Confusion reigns over premium account bonus payment

*EDIT 02/02/10 - Tateru Nino of Massively has confirmed that there has been a change of policy on basics upgrading to premium and that basics who upgrade will get the advertised bonus /EDIT*

Last August I wrote a post that covered an apparent mistake by Cryptic studios regarding an email they sent to people relating to lifetime subscriptions for Champions Online, the post, which can be read here, detailed how the email had informed people that if they signed up for a lifetime subscription by a certain date they'd also receive access to the closed beta version of Star Trek Online. Then Cryptic said that the offer was limited to a certain number of people. Complaints flooded in from angry folk who pointed to the email and said that there was no mention of it being restricted to numbers, just the date stipulation. Cryptic then agreed to stick with the terms the email stated, those who signed up for a lifetime subscription by the date the email had stated would indeed receive access to the closed beta version of Star Trek Online. There had been a mistake, someone probably got their backside kicked but the email had been sent and Cryptic saw the sense in honouring this rather than annoying potential customers.

Over four months later and Linden Lab seem to have gotten themselves into a similar pickle over an email asking people to signup for a premium account. There is confusion, contradiction and marketing at play here, but in reality Linden Lab need to honour what they've advertised in this email.

So our story starts in the official forum, in a thread which can be read here. The complaint is that someone has signed up for a premium membership after receiving this email, they then wondered where their L$1,000 bonus payment was. Now this in itself isn't an issue, it takes around forty five days after becoming premium to receive your bonus. However what is an issue is that support staff told the person the bonus is only paid to new accounts, not to those who upgrade from basic to premium.

There is documentation to backup the claim from the support person, the official wiki has details here which states: "Note: Accounts which upgrade from Basic to Premium are not eligible for the Premium bonus, but do receive a weekly stipend and a 512 square meter Premium tier bonus."

However there is no mention of this in the email, there's also no mention of this in the link the email sends you to, which can be viewed here and which I've taken a screenshot of:



There is a disclaimer about the bonus payment taking forty five days. I received this email, as I'm sure did many others and that's what makes the confusion over the bonus payment an issue. I've taken a screenshot of the email too and as can be seen from both the webpage and the email, the bonus payment is prominently promoted in both:



I am an existing premium member, but my alts aren't. I'll be entitled to a Linden Home as a premium member, which was also mentioned in the email. I'm not sure if I was sent the email because I'm entitled to a home, or whether it's because my alts are basic accounts but were I a basic account holder and I upgraded I'd be a tad miffed to find out the email hadn't informed me I wasn't entitled to the bonus payment.

Now L$1,000 is not a lot of money, it's not something you're going to go running to a solicitor about. However there's an issue at stake here, why on earth would Linden Lab send this email to existing users, some of whom might have basic accounts, if the rather large and prominent text about receiving a bonus payment doesn't apply? I'd like to think they've changed their policy on this and that the official wiki information is out of date, if you send an email like this then you should honour it.

Could it be that Linden Lab support staff aren't aware of this promotion and the rules have changed? Quite possibly, whatever the case, like Cryptic and their Champions Online email, Linden Lab should honour the terms of the email and pay the bonus to those who upgraded from basic on the basis of this, especially as the bonus payment offer is so prominent in both the email and the website signup page.