Pokerstars "Glitch" - money missing from bank account

[Claw75]

A mate of mine in work[/b] got 4 payments from Poker Stars and nothing taken out..

GG him

Blatant brag..!..

two brags squeezed into five words I reckon. good work!

[Longy]

A mate of mine in work[/b] got 4 payments from Poker Stars and nothing taken out..

GG him

Blatant brag..!..

two brags squeezed into five words I reckon. good work!

I only count one..............

[amcgrath1uk]

Hello Asa,

Thank you for your email.

I have escalated your email to the Payments department for review so that
you can get a more detailed response to your enquiry as quickly as possible.

Thank you for your patience and for choosing PokerStars! If you have any
other questions please do not hesitate in contacting us.

Best regards,

Owen
PokerStars Cashier Specialist

[amcgrath1uk]

Hello Asa,

Thank you for your email.

I am glad to hear that you have received the funds back into your account. Unfortunately, this appears to have been a temporary issue that our processor had and should not occur again in the future. Steps are being taken to ensure that a repeat issue does not occur.

With regards to compensation, this is being conducted on an individual basis. If you have incurred charges in relation to this issue then we will glady look at bank statements showing the charges and refund accordingly.

Please let us know if we can be of any further assistance.

Best regards

Andrew
PokerStars Payment Services

The words, going round in circles seems to apply...

[amcgrath1uk]

Hello Asa,

Thank you for your email.

I have credited your PokerStars account with 500FPPs as a gesture of goodwill. Unfortunately, we cannot give any cash compensation unless a financial loss has incurred.

I hope this goes some way to compensating you for this obvious inconenience. Please accept our sincere apologies.

Please let us know if you require any further assistance.

Best regards

Andrew
PokerStars Payment Services

Marv.

[neeko]

This appears to have been a temporary issue that our processor had and should not occur again in the future. Steps are being taken to ensure that a repeat issue does not occur.

I think this translates as;

Some idiot processed the file for a day in Oct in 2008 instead of correct date in Oct 2009

We sacked the moron, and hid the previous files in dark hole that no one will find again.

[matt674]

Well Asa you've received more notifiction than i have from stars - i'm still waiting for my first email since Tuesday

i did however get a phone call from my bank, HSBC - which went something along the lines of

"hello is that mr doyle"

"yes it is, who is calling?"

"its xxx from the HSBC bank, i spoke to you on Wednesday regarding the Maestro payments taken from your account"

"yes i remember"

"good, well i recognize your voice so i don't need to ask you any of the security questions"

(not sure how seeing as  didnt recognize her voice and no doubt she has spoken to more people since Wednesday than i have, glad to see they are keeping up their standards on keeping peoples accounts safe!)

"i'm ringing just to let you know that our Maestro payment team have made two payments into your account to cover the loss of money while the issue is resolved, however i see from your account that the payments have been paid back in"

"yes i know, i saw them yesterday - but you knew the payments had been paid back into my account as you rang to tell me about them Wednesday afternoon"

"yes i did"

"but the Maestro payments were paid into my account the day after the pokerstars payments"

"yes they were"

"so you are ringing me to tell me that your maestro department have paid money into my account to cover the loss of money two days after you rang me to tell me that the money had been paid into my account"

"yes just to let you know as the maestro payments are only temporary and will be removed once the pokerstars money is paid back into your account"

"but you know the pokerstars money is back into my account, you told me that three hours after i rang to complain"

"yes, but our Maestro department is a different department to mine"

"do they not have access to the same account details as you?"

"yes"

"so they will have seen themselves that the money had been paid in, still they put the temporary payments into my account even after you had called me to tell me that the payments were back into my account. Now you are ringing me to tell me that temporary payments have been paid into my account and now you are going to remove them"

<silence>

"and do you have any update on why the payments left my account in the first place"

"no but i will let you know as soon as our Maestro team have resolved the issue, have a good weekend. Goodbye"

i'm seriously beginning to think i will be safer keeping all my money under the mattress and going back to the good old days of using cash to pay for everything!!

[amcgrath1uk]

Just keep sending emails Matt...

[matt674]

yeah i think i will - just paid a visit to the VIP store to see what i can spend my 500fpp points on should i be lucky enough to receive any kind of compensation, i could only see two items that are worth 500fpps

(a) a keyring

(b) a one time password sheet

i wonder if the password sheet can be placed on my bank account to stop unwanted hackers taking money out of my account?

[gatso]

you need to be making up stories for stars like how you couldn't afford to go on a planned weekend away cos they nicked your money so could you have a signed greg raymer tshirt as compo

[The Camel]

500 fpps as compensation?

For all the time and nerous energy and distress I would have thought $500 was more appropriate.

They are taking the piss imo.

[Longy]

you need to be making up stories for stars like how you couldn't afford to go on a planned weekend away cos they nicked your money so could you have a signed greg raymer tshirt as compo

That would probably quite an expensive t-shirt, given the amount material required to make it.

[matt674]

having emailed them again tonight for an update (failing of course to mention that i've read other people's responses as to what had happened) this was the reply i got.....

Hello Matt,

Thank you for your e-mail.

We apologize for the inconvenience this may have caused and we are sorry you
feel this way.

Please understand that processor technical issues are beyond our control and
our processors provide the best service to our customers as much as
possible. As mentioned before, since it is a technical issue, sometimes we
cannot provide an exact time frame as this would contradict.

Kindly note that we investigate all customer concerns seriously and
PokerStars has an effective system to counter mistakes and issues as
indicated by our communication to our processors.

Our staff are here 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year to
answer your questions and meet your needs. Please email us back at with your
questions, and we will be happy to answer them to the best of our ability.

Please let us know if you have any questions or need further assistance.

Regards,
Francis
PokerStars Payment Services

"Please understand that processor technical issues are beyond our control and
our processors provide the best service to our customers as much as
possible."

Well if this is the best service you could provide i'm not sure i want to see the worst and i doubt i can trust your processors ever again

"As mentioned before, since it is a technical issue, sometimes we
cannot provide an exact time frame as this would contradict."

This is the first time in a week you remotely come anywhere close to mentioning what the problem was (and this email hardly provides me with an explanation) so not sure where the as mentions before comes into it

"Our staff are here 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and 365 days a year to
answer your questions and meet your needs. Please email us back at with your
questions, and we will be happy to answer them to the best of our ability."

In all the emails i've sent not one of my questions has been answered!!

i give up with them - i'll never deposit another penny on there again to play poker, though no doubt they are hardly going to lose any sleep over it judging by their constant vague fobbing off emails

[danmonkey]

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.

[Royal Flush]

I have only ever heard good things about Pokerstars customer service before

It's always been lies, i dunno how they managed to get that reputation in the first place, all these other sites that offer a phone number and get no praise then Stars where there is no number and they take days to reply.