Trading Limits - Unfair Competition

I've been patient, but this is really starting to frustrate me now. I requested a limit increase several months ago, but have heard nothing back from LL.

Keeping my trading limit where it is prevents me from trading as much as I would like. It also gives an advantage to those people who have high limits currently.

Yeah, yeah, I know the world isn't always fair, but allowing some people to have high monthly trading limits gives them an unfair advantage in the economy. They can do a higher volume of deals and accept lower profit margins.

I remember that several of you also requested limit increases awhile back, I'm wondering if you ever heard from LL.

Grrrr...

While you're sort of right. You could just sell on slexchange.com.

Oh also I never heard back at all but Skye bothered them over and over again with emails and eventually they raised her limit.

They raised my and Brazil's limits also. Stephen posted a couple days back that he has still not received his limit increase.

Keep asking for an increase. They were slow, but they seem to be catching up with themselves.

The limits are in place to prevent fraud.

I've been trying for three months now. I'm now at the point where I'm sending in several requests per day. I've tried support and calling, never any reply and have gone as far as writing letters to the entire board of directors on this issue without any response. Linden Labs has shown a clear lack of caring about their customers who pay them many thousands of dollars per year. I have never found another company that is as poor as LL in their customer service area. Between direct fees paid and economic activity generated by the content I provide LL is makeing many thousands of dollars off of my in world activities, you would think that that alone would be enough to ensure some small level of service, you would be wrong.

After complaining last week, and this week, and requesting again, I got a reply to my first email from Ethan Linden saying he's passed the request to the billing department.

I had to wait 9 days for a reply to a question about a delay, that has been "answered" by passing it to the very people who I already haven't heard from for a month.

It's all a bit meta, you see.

Well i don't want to flame but they are also free to refuse to upgrade peoples, you are 100% clean right?

It's not so much 'unfair' as blind justice. Insofar as they are too busy to really be watching, which is probably overall a good thing for you.

I remember back when I put in for higher limits it took a good while. Finally I called in and one of the concierge team was able to help me. Okay, great. They are not on anyone's particular team.

Please don't take this the wrong way, it's certainly not personal and I find you quite likeable. But the fact is this: they aren't there to help you flip land. Really. To them, you are just another customer of equal value.

If anything, the Company has *less* motive to react to land traders simply because whomever does land flipping is far likelier to stay just for the money. And is far more likely to raise the ire of the true 'gold' customers - the ones that are really the end users that stay and use the grid. Burn off a land trader with slow service, and guess what - another land trader arises to take their place.

The Company is actually dedicated to lowering land prices to retain users, in direct opposition to land trading efforts, and has, in the past, sought to 'break the back' of supposed land barons when things got out of hand.

So it's a bit like going to a concert hall box office and saying: hurry up, sell me more tickets, I can't get enough to scalp on concert night! I gently recommend staying a bit low on the radar if you are going to do business contrary to the Company's stated (or clearly implied) goals.

Beyond all that, good luck. Eventually all the (non-bankrupted) land flippers see the light and end up running private estates, which does in my opinion enhance the grid. That's where I see you ending up, and successfully so, when you see one or two of the *real* market shocks that the Company can dish out of the blue.

I hear you, Desmond. You are right. But seeing as I'm paying Linden Lab $800-1000 per month, I feel that I deserve at least a response. Raising my limit would allow me to do more business with them and make them more money. I just see the likes of JR Unknown, CP Costello, and others buying a half dozen sims or more per month at auction, and want to be on equal footing with them. And yes, I have started moving more into private estates. I now have two islands (Kush and Kush II) and feel that I can offer good value to the end-user compared with expensive mainland.

luckily you aren't my customer , because with me, whining and feeling that you deserve something just makes me put you back at the bottom of the pile

Hehe, I see your POV, but I've learned time and again that the squeaky wheel gets the grease...

Well for God's sake. Is this supposed to be something available to everyone, or not?

As far as I have known (not needing it myself), one stays at a lower level for a while, then is allowed to request an increase.

As far as I can tell, a number of people have not been able to get LL's attention when it comes time to become eligible for the increase.

Am I right?

Surely this is because the Lindens simply don't get around to it.

Surely people aren't suggesting that you have to be a certain type of person/player in order to be royally bestowed with this increase, which I assumed was granted once one had put in the requisite time.

And surely people aren't suggesting that this should be right.

I hope this is just speculation, and not in fact the way it is done - with Lindens allowing some people to increase their limits but not others, depending on how those Lindens happen to feel about the individuals in question and their businesses in SL.

If people are requesting unprecedented limits, then the Lindens should put a cap on what's possible.

If not, then everyone should receive their upgraded limit in a timely manner, period.

Please. LL went to the trouble to post about a stupid statistic on the home page about USD spending. Of course they care about how much $ is spent. What is dumb is that they are hindering people who'd bump that number up some more by being lax about increasing the trading limits.

Kyrah Abattoir
Yes I'm 100% clean and a very good customer of LL. And I'm glad I'm not your customer also as your attitude towards your customers seems as bad as LL's.

Desmond Shang
I don't "flip land" I'm and actual content provider, someone who makes some of the things that make the whole SL thing work.

LL has a process in place, or claims to for this and they are not following it and are provide very poor customer service. A response is promised within 5 business days, a response not necessarily an approval.. They have not even done that.

Perhaps you should get off your high horse and stop trying to make excuses for the inexcusable.

LOL!

i'm gonna play devils advocate cause i am "evil" that way

start your own exchange service on ebay with prices identical to LL's

I'm not sure what the ebay policies on it are but if someone calls you on it point out thatyou have been waiting months for your approval to sell moer lindens from linden labs and althought its technically available to everyone something somewhere has gone wrong and you got tired of waiting and want to get rid of these lindens burning a hole in your pocket

okay now someon can come slap me but that is my strange sense of humour

I took the time to look up the name of your business so I could be certain to avoid it. Thanks for the heads up.

Met you in world today and you seemed an okay type of guy avatar so here is a suggestion for you to follow.

You need to demonstrate ABSOLUTE proof of real life identity to have a clear cut case with clear evidence that your SL business merits it and demonstrate your credit worthiness

Assuming the Sl business is self evident to Linden what I suggest you do it this.

Obtain an original copy of your bank statement (not credit card) utility bill (not mobile phone), council/local authority rates community charge bill, AND your Passport

You will need at least two separate documents BOTH with your full name and real life address on them from the above list or others issued by Government or main line banks, plus your Passport in an ideal world

Take them to your local lawyer.

Get him to photocopy them and certify them as true original copies of those documents. If he/or she knows you personally ask if he/she will personally state "known to me at this address"

If possible obtain a credit reference agency check on your personal credit rating (you can do this in the UK and I believe the USA), enclose that with these documents. If you have any defaults/judgements etc on this report write a separate letter to explain why this happened

Type another separate letter to Linden Labs with both your real name and address and Second Life name, and request the increase you need.

Get your lawyer to post them by registered post to Linden Labs and confirming he/she posted them in the letter.

Email Linden Labs to confirm this latest request, and phone them in a week or so to chase. Keep chasing politely.

This process will clearly establish verification of identity and credit status, if all okay. If not you may get an insight into any delays regarding your limits.

Regards

John

Good call, John, thanks! But I don't think we met today, I've been at work since 5am SL time. Hmmm...

The "US$ spent in the last 24h" statistics isn't actually a real one. It reflects the total amount of L$ passed back and forth in-world, converted to a US$ figure.

If I pass you L$1 million and you pass it back, the number goes up by an equivalent of L$2 million, or $7500ish US.

Yes, but there is a hindrance because some people - Rockwell in particular - need the cash so they can acquire land. And that would prompt a larger flow of L.

Yes, I, too, plan on looking up this persons business as well, and WILL avoid it like the plague. This is, and was WAY out of line IMHO and any content creator and/or Merchant with an attitude like this toward fellow Creators and/or customers has alot to learn about conducting business with the general public.

It's a squishy issue, Cocoa, because they talk about player history before granting approvals.

In Rockwell's case it's pretty clear what he's doing, so I wouldn't expect any undue delays. But in the general case, I can see some problem with 'equality' when it comes to business opportunities.

It's one thing to grant a 2 year resident who is 45 years of age 'enterprise level' access, and completely another to give it to a 2 day resident 19 years of age.

Sure, rules might be able to be codified, but there is also a certain amount of intangible risk.

Say a wannabe casino operator wants to do a "one million USD raffle" with Second Life as the instrument of said raffle.

If the Company was smart, they wouldn't grant such a fellow any business level at all, because the Company might get entangled in Superior Court, and will have to mop up the huge financial mess when inevitably shaky business propositions like this blow up.

Fairness in such areas is a lot trickier thing to define than at first blush, though I agree it's a goal.

Some types of businesses can leech onto the Company's reputation and financial liabilities just like 40 camping chairs in a sim, and vice versa.

I've tried to explain what I am doing with virtual land to some friends, and they say - oh, Second Life - that haven for porn and perversion? Meh, thanks a lot, fellow residents! Everything we do affects each other in some way.

I thought it was a simple matter of being required to stay at a certain trading limit for the first 30 days or whatever.

Then, as you paid your bills faithfully, you would have your limit upped as time went on, according to a schedule.

If they are actually using it to mold and reward the kind of people they want to encourage and to discriminate against the kind they don't, then that sucks.

I would also think they would want to increase people's limits on a fairly consistant basis, because that makes the number on the front page go up. I have always thought that.

I still think it is more likely that no one at LL likes doing the job, thus it doesn't get done as it should.

coco

lol. Kyrah is just being Kyrah, either you love Kyrah, or you hate Kyrah. Or I guess you could love to hate Kyrah, or vice versa. Chances are if you don't know Kyrah's business, you would never have shopped there anyway