Gobboboy declaring shennanigans at WSOP.com

[shortbuspoker]

Apparently they are running an extra rakeback special like the one Druff posted about at Ultimate Poker but aren't paying out properly.

[Deal]

How could they be licensed and not have hand histories. That can't be true.

[zealanddonk]

How could they be licensed and not have hand histories. That can't be true.

Much like the ObamaCare website, the Government knows a lot more about setting up poker sites in 1 week than companies who have been doing it for 10 years.

[Dan Druff]

Gobbo is right.

WSOP.com has been a disaster from the customer service standpoint.

As bad as Ultimate Poker's problems were, WSOP.com has managed to do worse, at least from a service standpoint. (Admittedly, WSOP.com's software doesn't crash or freeze as much.)

Let me count the ways with WSOP.com's service failures...


The Action Club E-mail

The WSOP frequent player program is called the "Action Club". It even has its own e-mail address -- actionclub@wsop.com. So far, so good, right?

Wrong. They don't answer their e-mails. I have sent them several, dating back to November 1. Crickets.

I'm a 7-Star and was asking for a status match on the site, which supposedly you can get. No response. Crickets.


The useless 866 number

WSOP.com has a phone support number: 1-866-745-2385.

Sounds great, until you call it. They apparently took a page out of Bodog's book, staffing phone support 24/7 but having them be mostly useless. Except these support people (who, like Bodog, are foreign) take incompetence and powerlessness to the next level. The typical call goes like this:

Rep: Hello, thank you for calling WSOP.com. how may I help you?

Me: Hi, I have a question about your Action Club...

Rep: Can you please tell me the nature of your question?

Me: Yes, I was wondering when my status match will occur, and when they will respond to my request for it?

Rep: Can you please provide me with your screen name?

Me: My screen name is XXXXX

Rep: Can you please provide me your real name?

Me: Todd Witteles

Rep: Can you please verify your city, state, and date of birth?

Me: Yes, I live in XXX, XXXX and my date of birth is XX/XX/XXXX

Rep: Okay, thank you for verifying. In answer to your question, please e-mail support@wsop.com with your inquiry.

Me:

Seriously, I actually had this conversation yesterday.



Poor communication on the forums

Bill Rini, best known for his quality blog site, seemed to be a good choice for WSOP.com poker room manager. He has been around awhile, seemed pretty on-the-ball in his writings, and generally seemed like a bright guy.

Unfortunately, he has severely lacked from a customer service standpoint. A perfect example of Rini's lackadaisical approach to customer service is in this thread:

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/22...offer-1393629/

Read this thread, and you will see tons of important questions left unanswered. Bill responded a few times, but with brief 1-liners that often raised more questions than they answered. For the past few days, he's just been plain missing from the thread, and everyone is still scratching their collective heads about this promo.

Why can't WSOP.com have a dedicated, empowered rep on the forums who can clarify things and take serious customer concerns/questions? Wasn't Bill supposed to be "that guy"?



The November Rakeback Promo Fiasco

WSOP.com is not like Lock Poker. It is tightly regulated. Every little thing they do is scrutinized by its regulatory bodies in New Jersey and Nevada. That's why it's absolutely unbelievable that they could make major mistakes in one of their big promotions, severely underpaying everyone who participated. Players in the promotion were supposed to get 20% additional rakeback during the month of November.

http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/22...promo-1396461/

Bill Rini got to this one in 12 hours, but look at this laughable excuse:

Not sure where to jump into this but let me just start off saying that the guys who did the manual calculations for this promo screwed up. Not sure there's a better term for it but how they calculated the rakeback was not how it was supposed to be calculated.

I've instructed them to go back and correct the calculations according to the supplied formula and you should see your accounts updated in roughly 24 to 48 hours.

It looks like the error was due to a misunderstanding. They calculated it as a % of the rakeback you received instead of the rake you received. So you were supposed to get $100 in WSOP Points and fell into the 10% bracket you got $10 (10% of $100) instead of 10% of the total amount of rake generated.

So is this a tightly regulated legal US site, or is it a rinky-dink operation based out of a condo, like Lock Poker?

Because you would think that calculating 20% additional rakeback would be extremely easy, and yet they screwed up this very basic math, with no one even double-checking. Awful.



Is anyone home at wsop.com? Are we going to get any kind of competent customer service any time soon?

[Deal]

Jimmy has been busy making youtube vids:

[Erin Micunt]

Wasn't part of the reason online poker was created besides the money generated to create some jobs? It's so clear that every one of these sites is undermanned. And half the people working there are completely incompetent.

[sah_24]

Lol at government regulating anything , they just create more problems and fraud than there was before ! It happens everytime over and over and then people are amazed at the end result . Government regulation has set the online poker industry back 10 + years and stars will continue to be kept out because all the people that call the shots know they can't compete .

[bukowski72]

Looks like this has this has been resolved. The WSOP.com rep came into the 2+2 thread and said the guys figuring out the rake used the wrong formula and the correct rake would be given.

[Dan Druff]

Looks like this has this has been resolved. The WSOP.com rep came into the 2+2 thread and said the guys figuring out the rake used the wrong formula and the correct rake would be given.

Sort of.

It hasn't been resolved how such a boneheaded error (with major consequences) occurred in the first place. Nor has it been resolved why the general support/communication has been so terrible thus far.

Oh, and guess what? I am now in the WSOP.com support penalty box. They won't answer my question about the Action Club via e-mail (I tried both the support@wsop.com and actionclub@wsop.com e-mails), nor will Bill Rini respond to me on Twitter or 2+2.

Bang-up job all around!