Betfred - Sneaky hidden bonus terms

[brutaldeluxe]

Hi, just a warning to others so you don't get caught out like I did.


I've had a few emails with subject "You have a surprise" lately from Betfred with offers of a bonus. The most recent ones had this sentence.....

"For example, when you deposit GBP 400 you'll receive the maximum bonus and play with 600 GBP for better chances to win. Click here for full details."


Click here for full details, a link which explained the terms and conditions. OK cool


The most recent email was very similar except it didn't have a click here for full details sentence in it. At the bottom of the email it said....

"Betfred Casino House Rules and General Bonus Rules apply."


Ok fine.


It turns out that the PICTURE in the email which says "You have a surprise" was in fact a link to the terms and conditions of this bonus. This bonus was different as .....

"This bonus is for play purposes only and will be removed from a players balance once a withdrawal/transfer has been made."



This is all sneakily hidden away and it's not at all obvious that the picture is a link. In fact there is nothing to suggest it is. Nothing which says click here or anything.


Unfortunately I was caught out and deposited £750 for a 100% bonus only to find out that after being tied to a massive wagering that the bonus I had was worthless. I complained to live support and they said oh sorry for any confusion but tough luck.

I PM'ed the betfred rep here and he said oh your 20% cashback has now been credited (Big deal I would have gotten that anyway) and as a gesture of good will he credited me £50. Of course both those had another playthrough requirement on them too, needless to say they didn't last long.


Losing is never fun but it happens. But I can't but help feel like I have been conned a bit here. Very sneaky term hidden away very nicely. So be aware.......don't make the same mistake I did and think twice before playing with Betfred as if something goes wrong it doesn't seem like they are too bothered.

[vinylweatherman]

Hi, just a warning to others so you don't get caught out like I did.


I've had a few emails with subject "You have a surprise" lately from Betfred with offers of a bonus. The most recent ones had this sentence.....

"For example, when you deposit GBP 400 you'll receive the maximum bonus and play with 600 GBP for better chances to win. Click here for full details."


Click here for full details, a link which explained the terms and conditions. OK cool


The most recent email was very similar except it didn't have a click here for full details sentence in it. At the bottom of the email it said....

"Betfred Casino House Rules and General Bonus Rules apply."


Ok fine.


It turns out that the PICTURE in the email which says "You have a surprise" was in fact a link to the terms and conditions of this bonus. This bonus was different as .....

"This bonus is for play purposes only and will be removed from a players balance once a withdrawal/transfer has been made."



This is all sneakily hidden away and it's not at all obvious that the picture is a link. In fact there is nothing to suggest it is. Nothing which says click here or anything.


Unfortunately I was caught out and deposited £750 for a 100% bonus only to find out that after being tied to a massive wagering that the bonus I had was worthless. I complained to live support and they said oh sorry for any confusion but tough luck.

I PM'ed the betfred rep here and he said oh your 20% cashback has now been credited (Big deal I would have gotten that anyway) and as a gesture of good will he credited me £50. Of course both those had another playthrough requirement on them too, needless to say they didn't last long.


Losing is never fun but it happens. But I can't but help feel like I have been conned a bit here. Very sneaky term hidden away very nicely. So be aware.......don't make the same mistake I did and think twice before playing with Betfred as if something goes wrong it doesn't seem like they are too bothered.

This is VERY poor indeed, any bonus subject to special terms must make this ABSOLUTELY CLEAR. Since this bonus could be claimed WITHOUT clicking on the picture, this is NOT GOOD ENOUGH, since many players would assume (quite rightly) that NORMAL house rules applied.

If there were special terms, there should have been an OBVIOUS link, with text to the effect "click here for terms and conditions for this offer". Ideally they should have made an extra effort to indicate these terms were NOT simply the "house rules", and that players had to read them.

The difference is crucial, because it could influence whether the player was prepared to deposit for the offer. The WR might seem reasonable for a "normal" bonus, but NOT for a phantom one, and the player would then have declined the offer.

Now, players caught out by this will be looking for further "tricks", and this weakens the trust they formerly had in the brand - they will assume that OTHER bonuses will have "hidden" terms, and they might be even worse than the bonus merely being phantom, such as max cashouts, different game restrictions, and max bet restrictions, all of which have caught out players at many other establishments.

[zippedup]

There are actually quite a few casinos that don't allow you to keep the bonus they give you no matter how much you win. I avoid these like the plague. They do give you the extra money to play with but you always must remember their are no games where the house doesn't have some advantage. So the more you gamble the better your chance of losing.

Some of the terms at these places can be quite confusing(on purpose no doubt). One has to read the terms very very carefully

[brutaldeluxe]

Well I just got another "you have a surprise" email from betfred. This time is does have a click here for details sentence so that is good.
Upon clicking it I see that it is offering me the phantom bonus again.
I knew to look out for it this time........it's just a pity that they conned me the first time and it cost me £750 to realise this.

Suffice to say I won't be betting with betfraud, er betfred again in a hurry.

[vinylweatherman]

Well I just got another "you have a surprise" email from betfred. This time is does have a click here for details sentence so that is good.
Upon clicking it I see that it is offering me the phantom bonus again.
I knew to look out for it this time........it's just a pity that they conned me the first time and it cost me £750 to realise this.

Suffice to say I won't be betting with betfraud, er betfred again in a hurry.

Looks like someone spotted the error, and corrected it for the next time, but what about an APOLOGY for those who were caught out the first time.

There are many casinos offering this kind of bonus, but players expect to be told this is what is on offer, especially if this is NOT normal for that particular casino.

Casinos like to be creative, but they should also ensure that their creativity does NOT cause bad feeling among players who didn't quite grasp the promotion, but grasped enough to "give it a go" anyway.
I have often seen promotions where the ONLY way to fully understand them is to have a go, and look back on how things worked out. The LAST thing I would appreciate is finding out I had LESS money coming to me than the visible balance in my account after finishing play, and any WR on any promotional bonuses - often, there is more to come, such as a manager extra, lucky draw win, or even ending up higher on the scoreboard than I expected. I play many of these at MGS casinos, and bonuses for regular players have ALWAYS been cashable, so if the bonus balance shows zero, I KNOW that what sits in my account is ALL mine, and free to be withdrawn.

[sparkz]

betfred are a certain nono... the casino is owned by a non uk company called "petfre" and its simply poor...

as mentioned before i played with £300+ of my deposits... blackjack was a losing streak constantly. Every bet over £3 would lose.

Then I went on and played slots. 50p a spin. Not 1 bonus. Most of my spins won nothing except 1 or 2 which were just about 70p and there was a few winning less than my spin amount.

When all was lost..I simply asked them if there was a chance for a free chip to grant me a bit more entertainment seeing that my £300+ worth of deposits were almost mugged off me. Live support said no...

I then emailed their support direct. A manager replied and also said nope.


Avoid!!!

[Betfred]

Hi everyone,

I'm the new casino manager at Betfred and I'm trying to do the rounds here, picking up old threads and getting feedback.

First off, a big thanks to brutaldeluxe for pointing me to this one.

In regards to the main issue here: bonus terms and conditions, their clarity and accessibility, is of paramount importance to me. Putting the link in images, which can break, is very bad practice. I will be tightening up emails, making sure bonus terms are present or clearly linked to in an appropriate page, and equally ensuring that t&cs are clear and in line with industry expectations. Furthermore, I will be ensuring that adequate compensation is awarded when Betfred is at fault, because, let's face it, everyone can make mistakes - people just need to hold their hands up and make the best of a bad situation.

If you can PM usernames I can review accounts and add goodwill bonuses where applicable, including you please sparkz, who's experience here definitely warranted a bonus of some form.

Also, I'm reviewing the use of non redeemable bonuses here and will be making adjustments in either the wagering requirements or making the actual bonus amounts redeemable.

Kind regards,

Aaron

[Nifty29]

Hi everyone,

I'm the new casino manager at Betfred and I'm trying to do the rounds here, picking up old threads and getting feedback.

First off, a big thanks to brutaldeluxe for pointing me to this one.

In regards to the main issue here: bonus terms and conditions, their clarity and accessibility, is of paramount importance to me. Putting the link in images, which can break, is very bad practice. I will be tightening up emails, making sure bonus terms are present or clearly linked to in an appropriate page, and equally ensuring that t&cs are clear and in line with industry expectations. Furthermore, I will be ensuring that adequate compensation is awarded when Betfred is at fault, because, let's face it, everyone can make mistakes - people just need to hold their hands up and make the best of a bad situation.

If you can PM usernames I can review accounts and add goodwill bonuses where applicable, including you please sparkz, who's experience here definitely warranted a bonus of some form.

Also, I'm reviewing the use of non redeemable bonuses here and will be making adjustments in either the wagering requirements or making the actual bonus amounts redeemable.

Kind regards,

Aaron

Good work Aaron!

Some promising ideas.

Could you please review the minimum coin value of your new slots? E.g. Viking, gems and panda . It is currently .20c minimum which means $4 per spin which means you're excluding a lot of players, including me. The same with the circle soft slot it goes from $1 a spin straight to $100 with nothing in between.

If you would consider this I would most definitely play at betfred more than I do currently.

[brutaldeluxe]

Well I got given a £50 bonus with 20x wagering requirement (game weightings apply) and apparently that is supposed to make it ok.
I did point out that's what the first betfred rep offered me so it would appear different name, same practices.
After being conned out of £750 I didn't really feel that was adequate compensation but after saying this to Aaron apparently this is supposed
to be fair. So for me, nothing has changed at betfred. I would be interested to hear if anyone else gets on any better.

[Nifty29]

Well I got given a £50 bonus with 20x wagering requirement (game weightings apply) and apparently that is supposed to make it ok.
I did point out that's what the first betfred rep offered me so it would appear different name, same practices.
After being conned out of £750 I didn't really feel that was adequate compensation but after saying this to Aaron apparently this is supposed
to be fair. So for me, nothing has changed at betfred. I would be interested to hear if anyone else gets on any better.

I agree. It's very disappointing.

Aaron had a real chance to show how genuine betfred is now. A bonus that you're almost certain to lose isn't even close to fair compensation.