More funny announcements

http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/02/25/support-email-replies-are-delayed/

Support Email Replies Delayed


And how is this any different than usual??

I must say, that as a premium user, it is a bit annoying to not have support emails answered. I mean, I have sent them 3 support request emails (for questions that require answers from an "official" LL staff, like billing related) thus far and haven't received anything but the auto response with my support ticket number. The email support page says email will usually be answered by the next business day. This is not the case, as my emails will be going on weeks, and judging by the forums this is common... almost seeming as if nobody ever gets a response.

So, if they are overwhelmed with support questions, perhaps they should think about hiring a few more people to deal with it... or then don't post promises of support and come up with these silly announcements which insult our intelligence.

Why is this thread in resident answers ?

Where should it be? I am a resident that gave my answer.

It should be on a third party forum where the forum rules allow for such threads. It doesn't belong here.

So that I may Answer - as a Resident - that question.

Probably to annoy a subset of readers.

Here, I can help you even further.. Please note the specific statement about rants and disputes at the bottom. It's generally pretty clear that this is not a space for op-eds. You have a right to be disappointed with Linden Lab, and you have a right to express that disappointment. You do not, however, have a right to express it here.

Resident Answers is a simple, friendly place to ask your fellow Residents of Second Life for help. This forum came about after many suggestions dating back a long time, so in recognition of how many knowledgeable Residents we have who want to help others, we decided it's time to do something about it!

So here's what you need to know:


* Any Resident can post and reply here. You don't need to be in one of our Volunteer Groups, although volunteering is appreciated.

* You can ask about stuff like ways to earn L$, land management tips, and newcomer questions if you're new to Second Life! We also have specific Content Creation forums, Technical Talk for troubleshooting, and Classifieds.

* Please remember Resident answers aren't official, but may link to official sources like our Knowledge Base. You can use our Support page to contact us.

* In addition to the forum Guidelines, abusive behavior here will result in permanent removal of access to this forum. Making posts which are deliberately unhelpful or disruptively off-topic will lead to being banned from Resident Answers. This is not a place for rants and disputes. It's easy to be nice.


We want to encourage a comfortable space for getting the help you're looking for, so don't be shy—go ahead and ask, and make some new friends too!

I did ask a question...I asked

How is this any different than usual?

That is a question I was interested in hearing the answers to...I am a resident and I wanted answers.....hence it is very relevant to this forum!


Personally I don't believe in 3rd party forums for SL...

Wonders about the rules at times......

Well you know half of those blog threads are only a job for some. No real inforamation then just telling us what the HQ is telling them to post from the higher ups.. Unless your talking about the client debuggers ( which are VITLE or important ) the others are just a total waste of space on the blog. i just ignore and pass over them.

But the more important question at hand......Where can Musicteacher post comments about a blog thread that has comments closed? lol Just kidding
(Trust me, I would love for every blog post to have comments open. I find the comments very entertaining.)


Performance on Sundays has been notoriously horrendous. At this time I am so lagged in places I don't normally lag that I think I will hang out here in the forums for a while.

I'm not attacking you Ylikone, but would like to point something out.


They are.

I don't think enough people realize just how understaffed Linden Lab actually is. Up until a few months ago, there were less than one hundred employees at LL in total. Less than one hundred for the ENTIRE company. Less than one hundred people spread across development, testing, marketing, customer support, and all the other tasks that go with running a company and keeping the grid going.

If you take that into consideration, what LL has managed to accomplish so far is nothing short of amazing.

It has only been in recent times that LL has actually had the means to hire additional staff (and pay them) to help alleviate all the pressure that is coming with their exponential growth. I can recall at least two town hall meetings in which Phillip openly said (multiple times) they were in desperate need for more staff and are accepting applicants.

So yeah, LL is expanding its workforce to catch up. Just give them time.


While I'm at it, let me add another thing to the general masses; Yes, contrary to all the whining and moaning going on, Linden Labs is working to make SL better. Come on people, be serious. This is their livelihood, their job. They know that keeping the grid running smoothly and bug free is of the utmost importance. They know the players expect the working product they paid for. There will always be problems, but Linden Lab is working round the clock to fix and improve SL as best they can. Saying otherwise is idiotic.

How is this any different?

It isn't. In the past 3 months I have made numerous support requests. I have NEVER had a response. Not even once. This isn't anything new. It's the same old garbage.

Well then count me as saying idiotic things.

They are unstaffed on the weekends, when they did answer the phone, it was only during California business hours. They aren't working anywhere close to "around the clock" as it would violate their "working at LL should be fun" ethic.

As to the hiring, posting a job listing has no connection with whether or not they are actually hiring. I've known a number of long time players: mentors, greeters, instructors - whom one might expect to be well qualified for support positions. Of those I know who submitted a resume, none even got a response. Nor is the SF bay particularly short of tech labor at present.

And the obligitory answer is: this isn't any different, at all, for years.

Well I phoned support and waited six minutes in a queue to speak to someone about why my alt cannot login to the website, upgrade to premium and buy land. In the 30+ minutes I was on the phone they couldn't sort the problem and said they'd carry on and email me.
Email? a week waiting now.

Someone suggested this thread should be in a Third Party forum? Why? Do Lindens ever read them?
If there was a Lindens Answers it could go there .. but there isn't .. is there?

again My baby whines ok we are adults here so REFER to US AS ADULTS. Otherwise save your insult the nightmarish CS of sl.........

People maybe did not understand my post. My gripe is not that they are not answering my billing support emails, I can understand that they are understaffed... but then why not come out and say it instead of pretending everything is OK and saying "oh, this weekend support won't be so fast" when it hasn't worked AT ALL for me for the month I've been here. That doesn't make any sense to me.

EDIT:
I just checked their support web form that I've been using and it now says "Please note that due to the high volume of submissions, we may not be able to immediately respond to all general questions or information requests submitted." This used to say something along the lines of "if you submit questions on the weekend, you may have to wait until the next business day".

SO, it seems that very recently they have changed the wording to not make promises... which makes me happy. I don't mind that they are having growth problems, I just don't like being lied to.

Something else I want to point out here... considering that the announcement says
"the queue looks like it will take at least an extra day or two to get back up to speed", and assuming that they are being honest in saying that they are actually replying to support emails, maybe there is actually a problem with the support system that LL is unaware of!? Could this be a possibility? Saying that they will need an extra day or so to get back to speed with the support queue would seem to imply that somebody is getting support... but then why would so many people complain of NEVER having their emails answered? Maybe the system is randomly erasing or closing support tickets and the people being affected come here to gripe while everybody else is happy.

From what I'm given to understand, Live Helping is the closest volunteer position to being a Linden Liaison. Certainly trying it can put you off aspirations of becoming one

Although also from people I've talked to, nobody is sure if being a volunteer actually is a good idea if you want to be hired by LL. On the one hand, it gives you experience; on the other hand, why would LL pay for what they're already getting from you for free?

Your question was deliberately rhetorical and sarcastic.

You didn't need help from residents in getting it answered.

You clearly already knew your answer.

So...

"Why is this thread in Resident Answers?"

I'll piggyback on this answer to the question about the answer to the question... oh wait I'm getting confused.

Anyway - here's my opinion: The proliferation of threads like this one in the forums only give the Lindens more reasons to close more forums. Some of us don't want that to happen. Some of us want the forums to remain helpful and within the guidelines so as not to give the Lindens a cause to take something else away.

I'm not trying to get the forums closed, in fact I don't think the general forum should have ever been closed. I found humor in the blog post considering how few support e-mails have been answered, and wanted to see if they had been having a better track record of support responses than previously noted. Yes I suppose it was worded badly and I'm sorry.

Quite frankly, it saddens me that customers should have to tip-toe around the forums, making sure that nothing negative is said about the service. Would be different if people just moaned without legitimate concerns... but that's not what I see around here.

Because you aren't a ResMod.

Was that answery enough for you?

I really don't want to play speech police in the forums - but it seems that LL's solution to problematic issues is just to eliminate them altogether rather than fixing them. See first land, previously closed forums, etc.

That is the reason I appeal to people to make sure that what they are posting conforms to the guidelines. Not because I want to curb free speech. Most people clearly have valid concerns, it's just the way they state them that is questionable. I can understand why - people get angry and frustrated and say things they might not otherwise say. I'm not trying to pick on this thread in particular, but the discussion had shifted to where it was a good place to make this point.

I haven't been around all that long, but I've grown rather fond of the forums that remain and would like to keep them. Why provoke the Lindens into closing them because they don't have the time to adequately manage them and they end up turning into a mud-slinging fest?

Edit: Why do I get the feeling that someone is actually going to answer that last question?