Look at the more general idea of this.
I go into my supermarket, and they have an offer on, buy 2 packets of choco crunch, and get the third free.
I go to the till with my three packets, but am told, "sorry, this offer is not available to YOU because of your status". I say "status, what do you mean?". The checkout person replies "This has been decided by the store management, they don't have to explain".
I would be livid, and I doubt this would be an acceptable way for a supermarket to behave. I am certainly NOT going to feel "positive" about them when I leave the store.
When it comes to casinos (any, not just those mentioned here), it's somehow different. Why is this? Perhaps THIS is the problem. If something is ADVERTISED, then ANYONE seeing the advert has an expectation that they will be treated as a "normal customer", and THIS is what is so very galling when it comes to this BS about "your status...etc..." It is like being accused of something without knowing what, and being unable to say "hey I am just a normal customer, nobody special, so why am I being being discriminated against.
The rep has only poured fuel on this smoldering debate (for CWC, it has arisen in many threads) by posting
....They are not invitation only, although you will receive a notification by email when they are scheduled in......
This is completely WRONG!
They ARE "invitation only", and the email is not merely a courtesy reminder for what is easily available on the webpage, it is your INVITATION. No email, no coupon - it may be entered as displayed, and used on the correct date, but it won't work.
I have not played at Club World since the beginning of the year, but as far as I am concerned I am "suspected of something" because my earlier VIP status was yanked overnight, and replaced with a status lower than that of a new player. The secretive way all this "status allocation" is done only strengthens my view that I have come to the attention of their "risk department" for something negative enough to prompt me to be dropped like the proverbial "hot potato" when it comes to my continuing to be VIP, although not anything so serious to cause my account to be audited 9with consequential delay in payment). Now if I had breached the terms, or make them think I was a fraud in some way, I would have expected delays in payment, so it cannot be that, but I nevertheless STILL feel slighted, and this has make me feel negatively about them.
I suspect that other players have suffered this "status downgrade", which seems entirely unwarranted, and makes them feel negatively towards the group too. It is no wonder then, that they are coming in for more negative press than recently.
Players may move on; as in my supermarket example, I would look for another supermarket, BUT I would continue to be resentful of my treatment, and would hold a negative impression, and let it be known if said supermarket was discussed.
The biggest problem about casinos online is that they have NOTHING ELSE other than the promotions, so if they pull promotions from a group of players, how do they replace them so that the player still feels valued, rather than unwanted. They can hardly email free drinks, or a nights free accommodation.
If casinos are going to start negatively discriminating against groups of players, they are going to get negative views expressed from these players, no matter how good an operation they are. These views will be in a minority, and will be in stark contrast to the views of the majority who get to use all those coupons on the websites, and/or who have experienced nothing but good service.
The art of discriminating against groups of players is to do it in a way that those negatively discriminated against have no idea they ARE being discriminated against. There are quite a few casinos that manage this simply by emailing the offers, and ensuring that EVERYBODY at least gets an email. The offers might be double comps for those players the casino wants rid of, and 100% bonus for those the casino wants to keep, but those offered the double comps do not know what others have been offered, so will feel just as valued in THAT casino as any other player, even though they might go elsewhere because double comps wasn't as good as what was on offer elsewhere.
Once casinos start indroducing other ways of rewarding loyalty, the problems caused by players feeling they are being treated as "second class" will not go away. The industry has created the situation where the player EXPECTS something on top of their deposit, and so the industry has to find a way to satisfy that expectation when they decide they need to get rid of the bonus model.
and so on.
