We were unable to complete your request because: You must have payment info on file to sell L$.

NeoBokrug Elytis

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Here's what I suspect is going on. Tilia (LLs payment processor -- that LL owns) has been getting more integrated into SL and Sansar. I have noticed more branding on the cash out pages, and even more branding in the form of "US$ (Tilia) Account Balance" on the account balance pages. It is no longer just an LL account balance.

Tilia is a subsidiary of Linden Lab, focused on payments and the compliance work associated with operating virtual economies...
LL is finally ratcheting down and enforcing their PIOF compliance. I think LL would rather toss you and your thousands of dollars per month under the bus, than face steep fines and the loss of doing business with banks and credit vendors.
 

Spirits Rising

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No matter the actual reason behind Linden Lab making the change, it is/was inevitable that those who abused the original system would start crying and bitching.

I'm on a fixed income, I don't have the luxury of having additional money coming in through the month. I plan - or try to - accordingly. I'm still on my parents phone plan (mobile device). The most expensive non-essential expenses I have (outside of parcel rent for Second Life) are streaming media accounts I share with friends and "extended" (not blood related) family that otherwise can't pay for it themselves. I also help support my daughter despite her living with her mother - voluntarily (not giving further details on that one, not here).

If you're having more trouble than I am? Get your fucking head out of your ass and plan better.
 

Sid

Time for another coffee.
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Not for Linden Lab, right. But what Ayesha runs is managed like a hobby.
I think there is too much financial risk to run a land business in SL as a hobby.
Being a merchant is perfectly possible, there can't go much wrong moneywise with that (if you don't buy resources like life depends on it or buy a sim for you starting business) but dealing in land..... high risk, small margins, no thanks.
 
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Andi

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LL can lump all of your tier dates into one payment schedule, instead of them all being split up. PUT a ticket in, we did that to get our homestead and our estate on the same tier payment date. Also Glad to see LL cracking down, I'm going to guess legal or another agency made them realize in some form they were not within the legal regulations of what is required.
 
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Ayesha

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It’s basically only an issue because a whole bunch of my regions bill at the same time. On the 27th and 28th I have about $1500 in region fees that bill, over half my total fees. If they could spread out my billing dates it would solve the problem. I did ask them a long time ago and they said they couldn't change billing dates, but perhaps that has changed. BTW they don’t turn regions off unless you are 60 days past due. I’ve never been anywhere close to that.

It would be nice if I had enough extra around to be able to compensate for the temporary large amounts billed, but I don’t have that luxury. I am in as a hobby at this point, this is not my source of RL income but I can’t have SL take anything from my RL income because I need all of it to live. I can't give SL $1500 out of pocket for even a few days, that's more than half what I make every month at my regular job. (It would rarely be that much as I always have some tier L$ sold in there, but even $500 would be hard to manage.)

Like 57% of Americans I have less than $1000 in savings. I pay my essential bills on time like electricity etc. unlike many people who have to shift bills around and pay late. I do have an emergency fund but that is for medical and veterinary emergencies ONLY. So yeah... it would be nice to have a profit buffer but at this point I basically break even. My "profit" goes to covering the fees for 1 and 1/2 sims that my builds and my best friend's builds are on. If I forget to delete payment info before a big bill goes through I'd be screwed.

It also seems wrong because many people don’t have to pay by card/Paypal at all. I do have mine billed at times because some tenants pay me via PayPal. But if you make enough to just pay tier via Linden dollars why do they care if you keep payment info on file? Anyone could get screwed by this -- if you forgot to sell L$, a limit order didn't go through in time etc. I mean, go ahead and be all judgy at me for not having $1500 extra cash in the bank, but keep in mind this could happen to anybody.
 

Aki

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Of course. This could happen to anybody who decided to take on a $1500 bill and not pay for it on time because 'it's a hobby'.

Geez. I wish I could afford that! I guess I can! I can just game the system like you do.
 

Clara D.

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"It could happen to anybody" that can afford to spend 1500/month on a hobby....

So, you're barely breaking even instead of turning a profit. Might be time to rethink the business model.
 
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Ayesha

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I’m not spending (over) $1500 on a hobby… My tenants pay me, and I turn around and pay their money straight to Linden Lab. I spend nothing. The issue is that my region billing dates are clustered, so it can take time for the L$ coming in to catch up. For YEARS this has not been a problem. In fact I’ve had a land business for over 10 years and managed to stay open and up/downsize as needed. I’ve had mostly happy customers, a few unhappy as one does with any business, but one thing I’ve never done was shut down any regions without giving notice, moving and/or refunding affected tenants. If you have followed the SL land business at all over the years I would think you would remember the many land barons who have closed down in epic disasters where people logged in to find their land completely gone even though they were paid up for months. Sure, SL has a pretty low bar of entry for starting a business, but if I was utterly incompetent, I would not have lasted this long. For a few years I lived on profits from multiple SL businesses, but with the decline of SL those days are long gone. If anything, I'm just too optimistic and/or stubborn to give up.

I have considered closing my business and helping my tenants find new arrangements, mostly because I don’t login much anymore. However, since it hasn’t required much work for me to break even and occasionally clear a small profit, and since my best friend wants to keep his builds up and keeps talking me out of it, I stay. However, every time LL makes some boneheaded change I am reminded of why SL is such a terrible platform to do business. They make it not worth it to do business with them, and yeah maybe my money would be a "small" loss but as long as they keep not caring about "small" customers, SL will continue to decline. (Side note any company who considers a customer who brings in over $1000/mo for them "small" is a big part of what's wrong with American capitalism. If they don't care about me, what about the person with $20/mo in mainland? Every customer should be valued.)

I would not close because of this, but I would because of the homestead debacle, adult content fiasco, gaming regulation disaster, consistent failure to stop copybotters, scammers, stalkers and abusers... every time I think they've finally learned, they f up things for business owners yet again. This is just another straw, and a small one in comparison to the others I listed, but for me maybe it will break the camel's back.
 

Beebo Brink

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If you are consistently delaying payment on your bills because you don't have the money to cover those expenses, you're a deadbeat. You are deliberately, consciously choosing to engage in delinquent behavior because it pleases you, and everyone else be damned.

Bad behavior isn't surprising, it's pretty common. What is surprising is how completely oblivious you are to the illegitimacy of your own actions, that you can lay them out not only to us, but directly to LL, as if your self-interest is a valid rationale.

And yes, that's me being "judgy".
 

Da5id Weatherwax

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You run a business, you manage your cash flow. My SL existence breaks even in a bad month and turns a very modest profit in a good one, figuring my "upload habit", stuff I buy from others, tier for my workshop, rental on my audio stream (shoutcast paid for in lindens but I don't JUST stream to SL with it - I just account for income from elsewhere separately). I know when tier is due and cash out what I need to meet it and never touch that money, leaving it on my account for LL to pay themselves from. If I get a really bad month I may have to throw a few quid at my account from my RL funds but that happens no more than once or twice a year and is balanced by the good months when I can draw down lindens while still keeping myself a month's cushion and take those funds over to my RL bank account. Sort of "by default" I've become a professional musician, since what I get from performing live online or in RL has been my only real income for two years. This means "it's my business" so I manage its money accordingly!

If you need to start deleting you payment info between disbursements to manage your cash flow, you're living too close to the edge for it to be viable. That's not judgemental, it's just basic business numbers.

The day that my SL existence consistently fails to support itself is the day that it will end. Not because I don't want to be here any more, or because I don't want to make stuff for folks or don't want to perform for them any more, but because I can't afford to keep doing it.
 

NeoBokrug Elytis

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This is just another straw, and a small one in comparison to the others I listed, but for me maybe it will break the camel's back.
Except this isn't another straw, this is something they've been transparent about for a long while now. LL has been NICE to everyone about not enforcing it, but now that they're enforcing it for some people, they're the bad guy?
 

Tigar

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It’s basically only an issue because a whole bunch of my regions bill at the same time. On the 27th and 28th I have about $1500 in region fees that bill, over half my total fees. If they could spread out my billing dates it would solve the problem. I did ask them a long time ago and they said they couldn't change billing dates,
Ask them again. I once asked to have a homesteads name changed to “Mournin’ Woods” and the linden answering teh ticket 🎫 said “No, we can’t do that”

So, i Suggested taht mai landlord submit teh ticket again n’ maybe we’ll get a linding who isn’t a douchebag...

And we did. Someone Linden said that the apostrophe * was the problem, so she dropped it and the name change went through.

As far as I know, Mournin Woods is still out thar upon de grid.






*
 
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However, since it hasn’t required much work for me to break even and occasionally clear a small profit, and since my best friend wants to keep his builds up and keeps talking me out of it, I stay.
Wait, you have someone basically squatting on your land and you let him talk you into staying and paying his virtual rent for him?