Recently I convinced
Second Life
® entrepreneur Peter
Stindberg (
Web) to convert his free resident account to a premium account with the argument that such a move would provide more paths for recourse if the account was suspended by the Governance Team (AKA
GTeam;
Web). So I was rather surprised to see
Luc Aubret, Creative Director
aubreTEC Labs (
SLurl), Tweet that his account was
suspended without any contact from the Lab for allegedly impersonating a Linden. "I was never contacted in any way and asked about the infraction," he blogged (
Web), and added that "If you’re going to issue a warning, fine, but suspension or banning without so much as providing the accused with an opportunity to speak in their defense."
Luc is listed as the owner of the group that has the deed to his land in
Everlite and his profile shows Payment Information on File, so I imagine he has a Premium account. That leaves the question as to why he was not contacted but I believe it shows that his status as a Premium member prevented may have protected him from an outright cancellation. I'm not sure if that would have been the punishment for his alleged crime so I could be wrong about the protection.
But back to the question and adding to it ...
Luc is a prominent member of the business community, well-known by those in the virtual armaments and gadgets trade, so wouldn't a courtesy be a consideration in this instance? Or added detailed notes on his account so the Help Team could actually help when he contacted them? The lack of contact leads me to assume that either the
GTeam rushed this one or they have the ability to check any and all chat/
IM records grid-wide to investigate issues. If the former assumption is true, then shame on the process and the infrastructure behind it. Such a thing should not happen. Conversely, if we the latter assumption is correct then contact should have been made or records should be available to the Help Team. I have seen or used several different customer account management products and such ability to manage accounts is available.
As Linden Labs
® becomes more old-school business and less cutting edge upstart perhaps it needs to learn some lessons about customer service. Or better yet, blaze a trail to improve on customer service. My dealings with the Lab have always been quick, efficient, and have left me with a good feeling, contrary to the frequent reports I hear of residents in
Luc's situation. Let's hope this is really just an aberration.
One of the more creative builds at Second Life's 7th Birthday party is from Babel Translations and Text Creations (SLurl), an SL Solutions Provider. Peter Stindberg didn't use Glow as a weapon, like many of this year's builds, but instead combined it with a fun particle system to make the exhibit light and interesting. Before you know it, you are learning about how his company's translation services are superior to using machine translations. While there, look for the clever "Babel Language Kiosk," a freebie that lets you drop in note cards with translated material to distribute rules, sales info, or the like to customers and visitors. Sure, you still have to get someone to translate the stuff for you in the first place and I'm sure Peter hopes you choose his company.
