No, really:I’m listening

Such is the boom in poker that it seems the sites can get away with behaving pretty much exactly as they want: often this is at the customer’s expense. I constantly hear stories of emails drifting, unanswered, through the ether, transactions that take a mysteriously long time to be approved and completed, CS representatives who don’t seem to know the first thing about their company’s customer service policy, and overall just a general feeling of apathy towards the players.

At some point, I like to think that the sites will wake up and realise that this is no way to do business. It might be fine while the money is rolling in, and while the market is relatively wide open, but the sites can’t sit on their elbows forever thinking that CS is just not an effective way of distinguishing them from their competition. Allow me to illustrate with a couple of examples of good and bad customer service:

The good

Many moons ago, I wrote a book that ended up being sold on Amazon. Sadly it wasn’t the great creative opus that is still lodged in my sub-conscious, but a business publication I had co-authored while working for a legal publishing company. One day I decided to search Amazon to check the book was there: sure enough, I found it - Sales Rank: somewhere outside the Top 100 - and for no good reason I then clicked on the button for 1-Click payments. I had no idea what 1-Click was, no idea I had it switched on, and was thus slightly surprised later that day to find an email from Amazon with the details of my order. I fired off a response to their customer service, to let them know what a horrible imbecile I was, and that one of the many reasons I didn’t want to buy the book off them was that I had a pile of 6 sitting on my desk in front of me. After enough time had passed for them all to have a good chuckle at my expense down at Amazon HQ, I got a response saying no problem, we’ll cancel the order. No fuss whatsoever, no hassle, and I was a happy customer. All this was handled in a matter of hours, and even though they might not always be the best priced, this is one reason I continue to shop at Amazon.

The good, part deux

When I used to play at Poker Room about 3 years ago, cashout options were somewhat limited. One month, I cashed out a reasonable sum and had a cheque delivered to my home address. I took this cheque down to my bank, and cashed it in. My bank decided to lose the cheque, rather than do anything useful with it, and told me that all I had to do was have a replacement cheque reissued. I spoke to PR using their live chat feature, and told them that my bank, one of the largest financial institutions in the world, had lost my cheque, and could I have another one, please. Sure, no problems, we’ll send it off right away, no charge.

I understand that PR CS had slid downhill since those days, which is a shame.

The bad, part one

I flew to America a few years ago, and still being an imbecile, I gave the wrong address when ordering my tickets (I had just moved house, and managed to create an address that was half my new address, half the old one). Too late, I realised that the tickets would not arrive in time if they were re-ordered. So I arranged with Opodo - remember this name, and never, ever do business with them - to have replacements issued, that I would be able to collect at the airport. They charged me for the new tickets, said I would be refunded the original ones, and told me to go to the airline desk to collect the tickets. When I got to the airline desk, they informed that the tickets were there, but they hadn’t been paid for. Like a huge mug, I handed over my card, and paid up. I was surprised to find, in my next card statement, that I had in fact purchased three return tickets, and not one, and contacted Opodo - remember this name, and never, ever do business with them - to find out what the heckingbottom was going on. All these months later, and I have so far received half of my due refund.

The bad, part two

I logged into Absolute Poker yesterday to see if could do anything wth my Absolute Reward Points. Previously, I’d not bought anything from the AP store, because they didn’t seem to have anything I would ever want in there, and I’d failed to take up an offer of selling the points back to AP midway through 2005. In December, I meant to use the points to give gift vouchers to people - possibly in return for them doing the same - but never got round to doing it. I noticed that I now have 0 ARPs, worth precisely zip. Previously, I had had around 65K ARPs, with a value that’s difficult to estimate, but based on the gift voucher offer they were running in December, somewhere in the region of $400.

I sent an email to support asking if they could be restored, but sadly, they have expired, and CS appear to want to do a whole lot of nothing about it. $400, just to remind you there, of the approximate value that AP has removed from my account without so much as a reminder email. That’s $400. I have just sent a response to their response, asking if it is possible to have some of the ARPs restored. I awaited with unabaited breath for the outcome, but if I’m not happy with it, I have a plan B, for I know the secret to getting what you want out of AP…

The indifferent

I ran out of time to complete a bonus at Check n Raise poker earlier this week. Realising I was never going to clear some $450 of bonus in two days, I asked if it was possible to extend the bonus period. Ah, no, I was told, that can’t be done, but we’ve reduced the amount of points you need to clear each $10 increment by 22 check points. Wow. So instead of 100 check points per $10, now I only have to make 78 check points. That would be great, except I still had only about three hours of playing time to take advantage, so their generous offer, given as a thank you for being a customer, made nada difference in the end.

The indifferent, part zwei

Party Poker - my points expired there, too, would you believe, but this time mainly because they couldn’t make up their minds when to get rid of them. First it was midnight one day, then that day was brought forward 2 days, then pushed back one day, before finally they settled for a time round about 4:50pm on the middle day. I complained, got the points reinstated, and a “well, ok then, but it wasn’t our fault really” apology from CS.

The point is

The point is, the point is, that mainly I needed to have a good old rant because right now I feel like AP has taken quite a fair amount of money out of my account. It’s like, but not quite the same as, them saying if you deposit money but don’t use it, we have the right to take it out and use it ourselves. It’s not the same, because ARPs are a sort of bonus you acquire while playing at that site, but come on, there’s quite a bit of expectation to be managed here - if you lure players in with a reward scheme, what’s the difference between that and offering deposit bonuses, other than that with deposit bonuses, the terms are quite clear - play enough hands in x days, and you’ll earn the bonus. With reward points, the terms are usually hidden away in a small font on a page you won’t always be directed to.

The other point is this: if AP give me back all or most of my points, I’ll deposit some money and play there. If they don’t, I won’t ever go near their site again, and will take any appropriate opportunity to dissuade others from playing there. The question is, do they care?

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