Betclic management decided that Russian customers are not welcome there anymore. I think
they had their reasons for this decision and had the rights to do so. But in such case any
reputable company should send an email to all affected customers with something like this:
Dear customer, we decided to stop providing our services to the customers from your country.
Please request a withdrawal of all remaining balance from your account in next xx days. We
apologies for any inconvenience caused.
What has been done by Betclic? Approx. on September,24 they simply blocked access to their
site from Russian IPs without ANY explanation by email/SMS/phone etc. When I tried to access
the site, I was redirected to the page with the following text: "An error has occurred on
this page. We apologise for the error on this page. We have recognised the error and our
team will rectify the problem as soon as possible. Thank you for your support. All of the
BetClic team". Very informative, I have to say. Finally I could access their livechat and
was told that "unfortunately residents of Russia are no longer permittee to play on our
site. As soon as we have official confirmation of this we will contact you by email". When I
asked about withdrawal the answer was: "We do not have this information as yet. We will send
you an email as soon as we have this confirmation".
After that I contacted them every week at least once, because there wasn't any email from
them. After 1 month (!!!) of waiting (all the time they kept saying that even financial
department don't have any information) they told me that all withdrawals will be processed
only by bank transfer (I made all my deposits by Moneybookers and wanted to receive my money
back there) and asked for my bank account details. When I asked them that maybe they owe me
some compensation for so long waiting and all the inconvenience caused they answered that
"this is a internal decision and unfortunately no compensation can be awarded". I sent the
banking details and waited for any reply for 1 week and then contacted them again. They told
that my 20-digits bank account number is not enough for them and they need IBAN. I explained
that SWIFT code + 20-digits account number should be enough (I took this info from my bank's
website), because IBAN is not used in Russia. They apologised for misleading me and after
some minutes of waiting said the following: "I have been advised that we will need to get
back to you regarding this payment. We may need to offer a different method for this
transaction as our system will not accept your IBAN code. I can assure you that we will
inform you as soon as we have a solution regarding this".
After 1 more week of waiting I contacted them again on November,22 and was promised that
"your withdrawal will be processed by moneybookers within seven working days". I thought
that finally I will receive my money, but nothing happend in 7 working days. When I asked
what's going on they requested a copy of email where they promised that I will be paid in 7
working days. I told that the promise was made in livechat session and gave them exact date
and time of it including operator's name (I saved all chat sessions with them). The funniest
thing is that they couldn't find that chat session! I was asked to send them a screenshot of
chat session. I did that and contacted them next day. The answer was very smart: "Apologies
for the delay, we have contacted our payments division and although we don't exactly know
when your repayment will be effected it should be done in the near future". When I told that
I'm really f*ucked up with all this they replied with a portion of bullshit like "they doing
their best to resolve the situation" etc. The only useful phrase was "we have now been
advised that we may be able to pay out to moneybookers accounts therefore this is progress,
we are now just awaiting confirmation". That was on 1st of December and still no money.
Now you see how they treat their customers. Be careful with Betclic, who knows, maybe
tomorrow the customers from your country will be not welcome too...
they had their reasons for this decision and had the rights to do so. But in such case any
reputable company should send an email to all affected customers with something like this:
Dear customer, we decided to stop providing our services to the customers from your country.
Please request a withdrawal of all remaining balance from your account in next xx days. We
apologies for any inconvenience caused.
What has been done by Betclic? Approx. on September,24 they simply blocked access to their
site from Russian IPs without ANY explanation by email/SMS/phone etc. When I tried to access
the site, I was redirected to the page with the following text: "An error has occurred on
this page. We apologise for the error on this page. We have recognised the error and our
team will rectify the problem as soon as possible. Thank you for your support. All of the
BetClic team". Very informative, I have to say. Finally I could access their livechat and
was told that "unfortunately residents of Russia are no longer permittee to play on our
site. As soon as we have official confirmation of this we will contact you by email". When I
asked about withdrawal the answer was: "We do not have this information as yet. We will send
you an email as soon as we have this confirmation".
After that I contacted them every week at least once, because there wasn't any email from
them. After 1 month (!!!) of waiting (all the time they kept saying that even financial
department don't have any information) they told me that all withdrawals will be processed
only by bank transfer (I made all my deposits by Moneybookers and wanted to receive my money
back there) and asked for my bank account details. When I asked them that maybe they owe me
some compensation for so long waiting and all the inconvenience caused they answered that
"this is a internal decision and unfortunately no compensation can be awarded". I sent the
banking details and waited for any reply for 1 week and then contacted them again. They told
that my 20-digits bank account number is not enough for them and they need IBAN. I explained
that SWIFT code + 20-digits account number should be enough (I took this info from my bank's
website), because IBAN is not used in Russia. They apologised for misleading me and after
some minutes of waiting said the following: "I have been advised that we will need to get
back to you regarding this payment. We may need to offer a different method for this
transaction as our system will not accept your IBAN code. I can assure you that we will
inform you as soon as we have a solution regarding this".
After 1 more week of waiting I contacted them again on November,22 and was promised that
"your withdrawal will be processed by moneybookers within seven working days". I thought
that finally I will receive my money, but nothing happend in 7 working days. When I asked
what's going on they requested a copy of email where they promised that I will be paid in 7
working days. I told that the promise was made in livechat session and gave them exact date
and time of it including operator's name (I saved all chat sessions with them). The funniest
thing is that they couldn't find that chat session! I was asked to send them a screenshot of
chat session. I did that and contacted them next day. The answer was very smart: "Apologies
for the delay, we have contacted our payments division and although we don't exactly know
when your repayment will be effected it should be done in the near future". When I told that
I'm really f*ucked up with all this they replied with a portion of bullshit like "they doing
their best to resolve the situation" etc. The only useful phrase was "we have now been
advised that we may be able to pay out to moneybookers accounts therefore this is progress,
we are now just awaiting confirmation". That was on 1st of December and still no money.
Now you see how they treat their customers. Be careful with Betclic, who knows, maybe
tomorrow the customers from your country will be not welcome too...