[Resolved] bwin's leap year bonus

[Shocked]

Hiya

I'm probably just being completely paranoid here, but after the lucky ace casino thing, I feel like I should be rather careful.

What is bwin's reputation like? I did bwin's instant casino's leap year bonus and made a small amount net (with the bonus). Problem is that the bonus is sitting there as a 'playable bonus' and I can't do anything with it.

Customer support have verified that I have completed the wagering requirements by some margin (quite pleased as I think I'll get into suicide if I see another chartwell casino), but state that I can't move the money atm as there is a technical problem...then yesterday I got this email from CS:

Dear Mr Shocked,

We would like to inform you that there has been a technical error in the calculation of the wagering requirements of your Casino Leap Year bonus that is blocking your bonus from being withdrawn from your Casino account.

In order to receive the bonus in real money in your betting account please follow the steps below:

- Log-in to your Casino account and sell 50 chips in order to force the cancellation of the bonus.

- Send us an e-mail informing us that your bonus has now been cancelled.

Once we receive your e-mail we will credit manually in real money the bonus amount in your betting account. Please allow 2-3 working days from the time you send us the e-mail for the amount to be credited.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused and we thank you for your co-operation. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any further queries.

Kind regards

Your bwin service team
b'inside Green Members

Now, I don't mind it going to the sportbook part of the site as it seems good, but I'm slightly concerned that if I sell the chips then it will invalidate my bonus and I won't see that money.

Soo my question is...is bwin trustworthy? What's people's experience of them?

[bwin]

Hi Shocked

First of all: Welcome to this forum!

Second: The technical problems mentioned in the email are actually a human mistake made in the setup of the bonus, so that it ended up in to high wagering requirements. As we are completely aware of the fact that this is 100% bwins fault and nothing that should affect our customers, we decided to credit the money manually to the peoples sportsbook accountsif they already met the correct wagering requirements, because that is the only clean solution for us (combination of technical and accounting reasons).

but as we want to avoid people to get the released bonus as real money on their sportsbook account AND in the casino after meeting the too high wagering requirements, we have to ask our customers to sell their bonus chips before we can credit them the released bonus as real money on the sportsbook account.

so I hope this makes it clear WHY we are doing it the way stated in the email - and I think it is a fair solution for our clients, because our mistake will not result in any significant disadvantage for our customers.

I guarantee you that you will get your money if you really met the bonus requirements stated in the terms and conditions - and in case you still experience any problems, please feel free to contact me here in the forum via private message or another posting in the public area.

Kind regards

Benjamin

[Shocked]

Thanks for replying Benjamin,

I'll do as stated in the email and sell the chips - the people on the phone stated that I had gone way past the wagering requirements, so hopefully there won't be anymore problems...it's a far from ideal way of doing it though!

Hopefully in 2-3 days I'll be able to report back that the bonus has been credited!

[bwin]

Hi Shocked

We are completely aware that this is far from ideal and we already changed our procedures to avoid such problems in the future. Humans make mistakes, but the important thing is that we learn something out of it and avoid these mistakes in the future. We do our best to deal with this situation and to avoid inconveniences for the customers - but this does not mean that we can give away twice the money as planned.

Thank you very much for your trust in bwin under these not ideal circumstances!

Kind regards

Benjamin

[Shocked]

Just to say that the money was recredited and it didn't even take 24 hours...so kudos to bwin and Benjamin...and thank you for not giving me another reason to feel more cynical towards casinos / bookies =)

[Casimir67]

Hi,
i have the same problem.I am waiting since 29.02. that day i send a email to the support,they answer at 01.03. "we will forward it to the right department and i will get a answer maybe monday or tuesday".Monday come Tuesday come and nothing happend.I emailed support tuesday and they answered wednesday that i have to cancel the bonus and they will deposit it manual into my account.
Ok, i do that on wednesday and emailed support that i have canceled the bonus and that they please credit it into my account.Thursday and friday i send email to support, but since i have canceled the bonus support never respond to my emails.
Thank you..

[bwin]

Hi casimir

please PM me your bwin username so that I can follow up on what happened with your bonus.
if you met the wagering requirements stated in the terms and conditions, you will get the money!

kind regards

Benjamin

[vinylweatherman]

Looks like support screwed up with this latest one. The delay being the initial incomplete information, not explaining the need to cancel the bonus by selling chips before the manual correction could be applied. This has now been exacerbated by the failure to respond to Emails after the cancellation of the bonus by the player. This is probably coincidence, but is also EXACTLY how rogue casinos operate, except that the "coincidence" is intended. The worry for players in this kind of situation is that having completed the first part, they have lost any record of the bonus in their casino account, and have to 100% trust in "joined up" CS in crediting the bonus manually as stated. Even if this player had not completed WR, they were lead to believe so by the initial two replies from CS.
As this was a general technical problem, there are likely to be many players affected, even though only two so far have posted here. If this problem persists due to further human error, or slowness in responding to queries and explaining what it is necessary to do, trust will begin to break down, and adverse comment will appear on other fora, and there is no way the rep here can monitor all of them.
It may be best to audit ALL accounts that received this bonus, and for those identified as having fallen victim of this error (met WR, and have a positive balance), have them sent an Email explaining the situation, and what they need to do to allow them, if they wish, to make a withdrawal of their cleared bonus into the sportsbook. This will show to these players that Bwin are not intentionally profiting from a technical error, and these players will probably think more highly of a casino group that admits to an error even though affected players have not noticed and may think nothing is wrong, because they are yet to find out.

[bwin]

hi vinylweatherman

basically you are right - BUT you have to keep in mind that customers have 60 days to meet the wagering requirements. so to do it automatically we would have to wait these 60 days - something that's is also very hard to communicate our customers. the approach we choose is by far not optimal but I think it is still a good compromise between waiting time and getting your cash.
Another thing is, that the bonus with the wrong wagering requirements was online for only one day, then the bonus link has been changed to one with the correct wagering requirements - so not that many people have been affected. also taking into account that only quite a small percentage of our player are actually able to meet the correct wagering requirements, not too many people are affected.

I completely understand if this has an impact on the trust into bwin Casino - but I have to say once more that we are not rogue at all but there is still room for improvements and we try to be as fair to our customers as possible!

kind regards

Benjamin

[Shocked]

I have to say that once I carried out the 'selling chip' thing, the bonus got credited within a few hours and I've subsequently done further betting and 2 withdrawals with absolutely no problems. I didn't give Benjamin my username so it would've been unlikely to have been bwin making special effort for a complainer.

The only problem I really had was the fact that the solution sounded like a scam. It wasn't, but if you've seen some of the casino nasties, an email asking you to negate your own bonus, does, like VWM says, make it look like bwin are behaving in a rogue manner (obviously, they aren't!)

If it happens again, it might be worth looking at other ways in which to 'hit the TV' and get the bonuses working again.