Whats wrong with William Hill suddenly?

[rshkrn]

Their client used to have an "online support" button for instant chat but I don't see that any more, also the chat from the website keeps saying "Trying to connect" and no one ever shows up. What even more funny is that I don't receive any replies to my emails either and I am a VIP at WH. Anyone else having similar issues? Didn't expect that from someone as reputable as WH.

[jetset]

They've been trying to get on top of a major crisis since last Friday - see below:

MASS WALKOUT AT WILL HILL ONLINE GAMBLING SUPPORT CENTRE


Israelis fear that jobs are being moved to Gibraltar


In a Sun newspaper exclusive this morning, reporters claim that major British online and land gambling group William Hill plc has been rocked by a mass walkout by nearly 200 staff at a support centre in Tel Aviv, Israel.

And the company's chief marketing officer in Israel, Eyal Sanoff, has reportedly also quit his post.

The Sun claims that William Hill executives flew out "for peace talks" over the weekend amid fears that Hill's important internet business could suffer.

According to the newspaper, Tel Aviv handles almost all the marketing and customer support functions for the bookmakers' online empire.

The article quotes Israeli staff members as saying that they believe William Hill is about to move the Israeli functions to the UK or Gibraltar.

One staff member told the newspaper: "Everyone's worried. The last two years have been really good. We all bought into the company's thinking, such as hating [rival group] Ladbrokes, but the situation has deteriorated and people are really worried about their jobs.

"All 180 staff walked out on Sunday, which is a working day here, and only 20 came back today."

Jim Mullen, one of the Will Hill execs who flew in to address the crisis, allegedly offered staff members a month's pay if they would break the unofficial strike and report for work.

William Hill's online business is a key part of its business plans, and is on track to generate profits of more than GBP 100 million for the company this year.

The Sun revealed last month that the company plans to start paying punters if other gamblers follow their tips online.

Approached by The Sun, William Hill spokesmen reportedly refused to comment.


WILL HILL COMMENTS ON TEL AVIV SUPPORT STAFF WALKOUT (Update)

And it appears that the dissension is wider spread than Israel


Our report earlier today on the Tel Aviv walkout of William Hill support centre staff has been followed by a statement from the company indicating that some managers may face disciplinary measures, there is no intention to relocate operations to Gibraltar, and that dissension has also been experienced in the Manila and Bulgarian operational centres.

The William Hill statement reads:

"Following newspaper reports today, William Hill plc can confirm that Eyal Sanoff, Chief Marketing Officer of William Hill Online's marketing team in Tel Aviv, resigned on 27 September.

"Several other senior managers in Tel Aviv are now subject to disciplinary actions in relation to the disruption this week within the marketing business in Tel Aviv, and in the customer service and back office operations in Manila and Bulgaria.

"Senior William Hill Online management are currently on the ground in Tel Aviv working through these issues, although it should be noted that the office in Tel Aviv will be closed from tomorrow [Wednesday] through to early next week, as normal, through the Jewish holiday period.

"The vast majority of employees of the marketing team in Tel Aviv have good working relationships with the business and with colleagues across William Hill Online. William Hill Online is committed to its sales and marketing operation in Tel Aviv and contrary to media reports has no intention of relocating this operation.

"William Hill Online can confirm that this situation is not directly affecting the availability of any consumer facing websites at present within the Group. There will be a further update as necessary."

[vinylweatherman]

William Hill Online can confirm that this situation is not directly affecting the availability of any consumer facing websites at present within the Group.

Believing that could be their downfall. Whilst the websites might work, there is noone there to help if even the slightest thing goes wrong. To make matters worse, rather than telling customers that there is a problem that has caused all support channels to be inoperative, they are presenting a "lights are on, but no-one's home" front to their customers. If the walkout was Sunday, we are now in day 3 of all emails being ignored, phones not being answered, and live chat forever trying to connect. Many of the queries will be time critical, and a backlog of issues will begin to build up. This would be bad enough if players had been informed, but whilst trying to broker a deal, the players have been left in the dark. The problems will quickly begin to affect withdrawals, with their being no staff to act on withdrawal requests made via the website, which will simply sit in limbo. The ONLY thing that will still be working will be deposits.

For players unaware of the situation, they will start to think that the company has collapsed, and only the "automated" stuff is working because no-one thought to switch it off.

The Israeli staff have HUGE power over the company, and if they realise this, WH will be faced with having to make considerable concessions or face a long dispute. If they really have no back-up plan in place because the problem has spread, they could be in serious trouble.

Disciplining local management could also backfire, as the staff could consider this as victimising management who were actually supporting the staff in addressing their grievances prior to the walkout.

If WH get found out for lying about plans to relocate, they could face further strikes. Clearly, something happened that gave some credibilty to the idea, enough so that the current support staff feared for their jobs.

[rainmaker]

.

Playtech has released a short statement today as well (with reference to WH statement from yesterday)

Statement re: William Hill Online announcement

Playtech (AIM:PTEC), the international designer, developer and licensor of software and services to the online, mobile and land-based gaming industry, acknowledges the announcement by William Hill plc regarding William Hill Online issued yesterday.


As a minority shareholder in William Hill Online, Playtech is in dialogue with the William Hill group regarding these operational issues. Further updates will be provided as necessary.

[Mousey]

The staff's fears of job losses and subsequent walk out may have entangled them in a self fulfilling prophecy. If WH wants to take the jobs elsewhere, time to get off the stick and do it now. If WH loses too many online players over the total lack of support and information, the online casino portion may fold or be sold and the striking staff members may then be out of jobs also.

[sattty]

cant stand the new william hill...its rubbish...

used to love the old casino...but the revamped one is pants

[vinylweatherman]

.

Playtech has released a short statement today as well (with reference to WH statement from yesterday)

Statement re: William Hill Online announcement

Playtech (AIM:PTEC), the international designer, developer and licensor of software and services to the online, mobile and land-based gaming industry, acknowledges the announcement by William Hill plc regarding William Hill Online issued yesterday.


As a minority shareholder in William Hill Online, Playtech is in dialogue with the William Hill group regarding these operational issues. Further updates will be provided as necessary.

Waste of ink - doesn't say anything more than the "bleedin' obvious".

Day 3 of ZERO support should have them implementing emergency back up measures, which a company like William Hill ought to have available at short notice. At the very least, they should find a means to inform all their players what is going on, rather than leave them in limbo thinking the worst.

I am sure their competitors are not sitting by, but figuring out what they can do to take full advantage of this weakness before William Hill can put any kind of recovery plan into motion.

[DiamondGeezer]

Yes hopefully some bright spark at LADS will offer us all a HUGE bonus .

[jetset]

This issue is certainly generating a lot of 'street talk' - some of it rumour and some of it based on an email sent by William Hill Online exec Henry Birch in an

attempt to get the Israelis (and possibly the Manila and Bulgaria employees) back to work.

First, the rumour. Apparently senior managers in Israel were alarmed at the manner in which WHO was changing and chopping their responsibilities, and

interpreted this as an intention to move operations to Britain or (more likely) Gibraltar. This filtered down to the staff and created an unhappy and insecure

vibe among the work force, which was further exacerbated by the resignation of the top man on September 27 and finally led to the walkout last Friday.

The fact: there is a leaked email circulating, allegedly from WHO chief exec Henry Birch to staff offering incentives to return to work and denying that there is

any intention to switch operations away from Israel.

QUOTE:

• Anyone who comes to work tomorrow (Tuesday) or Sunday 23rd October and continues to come to work will receive an extra one month’s salary in their

next salary in November

• Anyone who continues to work in the longer term will receive an extra month’s salary in June 2012. Both of these payments are in addition to any bonuses

or any 13th month payments.

• For anyone who continues to work, their notice period will be extended from one month to 6 months. This means that should people lose their jobs (for any

reason other than bad performance or gross misconduct), they would automatically receive 6 months’ salary. This means that if you want to leave at any

time you have to give the company 1 month notice, but if we want you to leave we have to give you 6 months’ notice or the equivalent money. Just to be

clear, this means that at all times people will always be assured of 6 months future pay. This would be in addition to any “pitzuim”. However, I repeat – we

are committed to Israel and have no intention to close the office at any time.

"We are committed to Israel and have no intention to close the office at any time," the leaked email to employees read. "I know some people wanted a

commitment that their jobs were 'safe' until a certain date. If I give a date, people will assume that at that date we will close the office – which would not be

the case."

UNQUOTE

The offer followed a William Hill statement which included an intention to discipline certain managers within WHO for "fabricating information".

My personal opinion (and this is just one man's view) is that the relationship between WHO partners Playtech and William Hill plc is fractious (you may recall

there was some unpleasantness and court injunctions earlier this year)

Will Hill is the dominant 70 percent partner in the agreement, which I seem to recall comes to an end/renewal next year, and it is possible that William Hill

has been restructuring management responsibilities as part of a possible preliminary plan to move the marketing to Gibraltar after the expiry of the

agreement.

If that specualtion is correct, then this unofficial strike pre-empted them and has possibly disrupted the plan...without derailing it altogether.

That six months notice deal looks to me like an escape clause, preparing the ground for next year but juicy enough to mollify the Israeli workers in the short

term.

[rshkrn]

thanks to the mods and admins who have put in efforts to clarify the situation, meanwhile everything seems to be back to normal (for now i guess). But if WH has a rep here and on other forums their reps should have ensured that a proper communication or statement was made to stop players from getting alarmed. That's what reps are there for...