This morning Pokerstars have written to me again to state that they now accept that they have "mishandled" my case, apologised for the original error, the inconvenience caused and their subsequent lack of response and offered to re-instate my account with the princely sum of $66.40 and 1000FPPs. 

Whilst we can argue the relative merits of the compo offered against my time and effort on this, I was never really concerned with the cash.  Given the extent of the apology made I would be both churlish and, as some kindly suggested, cutting off my nose to spite my face if I didn't accept it and post an update here to acknowledge they have eventually done the right thing. 

So I may play those UKIPT events after all.

Nice.

It really pains me to see such rare lapses by 'Stars so brutally & one-sidedly exposed, so good to hear it's been sorted. And your nose remained intact.

I'm not they type to complain unecessarily but I do believe in right and wrong and I was pretty fed up with the whole chain of events to get to that point - there were about 10 emails in total to and from 'stars. 

The easy thing to do would have been to accept their cash and not post an update on this thread but that would really have lacked class. 

I'm happy to admit that they did get it right eventually - which is a hell of a lot better than not getting it right at all.  In any buisiness, for me, its not about the mistakes you make, but about how you put them right.

This morning Pokerstars have written to me again to state that they now accept that they have "mishandled" my case, apologised for the original error, the inconvenience caused and their subsequent lack of response and offered to re-instate my account with the princely sum of $66.40 and 1000FPPs. 

Whilst we can argue the relative merits of the compo offered against my time and effort on this, I was never really concerned with the cash.  Given the extent of the apology made I would be both churlish and, as some kindly suggested, cutting off my nose to spite my face if I didn't accept it and post an update here to acknowledge they have eventually done the right thing. 

So I may play those UKIPT events after all.

Like many others, I have always been under the impression that Pokerstars were proud to offer the best customer service of any poker site - until I had cause to engage with them.

The facts:

- At the end of October/start of November 2009 Pokerstars repeated a batch of Switch card deposits that were originally made in October 2008. This affected a number of UK customers.

- In my case they took several hundred pounds from my account. This caused me to be tipped me into an unauthorised overdraft. The card that was used was actually cancelled but the bank deemed the charges valid as they were dated October 2008.

- I contacted Pokerstars as soon I found out it was they who had charged me - it took a couple of days for this information to show up as the transactions were so old. They said they would look into it.

- Pokerstars admitted it was their error and a few days later the money was returned.
- I wrote to Pokerstars to express my frustration at the inconvenience that was caused by them removing this money from my bank account, not to mention the embarrassment and damage to my relationship with my bank.

- Pokerstars offered an apology, but stated they would not make any compensation payments but would consider refunding bank charges if they arose.

- I wrote to them yesterday with a screenshot of charges filed by the bank for the period in November. A clever employee wrote back to me to say that they had noted that the charge filed was not done on the same date as the deductions and also that my overdraft limit was higher than the figure that the balance on my account was when they removed several hundred pounds without permission. They will not make any payment to me as the charges could not be directly attributable to Pokerstars!

- Whilst not the point, this is explained by the fact that I have since increased my overdraft limit to provide a buffer against this sort of incident, the banks method of charging is vaguely arcane and it was not actually the Pokerstars transactions that took me overdrawn but 7 direct debits that came out the day after. Even with the Pokerstars money missing I was only a few pounds in the red but they fail to see cause and effect here...

The upshot of this is that rather than waste any more of my valuable time over a measly 35 quid, I asked them to close my account forthwith. Their response was:

As a gesture of goodwill, I have credited your PokerStars account with 1000FPPs. Obviously, we do not wish to lose you as a player and are more than happy to accept that this is an issue that our players will hold us responsible for.

As previosuly advised, we will be more than happy to refund any charges that have been directly applied due to this issue upon receipt of satisfactory documentation. This offer still stands and I would urge you to contact us again should you receive clarification from your bank as to which payments the charges relate to.

I consider this to be utterly derisory and I have politely confirmed that I would like them to formally close my account. I didn't quite tell them where to stick their FPPs but I was tempted.

I do not want to be a party to any company that can admit liability for removing a large sum of money without permission from a customer and then fail to provide a meaningful apology.

The treatment I have received across a series of emails has been simply reprehensible. I have never really cared about the money or been out to make a profit from this sorry business, but I absolutely despise the way that Pokerstars has abdicated their responsibility to treat their customers with due respect.

To all who use Pokerstars - caveat emptor. My account with them is now closed and I will never use their services again. My one and only regret is that I was quite keen to play a couple of the UKIPT events and will now not be doing so. C'est la vie. End of rant.

[consider]

Long while since I have posted here, but exactly the same happened for me for a significant sum (for me anyway, clearly not for pokerstars).  The several hundred quid took me into an unauthorised overdraft and caused me significant distress.  I have now got my money back.

I emailed them several times this week and ultimately laid out the sequence of events for them and was referred to a 'customer service specialist'.  Pokerstars response?  'Let us know what your bank charges are and we will consider refunding you'.  They will not offer any compensation for the time I have wasted this week talking to my bank and worrying about paying bills. 

In the course of 6 emails they have not explained how this happened (though it is fairly obvious) or offered any assurance it will not happen again. 

It seems that only a 'few' UK customers who deposited by switch, maestro or solo in the last week of October 2008 were affected and they clearly do not think those customers are worth treating properly. 

I have only ever heard good things about Pokerstars customer service before - this is the first time I have ever had an issue that necessitated their intervention and I am disgusted with how they have treated me.

Whilst I am sure my custom means nothing to them, I intend to never play there again on principle.

If the BMW is in decent nick then that would be my pick.  I have a '96 318is petrol with 125k on the clock and still going strong.  The diesel should go forever.

Good luck to the Camel. 

HOLA! 

Difficult subject this, and one which I don't really think should be treated flippantly.  Its worth being honest with yourself.

I scored 12, though if it was present tense it would be less.  I'm working on separating poker from gambling (or at least compulsive gambling), I've started by plugging a few 'leaks': blackjack, roulette, horses and dogs.

GA is not for everybody, some people may prefer to sort themselves out.  I can recommend some books if anyone is interested:

Understanding Problem Gamblers by Paul Bellringer
Overcoming Compulsive Gambling by Alex Blaszczynski

I give cats the red card.

WOW... Well played danmonkey


 Do we have a tie breaker now? or shall we chop it?

Well played delboy.  Chop Chop.

What are we chopping?

Okay folks, hand of the day, and probably tournament, for you now.

All the chips move in on a flop of:



Antony hughes = 

A Miles =

Iain Abrahams =

Miles is the shorstack, then Hughes, with Iain holding the most amount of chips.

Look set in stone with the Ace on the flop, but...

Turn =

River =

RIGGED!!!

It wouldn't happen online...


Soon after that Hughes made his exit with A-K v pocket fives. Five on the turn sealed the deal.


(ps. sry for the repeated posts, the card is playing tricks with my poor beagle head. grr)

It certainly wouldn't happen online.  Now if they were on trn/river then it might...

I think the googlists stand out

Well it was multiple choice so even if you only 'knew' 2 answers probability says you should score 4. 

I knew 6 on the film quiz for definite and was coin flipping on three more, with one educated (wrong) guess.  Good job its not 'Who wants to be a millionaire?'.

Was the sports quiz not part of the league?

Nope.  Week 1 was films.

Another good quiz snoops. Good to see no 10's on a multiple choice! 

Ardbeg 1977.