Urgent: Major problem with Sky Poker Customer Service (got 10 mins to sort)

[Sheriff Fatman]

I've qualified for the Sky Viva Las Vegas at 9pm.

I've just unregged, as not sure if i can play it, and been told that the £1,100 value is forfeit.

Just fighting with C/S to get re-regged at the very least but this is ridiculous.  Why the hell does the site give me an unregister option if they're going to forfeit the value.

Really, really bad.

[redsimon]

If you win a seat in a satellite you can't dereg. If you do you lose your buy in. Happened to me in a £30 HH. Sucks. They did renter me in it though!

[Sheriff Fatman]

If you win a seat in a satellite you can't dereg. If you do you lose your buy in. Happened to me in a £30 HH. Sucks. They did renter me in it though!

That's what's just happened, but they shouldn't then give you an unregister option in the lobby.  Just glad I didn't do this with 5 minutes to go.

[Sheriff Fatman]

Now forced to play it, the re-registration being "a gesture of goodwill".  Bear in mind, not a single penny of added value came from Sky in these tournaments.  The prize pools were all player funded, so the alternative was to have £1,100 stolen from me by Sky.

Can't describe how appalled I am at situation.

[pleno1]

real thin

[Sheriff Fatman]

real thin

I wish I was 

[Laxie]

Good luck in it!!!

[Sheriff Fatman]

Good luck in it!!!

Not the ideal preparation - a 20 minute battle with customer services, but thanks Dawn.

[The Camel]

LOL @ "gesture of goodwill"

I would be making a different gesture if I was you.

Shutting my account.

[cambridgealex]

I imagine the unreg option is for those who've directly bought in to the satellite. GL with it. Could be a good story...

[Sheriff Fatman]

In the interests of fairness, I've put the entire chat transcript up so that people can decide for themselves.  Some of the stuff in here scares me!

At the end of the day, I've lost nothing, except a great deal of faith in Sky Poker, which is a shame.

   27/05/2012 20:34:45        Customer        Curtis Ledger      Why are my funds not showing after unregistering from a tournament?
   27/05/2012 20:34:45        System        System      {PRESENTATION END}
   27/05/2012 20:34:45        System        System      {PRESENTATION BEGIN}
   27/05/2012 20:34:47        System        System      {PRESENTATION END}
   27/05/2012 20:34:47        System        System      {PRESENTATION TEXT} [Hi, you're chatting to Sky Nicola S, I'll be assisting you today]
   27/05/2012 20:34:59        Customer        Curtis Ledger      Hello
   27/05/2012 20:35:14        Agent        Nicola      Please can I take your user ID?
   27/05/2012 20:35:24        Customer        Curtis Ledger      TheSheriff
   27/05/2012 20:36:07        Agent        Nicola      For security please can I take [security questions - removed]?
   27/05/2012 20:36:16        Customer        Curtis Ledger      [removed]
   27/05/2012 20:36:19        Customer        Curtis Ledger      [removed]
   27/05/2012 20:37:01        Agent        Nicola     Thanks, let me check
   27/05/2012 20:38:15        Agent        Nicola     I am showing that you won entry therefore did not pay to enter, is this right ?
   27/05/2012 20:38:35        Customer        Curtis Ledger      Yes, I satellited in from a quarter final
   27/05/2012 20:39:02        Customer        Curtis Ledger      So I did pay to enter, but only £52.50
   27/05/2012 20:39:44        Agent        Nicola     I am sorry you paid to enter the quarter final which you played, you then won entry to the next game, so there is nothing to refund.
   27/05/2012 20:40:29        Customer        Curtis Ledger      How can that be - I've won two tournaments from a cash buy-in?
   27/05/2012 20:40:43        Customer        Curtis Ledger      So I've won £1,100 on your site
   27/05/2012 20:40:48        Agent        Nicola      There is nothing to refund, you won entry , you didn't pay
   27/05/2012 20:41:17        Customer        Curtis Ledger      Of course I paid - please put me through to a supervisor - this is ridiculos
   27/05/2012 20:41:23        Customer        Curtis Ledger      ridiculous
   27/05/2012 20:42:04        Customer        Curtis Ledger      And I'm either going to get refunded or you can re-enter me back in the tournament.
   27/05/2012 20:42:10        Customer        Curtis Ledger      But this needs sorting before 9pm
   27/05/2012 20:42:45        Customer        Curtis Ledger      And I'm about to post on blondepoker about this, so will be some very bad PR if this doesn't get sorted.
   27/05/2012 20:43:06        Agent        Nicola     I wont be able to refund you, do you want me to re-enter you. ?
   27/05/2012 20:43:34        Customer        Curtis Ledger      For now, yes, but I want to speak to a supervisor aswell
   27/05/2012 20:43:56        Customer        Curtis Ledger      Please show me the T&Cs that prevent me from unregistering an taking the cash
   27/05/2012 20:45:10        Agent        Nicola    I am shortly going to pass you to a manager
   27/05/2012 20:46:07        Customer        Curtis Ledger      Am I reregistered yet?
   27/05/2012 20:46:28        Agent        Nicola      Please bear with us
   27/05/2012 20:47:31        System        System      [Joe] JOINED SESSION 
   27/05/2012 20:47:44        Customer        Curtis Ledger      Hello Joe
   27/05/2012 20:47:56        Agent        Joe     Hi, you have been transferred to Joe, I am the Duty Manager this evening, how can I help?
   27/05/2012 20:48:40        Customer        Curtis Ledger      The previous person has told me that my £1,100 entry is simply 'forfeit' if I unregister, but it has a cash value of £1,100
   27/05/2012 20:49:14        Customer        Curtis Ledger      She claims I didn't pay for it, but I bought into a Qtr final with cash and then won two tournaments, so how does it not have cash value?
   27/05/2012 20:49:30        Customer        Curtis Ledger      And why does the software give me the option to unregister if this is not the case?
   27/05/2012 20:49:52        Agent        Joe     It would only have a cash value of £1100 to be refunded if you actually paid that buy in yourself, if we have paid itt on your behalf as a prize from a satellite then you would not be due this sum as an alternative to the seat as the prize was the seat.
   27/05/2012 20:50:03        Agent        Joe     *it
   27/05/2012 20:50:37        Customer        Curtis Ledger      Please point me to the T&Cs in respect of this, as this is ridiculous.
   27/05/2012 20:50:50        Agent        Joe      " Please note that if you've won entry to a tournament via a satellite and then cancel the registration, you won't receive any money back for the cancellation as your entry was of no monetary value. If you are unable to make the tournament then please co
   27/05/2012 20:50:50        Agent              ntact Customer Care and we may be able to make alternative arrangements. " - article 1144
   27/05/2012 20:51:10        Customer        Curtis Ledger      Every other site would honour this as cash, as I've effectively won two tournaments, funded by the buyin of others. Sky has added nothing to the prizepool.
   27/05/2012 20:51:47        Customer        Curtis Ledger      In that case please re-register me before 9pm and do something about showing the option to unregister.
   27/05/2012 20:52:20        Customer        Curtis Ledger      I'll take this up elsewhere on the forums but I'm not forfeiting the value without one hell of a fight
   27/05/2012 20:52:46        Customer        Curtis Ledger      And, by the way, I don't see that clause in the VLV T&Cs
   27/05/2012 20:54:17        Agent        Joe     I'd not be able to comment on any other sites terms and conditions in an official capacity, but in my experience of playing poker on other sites I have never seen this to be the case. Your comments are noted, but there isn't anything that we feel we need
   27/05/2012 20:54:17        Agent              to do about the option to unregister. The value of your prize is £0.00 as it was a free seat that you did not pay for. We are just re-registering you now on this occasion...
   27/05/2012 20:54:51        Customer        Curtis Ledger      Is it possible to get an email of this chat transcript?
   27/05/2012 20:55:15        Customer        Curtis Ledger      The fact that you quote the value as £0.00 is totally inaccurate.
   27/05/2012 20:55:34        Customer        Curtis Ledger      And worthy of further debate.
   27/05/2012 20:55:50        Customer        Curtis Ledger      In the meantime, thank you for reregistering me, at the very least.
   27/05/2012 20:56:10        Agent        Joe    Yes, certainly, please confirm the email address you would like it to be sent to. Can I just ask, how much of your own money did you contribute to this particular seat buy-in (not the buy-in for the satellite)?
   27/05/2012 20:58:21        Customer        Curtis Ledger      I paid £52.50 for a Qtr final, won entry into a £240 semi, and won the seat from there. However, as there's no added value in the tournament from Sky, this is basically the same as winning cash tournaments.
   27/05/2012 20:58:34        Customer        Curtis Ledger      Please email to [email addy]
   27/05/2012 21:00:23        Agent        Joe      As you did not mention anything you contributed to the buy-in for this seat (which we have now re-registered you for as a gesture of goodwill), I hope this explains why I referred to it having a value of £0.00 - I will email off a copy of this transcript
   27/05/2012 21:00:23        Agent              within 10 to 15 minutes of the end of this session. Is there anything else I can help with?
   27/05/2012 21:00:53        Customer        Curtis Ledger      no thank you
   27/05/2012 21:01:15        Agent        Joe      You're welcome, thanks for Chatting, bye for now.
   27/05/2012 21:01:32        System        System      [Joe] LEFT SESSION 
   27/05/2012 21:01:32        System        System      END OF SESSION 
   27/05/2012 21:01:32        System        System      CUSTOMER LEFT SESSION 
   27/05/2012 21:01:32        System        System      [Nicola] LEFT SESSION 

[pokerfan]

I had the same thing last year, unregged 5 minutes prior, tbf they did instantly put me back in .

Was rough as hell though and bubbled 

[sharky_uk]

I posted about this very issue here back in January 2011. It's ridiculous that this has not been changed yet!

[Doobs]

I know you can unreg on stars, but pretty sure you can't on ongame.   So it can't be standard to let you unreg.

They obviously shouldn't let you unreg if it isn't allowed though.  That is rubbish

[KarmaDope]

The thing that scares me about that transcript is the manager stating that your satellite win has no cash value!

It's not exactly industry standard to refund in cash if you win a sat and unreg. On stars, they only give you Tournament Dollars which can't be withdrawn (but can be sold), and I don't know of any other sites that do this.

Either way, that's still ELEVEN HUNDRED QUID of players money that has been "forfeited" according to Joe. No mate, that's £1100 which belongs to the players, not Sky. Are Sky going to add the £1100 to the prize pool? I doubt it.