LL announce “Marketplace to move to Second Life billing engine”

Update June 24th: The billing system “move” has now been completed, see my update here.

A new post appeared in the Commerce forum on Tuesday June 18th, announcing that the Marketplace is to “move” to the Second Life billing engine, generating some confusion along the way as to how Marketplace payments are currently processed with regards to Second Life.

The intimation appears to be that although the Marketplace allows for payments for goods to be taken directly from your L$ account, the finances themselves are handled through two different channels, with the Marketplace perhaps still, underneath it all, using elements dating back to the XSL / SLX days. With the upcoming “move”, everything will be handled by the one system, the Second Life billing engine – hence the reference that Commerce Linden will be replaced by Currency Linden as the escrow account for Linden dollar purchases via the Marketplace.

One aspect which appears to have gone largely without comment is that international users will, with the switch-over, apparently see more international payment options offered (one assumes alongside the US dollar payment option).  How advantageous this is seen as being is perhaps open to question (the US dollar prices for items on the marketplace are hardly favourable when compared to the straight L$ prices, which already tends to encourage people to use L$ rather than USD for purchasing goods).

The switch-over is due to take place in the week commencing Monday June 24th. no action is required on the part of users or merchants, although the blog post does warn that:

We will be failing any old orders that have not completed in preparation for the switch over, so you may see a refund appear from a stuck order over the next week prior to the release.

If you do start experiencing issue with Marketplace transactions, please ensure you submit a Support ticket. All issues related to billing are fully supported by Customer Support and will be addressed with appropriate priority.

With thanks to CS Pfeffer.