Oh boy, the Nov 19th town hall meeting audio recording is up already! I was going to attend one of the listening parties, but I didn't make it, so I'm happy to see the audio up so fast. I heard there is a LOT of talk about Therebucks resellers and scammers in it, so it's sure to be very interesting! I haven't even listened to it yet myself...I wonder if I can get my bf to let me listen to it while we're in the car in about an hour :)
There fun times page with link
Actual direct audio link
Friday, November 20, 2009
Update on There reseller policy
I'd like to be making a video right now, but no time! Plus I want to give you some links, and that's a bit hard with video.
Soooo anyway...first I'd like to mention I had a laugh today when someone emailed me asking "where is my PayPal payment?" Why would I be laughing about someone not receiving their PayPal payment? Because this person was using an exploit in the catalog to get Therebucks from There and then they turned around and tried to sell a bunch of those ill-gotten Therebucks to me. As soon as There found out, they yanked the Therebucks out of my account, banned that avatar and banned some other avatars that were found to be doing the same thing as well. This could have ended very badly for me, if I had actually sent payment to this person before There yanked out the Therebucks from my account, I would have been out a lot of money. So, not only were they screwing There, they were trying to screw me as well. Or maybe I'm giving them too much credit, perhaps they had no idea this could end up adversely affecting me, but it can, especially with There's new reseller policy...
****
Okay, go now if you haven't and read these two things on the There site...
Official There announcement of Therebucks Reseller Policy Update
Fuze/Help Answer/Article with actual Therebucks Reseller Policy Update
****
I guess this is There's answer to the chinese gold farmer scammers. There has always had a policy of not supporting third party Therebucks sales, without actually prohibiting it though, as they recognize it as an important part of a healthy economy. Now, however, they are simply making it clearer that you're on your own and There isn't going to protect buyers or sellers AND if you end up buying fraudulently obtained Therebucks, There will yank them out of your account and if it happens multiple times they will ban you, maybe even permanently.
Some people may argue this is harsh punishment for "victims" of chinese gold farmer/scammers, but hey, what is There supposed to do? The way the scammers get the Therebucks is by buying them from There with stolen credit cards so that in the end the transactions get reversed and There is out the money. If you buy let's say $50 worth of Therebucks for $25 from one of these sites, the gold farmers are actually creating a $50 transaction with There and getting $50 worth of Therebucks, so for every $25 you give to the chinese gold farmers, There is out $50 in the end. I'd be upset, too! As far as I know, the gold farmers haven't hit any resellers yet, but if There finds a way to prevent their transactions (they might look to IMVU for advice on that one) then I am sure they will eventually. And for the gold farmers, even just a FEW transactions are a profit for them. Even if the Therebucks get taken away from the buyer eventually, it's still a profit for the gold farmers.
So how do you make sure you don't buy from an illegitimate reseller? Well first off, their prices are ridiculously low. Some place in China that really has no legitimate source of Therebucks and is selling them at FAR below market value...why would you think it's legit? I really don't see how anyone can think this is a valid source of Therebucks, so IMO, until they come up with websites and prices that are more in-line with the real market, the only way someone is going to buy from one of these places is if 1.) they are 100% noob or 2.) they think they can get away with it. So it's really like There is saying "don't be stupid, you can't get away with it."
Meanwhile, I don't think anything has really changed with "regular" resellers. There never had a policy that officially supported them or protected either the buyer or the seller, and that is why some people simply buy only from There and others buy only from the resellers they trust the most or are recommended by their friends. I don't think this will affect resellers such as myself much because of the simple fact that there is still a greater demand for discounted Therebucks than there is a supply. No reseller is in stock 100% of the time (which is also why Therebucks being sold at 50% off face value is so ridiculously illegitimate looking.)
Since one of the gold farmer sites is actually paying for Google ad placement when you do a search for "Therebucks", I do wonder if perhaps There should do the same thing. Sure it would cost them a little money, but maybe if they advertised with a link to the policy about the risks of buying from resellers, the money they spent on that would prevent them losing more money to fraud. Right? I mean, I'm tempted to do this myself for a month or two. As long as the scammers are making ANY money doing this, they aren't going to go away.
I thought this was funny...when you search for "Therebucks", check out the two highlighted (in a lovely salmon pink) results...me talking about a "cheap therebucks scam site" and then the site in question right below it. Wow, we must have all just RUN to that site to check it out, to get it so high in the rankings so fast!
Okay that's all I have to say about that for now. My one final thought is that if you are one of my buyers/sellers you should leave a testimonial for me if you haven't already so I can increase my er....legitimacy ranking or something: http://jinx.tv/feedback.php
Soooo anyway...first I'd like to mention I had a laugh today when someone emailed me asking "where is my PayPal payment?" Why would I be laughing about someone not receiving their PayPal payment? Because this person was using an exploit in the catalog to get Therebucks from There and then they turned around and tried to sell a bunch of those ill-gotten Therebucks to me. As soon as There found out, they yanked the Therebucks out of my account, banned that avatar and banned some other avatars that were found to be doing the same thing as well. This could have ended very badly for me, if I had actually sent payment to this person before There yanked out the Therebucks from my account, I would have been out a lot of money. So, not only were they screwing There, they were trying to screw me as well. Or maybe I'm giving them too much credit, perhaps they had no idea this could end up adversely affecting me, but it can, especially with There's new reseller policy...
****
Okay, go now if you haven't and read these two things on the There site...
Official There announcement of Therebucks Reseller Policy Update
Fuze/Help Answer/Article with actual Therebucks Reseller Policy Update
****
I guess this is There's answer to the chinese gold farmer scammers. There has always had a policy of not supporting third party Therebucks sales, without actually prohibiting it though, as they recognize it as an important part of a healthy economy. Now, however, they are simply making it clearer that you're on your own and There isn't going to protect buyers or sellers AND if you end up buying fraudulently obtained Therebucks, There will yank them out of your account and if it happens multiple times they will ban you, maybe even permanently.
Some people may argue this is harsh punishment for "victims" of chinese gold farmer/scammers, but hey, what is There supposed to do? The way the scammers get the Therebucks is by buying them from There with stolen credit cards so that in the end the transactions get reversed and There is out the money. If you buy let's say $50 worth of Therebucks for $25 from one of these sites, the gold farmers are actually creating a $50 transaction with There and getting $50 worth of Therebucks, so for every $25 you give to the chinese gold farmers, There is out $50 in the end. I'd be upset, too! As far as I know, the gold farmers haven't hit any resellers yet, but if There finds a way to prevent their transactions (they might look to IMVU for advice on that one) then I am sure they will eventually. And for the gold farmers, even just a FEW transactions are a profit for them. Even if the Therebucks get taken away from the buyer eventually, it's still a profit for the gold farmers.
So how do you make sure you don't buy from an illegitimate reseller? Well first off, their prices are ridiculously low. Some place in China that really has no legitimate source of Therebucks and is selling them at FAR below market value...why would you think it's legit? I really don't see how anyone can think this is a valid source of Therebucks, so IMO, until they come up with websites and prices that are more in-line with the real market, the only way someone is going to buy from one of these places is if 1.) they are 100% noob or 2.) they think they can get away with it. So it's really like There is saying "don't be stupid, you can't get away with it."
Meanwhile, I don't think anything has really changed with "regular" resellers. There never had a policy that officially supported them or protected either the buyer or the seller, and that is why some people simply buy only from There and others buy only from the resellers they trust the most or are recommended by their friends. I don't think this will affect resellers such as myself much because of the simple fact that there is still a greater demand for discounted Therebucks than there is a supply. No reseller is in stock 100% of the time (which is also why Therebucks being sold at 50% off face value is so ridiculously illegitimate looking.)
Since one of the gold farmer sites is actually paying for Google ad placement when you do a search for "Therebucks", I do wonder if perhaps There should do the same thing. Sure it would cost them a little money, but maybe if they advertised with a link to the policy about the risks of buying from resellers, the money they spent on that would prevent them losing more money to fraud. Right? I mean, I'm tempted to do this myself for a month or two. As long as the scammers are making ANY money doing this, they aren't going to go away.
I thought this was funny...when you search for "Therebucks", check out the two highlighted (in a lovely salmon pink) results...me talking about a "cheap therebucks scam site" and then the site in question right below it. Wow, we must have all just RUN to that site to check it out, to get it so high in the rankings so fast!
Okay that's all I have to say about that for now. My one final thought is that if you are one of my buyers/sellers you should leave a testimonial for me if you haven't already so I can increase my er....legitimacy ranking or something: http://jinx.tv/feedback.php
Monday, November 9, 2009
2 most common reasons for Therebucks payment delays
Argh, I'm a WEE bit frustrated today because I've had an increase in the number of delayed Therebucks payments (someone ordering Therebucks from me and then not getting them in about 2 minutes) and the reasons why are soooo preventable.
Recently I made a rather long video explaining pretty much ALL the reasons why your Therebucks could be delayed, but it can't hurt to go back over the TWO BIGGEST in a quick post...
Number one is SPELLING YOUR AVATAR NAME WRONG.
Seriously, if you don't get your Therebucks right away, check the email that PayPal sends you to your PayPal account email address and see what you used for your avatar name. The last few days I have had a number of misspellings and to make it even worse, it seems like people email me to say "where are my Therebucks? I've never had a delay from you before." and when I email them back asking them to check the transaction, I get no response, like maybe they aren't checking that email address or something. It's frustrating. Check the PayPal payment confirmation email, or log in to your PayPal account and check the transaction info there and see what you wrote for your avatar name. If it's wrong, email me either through Wheremail (but you know that is sometimes delayed) or at jinx.tv@gmail.com and let me know what you put down for your avatar name and what it was supposed to be and I can probably correct it right away.
and two is CREATING A NEW AVATAR
There are a lot of people who, when they've been around There for a while, decide to create a new avatar. Well, some of them may have half a dozen avatars. Or they have a friend who just created an avatar and they want to buy that person some Therebucks to get them started. I have a system that ranks avatars by how active they are on There, and if your avatar is brand new, it's not going to pay you any Therebucks. If you have a brand new avatar, or an avatar you use only to manage money for your neighborhood or something, you should either buy the Therebucks using your main avatar and then transfer them to your new avatar OR you can email me ahead of time (jinx.tv@gmail.com) and let me know who you are and what your new avatar is, and I have a pre-approved buyer list I can put you on assuming your main avatar is a regular customer of mine.
Well, I feel better now that I got that off my chest. I hope that helps and if you ever hear someone complaining "I didn't get my Therebucks", you might want to point them here to this post.
See you in There!
-Jinx_tv
Recently I made a rather long video explaining pretty much ALL the reasons why your Therebucks could be delayed, but it can't hurt to go back over the TWO BIGGEST in a quick post...
Number one is SPELLING YOUR AVATAR NAME WRONG.
Seriously, if you don't get your Therebucks right away, check the email that PayPal sends you to your PayPal account email address and see what you used for your avatar name. The last few days I have had a number of misspellings and to make it even worse, it seems like people email me to say "where are my Therebucks? I've never had a delay from you before." and when I email them back asking them to check the transaction, I get no response, like maybe they aren't checking that email address or something. It's frustrating. Check the PayPal payment confirmation email, or log in to your PayPal account and check the transaction info there and see what you wrote for your avatar name. If it's wrong, email me either through Wheremail (but you know that is sometimes delayed) or at jinx.tv@gmail.com and let me know what you put down for your avatar name and what it was supposed to be and I can probably correct it right away.
and two is CREATING A NEW AVATAR
There are a lot of people who, when they've been around There for a while, decide to create a new avatar. Well, some of them may have half a dozen avatars. Or they have a friend who just created an avatar and they want to buy that person some Therebucks to get them started. I have a system that ranks avatars by how active they are on There, and if your avatar is brand new, it's not going to pay you any Therebucks. If you have a brand new avatar, or an avatar you use only to manage money for your neighborhood or something, you should either buy the Therebucks using your main avatar and then transfer them to your new avatar OR you can email me ahead of time (jinx.tv@gmail.com) and let me know who you are and what your new avatar is, and I have a pre-approved buyer list I can put you on assuming your main avatar is a regular customer of mine.
Well, I feel better now that I got that off my chest. I hope that helps and if you ever hear someone complaining "I didn't get my Therebucks", you might want to point them here to this post.
See you in There!
-Jinx_tv
Saturday, November 7, 2009
A tip for Therebucks sellers
Well, now that I'm caught up on PayPal payments and paying Therebucks sellers very rapidly, here's a little tip to those selling to me on http://sell.jinx.tv...
Send your Therebucks as soon as you create the transaction! Seriously, I get a notification as soon as you create the transaction on my site, so if you pay right away and I'm there at the computer, I pay right away. Some people wait an hour or eight hours or a day to pay...first of all I pay in the order I receive your Therebucks payment, but besides that, I'm LOOKING for your Therebucks payment right after you send in the request, and I'm NOT looking for it hours or days later, so your delay can cause a greater delay.
Oh also, I'm on the west coast in the U.S. and I usually stay up late and sleep in late, so the time of day you create a transaction can make a difference...if you make a transaction in the morning, I can almost guarantee you won't get paid within a few minutes (as some transactions do) because I'm usually sleeping.
Okay, that's all I got today...back to burning DVDs of our Halloween Beatles Rock Band party!
Send your Therebucks as soon as you create the transaction! Seriously, I get a notification as soon as you create the transaction on my site, so if you pay right away and I'm there at the computer, I pay right away. Some people wait an hour or eight hours or a day to pay...first of all I pay in the order I receive your Therebucks payment, but besides that, I'm LOOKING for your Therebucks payment right after you send in the request, and I'm NOT looking for it hours or days later, so your delay can cause a greater delay.
Oh also, I'm on the west coast in the U.S. and I usually stay up late and sleep in late, so the time of day you create a transaction can make a difference...if you make a transaction in the morning, I can almost guarantee you won't get paid within a few minutes (as some transactions do) because I'm usually sleeping.
Okay, that's all I got today...back to burning DVDs of our Halloween Beatles Rock Band party!
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Cheap Therebucks
I found this site on Google today for buying Therebucks and I'm pretty sure you shouldn't use it...here's why:
Sunday, November 1, 2009
PayPal fee calculator
Well, had a little break in paying sellers (not buyers...buying Therebucks is still 3 mins or less) due to hosting a Halloween party, but I'm catching up fast.
Anyway, I thought this would be a good follow up to the MassPay video...
Isn't it funny how anything you can imagine is likely to be out there on the Internet already? I was thinking about how people always have questions about PayPal fees and how much they will be, but the fees can vary based on...well...variables...(like if you have a business account and do a high volume of sales, if you're doing a "cross border" transaction, etc.) and what is needed is a PayPal fee calculator.
So I checked online and OF COURSE there are already a great number of such calculators out there.
This one looks pretty cool:
http://www.rolbe.com/paypal.htm
So if you're selling your Therebucks and you want to know what sort of fees you're going to pay, give it a try...especially if you're contemplating MassPay. It should really help with figuring out if MassPay is right for your transaction or not. Ooooh...I should add a link to it from http://sell.jinx.tv! I'm going to do that this week I think.
Well, hope you had a great Halloween! We were pirates. Arrrr!
-Jinx_tv
Anyway, I thought this would be a good follow up to the MassPay video...
Isn't it funny how anything you can imagine is likely to be out there on the Internet already? I was thinking about how people always have questions about PayPal fees and how much they will be, but the fees can vary based on...well...variables...(like if you have a business account and do a high volume of sales, if you're doing a "cross border" transaction, etc.) and what is needed is a PayPal fee calculator.
So I checked online and OF COURSE there are already a great number of such calculators out there.
This one looks pretty cool:
http://www.rolbe.com/paypal.htm
So if you're selling your Therebucks and you want to know what sort of fees you're going to pay, give it a try...especially if you're contemplating MassPay. It should really help with figuring out if MassPay is right for your transaction or not. Ooooh...I should add a link to it from http://sell.jinx.tv! I'm going to do that this week I think.
Well, hope you had a great Halloween! We were pirates. Arrrr!
-Jinx_tv
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