I complain about them, along with a great deal of people on the grid, however I will also say I wouldn’t want any Linden job. Within any organisation, when something mal-functions it has a knock on wave for other departments and working in that environment is a tough one.

I watched the blog with reports on double billing recently and thought jeez ops. Well turns out upon checking my bank account and email I was affected in this double charge. Never fear though Linden would sort it and I would be refunded. Going along the lines of ‘well mistakes happen’ as long as its rectified to my satisfaction it will be fine, I closed the email and waited for a nice reimbursement of my over charged tier fees.

Few days later I got an email from Linden to say that the current months tier hadn’t been paid and that if that wasn’t rectified within a week my account would be suspended. So of course upon getting this email I double checked the banks end, nothing wrong absolutely fine.

I checked the linden lab site and subsequently the support portal where I raised a ticket about the matter. Finally I got a reply from someone who said he would look into things, would I mind checking with my bank that I could use my card and that linden labs were not blocked from them etc. He also asked me at this point to re-enter my details.

Off I went back to the site, re entered my details and got the update awaiting message. The message states if it still says that after an hour to try again. An hour later it said the same and I tried again. Waited a further hour..... same. I commented back to the original ticket. Stating that the card I was using was the same one I have used for over 18 months now, the account they double charged etc and that my banking provider did not suddenly randomly block Linden Labs.

/me sighs. I must say I find the whole process of the support portal rather tedious. Very much like call centres in the real world I find myself going round in an ever decreasing circle until I am about to disappear up my own ass. Like these call centres with “press option 1” for x,y,z the support portal offers about as many choices. Call me an old fashioned lass if you like, but I actually like being able to talk to someone. Either on the phone or in IM, real time replies make the whole process simpler and rectified quickly.

My helper replies to say the account needs to be manually reset and then my details entered again. He will organise this and contact me when to re-enter my details. Ok, so I’m not overly happy that its taken now 5 days to get an email that says Linden have messed up need to manually override their own system to allow me to input my details (again). I know to de stress I will log in and do some random Trin type things in world. GAH. They suspended me!!!!!! *Air goes blue for a few moments*

I go directly to sl.com and attempt to get into my account. Of course I get a message to say my accounts inactive. I heard towards the portal, which turns out I can’t get into because my accounts suspended! Oh ffs! I trawl through the web and find a phone number. Now being in the UK I now need to dig out the international dial code for the US, since I don’t tend to phone US.

I must say considering it was 4am for Linden telephone support, they did answer remarkably quickly, must have sensed the increasingly pissed off Scottish woman. Quite amusing when you get asked to verify who you are with RL details and the call continues with them calling me Trinity. The gentleman on the end of the phone, fighting off an occasional yawn, tells me that there is a department assigned to my account, however he will lift the suspension so I can at least get in world and into the portal etc. Not often I say this but nice man.

I comment again on the support ticket with the update and notice a worrying thing on my account. I am a premium member, I have been a premium member now for over a year. I pay annually and I paid my annual subscription in September of this year, hence its not due again until September 2008, however according to my account page its due in December 2007!

As things stand at the moment, I am awaiting a reply from the department dealing with my account. I have my suspension lifted temporarily. So who knows, I might be suspended again tomorrow.

While I still can I’ll take this opportunity to rant a little! I wouldn’t want your jobs lindens but sort your archaic systems and allow good paying customers a chance to have a relatively stress free experience. Between the constant lag and asset server problems the last thing ANY of us need are account issues.