It seems everyone knows Reuters have left SecondLife EXCEPT the Linden Lab billing department!According to a post by Evan Maloney on the RegAPI mailing list today he was billed $500 USD on a credit card which he only used to verify his identity on the forums.Not only have they charged him but because he has an unverified account he cannot get the help from Linden Lab that a premium member is entitled too meaning that it could be months before he can get his money back! He writes:
Linden can't be trusted with your credit card information
Sue,About a year ago, you helped me when I was erroneously billed $500 forthe "Reuters" surname. (For a further explanation, see below, where Ipasted the e-mail I sent to the RegAPI list last time this happened.)Well, I have unfortunately been billed again this year for the"Reuters" surname, despite assurances from Linden last year that youhave expunged my credit card information from your database.Obviously, Linden still has my credit card and has not fixed thebilling problem.I don't know why this keeps happening, but last year it took manyweeks to get sorted out and required me to spend countless hours onthe phone with my credit card company. I'd like to avoid a similarhassle this year, and am hoping Linden can get this resolved once andfor all.I would also appreciate it if you could handle this matter quickly, asyour billing error is causing problems for my personal finances.If it helps, please cancel the "Reuters" surname. It's not worth thehassle.Thanks,EvanI do not have a paid Second Life account. However, a while back, in order to accessthe Second Life forums, I had to create a verified account by giving Linden Labmy credit card information.Supposedly, that was only to be used for verifying my identity. However, it seems that Linden Lab may randomly bill you if they have yourcredit card.What does this have to do with the RegAPI?Well, I am a developer at Reuters, and we use the RegAPI for, among other things,registering users who have the Reuters surname.We bought the Reuters surname last year, and it recently came up for renewal.But rather than issue a bill to Reuters (or charge whoever paid for it last year),Linden apparently decided to select a random Reuters employee to bill.Unfortunately, that employee was me.That was at the end of November. I have now spent several days trying to get thecharges reversed to no avail. (And, no, I can't expense it at Reuters since Ididn't have authorization to make the purchase in the first place.)Everyone at Linden's billing support line tells me to file a support ticket.Of course, the support website will not allow you to file a billing issue unlessyou have a paid account, which I don't.So now I'm dealing with this no-mans-land of people on the phone who can't tell meanything (other than to go to the site) and a website that won't accept ticketsfor my problem.I finally decided to file a general ticket, and now it is "pending",but nobody on the phone can even tell me if it will be resolved this MONTH.Needless to say, I am disputing the charge with my credit card issuer, but thatprocess will take several months to complete.Hopefully someone at Linden can take the initiative to clear this up, becauseeveryone on the billing issues support line has been completely unhelpful(or maybe I should just select a random Linden employee and send a $500 bill to them).I'm sure it will be resolved eventually, but let my tale serve as a warning:if you use the RegAPI and want to avoid a similar headache of your own,you may want to be sure that Linden Lab does not have your credit card informationassociated with your RegAPI-enabled account.Otherwise, they just may decide to bill you randomly like they did with me.Source: RegAPIList
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