What's Your Experience With Linden Support Tickets Like?

For the longest time I've been getting obscure error messages whenever I log in, which have also translated into literally hundreds of e-mails sent to me while I'm offline.  This happened after I bought a skybox inspired by the Tyrell Corporation penthouse featured in Blade Runner, which promptly exploded all over my property after I unpacked it incorrectly.  I spent a good couple hours searching and grabbing bits and pieces of Ridley Scott-ish cyberpunk arcana off my land, but somehow, couldn't find two niggling pieces called "Skinner", which kept calling out to me like annoying orphans.  Months went by, and I finally got desperate enough to enter a support ticket on the Lindens' website.

I put in my request on Feburary 13th.  On February 17th, I got a cheerful Linden response from "Kaylee": 

"Hello Hamlet: The two items were transparent. I have returned these to your inventory so you should stop receiving these messages."

And just like that, the cries of Skinner ended. Someday I'll need to figure out how to set up my Tyrell penthouse.  Meantime, I wonder: is four days a typical response time for a trouble ticket submitted by a Premium account landowner?  What's your experience been?

Comments

[Amara Parmelee]

It depends on the situation. Something like this may seem minor, compared to say a region roll back or major performance issue. I'm not sure there is a set time frame for tickets. I've had some that were corrected the same day and others that took a week. Overall my experience with tickets has been good, even as a Premium account holder.

[Shockwave Plasma]

I was using Sleek to connect to the grid, and decided to create a new folder.
This made my inventory read only, so nothing would rez. Except for one folder, and new items would appear in it and be usable.

Opened Ticket
Date Created: 19/9/2008 6:16 AM PDT

Solved: (5/11/2008 4:19 PM PDT

It finally got to Kyle linden to solve it for me, after first line sent me mostly template answers.

[Crap Mariner]

The initial purchase of Edloe in 2007 was, to put it bluntly, a total c-f- on the part of LL's wretched payment processor. Two Platinum cards, and LL's being told they're as worthless as toilet paper. Sheesh.

I documented the horror story and subsequent drunken comas at Cabo's in Downtown Houston on my early days of SL blogging.

Since then, I don't submit many, but every one of the support requests I've made has been answered rapidly. Never longer than a day. And with just one exception, handled correctly and the first time.

The one that was not handled correctly was a short-staffed weekend, and we had a good laugh from the mistake which was corrected soon afterwards.

Of course, I don't bother them with every missing item or piddly wonkiness. That kind of stuff, you roll with it and laugh. At most, I IM a friend for the "Hey, look at this - it's really wicked COOL how it's acting weird!" Especially during the Havok 4 early days.

-ls/cm

[Ann Otoole]

I have pretty much always received great response time to any help request. I mean really great response time. Recently one live chat session was never responded to but that seems so odd that I'll write it off to a possible dropped connection or some such system error.

For the record you would probably have received faster and immediate support from your fellow residents had you posted a plea on the xstreet.com forums. Fellow residents are not bound by policy and triage processes necessary to manage thousands of tickets daily. After all this is a community.

[Jovin]

I wish I could answer the question more positively but I can't even submit tickets using a Mac - none of the Support pages will load beyond the first page. LiveChat doesn't work, tickets can't be submitted or edited. This is true of every browser I've tried and every Mac I've tried, however if I use XP on the same hardware it's fine. I figured it was a ploy to stop moany Mac users (like me!) complaining about anything. :-)

When I've had to boot into XP (via Boot Camp) to submit tickets with a Concierge-level account I usually get reasonably quick response, same day sometimes.

I've submitted a ticket about not being able to submit tickets and got form answers, none of which helped...

[QueenKellee Kuu]

hmmm, Jovin's comment is interesting to me. I'm thinking about going premium, and am on a mac. But I'm not going to waste the money if I can't send a support ticket (not running bootcamp ATM, and certainly won't be installing it just to send a support ticket for something I paid for). Curious if any other mac users have the same issues.

[Uccello Poultry]

Not to long ago my avatar became stuck in the log out process so the presence servers believed she was online even if I tried logging in to different regions (that often unsticks a presence). After a few hours of this I logged with an alt spoke with someone that had a "Find-a-Linden" HUD. Within a few minutes I was chatting live with a Linden that doesn't normally handle issues like this but she was able to completely log out my avatar, thus solving the problem. Total time: 10 minutes. I don't condone tracking down Lindens in this fashion (and it usually doesn't work), but I've found all the Lindens I've worked with on any issue to be pleasant, responsive, and quick to help.

[Valentina Kendal]

I have successfully submitted tickets from both an Intel iMac and an Intel Macbook Pro (/me shrugs Jovin). I have a Premium account. I usually get a response within two days and if I send a follow up, it usually gets responded to in a day or two also. Although the last issue of mine (lost folder during the recent database woes) was not solved successfully, I have been happy with LL response time.

[Shirley Marquez]

I think that response time is par for a non-critical problem. Fastest responses are for issues that threaten the grid (like the old self-replicating object attacks), underage users, and issues that prevent access to SL, in about that order.

[Otenth Paderborn]

@Jovin, @QueenKellee, I use an Intel iMac, 2+ years old, and I have had no problem submitting tickets or using anything on the websites. The only thing that doesn't work at all is the customer satisfaction survey that pops up occasionally when starting the SL client.

[Jovin]

Sorry, I should have said that I think the issues with SL Support pages are probably unique to me and not a general Mac problem. But I cannot figure out what's causing it (and neither could LL) and it happens on 2 different Mac's, one running 10.4 on PPC and one running 10.5.6 on Intel - go figure. Glad to hear other Mac users are getting thru!

[QueenKellee Kuu]

good to know!

[Emerald Wynn]

I'm a Mac user and actually have never had a problem getting help.

Ironically though, the one time I needed "help" was after I tried to get off this drug called Second Life. I killed my account. About three days later, I was filled with regret and filled out a request for "support" in reactivating my SL account.

I think it took a whopping five minutes for a techie to get back to me and tell me my account was reactivated.

And yeah, I've always been a premium member.

[Colleen Marjeta]

Mac: No problem on any of the SL sites, I've never used it on a pc.

As far as trouble tickets: I've occasionally had to put one in due to problems with one of the regions I own. Usually response time is pretty quick, but that's mostly because if its a region problem, I'll usually create the ticket, then immediately call the concierge number for telephone support.

We have had on ongoing issue with the region and the ticket was closed without resolution though. They told me it was a "known bug" and we just had to wait until a new server version fixed it. Understand that, and can live with it, but _would_ have appreciated more technical detail. Such is life.

On the whole, my experience has been pretty positive. Given the volume of calls they have, the number of regions and users, the inherent scalability problems with a system this big: it's top notch.

[Hylee]

I'm a Mac User and Premium Member. I have never had a problem submitting tickets and when I have a serious problem it us usually dealt with very promptly. I do have a low priority ticket in right now dealing with a protected land issue that has been stuck in "work in progress" for 3 weeks.

[Devin Couturier]

A bladerunner inspired skybox?! Where do I sign up! :)

[Prad Prathivi]

Kaylee Linden rocks! ;-)

[Dedric Mauriac]

I've had different results. Some are within hours, others within a few days. I'm have a concierge account since I own a sim, so response time is often quicker. If you have the enterprise level (ELSP at 25,000 per year), you can get a guaranteed response in 12 hours or less with an average of 24 hours for a solution.

[Ari Blackthorne]

I rarely ever contact support (and I'm a premium for three years) - unless it is something totally heart-stopping and never ever if it's something serious, but there are grid issues going on.

In fact, like Crap Mariner, I usually just chuckle it off.
My favorite in recent memory a month or so ago:
http://commonsensible.net/2009/01/linden-lab-we-have-problem.html

I never contacted LL Support over this one. The sim remained a wonky ghost (as describe in that article) for four days. Then finally when to Concierge live-chat. LL restarting the sim fixed (they have special God-power restarts difference from us, I suppose.)

Whenever I've put in a ticket, which is rare, I feel I do get a very good response in a 'timely' fashion - timely being relitive to the apparent 'alert/emergency' level of the issue.

And the concierge who handle the ticket have always, always at least giving the impression of a happy, smiling personality in it.

[Crissa]

2007 was not a good year for LL and credit cards.

I had one month I couldn't pay for my sim because the bank card limited the one day they billed one... And that led to my account being suspended for nonpayment. However, I couldn't pay them while it was suspended! A hundred thousand lindens in my account, they bill my other sims normally, and yet... Oy. Took only a day once I got serious but I was a month out from my first ticket.