking to buy something can't just type in the product and get a list of stores selling that.

Of course, stores are already working around the newly crippled search by having multiple listings with commonly searched names. For example, look up "shoes." Maybe this is just me, but I don't consider a solid screen of nearly identical text to be a desirable way for the classifieds to work.

I was testing out whats going on with the classifieds and parcel directories, and seems they only pick up on the first word of the listing. In our case this renders our listings virtuously useless, but i note we are still being charged for these services in game. Is there any time schedule as to when these features will be fixed, and if we will be refunded any time the feature has been inoperable?


thanks

A "search" function - as known by all of us for lo these many years on the internet now - actually searches.

"Coco's Cottages" would show up, for example, if you put in the word "Coco" or "Cottages." It would also show up if you put in any of the keywords I have in the business description.

Thus, someone looking for houses, or even houses for Tinies, or even ironing boards, for Pete's sake, will find my place on putting these words into Search, either for Classified or for Places.

Likewise, I use both Classified and Places to shop. If I am looking for dresses, I put in "dresses" and get every store in Classifieds, and every store in Places, that has "dresses" in its title or in its description. I have put in "gadget," "purse," "game," "money tree," and lots of other things in Classifieds and in Places in order to shop.

I'm sure everyone uses Search this way, for both Classified and for Places.

If these things don't work like this, we will be so lost, it won't even make sense to pay for them every week.

We will be lost as customers, not able to find what we are looking for, and as sellers our customers won't be able to find us. It's already hard enough to find what you want in SL.

Please tell me this is an error. In your other post, Torley, you made it sound like it was purposeful. Surely it isn't purposeful that they would want to do this to us. Surely nobody's idea of a search function in this day and age is something that finds the first word of the name of a place, and no other word, and nothing in the place name or description.

coco

Any idea when these will be working. I tried everything and can't find my ad for the past few days. I spent 16,000L and each day I am losing money on it. Anyway to cancel the rest of the ad which I paid for on Wednesday and get some back.

Classifieds are a paid feature and at times a hardship but a necessary evil. Since they are not working can you cancel the billing feature until they are functional again? Something to recompense us for paying for something that doesn't work. Yes, I know what you guys are thinking right now but I refuse to say it ) (that was a side note to my fellow resis)

I think it's time Linden Labs. Time to stop poking and prodding at your customers with the "this is all one great big unexplored experimental" open source program attitude. You have people sinking large amounts of real USD into things like classified ads, paying for a service you promise to render and have failed to do so.

How about some good customer service, since this is purely what this is about and reverse everyones ad fee's over the past week, stop the charges on them until it's corrected, since - and I'll state it again, you have failed to render a service, that in good earnest we paid for upfront!

Come on - my meager little ads alone are only worth almost $18 USD (5000L @ 269L/$1) and that's what I spend with you people PER WEEK on those. If an ad of mine in RL didn't hit the local paper when I paid for it to, you'd be damn skippy they'd give me a refund. IT'S CALLED GOOD CUSTOMER SERVICE!

Merged.

Let me be blunt: I'd be pretty pissed off too! Actually, I would be right now, but I already used up my anger tier in my youth.

So to answer these and everyone else who asks and shares the same, which we give a damn about:

(1) We're hoping that the cut-down functionality of Search will *NOT* be permanent, since it reduces the effectiveness of what's already considered a limited search system even more. We *do* want to find a way to reenable that without more problems flaring up. So that comes first, and then turning those features back on.

(2) I blogged about lost Classified/Parcel time:

http://blog.secondlife.com/2006/12/02/were-investigating-more-database-problems-right-now/I have no hard answer on this right now, simply because a decision hasn't been made *yet*. We also have to see how we can best do this, so it doesn't inconvenience you even more.

Your concerns are all close to my heart.