LINDEN LAB RESPONSE to the BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU
Let me first say that like everyone, I realize that Linden Lab is a busy company and that they have a lot on their plate. I don’t envy their employees the tasks assigned to them. As a Concierge told me one day, multitasking is a rule of the trade. Not an easy job by any means.
Nevertheless, that’s what they do. They are bottom-line a customer-service company, providing an entertainment product and they charge a tremendous chunk of cash for that product. That means that dealing with people should be top priority. When a customer service company fails to provide customer service, then there are problems.
To discover how successful Linden Lab is at doing so, one only needs visit http://BBB.org … the Better Business Bureau. The rating of LL is “unsatisfactory”. BBB has a policy of not getting into details, preferring to provide general headings of resolution or failure to resolve.
The heading “company replied but not to customer’s satisfaction” basically means the company didn’t take care of the problem in a satisfactory manner. If they had really offered a reasonable solution and the customer still wasn’t happy, BBB notes such. But if it just says that the customer wasn’t satisfied with the reply, it means Linden Lab blew it both from the customer’s view and the view of BBB. Thus, the “Unsatisfactory” rating. Businesses do not want to have an Unsatisfactory rating. It’s the BBB thumbs-down and a warning to all potential clients. Bad mojo.
There are several posts on the site. I feel there would be a lot more if A) more people realized this is a viable alternative when LL proves to be buttheads and B) they weren’t afraid of being kicked off of SL as a result.
Following are excerpts from a customer’s actual filed report against Linden Lab. I think it leaves little question as to why such reports are filed in the first place…
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Facts:
* I filed a JIRA bug report.
* The employee cancelled the bug report, telling me the problem was with my computer
* I re-opened the bug report (as is my right according to JIRA policy) and told the employee that as I am a “real life” computer systems analyst and my system is a top-of-the-market quad-core system, there was nothing wrong with my computer. I pointed out this bug had been reported again and again for more than a year, and that Linden Lab continuing to deny the problem exists was improper.
* She again closed the report and cancelled my ability to file JIRAs
The request made to the BBB was simple: reinstatement of my JIRA status and a letter of apology from Linden Lab. Linden Lab’s response:
“… we would therefore ask that this not be categorized as a “complaint,” as no monetary or consumer issues are raised. We regret that Mr. Resident had a bad experience on our platform. However, it does not appear from his complaint that any refund is in order, or at issue.” — Charlie Linden
["Mr. Resident". Now there is a personal response for you. What are they doing now, setting up form letters for reply to the BBB? Not to mention the "no money is involved here so we can treat this user any way we want and the BBB should butt out" attitude. Sheesh. Continuing with the complaintant response to this...]
“Contrary to Linden Lab’s claims, this matter DOES affect monetary issues. I am a “merchant” on Second Life and my daily sales hinge on Second Life working properly. When it does not, when a major problem occurs, JIRA is the system by which these problems are reported. Their employee arbitrarily cancelling my ability to file JIRA reports has a direct impact on my ability to conduct business on Second Life. Linden Lab’s reply ignores the primary issue… that their employee barred a client from an everyday-use function of the system… and focuses on “monetary issues”. Such attitude is part of the primary problem with this company– that of ignoring customer needs and services and focusing exclusively on the dollar and their bottom line. BBB reports against LL reflect this issue time and again.”
Following is LL’s response:
“We appreciate and consider users (and non-users) suggestions as to how to improve the free aspects of our service. However, we reserve the right to block abuse or harassing behavior from those free aspects of our service.
We are very sorry that Ms. Resident feels she has had a bad experience on our site. As a gesture of goodwill, we have placed into Ms.Resident’s account the sum of 5000 L$, and we very much hope that her experiences on our platform continue to improve.
We again would respectfully request that the Better Business Bureau attempt to confine the complaints it sends us to those involving some type of monetary or compensatory issues, rather than those involving user suggestions about our platform.”
This response wasn’t signed. Not all that surprising. I replied to the BBB:
“I am trying my best to respond in a business-like manner to Linden Lab’s reply, but after reading their response… that is difficult to do.
1. There was no abusive behavior by me on Linden Lab’s system. The abusive behavior was from their employee, who is known for disregarding customer feedback.
2. Linden Lab’s referring to me, a male customer of Linden Lab, as “Ms. Resident” is a blatant example of their attitude toward their customers.
3. Their continued efforts to reduce such issues to “monetary or compensatory issues”, and their deposit of L5000 to my account rather than simply restoring my JIRA status as was requested, leaves little doubt as to the focus of this company.
It costs the company nothing to drop 5000 “L$” (monopoly money) in a customer account. The action rather than positive, is frankly insulting. I’m a merchant with total sales topping a half million L$. I don’t need more L$. This issue isn’t about L$… it is about Linden Lab response to platform performance issues and their handling of customer complaints. L$ are not the issue; they don’t even come into the picture. That Linden Lab would consider this a supposed solution to this issue is shameful.
Rather than simply addressing and correcting that issue (restoring the function), Linden Lab has responded in a depersonalizing, condescending manner, labeling a MALE customer “Ms Resident” and making a conscendatory gesture that does nothing to solve the issue.
I don’t need more L$. What I and all of Second Life customers need is a company that is responsive to customer feedback and requirements.
These things stated, I am absolutely NOT satisfied with Linden Lab’s response to this issue. Frankly, I don’t think anyone would be.”
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This issue is so glaringly obvious, I don’t think I really need to comment further on the matter.
Linden Lab, you want to know why people are upset with your company? You want to know why so many claim your customer service is terrible? You wonder why you have an “Unsatisfactory” rating with the Better Business Bureau?
This would be why.
POST SCRIPT
Why am I reporting this here? For two reasons: 1) to inform users that unprofessional nonsense like this is not unusual and 2) (and more importantly) to wake up Linden Lab. They have a new CEO who claims to be intent on improving things. There is soon going to appear something I’ve coined ”The Virtual Food Fight” [see another blog title]. When that happens, Linden Lab will predictably be in major trouble if they haven’t corrected problem policies and attitudes such as the above, then follow that up with reworking their entire user policy/customer response system.
Stories such as the above fall into two categories on my “Corporate Attitude List”: 1) Bullheaded Nonsense and 2) Fix or Die. The solution to this is simple: restore the avatar’s JIRA and apologize for an employee’s attitude and lack of judgement. LL’s path so far: Moronic replies, stubborn non-compliance, and a “tell the BBB to flake off” attitude. Indstead of taking the obvious step of restoring the customer’s JIRA abilities, Linden Lab would rather battle it out… even trying to tell the Better Business Bureau how to run their organization. Most businesses would realize that such an obstinate, unyielding path is unwise, if not suicidal. Abusing, insulting and alienating your customers is actually a BAD thing. Insulting and alienating the Better Business Bureau is even worse.
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