The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly...
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Merry Christmas everyone!!!
As expected, the forum is all-too-quiet. So, I thought since I have too much time on my hands (from living far away from family, and by being hit hard by a losing streak that's lasted TOO long), I'd like to talk about the good/bad points of certain customer support groups.
Over the past month, I've deposited/played at the following casinos:
(C-) - Littlewoods (Cryptologic)
(A+) - 32Red (MG)
(C-) - Phoenician Casino (MG)
(C+) - Bet365 (PlayTech)
(A) - King Neptune's Casino (MG)
(B+) - Capital Casino (MG)
(D-/F) - 777Dragon Online (MG)
(D-/F) - Maple Casino (MG)
(A) - VegasUSA Casino (MG)
I've also graded them on how well their customer support teams were. These grades are based on a multitude of factors. Examples would include promptness, availability, information regarding your account information & their own sets of T&C's, and online or live-chat etiquette.
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Littlewoods (C-)
Why? Well, it sure takes an effort on their part to reply to the player. I've sent out maybe 4 queries thus far over the past 4 weeks (or so), and I've received only 1 response. Not good. But, when they DID respond, they were very straightforward and clear. Just my perspective, but if casinos are not going to offer live-chat to assist the player, then they best reply pronto like a RoxyPalace (and ALWAYS respond). Great casino, nice promos and such, but the customer support is relatively weak.
32Red (A+)
Why? Okay, you're sick of hearing about it, understood. But I MUST repeat why they deserve so much praise for their customer support. They respond to emails quickly, and I'd say just as quickly as a
RoxyPalace or a
Trident Lounge. Very prompt. And they're always available via live-chat (which to me, is the best method). And IF you require to speak to them in person, you can get them to call you back. All-in-all, their availability is outstanding. In terms of etiquette, they don't try to roll-over you with automated crap. They talk to you, and they never make the player feel little... never. They respect the player, and listen. I've never heard about any problems with payouts or with
32Red changing their terms & conditions. Compared to the rest of the playing field, they're amongst the best if not
the best in the industry.
Phoenician Casino (C-)
Why? Well, they could very well get anywhere from a B+ and up, but... Okay, wait, before I get to that, talk about the good points of their customer support. Readily available. Big plus. They're pretty good at responding to emails as well. They DO pay, and despite wavering rules, instantly. Great!!! But, there's lots of negatives as well. Changing their T&C's, not being clear enough about those changes. Hey, if they're going to advertise instant payments, at least warn the customers that it must be for a minimum deposit of $100. IMHO, if you're going to credit the player with a bonus, and clearly state the parameters of those bonuses prior to the person playing, you shouldn't alter the conditions on-the-fly. They did so twice in a 24-hour period, and they've changed their conditions with me on two seperate occasions with the only bonuses that I was credited with (or claimed). Not good at all. Also, misinformation. Speaking to each online rep there, I found that they're all giving me different information. No continuity. And at last, etiquette. At this casino, VERY dependent on whom you're speaking with. My guess is, that they might be slightly moody for good reasons. Perhaps they too are angry about the information being passed-around by one-another, and their changing T&C's. Lot's to learn on-the-fly. Who knows?
Bet365 Casino (C-)
Why? The good first. Their staff via phone are friendly enough. Their payment transfers (
NeTeller merchant accounts) are quick (and tedious for new players), and there has never been a hold-up because the player is essentially doing the work (our responsibility I suppose). They respond to emails, quickly no, but they respond within a 12-24 hour period (generally). The bad is simple. Speaking to their telephone rep. and via email, when asking about future promotions being offered at
Bet365, they ALWAYS tell me about the initial deposit match bonus. That's super, but I'm inquiring about "future" promotions, not something that happened almost a year ago. And they keep trying to pump-up that initial deposit bonus. Got it. It was swell, AND it's over... long over for me. But they keep re-selling it to me, despite that I can't reclaim it. Puzzling to me. Very puzzling. And basically, what that all boils-down-to is this, their promotions for the casino are nil. Got it? Good! They keep telling me how they offer wonderful bonuses/ongoing promotions for their sportsbook and their poker room. Great! But I'm a casino player. And as I'm told again, and again, like the initial match bonus (which is no good to me anymore), that the
Bet365 group pumps a lot of money into their sportsbook AND their poker room, but NOT their casino. Wonderful. Talking to their support (or reading their emails) is like chatting with a doll where you have to pull-the-string. Funny, and useless. Wonderful casino that offers live-BJ, but the customer support has nothing to talk about. You're better off going to their live-BJ and talking to the wonderful Filipino ladies.
King Neptune's Casino/
VegasUSA Casino (A)
Why? Great response time, great etiquette, fair, you know you're going to be paid (and this from what is very well known, not based on my experience, because I
NEVER win at these casinos). They offer live chat, and they have a long list of international phone numbers (although I think the call-back method has it's benefits). I would gladly give this group an A+, but I feel they are the absolute slightest shade below
32Red, as I seem recall a couple times getting the automated RNG response while chatting. I hate that, but I really like this group (just not for my BRUTAL luck there).
Capital Casino (B+)
Why? I have a slight bias towards this outfit, not because I generally do well there, but because they're under-promoted (to the max), and they are so-so-so generic (which is so boring, I somehow find it interesting... a polarized effect). If you went to all the sites main pages for each and every casino listed at
Bonusrating.com, I'd have to think that
Capital Casino would have to rank in the bottom 10% in terms of eye-candy (it's like a
G-Fed or something). But, they respond very quickly to my emails, and have done so for years. I have no idea who's in charge (perhaps trainees for
The Belle Rock Group), but the support has been quite generous with me. In fact, more than EVERYONE say for
32Red (which comes as a major surprise to me). Maybe they're desperate for any kind of contact, I haven't a clue.
Fast payouts, and on weekends. For a casino I would have assumed was 99.99% automated, isn't. Their responses are pretty good, and they always respond. Where they lose some points, is for not supporting live-chat (which every casino should be doing). Heck, pretty much all
PlayTech's offer live-chat (it can't be
that hard to do).
Sidenote: I'd love to write a book about
Capital Casino. How the hell are they still in operation after all this time?! How come they aren't being promoted like all of their
Belle Rock brothers 'n sisters? Why aren't they gettin' the
Belle Rock love? Why are they oh-so-much better at responding to queries, unlike their "
Prince" and "
Princess" sibblings. This casino is a survivor.
Maple Casino/777Dragon Online (D-/F)
Why? Is it just me, or did the education system decide to drop the "E" for grading? Because, "E" would have been THE best grade for
VegasPartnerLounge. Now, hear-me-out.
VPL has a great reputation (I believe so...), and I happen to love my luck at their casinos (especially
Maple Casino). But, their support is absolute crap/junk/atrocious/garbage... or basically anything not good. They shouldn't be this awful. But they are. The good. Live support that's idle. I suppose that if you call them, they'll pick-up and talk with you. They will pay their players. The bad. They hardly ever respond to queries via email. Whenever I do chat with them live, they always indicate that they could better serve me via email. Whenever I do chat with them, in regards to their not replying to my queries, they tell me to wait (for prolonged intervals), and ALWAYS tell me that they didn't receive anything, and to re-send the email. I tell them THAT is WHY they have online chat, so we don't have to use email. And even so, they NEVER respond. Fine, that's that.
Now, withdrawals. They routinely pull some of the cheapest tactics in the book to delay payments (or to screw the player). How? By inserting small bonuses into your account. Sounds good? It would be, if they DIDN'T reverse your withdrawal, put the money back into your account, attach a meager "surprise" bonus, wherein if you didn't know any better, you might start playing with it and ITS wagering requirements WITH your once-was winnings. Lovely. And they don't relay any of this pertinent information to you, specifically about them reversing your withdrawal. And do they reverse your cash-in immediately after it's pending? No, they'll wait a couple of days after-the-fact for good measures. The way to avoid that mess, is to have them remove any future bonuses to your account. Nice. I caught them doing this twice, and they act all innocent, like they were doing a wonderful thing by attaching a $15 bonus to my $500 in winnings. Sure, who wouldn't like that $15 with dynomitesque attachments that come with it.
Want another good story. Last week, I was told by the online rep. to put in a request for a bonus (his suggestion), via email to the pitboss. He assured me that I would likely get something (as I generally NEVER claim bonuses there BECAUSE of bogus withdrawal problems), and that they would respond quickly. Didn't. I sent out multiple emails, nothing. Talked to live-chat for a wasted hour Wednesday, they didn't get my emails, told me to send them again. Did that. Nothing again.
Went to live-chat again today, asked them to put me through to the pitboss. Pitboss tells me that she knows that I'm looking for a bonus (oh really, how did you know if you're NEVER getting my emails), but she can't give me anything. Fine, but it's been a week of this nonsense, wherein I was told that I'd likely be up for something, in which in fact I wasn't. She then told me that I've made no purchases recently. I told her, that JUST last week, I did make purchase of $100 at Maple Casino. She then said that players must show "loyalty" in order to obtain bonuses. I then pointed-out that in fact, I'd made purchases of about $800 over the last several weeks. She then said that by "loyalty", she meant that for players who deposit more than $1,000 a month.
My jaw dropped.
She then started informing me that people who play poker online are making millions (yes, EVERYONE is a winner, casinos are just throwing away all their money that they make from their casinos back into the poker players pockets). My jaw is still resting in my lap.
She's willing to give me $10 to try-out poker. With jaw still resting in lap, I typed, asking why couldn't I get that (lowly) $10 for the casino.
After going back-and-forth on that one, she reluctantly said she'd credit my
Maple Casino account with $10. She then told me that she would see to it personally, that I will no longer be entitled to future bonuses. Sweet. Despite not actually receiving or claiming many bonuses in the first place BECAUSE of useless withdrawal stall-tactics, despite NOT replying to any of my queries (while slipping-up that they did in fact receive them), despite being redirected here and there for no legitimate reason, at the end of the day, she's going to take away my bonus "privileges"?
Sorry, but IMPO, the customer support for this group blows. Overall, they're good, customer support, they're a mess.
Sidenote II:
VPL "
loyalty" points. "Loyal" IS the player, and he/she'll have to be to be able to redeem a penny-of-it. What's up with that
vile? I'll never be able to gain that many points in my lifetime.
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Live-Chat HangUPS
By John Steed
#1 Automated responses. You know when it's happening. You've been doing the chat method for years now, and it's insulting.
#2 "
Sir, I'm..." Insert anything you want, but to me, when they start dropping my name, and start giving me the "
sir" treatment, I know we're not making progress. That 3-digit word is to defense what "but" is to negative. Both "technically" are used to be polite, but their true meanings are "door-closed".
#3 "
Is there anything else I can help you with, sir?" Okay, so some times, this is fine. But half the time, this automated response pops-up while we're in the middle of (at least I thought we were) a discussion. I guess this is the polite way to not abruptly ending the chat session.
#4 Never responding to any question and telling me to send an email WITH that very question. If it's a pretty standard question, this is not good. True story, one time, I KNEW that the person was being lazy. So I asked him what time it was? He said that I should send an email with my query to their support team. Tsk-tsk.
#5 How the RNG works/private auditors/payouts/ect... This is okay, if I'm brand new. But if it's a casino I've been doing business with for 3-4 years now, c'mon!!! If I dare say boo about being
unlucky, they launch paragraph after paragraph of this stuff at me. I'm getting this VERY vivid picture in my head of an alarm system going off at the casino headquarters, men in uniforms running around the corner, blast-shields going up, staff scrambling into position, bumping into each other, papers flying, absolute chaos.
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I'd love to hear about other people's experiences, specifically about their experiences with customer support (not about game fairness or fastest payouts).
John Steed
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I might even think that affiliates like 
