Bodog/Bovada experts -- how do I reach a manager at the company?

[Dan Druff]

About 8pm last night, I got a call from someone relatively high up in the Bovada organization. I could tell right off the bat that I was talking to an intelligent and logical individual, and whether he gave me satisfaction to my concerns or not, at least I would feel that my questions would be courteously answered.

This guy was located in the Philippines, but was Canadian. The customer service people I had been speaking with report directly to him.

I won't reveal everything he told me, because I'm not sure how much he was telling me in semi-confidence and how much he wouldn't mind being posted on the forums. I will try to be as detailed as possible without being revealing more than appropriate.

- The Philippines-based customer service department I reached is NOT an outsourced call center. These are actual Bodog/Bovada employees, and they report to him. They are supposed to be empowered to make proper decisions on their own. However, they are also supposed to handle these calls with care, and are supposed to contact management if there seems to be a legitimate problem that can't be solved. For example, if some idiot calls up and demands to speak to management because he keeps getting rivered, and is screaming "OMG RIGGED!!!111", they are supposed to keep that garbage away from management. However, if a customer like me calls up with a concern/question that seems legitimate, they are supposed to either solve it to the customer's satisfaction, or get management's attention that it was not solved. These customer service reps failed to do this, and he said he would get that corrected for the future.

- The customer service reps noted my account regarding the content of the conversations, and he read my posts here on PokerFraudAlert. I did not direct him here, but someone apparently told him about this thread. He said that my post "was an accurate representation of what happened, as the customer service notes match what you wrote almost perfectly", and that it was "not appropriately handled" on their end. He said that, again, this would be addressed, and sounded sincere about it. He said that Bovada/Bodog has people reading forums and bring things to attention of management when they notice potential problems with service.

- The customer service supervisor were trying to handle this problem in the way they thought was correct, but were not flexible enough. They were correct in that managers are not sitting around able to take calls, but were incorrect in completely shutting me out from reaching one. They were correct in that bonuses are account-specific and are tied to a variety of factors, but were incorrect in not more carefully examining my account and seeing what is fair to give me. He said that it appeared they just offered something generic to me without actually examining my account history, which was a mistake.

- I offered to give Bodog/Bovada a verified account here for player concerns. He said he would pass on that offer to the people who read the forums, but wasn't sure if they'd want to. He agreed that the "Bovada Service" account here was likely bogus.

- He gave me a better bonus -- not the excellent 40% thing Beerandpoker got, but something smaller that I thought was fair. He agreed that they will look at my account again in the future if I continue to completely get shut out of promotions like I have been.


Overall, the guy was very nice and on-the-ball, and I believe he was really going to attempt to fix some of these customer service issues, and wasn't just jerking me off with what I wanted to hear. I imagine that training a third-world call center is difficult, much like in the movie "Outsourced", so I can understand how stuff like this happens, and how frustrating it must be for the guys trying to manage those employees.

I'm going down to Western Union to deposit slightly less than 2k today, and we'll see if I can get it through without being suspected as a romance scam victim.

[donkdowndonedied]

You keep saying I felt that they "should" give me something. Wrong. As you said, they are a privately owned business, and are not obligated to give me anything, beyond providing a fair game and paying out the balance in my account. However, while they have their rights as a private business, I have my rights as a customer -- that is, not to continue playing there if I didn't like the situation. Therefore, I felt there was nothing wrong with calling up and asking for a bonus that is essentially equitable to others I know with similar playing habits & results. If they refused, then I would have to evaluate whether I wanted to continue playing there.

In this case, my biggest problem was the fact that I was shut out from talking to a manager. That should never happen in any business. You should always be able to reach someone in a position of authority at least one time -- provided you allowed the lower-level employees to take a crack at solving the problem first. That's Customer Service 101. If you empower the lower-level employees to completely shut out the customer from reaching management, then you create a situation that is ripe for abuse.

Anyway, I don't need to speculate anymore because I had a long conversation with a manager there last night, which I will describe in my next post.

If you think that other people are receiving benefits/promos and you are not and you have such a problem with it that you call up and complain, then you OBVIOUSLY feel they should give you something that they didn't. The fact that you don't like the sound of it doesn't mean you can redefine should. It doesn't mean they are under a contractual obligation, we both know that.

Maybe I am wrong about the notes. It sounded like you had called up multiple times. Thats more than most people have.

I disagree about not being able to speak to a manager. Some people just feel entitled to be able to speak to a manager and waste the manager's time. If I had employee's handling customer service, I'd be fine with them having some filters. That would be part of their job. Customer Service 101 ? Fuck that, my time is too valuable for dealing with some whiney guy that doesn't even really make my site money. Oh well, people like you tend to get more results than others, I can't argue with that.