Ahhh!! Bad news!!!

[Seven]

 Bad news! I might get banned!!!! It seems my sister took my grandmother's credit card and bought the st. pat's day package with my account. I was wondering where all that came from... Anyway... My grandmother, needless to say, is not happy.I'm really scared that I am going to get banned or something. She is emailing Billy. I'm guessing that is a mod or something. I don't want to get banned!!!

[Seven]

Worse news... I just found out... I've been banned. Everything I worked so hard for is now gone. Why don't the pricks at imvu look into things like this? I know this sounds pathetic but... I'm really about to cry.

[Rhakshi]

wait, im confused, how did this happen?

[ephemral]

I'm guessing they saw it as you letting your sister use your account.
I wouldn't know if purchases using a credit card required you to be logged in or not.
Either way it was tied to your account and they just don't care that much to spend money trying to find out.
Yes, it cost them money plus it's well within their authority to simply ban your account.
Mostly because of the T.O.S. you agreed to at sign up.

You're still more than welcome to participate in the forums if you like. =^.^=

[Youngbull]

it's still idiotic that they don't care to look into it, it's like killing your best customer cause someone you don't even know told you he was bad stuff.
It's idiocy!
you, or someone, should e-mail Billl and tell him just what happened and how it was not your fault. ok, they have the autority to ban anyone anytime, but to ban someone for something he never did, that's abuse of power. with power comes responcibility and even though they don't like it, they have a responcibility towards their customers. and are thus obligated to look into a matter before acting. all they got is the words of someone thats probably not even a customer.

>-< this kinda stuff pisses me off.  >

[Seven]

What makes me really angry is that I had not only bought my avatar name, I also bought anywhere between 5-10k credits every week. And banning me made me lose everything I bought. So, even if this was mentioned in the agreement, they have stolen my money. Plain and simple. Not only that, but they stole from me all the hard work I had done to get where I was. It is just about the same as if they went from this great site, to a simple polygon of the first avatar all over again. I am going to email Bill as soon as I can. My sister told me she thought she was on her account, and she only noticed after she bought them.

[vista0007]

oooh... That really sounds bad =s I hope you get everything back :sniffle:

[Youngbull]

yeah, the fact you've been a bigscale customer like that only worsens it, that means they don't give a damn about their customers. and that's bad bussiness. i don't know what's going on in bill's head, byt to ban any customer without looking into the matter is against even their policy. It shows ignorance and incompentence, neither of which should be found in the judgement of a member-responcible person of any site and chat. if they gonna ban people over stuff like that i realy hope half the people we meet, that is asking for cyber, have been booted...
Posted on: March 20, 2007, 01:53:41 PMyeah, the fact you've been a bigscale customer like that only worsens it, that means they don't give a damn about their customers. and that's bad bussiness. i don't know what's going on in bill's head, byt to ban any customer without looking into the matter is against even their policy. It shows ignorance and incompentence, neither of which should be found in the judgement of a member-responcible person of any site and chat. if they gonna ban people over stuff like that i realy hope half the people we meet, that is asking for cyber, have been booted...

[ephemral]

The fact is it's not incompetence on IMVU's part.
It's very important to keep your account secure. This is one of the reasons they try to keep people from making accounts on the same computer/connection. IMVU does seem harsh dealing with this situation like this. They have their reasons which are quite understandable.
If they treated T.O.S violations like this one with the same amount of attention they do copyright/trademark violations they would have stiffer penalties. You might also benefit to know how little business one person contributes to IMVU's profits.

 They tell you to try and resolve copyright infringement with the violator  before flagging.  The reason for that is because it cost them a fair portion of money to resolve each claim and they fine the flagger for false flagging with stiff monetary penalties. They kind of hide it in their unorganized website. To give you an idea of how stiff those penalties are, if you faultily flagged ten products you would be charged $1000 worth of real credits. I'm not sure I have that correct though.

[Seven]

How little or how much they make from a single person is irrelevant. The fact is that I was a customer. And to treat any customer with any level of apathy simply is not the answer to a good business. Just think of the Geico commercials as an example. They say, “So easy a caveman can do it.” This appeals to everyone who is not a caveman. However, the cavemen in the commercial are annoyed by this remark on their intelligence, and they appear to be every bit as smart as everyone else, they just look different. So Geico loses the caveman population. So what right? Wrong. The way to make a good business is to treat everybody with respect. And to treat even the smallest contributor to your business as if they are the largest. And your point to them charging in credits is… What? The credits can simply be created with a program. We all know they didn’t pay actual money to get them. All they have to do is program more into their coffers. This might be illegal if they were to sell them through things like Cassopia. But since they create new credits every time somebody buys them from the site… Well I don’t see how losing credits could possibly affect them. As to your comment on keeping my account secure… Please. I’ve got a finger scanner for all my passwords. I simply had not logged out. I usually log my sister in for her when I get off my computer, and she is always logged into imvu from her account. So she thought she was logged in when she bought the credits. The mistake was on her part, not mine. And if imvu is too lazy to look further into things, then they won’t make it as far as they could if they did.

[ephemral]

I think we have a difference of views here.
The mistake wasn't hers.
Keeping your account secure is more than just password protection.
Logging off would be your burden to bare and thus making you responcible for any actions taken with your account.
If she had hacked your account it would be different. Then you would have reason to feel the way you do about how you percieve IMVU to be handleing the situation. I'm not saying everything is your fault. Sure she is guilty of the more serious crime of useing the credit card without permission. It's just unfortunate that you forgot to log out.

IMVU does respect all it's customers. You do have to keep in mind the T.O.S. you agreed to when you signed up when considering how fair they are being.

By using the program, you are telling us that you have both the authority to use it, and that you agree to abide by all of its terms and conditions.
6. HONESTY: The same rules that govern your behavior in society apply to IMVU as well: If you steal anything -- including avatars, credits, personal inventory, or catalog items from other IMVU users or from IMVU, or if you cheat on any of our games, use any hacking scripting or editing programs in the program, violate the Terms of Service, or break the law, we can freeze or terminate your account, and if appropriate, report you to the Police.

8. PURCHASE TRANSACTIONS: When you purchase IMVU products (including credits, credit bundles, avatar name, try-it passes, etc) choose carefully as we do not refund if you change your mind. However, if the products are faulty we will meet our obligations under the Consumer Guarantees Act. If you have encountered any problems with a purchase, or believe that you have been incorrectly billed click here to report billing problem.

Please note that your account may be disabled without warning or notice at any time by IMVU. We will do this when there is suspicion of, a report of, or confirmation of any of the following events:

-- Any kind of payment fraud (Credit Card, Paypal, cancelled check, etc).
-- Any unauthorized use of your IMVU account requiring IMVU to refund purchases made.
-- Any time your IMVU account is used for purchases that subsequently require a refund, reversal, or chargeback, without prior warning or notice given to IMVU.
-- Any other type of abuse which IMVU deems is substantial enough to warrant disabling your account.

If your IMVU account has been disabled due to one of the above events and you feel a reasonable misunderstanding has occurred, you may use our automated BILLING HELP REQUEST FORM to send us a detailed explanation of what took place.

(To find the BILLING HELP REQUEST FORM, click on the HELP tab located in the right upper corner of any IMVU web-page, then click on the "STILL NEED HELP" section).

[Maxis29]

the only way to rectify this is by filling out help tickets. Have you done so yet? I am sorry to hear this happened xxundie, if theres anything i can do to help let me know.

[Seven]

You could start by informing me what a help ticket is.

[Kage]

http://www.imvu.com/catalog/web_help_center.php

Click on File a Help Request Ticket

[Maxis29]

/me wonders how its going