Lindens Online?

I have an issue I need help with regarding land. Have been sitting on a ticket with no response and decided to try one of the in game Lindens for help. Do a search on Linden and wow 6 pages worth - around 600 of you - BUT - not one of you shows as being online? WTH is up with that? Shouldn't someone on as Linden be required to have their online status shown? What good are you if you don't? Are we supposed to IM nearly 600 Lindens in hopes of finding one online? Come on folks, this isn't rocket science here. It's not helpful to anyone if your user base can't figure out who to contact.

Well, it's like this.

You aren't really supposed to contact them anymore. At least, that's how it reads. There are other "methods" like filing the ticket. Contacting them has been removed when Live Help was removed. I would go so far as to say they don't -want- to be contacted.

Which begs the question... Exactly what good are they? Liaisons for example, do nothing BUT in-world work, so exactly what are they doing when people cannot reach them?

Makes me want to reapply, just so I can put it out there that I'd be reachable

Many of the Lindens are programmers. Except for the ones that also serve as liaisons to the public (Rob Linden's office hours about open source, for example, or Zero Linden's about SL technology), they are rarely seen in-world in the main grid, though some of them can often been seen in the beta grid when it is up.

Some of the Linden accounts are special test accounts, and don't belong to an actual human being.

Lindens can use a God Mode command to make themselves invisible in-world, so that nobody but another user with God privileges can see them. The ones who work in customer service will not normally do that, though they might on occasion if they were in an important meeting.

Finally, showing online status in Search is currently turned off, evidently to attempt to reduce database load. So you'll NEVER see any of them listed as being online that way. Unless you have one or more Lindens in your Friends list, there is no easy way to tell whether they are online. If you open an IM window to a Linden (or anybody else), it will tell you whether the person is online, though it is not 100% reliable.

There are a LOT of Liaisons tho, so where are they at? I aint seen any since I joined. Not a damn single Linden, and I've gone to a ton of places like the welcome areas and the new help island and stuff. So where are they at?? Isn't it their job to be in-world, helpin people?! they aint programmin, so what are they doing?

I think the issue here is that SL has blown up SO big, that it's impossible to handle it all, so their solution is not do anything but hide from the customers. Back when there was only 5-10k concurency, it was easier to contact a Linden. I think they view it as trying to empty the ocean with a teaspoon, hence, they've given up.

Mairead, are you a Basic or Premium member? I ask for two reasons: One, if you're Basic and you submitted something other than the 'Special Questions' ticket type, they've already said that they'll ignore it. Two, if you're Premium, you can go through the Solution Finder steps to reach Live Chat, which would probably get you faster results.

Dearly Darlings,

Abby Schnook and I were thinking about bringing home made cookies to the office the next time we are in the area for a big dog show. We like CA shows. last time I was out there we won a National Specialty and recieved a Group II, and with another breed beat a BIG dual dog a few times for breed. We also got to tour some lovely private wineries. The owners loved getting their pictures taken with the dogs.

I have less trouble getting into the White House than I do getting a Linden to return an e-mail. I still have one in my file from January that's apparently not been read yet.

You all have a lovely afternoon!

Ever Yours,

Mrs. Showdog Tiger

About 7-8 months ago, when I was a relative newbie, I had an issue in-world. I used the old Live Help system. A Linden turned up in my back yard, fixed the problem, I said thanks, off he went - boom, job done, 45 seconds tops. Thanks Mr Linden!

When I encountered someone else having the same issue again themselves a couple of months later, I knew exactly what to do to help them. Everything got sorted, no need to contact anyone.

Now, admittedly, with anywhere between 25-45,000 people on at any one time, dealing with every issue that everyone has at any one time, could look like a daunting prospect. But exactly how many of those people actually have issues in any one online session that they can't deal with? My guess is, not that many; after all, 36 people sat around in every place there are camping chairs aren't going to have that much to gripe about, but one person trying to landscape an island may have. But personally, I can only see that number increasing over time because those issues, no matter how minor or trivial they may seem to a programmer, aren't being dealt with in such a face-to-face and consise manner. They're being prioritised, ignored or forgotten. They're being left to the user to figure out for themselves out of frustration, either getting it wrong or getting bad advice from other less-experienced users.

Just put your hand in your pockets LL and actually employ someone to deal with issues. Not one person per time zone, but a few. If you want people to stick around and have faith that you're providing a service, you need to invest. Pay them per job if you want, rather than a flat-out salary. Just have someone who can tp to the location of the issue and deal with it; they'll have it done in no time. They'll diagnose and fix within minutes, if not seconds. And chances are, if the user looking for an answer really cares about the issue that they need sorting, they'll embrace the advice that they're given and never have to ask about that kind of concern again.

Just my opinion, not any sort of gospel.

What a pity!

A Linden actually made an appearance near the end of the SL Relay For Life, but she was more concerned in finding a group of her friends than actually talking with the rest of us- she darted off pretty quickly. That was the first Linden I had ever seen since joining in January, but they ARE out there.

Why they aren't helping anyone...well Johan has the right idea IMO.

And dear dear Lindens, should you read this, if the $L has no value- I'd like to have Slingo back AND stop paying you for uploads and snapshots. Then I would understand why help also isn't readily available, since no one likes to work for free. THANK YOU!

Back to your regularly scheduled topic.

Is it a land issue only a Linden can answer?

I have had great experiences each time I have had to deal with support, believe it or not!!!

The key is to log into the web based support system, work your way through the questions under the solution finder. If your question isn't there search on it, if it's still not answered then you have the opportunity to try for a live chat session. After a few tries you should get someone. The last problem I had was resolved in one minute...

-whyroc

Good question. For whats its worth, I've had a lot of land issues over time and can at least attempt to help answer basic stuff, or tell you what the steps I needed to take to get it resolved.

Good luck, the only response I got from a Linden was "<insert answer to somebody else`s question here>" then, "oops wrong IM sorry"


*rolls his eyes*

I saw one myself on the relay thing and asked a simple question. Was ignored. They have a serious customer service issue. I simply think SL has grown too big and they're not enough of them to go around.

Hiring some new people would help and ignoring those inworld doesn't help things either. If one is encountered inworld and is not capable or unable to help, they need to say something like it's not their department.

I suggest you submit a ticket

I don't understand the problems you guys are having with support. Frankly I'm tired of this constant support bashing. Have you ever worked technical support?

On EVERY occasion I have had to deal with support I have received nothing but friendly and effective help.

In with one issue where I did log a ticket I took a week or so but it was resolved, with two automated responses asking me if the result was satisfactory to me, as well a follow up email from the live chat person who had started to help me with the same issue.

To contact support for any IT service YOU MUST DO YOUR HOMEWORK!!
-search forums for answer to your question
-search knowledge base and solution finder in SL help
-Make sure you are asking for support under the correct organization
-Give the support person a reason to help you, ie demonstrate to them that you have a good understanding of the problem and have made some attempt to resolve the issue yourself.

If you are calling into live chat saying asking something that sounds ridiculous then I expect you may get a response to fit your question.

-whyroc

I have never had support problems and I am not a premium player. Yes you must do your homework and have all the answers to why your asking for direct support, why the all the previous steps to this stage have not worked.

Listen to the advice given and follow it through, even if you think you've already tried it before, if it doesn't work again, remember why it hasn't worked, if you don't know why it's not working, be honest and say so.

If advice doesn't work, don't be afraid to go back to support again.

My problem was with not being able to buy Lindens with my CC, I made sure that my bank wasn't the problem by contacting them first. Then I tried the system again, waited and tried again a few hours later. I was then able to contact support with the knowledge that it was definitely a SL problem, and it was, because I had tried and failed so many times to buy Lindens, Linden Labs had block my payment account for that reason. 1 hour later I was able to buy Lindens.

Don't give up, there is a answer out there somewhere.

Congratulations from one dog lover to another!!! What breed(s) are you showing?
And bring cookies to LL..and report back!