Some Merchants Just SUCK

Some merchants in SL are as bad as they are in RL. Trust me.

I had purchased an air hockey table in-world from jrenslow Bach, as described in my XStreet item Discussion copied below, and tried to contact him in-world when I had an issue. He gave no response to IM or to a note card so I posted in the Discussion section of the item's XStreet listing (URL) hoping he would contact me. A month later, he did, demanding that I change my Discussion post but never offered the free upgrade promised.

Here is the Discussion Posting:

Posted By: Uccello Poultry at 2010-03-06 20:45:15 (has not purchased this item)
The description on XStreet was rather vague so I searched in-world to find a demo. One was not available but the quality of the other merchandise seemed good and I thought "well, I can afford to lose L$400 so ..."

Yes, I lost my L$400. When the description says ★Menu Controlled that's exactly what it means ... you move your paddle one increment at a time left/right/forward/backward via pop-up menus. Other Air Hockey tables in SL have you drag the paddle to hit the puck. The menu only starts or ends the game. Also, the description here indicates the set is Copy/Mod. With no description for such on the signage I figured it would be the same in-world. No, it is NO COPY. It leaves your inventory when rezzed and cannot be copied in-world.

Until this unit has significant changes or improvements, please learn from my L$400 and find another unit to buy. Find my other reviews on XStreet. You'll see that I seldom give negative feedback and it is usually mild.

Terms of Service do not permit me to copy/paste the IM from today here, but jrenslow Bach was exceptionally rude, demanding that he show me the upgraded table rather than give me the free upgrade promised. He also said that he is going to have my first comment removed by XStreet, so I posted a second comment:

Posted By: Uccello Poultry at 2010-05-05 14:23:43 (has not purchased this item)
At this very moment, the maker is arguing with me that I cannot have a free upgrade as promised unless I change my earlier comment in the discussion. Also, he tells me that he is going to have XStreet remove the discussion stating I never bought the table. It is still in my inventory. DO NOT BUY FROM THIS MERCHANT. VERY RUDE.

Additionally, I filed a complaint with Linden Labs, ticket #4051-7706335 and I'm highly recommending you shop, shop, shop before giving your money to jrenslow Bach.

Premium Account Suspended?

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.