Payment Issues

Are all the payment issues straightened out yet. I want to upgrade my account and buy some L's, but I don't want to do anything until it's all fixed.


Brandi...xxx

Yeah, go for it...

Oh, wait a minute... none of us are Lindens nor working in Billing at Linden Lab.

Your best bet is to file a Support Ticket using the Support Portal (click Support on the website) asking if the most recent slate of billing issues have been resolved or wait until Monday and call Linden Lab to speak to a Billing representative.

I don't think the Paypal issue has been resolved and am not at all sure about the CC card either.

Brandi, I expect the payment issues are going to continue for a while. You might as well try now, though, because most people are not having problems (we just hear a lot from the people who do).

If you have never paid money to LL before, I suggest you buy lindens before you upgrade to premium. Many have found that paying for an annual premium membership goes over their monthly billing limit, and they are then blocked from buying lindens for the next month.

And if worse comes to worse, there are other places to buy lindens, such as SL Exchange -- just don't buy them on eBay!!!

According to LL, the PayPal issue was fixed as of June 26th...except for those of us getting the fun 'restricted' error.

http://blog.secondlife.com/2007/06/26/update-in-world-lindex-purchases/

Yes, what's the deal with e-bay? Can't do that?

So, if I buy lindens and then upgrade my account that won't affect my monthly limit?

Bad idea. At least some of those selling Lindens on eBay are selling ill-obtained Lindens. If that's the case, then at some point in the future those Lindens will be removed from your account, along with a penalty. Stick with a place where you know the Lindens are legit.

-Rob

Many people selling lindens on eBay obtained them using stolen credit cards. When LL tracks them to you (and it seems they often do), they will take them back from you PLUS another 50% as punishment for receiving stolen goods (because they can't be sure you are innocent).

Outside of the Lindex, the safe places I know of to buy lindens are SL Exchange and Anshe Chung (although you will get a bad exchange rate from Anshe).

Any other system selling them MUST use the Linden's "Risk API", meaning they get data from LL regarding which accounts they can't buy from or sell to due to suspected fraud.



They WILL count toward your monthly limit, which is pretty low in your first month (starting with your first payment to LL). It's just that if you buy an annual premium membership first, that takes you over your limit and you can't buy anything else for the rest of the month. This is a strange oversight on their part, but it's the way it is. For some reason it doesn't seem to be a problem if you buy the lindens first, and then upgrade to premium. (And it's really only a problem anyway if you get the quarterly or annual premium membership... the $9.95 monthly won't push you over the limit for the month.)

Why can Anshe Chung sell them? I've heard the name before, but don't know what she's all about. Some kind of metaverse big shot or something?

Thanx for all your advise on this matter to you guys.

Brandi...xxx

I am just guessing here so others will likely correct any misconceptions... never trust anyone under 60 days old to know what the heck they are talking about

"Metaverse bigshot" pretty much sums it up. She's one of the most high profile "success stories" in SL, and while she probably does get certain special privileges due to the media attention she helps create for Linden Labs, she probably doesn't have special =authority= to sell L$ so much as a high profile reputation that makes people feel she is "safer" to deal with, even if her exchange rates are (naturally) set up to make her money. It's a two way street. On the one hand Anshe Chung probably needs to stay somewhat squeaky clean as the "poster child" for SL economic opportunity. SL can't really afford to have a cutthroat J.P. Morgan type running amuck blatantly and ruthlessly robbing everyone else in their path to fame and riches. On the other, LL probably needs to keep her happy as well, as she could create a PR nightmare should she decide to announce she is bailing out of all her SL entreprises due to massive unhappiness with the way things are run.

And of course in order to SELL linden dollars, you have to HAVE linden dollars available to sell. Which Anshe Chung, most certainly does. Hoo boy.

So people probably pay premium prices for her land, her linden dollars, etc, figuring that it may cost more but hey at least they have a guarantee that it is not some shady backstreet dealer who is going to take their cash and be gone at sunbreak.

It's somebody in a helluva big spotlight. And there is a certain safety factor in that.

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Edit, as according to Ava's post, Anshe may well have some special "officially certified approval" that the average Joe Blow doesn't have:

She's probably part of the Risk API program, just like SLX.

http://secondlife.com/developers/api/risk.php

Thanx for filling me in on her. I have so much to learn.

I'm going to google Anshe...I'm working on a high profile myself...I need to see what to shoot for...Of course my high profile isn't intended to be the "squeaky clean" type.



Brandi...xxx

o.k., o.k...45 seconds into my google search...and...umm....

...I have to say Anshe Chung is a big shot!

Oh I don't know. Some might say you are at least being upfront doing what she is doing to some people......

And Anshe is actually a couple from Germany!

So we have people with multiple Avs and multiple people with one Av. Gotta love SL!

I thought her significant other had an avie too. At least according to Wikipedia any way.

I can assure you, it is much more pleasurable when I serve it up!

If you're really really desperate for L$ and would go over your buy limit, you can always hand a USD 50 bill to a buddy, have him buy L$, then pay them to you. Course, it helps if you're in the same room in RL.