New account, how long for the promised credit?

I just validated my account two days ago (less than 48 hours) with my credit card info, and according to the page at http://secondlife.com/whatis/plans.php I should have received a L$250 credit. That hasn't happened, and I suspect there is some sort of server slowdown (perhaps related to today's maintenance).

But my question is, how long have others waited for this? I read the Paypal thread where people are waiting 5-10 business days for RL payouts, so I expect perhaps there is a delay in this as well.

I know L$250 is nothing, I'm guessing it will pop up eventually.

Thanks!

That only applies when you put payment info on file at the moment of registration, if you do it later it's not valid.

Wow, I feel violated.

Edit: Is this a "common knowledge" thing, or is there a policy documented somewhere?

Been a while since I signed up for a Second Life account, but I'm pretty sure it says right there on the same screen that the offer is not valid later.

It is referred to as a 'Signup Bonus,' not a validation bonus, on the site.

Ok, thanks .

All righteous indignation extinguished, loopinvariant heads back to the sandbox to play with his toys...

Nice sense of humor.

I checked this out further, and there is no step to enter payment information during character creation unless you create a premium account. The only way to add information to a basic account is to update the info manually (as I did).

So I think that there is something going on with the system, because my profile still says "no payment info on file" on it, and some of the money trees won't let me access them (also saying I don't have payment info on file), while others do.

That's weird, when I signed up for a basic account (admittedly 5 months ago) giving payment information in exchange for a bonus was just a standard option in the sign-up process.

By the way: some money trees require payment info on file, some don't. So some money trees accepting you, does not mean you have payment info on file in some instances.

Same here, November 2006. I decided not to give that info and I was well aware that I was losing the 250L$ bonus, but still I had the option to do it upon account creation.

They must have changed it. I just tried again to make sure that I wasn't mistaken, and there is no screen to enter payment information for a basic account. If you don't opt to make a premium account then you are taken to the download page, and that's the end of the process.

It's been two days and I haven't heard back from support on the issue, and even in-game my profile says that I haven't entered payment information. I also notice that the police blotter hasn't been updated in a bit, so I'm wondering what kind of systems problems they are having right now.

I tell you though, as a new user none of this inspires confidence in the ability of Linden Research to run itself, especially when they are trying to position themselves as a face for corporate presence and an economic center.

For a free system, it's great...wonderful in fact. Fun, social, creative. As a professional system? At this point I think it needs some more work.

When I log on tommorow i will giv ya 250L$

I just created a new alt today, and yes, they quietly changed the registration process yet again, and the L$250 sign-up bonus for new accounts had gone the way of the Dodo, regardless of providing valid payment info or not.

The new process gives you no chance to tell them that you already have an account.

The new process gives you no way to provide payment information at sign-up time, other than by signing up for at least a one-month Premium susbscription.

If you later go to the website and provide payment info, you get no sign-up bonus for doing so.

It remains to be seen if providing payment info that has been used to validate other accounts will eventually cause you to be billed $9.95 for the additional Basic account. I doubt they will, as the sign up process makes no reference to additional charges being levied if you provide payment info but are not Premium.

I suppose one could sign up for a one-month Premium account, pay $9.95, and collect the L$1000 sign-up bonus and L$300 per week for a month, and then tier down to Basic just before the month is up. That gets you back roughly $7.67 USD worth of L$ (L$2200). But if you're not going to get billed for the Basic account, why not just buy $7.67 worth of L$ on Lindex?

That's very cool of you, thank you I appreciate it, but I'm doing OK for money - this is more about how I perceive Linden Lab's service. I feel that if they say they are going to provide X for Y, they should probably follow through on that .

I'm spending nearly all my SL time right now learning how to model and script, with the goal of seeing how far I can take it and perhaps eventually sell crafted items.

Mostly though it's just really fun to make interactive things, I really liked it when I was making something at a sandbox and someone came up to ask how I did it, and sharing it with them.

I was also disappointed by this sudden change. The least LL could do when they change this kind of stuff is update their Knowledge Base so that it no longer tells people about this.

I'm in the same situation. To be honest, I wasn't expecting the credit (i.e. that's not why I verified myself) but this page seems to indicate that's precisely what you'll get:

http://secondlife.com/whatis/plans.php

It lists a benefit of the basic account as a L$250 'Sign-up bonus' and then says:

"Signup bonus is issued only on our confirmation of valid credit card or other identity information. You will not be charged for this bonus – the information is collected only to confirm your identity.
Note: Bonus applies to the first additional account only."

If you can't do this during sign-up (and I couldn't - joining Apr 07) and you don't get the money if you verify later, then why is this still listed on the site? I think it's misleading at best.

Do you get the L$1000 when you upgrade even on an account you have had vor awhile, or only on a new account?