Last weekend I sent a support ticket to Second Life asking them how I could fix an issue with not being able to connect to regions running Windows Vista Ultimate with Verizon Online DSL (3megabit).
They said “You selected the wrong ticket type because you don’t give us your money. Do it again, asshole.” (They didn’t say that, but that’s how I understood it.)
I copied and pasted the exact same information to what I thought was the correct ticket type for non-subscribers.
This is the response I got:
——————————–
We have solved your issue
| Solution: | Greetings Regi,
Thanks for contacting us about this issue. As a Basic Account Holder, you are not entitled to this level of support through the ticket system. We encourage you to look through the knowledge base, the solution finder, the forums and the wiki to solve this problem. You can find the knowledge base and solution finder at www.secondlife.com/support You can find our wiki at http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Main_Page
|
——————————-
OK Patrick. You want to know something? You DIDN’T solve my issue, and you want to know what else? Here’s how I see it.
You won’t help me play your game for free on my home internet connection. So let’s see. What if I decide to pay for your game? Can you help me then? What do you mean, “… this level of support.” What level? I can’t even play your game, and I’m trying to get help to do it, since you offer it for free. What you’re saying is that I’m not entitled to play your game for free?
If you do not help out people who can’t even play your game at all in the first place, you will lose people’s interest. I guess you can say I retire from Second Life as of May 6, because that’s when I’m done for the year at my university.
Your Knowledge Base main page says this, “Basic account holders and Guests can, however, use special options in the Submit a Ticket area to reach our support staff for certain common questions or problems.” Now, if the issues that members needed support on were common, why would they even need to contact support for them? Why don’t you just tell them to look in the KB?
I have a unique problem that you did not support at all. And if you’re going to kick people around just because you feel like it, I’ll make sure to fix your reputation to reflect how you treat your clients.
And if you really don’t support basic accounts, don’t offer them, and don’t offer support for them. Thanks for nothing.
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April 23, 2008 at 1:32 am
The Grid Live » Second Life Events for April 23, 2008
[...] Paul’s Memoirs OK, So Second Life support really IS rubbish. Quote from the site – Last weekend I sent a support ticket to Second Life asking them how I could [...]
April 23, 2008 at 4:02 pm
Hiro Pendragon
Seriously, it’s free. Why are you complaining? Do you complain at the guys who play music in the subway when they won’t take requests, too? Did you even *try* to look at the knowledge base, as suggested. Oh, look, in 30 seconds I clicked on a link and typed “vista” in search and got a whole page of information about vista in SL. http://wiki.secondlife.com/wiki/Windows_Vista
So, instead, you spent what? 5? 15? 30 minutes writing this blog entry? Nice job.
April 23, 2008 at 6:02 pm
Paul
First of all, I don’t live in a city and have no subway to listen to musicians. Second of all, I AM a musician, (if you bothered to even take a peek at the banner image) so don’t try to tell me how musicians think. And I’m usually the one who can’t play requests because my main knowledge is in The Beatles’ music and people rarely request them. So all those comparisons are invalid.
Now to get to the point. I looked around more than you think. I went through Google and got NO help regarding my issue. I can play fine on Windows Vista at my university, just not at home. That’s a very specific problem between my connection at home and SL. Vista isn’t the issue. I’ve already got the latest graphics driver for Vista. It was the FIRST thing I planned to do and did, being fully aware that computer was my main gaming laptop.
I went through the whole damn Knowledge Base and everything. There’s nothing regarding my specific issue. It’s either all obvious stuff I already did and knew to do (I don’t need to be told to do ANYTHING regarding system maintenance – I’m VERY competent with computers. The computers that I have sole usage of are the only ones to ever run smoothly in my household.) or old news from last year.
I made sure I searched wherever a potential answer would be before I posted a rant in my blog.
So don’t go judging me.
April 23, 2008 at 6:16 pm
JayR Cela
hmmm , I think your jumping to the gun a bit to fast here man. I will admit that SL can be a bit of a challenge at first for a lot of folks. But I am sure that your problem is a relatively minor one, and far from being insurmountable. So before you go bashing Linden Labs, because you can not figure out how to log into the free account section. I would recommend #1 chill out #2 read the instructions # try again / its not that difficult
And please leave the Linden Lab bashing to us old time Second Lifers that pay, sometimes large sums of money, and have issues that actually matter.
Good Luck
JayR Cela :_)
April 23, 2008 at 6:48 pm
Paul
JayR, you didn’t read my post properly.
1) I can log into the website fine. I know how.
2) I can log into SL fine (at university). I know how.
3) I can’t log in to SL at home. The region handshake does not complete.
I couldn’t play Second Life for a whole weekend because of this issue.
Did it ever occur to you that someone might want to try out the game for free for a while before considering paying for the extra little features that come with a premium account? If someone in this situation has the same issue as me, they’d find the support staff useless in the first place and not even bother trying.
If Linden Labs really just wanted to make money off of the players, they wouldn’t offer free accounts. I’m not jumping any gun. You had the opportunity to read the helpful reply I received. There’s no gun to jump. It’s already been shot.
April 23, 2008 at 11:48 pm
Hiro Pendragon
@Paul
RE: Don’t go judging me.
Reality of blogging, sir. You put yourself out there and *provide a way for people to comment* they will judge you and what you say. Welcome to the blogosphere.
I empathize with your problem, but do realize your blog entry had zero indication of these other means you said you went to before you submitted a ticket. However, my first comment still stands – it’s a free service. Microsoft doesn’t provide service for free, neither does Google, or Facebook, or a multitude of other free services on the Internet.
(And seriously, does it really matter whether or not you live in New York? I used the subway musician thing as an analogy, not a literal question. And yes, I noticed a musician, which was partly why I *chose* that analogy. )
April 24, 2008 at 12:13 am
Goldie Katsu
Just an off chance idea. If it is working at school but not at home, it could be that your Vista system has some sort of firewall (I know some Windows Wystems have them built in) and the firewall is blocking some of the ports needed to complete the login process. I’d check the firewall log (assuming it sensibly logs what it blocks) or check for more information along those lines.
(I suspect this isn’t a Vista problem so much as a network problem based on what you described.)
April 24, 2008 at 3:08 am
Paul
Hiro, key word is *provide*. Microsoft *provides* Windows Live (Mail). Google provides GMail. Facebook just.. is. They’re free to the users and they all support the users fully. It may cost these companies to provide the services for free, but the end users are licensed to use them for free. They get sponsored by ad revenue to make the money back.
Goldie: SL is allowed by default on all needed ports on Windows Firewall.
April 24, 2008 at 9:34 am
Melayahm
Ok Paul, I’ve had problems with SL, and I find their website pretty obtuse to navigate – I’ve seen lots better. But a couple of things I thought I might suggest.
1. One time I had a problem, (nothing like yours) and the only way I could get any help was to upgrade to a paying account, submit my ticket, get an answer and then downgrad again.
2. Concerning the handshake thing, I’ve had a similar problem when I’ve had a file sharing programme running. Could it be this?
Dunno if this will help.
April 24, 2008 at 11:46 am
Paul
After upgrading to Vista I never installed any file sharing programs. I haven’t to this day.
I actually had thought about your first suggestion. But it almost feels like extortion (for lack of a more proper term) to me.
April 25, 2008 at 12:04 am
JayR Cela
Ok Paul
I reread you post, look if you can log in at your school, but not from your home, then the problem is on your end. Not LL’s. and there is no way in the world that their support team can possibly devote the resources needed to figure out every possible combination and mix of different folk’s hardware~software~service provider combinations. Just stick with it man. I’m sure you will figure it out sooner or later
Good Luck
JayR Cela