I think the sportsbetting gods are conspiring to keep me on Bovada.
First I had the ID issue with 5Dimes, and then decided not to deposit there because of the negative posts about owner Tony.
So I went to Heritage and tried to sign up. Heritage did not have bad reviews about the ownership, also offered reduced juice, and also had a good payout record.
However, Hertitage's system gave me an error message with a reference number, and told me to call customer service.
I called the next day (yesterday), and spoke to a "Marco" there. Marco looked into it, and came back with the report that my phone number came up in another person's name. I explained to Marco that I have a family cell plan, and that it's impossible to separate names out like that. (They must have been accessing a Caller ID database, btw.)
So I asked if an exception could be made, especially if I could prove my identity some other way. Marco said he would contact "management" and get back to me within 30 minutes.
No call back.
I called back myself about 5 hours later, and Marco told me that he would have to get approval from upper management for this, and I should call for him the next day (today) to find out the answer.
I called just now and got a "Luis" on the phone. Marco wasn't available for whatever reason. Luis told me that their "security scrubber" demands that all info is "accurate", or people can't have accounts there.
I asked, "So if your phone is in the name of a relative or a roommate, you can't have an account here?"
"That's correct," said Marco.
But then I realized there was a way out of this. I had another phone -- one I don't use often -- which was in my name. Keep in mind that the system did NOT request a phone that was in my name when I signed up. It asked for my phone number, and I gave the true and accurate phone that I use most often.
I asked Luis if I could sign up again under a new account with the phone number in my name. He said go ahead and try.
So I did. Even used a different e-mail address.
Still didn't work. Gave me the same error message and reference number.
I called up and got Luis again. He said that there was apparently no way to override the first "bad" account I created. He then chided me for "giving inaccurate information" and told me, "You shouldn't have given a phone number that isn't yours."
I responded, "The phone is mine. It's the phone I carry and use every day. The system asked me for my phone number, and I gave true and accurate information. All of the other information I provided was also true and accurate. So what did I do wrong?"
He replied, "You did nothing wrong. But hundreds of people get new accounts here every day with no problem, and for some reason you decided to give a phone number that is someone else's."
I argued that the whole point of a customer service number is to have a human being make a common sense decision regarding overriding a computer-based denial. I pointed out that, if the computer decides everything, there isn't even a point to have a customer service number.
He just repeated that I gave someone else's phone number, and that the "security scrubber" caught it.
I then asked for a manager.
"I am a manager," he said.
I said, "No, I'd like to speak to YOUR manager."
"I'm a VIP account manger," he told me. "You aren't going to speak to anyone higher than me."
I told him, "Looks like you lost my action then", and hung up.
F them.