UK Paypal rules being applied to US Players.

*shrugs* If it was because of their 'fraud rating' (does such a thing exist?) then it was the worst move they could have made. It was bad enough to be a US based company with a US based bank, but to move the banking services overseas? The sniff test screams 'fraud' by most banks. And unlike LL, the banks are interested in protecting their assets by protecting ours, thus denying the charge.

Also, can this change over be linked to all the issues we've been suffering with the CC and Paypal charges failing? I mean, besides the refusal of charges by CC companies. It seems like it is linked to me, but I could be jumping at shadows.

Yesterday, I saw someone booking a hotel in a town not 30 miles from here, in England, who had to do it through the owning company's US website, along with the US commerce laws and (lack of) protection that might entail. I don't have any big opinion on that being a bad thing, though we did laugh at having to deal with a company 4000 miles away in a different country to book a room 20 miles down the road.

It's just the shoe being on the other foot- we really have had to deal with things like this over here for a long time, relatively speaking. Linden lab bills now from the UK, via their UK office I guess. It's a change from how it was, but I don't know, would you refuse to log into SL if Linden Lab were a UK company, and this situation had been there from the start?

Again, I blame the casinos.

Pretty ridiculous, but in that case it is still a company based in a different country. When Linden moves it's base of operations out of the US it becomes a different matter. Does Linden pay it's employees from an offshore bank? Do they pay their day to day expenses through a foreign bank? It's just a ridiculous situation. Hell I don't even get hit with the charge myself, but it's just a stupid business move, complicated by the fact they made the change without explanation, and let it fester before clarifying it. Add that to the current paying difficulties, I don't blame people for being miffed. It's just another example ot decisions beig made without any regard to the downstream effects. SL is never going to be the 3d Internet thingie some people are clamoring for if LL doesn't hire some MBA's or at the very least McDonald's U Grads.

OK, I'll stop being obtuse.

Where do you see Linden Lab's position, if their Lindex business is determined to be dealing with processing payments from Internet Gambling Games, and that processing facility resides in the US?

I don't blame people for being miffed that things don't work, but the whole US company for US customers thing looks very parochial from my perspective.

Huh? Now I must be the obtuse one. When did Internet gambling come into it?

How would this help?
It seems to me this would do the exact opposite of helping, making it impossible for a significant number of users to give LL money, which from LL's point of view seems counter productive.

MBA's are the last people they should be hiring. I remember a commercial a while ago, I think it was for UPS. A guy is new to the office and he asks what his manager wants him to do. She says "Sort through this mail" and he gets all high and mighty and says "I have an MBA", to which she responds - "Oh, in that case you'll need me to show you how then." It's funny because it's true.

They'd be better off with the Burger University graduates.

EDIT: It was FedEx actually. Found the video on youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NcoDV0dhWPA

Thats actually not surprizing becuase The man who started Fed-Ex only got a C for his Master's Thesis.

The Thesis was the basic framwork of Fed-Ex.

I was being sarcastic at that point.. probably should have put the tags on it, sorry!

I meant it sarcastically because so far it's a hassle to input the data for it and even then, it's still borked as far as LL is concerned. So, why do they bother having it listed as an option if it's not working most of the time?

But come to think of it, the CC's are having just as much problem too! Hmmm... maybe they should just remove billings?

*goes and gets a cup of coffee* I think.. they seriously need to rework the whole kit and kaboodle. Get a separate bank for the US customers, fix how they handle billings for all payment types and take a look at how the MMO's are handling the billing process. Heck, maybe they'll get around to issuing reloadable gift cards to sell in game stores!

WHAT ans stop all this perfert commuity unity betweeen them???????????

AGREES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! But it should apply to all sectors not just billng.

The ironic thing is the must already have a US bank, since they live here. Just use that. Chances are its the same one as mine, Bank of America.

Well, there's the point. It's only not working for people in the US. They may make up the majority of customers, but it's better to have say 20% of your customers able to access your product than 0% for example. All is best, but some is still better than none.

Umm, no. Profit is the most valid reason anyone has for doing anything. If LL have moved to Europe to increase profits, then fair play to them - making profit is why they exist. Call it a bad business decision just because you personally lose out is to take a very narrow view.

The arguement that "they're a US based company so should bill in the US" doesn't hold any water because of one simple fact: They are not a US based company. They WERE a US based company, now they are a US and Europe based company. Things change.

The problem is that 'some' is what LL is aiming for and not 'all.' One shouldn't settle for 'some' when it comes getting one's pay! And a customer shouldn't have to fight a company to pay the company via a supported means, either.

But as I said, I was being sarcastic and since I read the post that the quote came from, it was triggered by the usual Linden response to anything that isn't working 'well' and they feel 'isn't scalable' and that is to remove it.

No, thyre home address is in the US, the servers we access the program from are in the US. That's pretty much US based to me.

Not to me though. They're billing from the UK, so that makes them a UK based company

If they wanted their bank to have an international presence, they should have chosen one with branches worldwide and which was capable of billing locally through said branches.

Yes. I can go into The City and find a Bank from just about any place in the world. I'm sure San Fran is the same. Bank of England, Credit Suisse, DeutsheBank, CitiBank is worldwide even. It looks like they just picked Sonny Jim's Bank and Gambling Hall or something.

I don't trust that Sonny Jim...he has shifty eyes.

And bad teeth.

And, damn, what's with the banjo?

why quote me? i couldnt care less which bank ll uses. banks are always foreign to me, im used to dealing with them. i dont think its the best decision they could make if it is in pursuit of profit though. its makes it too hard for a large number of people to spend money. it's just as easy for europeans to use an american bank, and europeans are used to doing so anyway. im convinced ll moved the bank offshore for reasons relating to fraud and whatnot.

I'm surprised by this too. I'm in the UK and for my SL payment method have previously had Paypal with a VISA card as the primary funding source.

There is no way in a million years I would use a Solo or Switch card with Paypal because your rights are far more limited if something goes wrong which results in you being out of pocket.

I think he has a crush on you. Good. Maybe he will stop stalking me.

You know it's a criminal offence to process payments from online gambling, within the US?

Last month Paypal told me my agreements with Paypal UK are now with Paypal Europe.

*shrug*