Two accounts banned for no reason at all out of the blue...

Hello!

I just thought I'd share what has happened to me.

Being an SL resident since April I recently decided to create an alt in order to check on permissions of items and adjust poseballs etc.

I used a different email address to sign up my alt (I don't know, if the same email would have worked or not, haven't tried.).

Then about one day later, I decided to add payment info to my alt, also using a different credit card than the one used on my main account.

I explicitly point out that both email addresses and credit cards are mine and perfectly genuine and valid.

Then once I decided to buy a few lindens with my alt (in order to get "payment info used" within one or two minutes both accounts, my main and my alt got banned with no warning whatsoever (logging in = Account has been disabled).

Put in support tickets, nothing happened...

Then after 1 1/2 days, I was finally able to contact a live chat guy from support who told me I have been banned for "fraudulent activity" (no idea what that could have been). He also told me he can't do anything and to put in a ticket. I told him I done that 36 hours ago. So he told me he's gonna forward that to the right people to handle, should be resolved latest in 24 hours.

After 24 still nothing, no access to forums, not to SL, not to "My account".

So after 2 1/2 days I tried to phone billing. 20 minutes on hold, then got disconnected, all operators busy, try again later...

Back to live chat. Asked him to directly contact the right people and release my accounts...turns out he actually managed to release both my accounts.

Now for the interesting part:

The first live chat guy told me he has no idea why I got banned except for "fraudulent activity". The second one dodged or ignored repeated questions about the matter, even when I told him it is not very comforting knowing you can just get randomly banned for no reason and that I would love to know what I can do in order to prevent it. Telling him I was just getting interested in content creation, maybe starting a small business later and having to expect to be banned randomly and not even have a graceful and fast way to get it resolved, all didn't do anything...he stayed completely silent on why I got banned. I even asked him to at least tell me he's not gonna tell me, but he just ignored that as well.

So.

What did I learn?

The info on the new support page still allows the creation of alts. So that by itself should not have been it.

Was it using different cc's and/or email addresses that triggered an automatic banning of two accounts right after using the cc of the second newly created one? That's the only thing I can think of, I have not committed any TOS violation I am aware of.

Well, as already said...this is setting me back a lot. I had just got started buying some nice building tools and things I need in order to get started with creating my own stuff. I will think twice now about any effort and money I put into SL assets, knowing one can just get banned without reason, without explanation and without even a fast and decent way to get the issue resolved.

So much for this. Got my accounts back..but feel treated like they just don't care :/

They don't. Why do you think they have been doing their best to remove the human factor from the Customer Support? Earlier last year, I'd have said that they were doing this because they didn't have the finances to hire more Lindens, but after all that's happened and the new policies that they don't bother to tell us about until after putting them into affect, I can't say that any more.

If I didn't love Second Life, I'd be gone. I still might be, the moment there's an equal competitor that has *gasp* customer service!

This sounds like that risk API thinky kicking in not sure though. Anyhow I remember having a conversation with someone awhile back with the way automation is going if I am the hermit type I can go now forever if i work at it without ever having to interact with a real human being.

I was having this conversation while at the hardware store using one of those automated check out thingies where there is no cashier that you just swipe your items. Machines are cheaper and then they only need a few people to oversee the machines in case a booboo happens like your account problem. Then they just hit the switch and carry on more or less.


Get in the car drive to the drive through teller. Go to the store and get your shopping done and pay for it at the automated cash register with no person. Get hungry on the way home so make a quick trip through the automated fast food place that takes your order using a keypad and a machine hands you your soybean pretend hamburger (space food) and you throw your money into a bucket that says thank you and tells you which way to drive

Go home and no one is home and eat your now cold space food and then put your stuff away into the fridge that talks to you.

If your craving human interaction you have a cat or dog instead who will at least cuddleup to you if you are still a batchelor or until the wife gets home.

Second life is no different in its attempt to automate at least where I am anyhow pretty much everything is automated now its actually pretty challenging to find something that is not automated..

Apparently there are currently largely unpublicised 'password issues' at present.

That may have more bearing on what's happened to you than so called 'fraudulent activity' which was probably a mindless assholes ill considered attempt to shut you up.

And yes, 'customer service' SUCKS. It always has mind you. So - no change there.

I had login issues last week, submitted a ticket - 4 days later received a ticket saying:

'We have solved your problem!'
'It's probably your firewall'

'kin A! I DON'T HAVE A FIREWALL...

You have to think about it logically, though. One person makes two different accounts with seperate information? Sounds shady to me. For all they knew you stole one or both identities as represented by your CCs and emails.

They could have gotten in touch with you to confirm you owned all the email addresses and CCs available, but you have to admit you went about getting an alt in a shady manner. Why use different credit cards?

The lesson learned should be "pay attention to what you're doing".

"the moment there's an equal competitor that has *gasp* customer service!"

At this point, I think many of us don't even need an "equal" competitor....just one that gets close to SL + good customer service will do nicely.

I don't understand why this happened to the OP. It bothers me a great deal. How can they expect the world at large to begin to use such a thing in place of the internet with such shoddy service?

...and yet here you are!

Using different screen names and different credit cards on alts is not getting them "in a shady manner."

My family has 7 screen names, and a number of credit cards, and I like to use different ones for different things so as to keep easier track of what goes on with each, and not put all eggs in one basket, so to speak.

It would simply never have occured to me that using a different screen name and a different account for a different alt could be looked at as anything but an adult person with different screen names and credit cards.

Particularly since the names and addresses on them are ALL THE SAME. What could possibly be "shady" about that?

coco

You're going to miss me when I'm gone, Mr. Confederate Slave-Owner.

Confederate?? You must be mistaken...it's not THAT kind of slave.

True, I'd be happy with a close competitor with a good clue as to what customer service is.. I agree, I'd be gone in a heartbeat.

When I say Dell has better customer service, it's bad. I've had a LOT of problems getting actual help from Dell, but they are easy to get a hold of!

Why don't you just leave now? It might help with the server load!

But seriously, this isn't that odd of a happening...although LL should have immediately contacted her to confirm everything was on the up-and-up. It's no different than when your bank notices a weird charge on your account for a company in Bangladesh and your name is "Dave Parker".

Also, there is a difference between multiple people in the same household having different credit cards or even ONE person having different credit cards, but when the same person with different credit cards is also giving different info on separate accounts...e-mail in this case...then it's going to trip some "shadiness" alarms.

Again, I'm not a big fan of LL's general lack of communication, but then again, just look at transcripts of townhalls and blog comments. If you were LL would YOU want to talk to you people?? I sure wouldn't!!

I think for a proper alt you actually have to say so when you create the acount that it is an alt, using the same email address and all....UNFORTUNATELY, as I found out after repeatedly trying to register one as an official alt and submitting a support ticket, they're changing something about the registration process now, so you're not able to create an alt the "official" way either...

I think part of the problem here is that LL has no real competition at the moment, so they're not feeling any pressure to provide a reasonable level of customer service. That's a very short-sighted way of looking at it since there inevitably will be serious competition in the not too-distant future as other companies start to emulate SL's model. Also, it will sour many less-devoted users to the point where they will never come back.

Anyone else here remember Prodigy? Unfortunately, I see SL going down a similar path...

Unfortunately, the American corporate world is all about short-sighted goals these days.

Dont they take into account that most households have 3-6 people living in it.

It could have just been.......hmmmmmmmmmm another resident of the house!


They tried to pull something like this on me before and told me they would not update such and such and i told them someone else has an account in my home and that should, in no way, interfere with my account. They can not just assume its one person making multiple accounts, thats a mistake.

I understand most of the time thats whats going on, but to make judgements and say "no" to things and ban and suspended without proper knowledge is lame.