fortune lounge problems

[john_nova]

I deposited and played the sign up bonuses at the Fortune Lounge casinos; 7 Sultans, Vegas Palms, Royal Vegas and Vegas Towers about 2 and a half months ago. I cashed out at all the casinos after playing BJ and meeting all their wagering requirements. I recieved 4 cheques, deposited them, and 3 weeks later was told by my bank that stop payments were placed on them. I phoned FL and asked why, and they said because they required various documentation which I gladly sent to them immediately in full. They told me that once this was recieved they would credit my neteller account with all the money withdrawn. A week passed and I recieved no response from them so I called to see what was happening. After recieving the runaround for about an hour they said they would contact me later. No one contacted me. I then saw a thread on this website stating other people having the same problems with a FL rep saying that any problems should be emailed to him:
"The message above was from the Vice President of Casino Operations for the entire Forutne Lounge group.
If you check his profile above, it lists his email address as wimo@fortunelounge.com
I would suggest contacting him directly to try to clear this up immeidately."

I tried this email address many times also recieving no response as to where my money was or why my accounts were locked. After a series of more phone calls and more runarounds I recieved this email:

"Hi John,


Thank you so much for your email, it is my pleasure to assist you.

I unfortunately cannot provide you with any feedback regarding your cash-in
as our player security department has locked the accounts without the
possibility of them being re-opened. I wish you to please call us in future
if you have any further questions, comments or suggestions regarding this as
we will gladly provide you with any information you need.

Thanking you again."

I have yet to even recieve my original deposits and they will not even give me a reason why. I did nothing wrong, complied with all there terms and conditions, and they have stole my deposits, as well as my substantial winnings. Its bad enough they stop payment on my cheques, but now they have even stole my deposits. All my phone calls are in vain, as I can never get a straight answer. Im pleading for some help, someone who can work as a mediator so I can get some answers, and my money back that they have taken from me. If anyone can help please reply, I would very much appreciate it.
thanks

 

[The Dude]

Hey John,

Sorry you're getting some hassles. I contacted their manangement and your case is receiving personal attention; you should have a definite answer within the next 24 hours. The casino uses an outsourced back-office company and they are awaiting their response.

In the meantime, I've been informed that your account has been re-opened.

 

[john_nova]

Thanks for your help, I appreciate it very much. I was just wondering what your stance is on the FL stopping payments on my cheques. Do you beleive as many others do that a casino should do all its inquiries into a cash in before payment is processed and a check is sent, and once it is sent that the casino should not be able to reneg on payment as this would be the equivalent of a chargeback for a player. It really disturbed me that such a reputable casino group would take such action.

 

[jpm]

This line cracks me up "I wish you to please call us in future if you have any further questions, comments or suggestions regarding this as
we will gladly provide you with any information you need." Obviously the question you have is why are you locked out!

Give a call to proccyber as well to see if they know why you're locked out. It could be back at that level. Here's their numbers based on where you're calling from:

USA 1-888-326-2602
Canada 1-888-515-8518
UK 0-800-328-7748
Australia 1-800-146-569

 

[The Dude]

Obviously, something serious occured. There are people checking on this and I'm sure there will be an answer sometime tomorrow.

 

[The Dude]

This just in from Fortune Lounge:

Hi Bryan

We have finally resolved this issue and I sincerely apologise for the delay.

The verification documentation was reviewed by management and the decision
was made to accept the documentation that were received.

The checks have been re-issued and I have informed the player of the current
status quo and offered our profuse apology for the inconvenience he
suffered.

He will also receive some complimentary credits on his account of choice.

Although we should not have locked the account and cancelled the checks, the
particular person dealing with this issue was following procedures. This has
now prompted us to look at our procedures again in order to avoid
aggravation to players and the embarrassment of our valued players and
ourselves.

We realise that we have need to improve our service to players and I invite
any player who feels that they have not received the service or treatment
they deserve to contact me directly at the following e-mail address:
vpops@casinodesk.com. I will ensure that the issue receives top priority.
Please include a subject header that reads "Attention: VP Operations" which
will push it to the top of the other e-mails we receive.

Regards

Wim
VP Operations
Fortune Lounge Group

 

[amandajm]

Fortune Lounge's security dept is a hostile beast who's polite words are just patronising.

Glad to see J,Nova happy.

ADMIN..make a wish.

 

[john_nova]

Bryan, I am forever in your debt. Thank you so much for all the help. I am amazed at the speed in which you were able to resolve this matter. The cheques are on the way (hopefully with no stop payments on them..haha..jk)Ill keep ya posted on that. Let me once again say how much I appreciate your help, but it is unfortunate I had to take such lengths to get the matter resolved, if their customer service would have been straight forward with me from the beginning I could have averted this entire situation. Either way once the cheques are deposited and cleared I will consider the case closed, and a wonderful job done by the casino meister. If theres anything I can ever do for you just say the word.
thank you
John nova

 

[The Dude]

You're welcome,

Most of my generous fans like to visit this place

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[pokeraddict]

Hey Bryan, I know you and this group are close. I think they are having issues though. I had Firepay or my bank or someone screw up, between one $100 mistake (my bank stopped allowing Firepay access to my account cause i went a bit nuts) Paradise said i bounced it to them and Firepay and I got square and it got straightened out eventually. Firepay didnt respond for a while, this was in August. Then in January someone going by mervin g from Fortune Lounge sent me an email claiming I owed them $120. My Firepay account is open but i dont use, can log right in OK but wont deposit there after that mess with any bank account. I tell them whatever, its $120 just tell me where to wire it. It goes back and forth cause they want my bank info, ACH something to pull it out. I offer western union or mail a money order. Then "Ewald" contacts me last month saying again I owe $120, cause its so little money and not worth hassling over I again try to offer to pay it cause i think after the firepay disaster I may owe it although it smells of scam, I wanted Firepay to tell em i owed it. I try to contact Firepay who didnt respond until Monday a month after I contact. They say I only had the one $100 mistake and my account is still open and a balance of zero, not negative, they know nothing about this. These Firepay people are something else, terrible service. Anyway suddenly Fortune Lounge says I owe $290 instead of $120 giving me a list of 6 transactions that bounced which is impossible so I tell this guy to go to hell. He even called my house at 7:15am last week. Whats going on? are they unorganized? Going broke? scam artists? They never offered me any proof I owed them anything, smelled of scam from the start. Then when I acted like I might send something the amount went up. Just a vent, have them blocked from my email and their country code cant call my house so im not worried about more harrassment, but was curious after hearing this story what they are up to. Sorry for the long post but wanted to explain.

 

[amandajm]

On what basis do you owe a casino anything?

Either they've overpaid you or you've charged back?I doubt if either are the case.

If it's not one of the above then i can only surmise you have found a casino that gives tick.

 

[pokeraddict]

Did not put it on a credit card, was Firepay. It seems to work by verifying money is in the account then first thing next buisiness day it is taken out. Money was always in account. Dont understand how I could owe them if money was in Firepay account from cleared check, paradise did same thing though and just took it from my money in account so who knows. All I know is Firepay after months od waiting says I owe them nothing, good enough for me.

 

[The Dude]

This in from the casino:

I have investigated this issue thoroughly and the following are the facts related to the case:

The player purchased and played credits to the value of $290 through Firepay. The player was informed as far back as 20 October 2002 that the amount of $290 was charged back by Firepay due to insufficient funds in his account.

After several e-mails, he "made a generous offer" (his words) to pay $90 which he felt to be sufficient as he felt cheated by our Blackjack games. We supplied him with the ticket numbers of the transactions he made with Firepay as proof and to assist him in his case with them. He later increased his offer to $100 and then to $120.
We agreed to accept the $120 as down payment on the outstanding debt.

The call he received regarding the $120 (part payment)was in fact on 11 March 2003 as we had not received the payment promised on 20 November 2002. He has been giving us the run-around since 20 October 2002.

A follow-up call was indeed made at 07:30 on 31 March as we did not want to call the player at work. We did apologise for the timing of this call, in writing the following day.


Throughout our numerous communications we never changed the amount from the original $290 and we repeatedly informed the player to contact Firepay to dispute the issue of insufficient funds.

WE are not the "scam artists" We are also not going broke, we are merely trying to recover a charge back. We are definitely not unorganised in this case as we have copies of every mail related to this case and we have noted every telephone conversation with this player. Calling us "scam artists", "going broke" and "unoganized" may be a bit fresh coming from him.

Regards
VP Operations
Fortune Lounge Group

 

[pokeraddict]

This is simply not true, ,have every email from them. First they claim I owe them $120, this email is from Mervin G. I never heard from him again after I refused to give him my bank info to make automatic clearinghouse withdraw, I agreed if this was correct to pay western union or money order, they refused to accept either so there was no need to continue conversation. Then Ewald emails me wanting the $120 again, I have all his emails too. If they in fact thought $120 was a down payment they never put that in their emails, guess they thought they would try for $120 then go for more? As soon as I agreed to pay them $120 to go away (at this point 6 months later I still have not heard from Firepay after several emails) As soon as I agree to pay them $120, it suddenly became $290. I have 3 emails from mervin G and 4 from Ewald, Ewalds have my replies in his letters. Yes, he did apoligize for calling my house at such a ridiculous hour in an email. The best part is Firepay sent me an email less then a week ago (finally) saying they know nothing about this. Yes also, the BJ game does have issues. Nowhere on this earth have I played where you double or split, then the dealer says it has BJ. I've played in 5 countries. Dealer tells you it has BJ right away. It is not in their rules either and when I called for a refund thinking that was a bug the CSR rep told me, "Thats how BJ is played" Needless to say, after realizing this took my business elsewhere and sent them a complaint which I mentioned again during this. My total deposit may have not even totalled the amount they say I owe, maybe it did. I dont know, bottom line, their first email was 3+ months after the last time I played there, the amount has changed, finally they offered me a way to contact Firepay other then info@firepay.com and when I did Firepay responded and told me my account was in good standing and they were not aware of this issue. Sorry Bryan, thats all I need to know this was not legit. Wasnt looking to smear them, it just looks like after their checks werent clearing ans I saw that in this thread it explained what was going on with them.

 

[pokeraddict]

Like I've said before, anytime I play somewhere other then Casino on Net or Paradisepoker I'm left not happy with service, software, etc.

 

[spearmaster]

Pokeraddict -

Microgaming uses European rules. In Europe they don't peek at the down card like they do in Vegas or Atlantic City. This is clearly stated in the help files.

I know it sucks - I hate those rules too, having challenged them on it three years go - but the rules are clearly spelled out.

 

[pokeraddict]

Thats why I stopped playing there, as soon as I knew that rule, guess I missed it in rules, I stopped playing there, this all came out at least 3 months after I stopped playing. https://www.casinomeister.com/forums/threads/royal-vegas.612/?t=612 is the complaint I posted originally. I was allowed to play for hours, then they locked me out. Bryan got that worked out but soon after that I discovered that BJ rule and stopped playing there. Been nothing but trouble, Like I've told them all along though if they really didnt get paid then maybe them and firepay need to get together and figure out what happened. I never could figure out what Paradise had done when they took money out of my winnings and like I said all along 1 check # is missing but never bounced. My bank says its just missing, maybe it was never presented? My bank stopped allowing surefire commerce access to my account. Who knows. In the small event that I play poker on the net I only do western union now. This cant happen that way.

 

[jpm]

Microgaming blackjack is still suspect in my opinion, regardless of the rules used. It wins or pushes an inordinate amount of the time.

 

[The Dude]

This issue here is not blackjack; it is about chargebacks.

Fortune Lounge has provided the copies of Pokeraddict's emails as well as their responses. I'll post them if you wish, but they clearly show that the casino tried to resolve the chargeback issue by allowing Pokeraddict to make a deposit to cover the funds charged back. I'm surprised they didn't ban you for life.

What the hell are you complaining about? :wtf:

 

[jpm]

LOL, I agree Bryan. He must have played and lost alot before this or I'm sure they would have booted him from that and every other MG casino. After reading your response from the casino, I was wondering exactly the same thing. Chargebacks are the best and fastest way to get banned!

 

[pokeraddict]

I dont see how this was about chargebacks, if they showed you copies of the emails then they clearly show I agreed to pay them $120 by either western union or by money order in every email. They never would give me a name to wire or address to mail to. I didnt feel I owed them this but Firepay wouldnt email me back so for such small amount of money I dont care. If someone who you think owed you money offered to western union you it wouldnt you take it? I cant imagine there isnt an office where they are. It's all over the world, if you decide to post these emails all will see how many times I offered to pay this little amount of money to make this go away. $120 is the total in every email until the last two where they upped it to $290 which is an impossible amount. I cant imagine it took six months for them to have Firepay take more money from them. As far as I know it is impossible to chargeback a Firepay payment if they take it right out of my checking account ,maybe its not I dont know. They take the money out of my checking account immediately and the money goes to the merchant that I make the deposit at. If something screwed up happened it wasnt from me charging back. After reviewing my records and going to my bank no checks bounced, the money was always there. A few months ago I had 3 check #'s missing that when this began that were not presented, today that # is only 1. Bank tells me it didnt bounce, the draft or physical check was never presented. None the less I never charged anything back since that isnt since i think it is impossible since this was never on a credit card. If the money came out of my check account and Firepay didnt pay them or screwed up the paperwork then I dont understand what I can do, sorry I even brought this in the open. Was just sharing an experience that I thought was relevent to what happened to the person who started this thread. Is there some way I could have charged back a Firepay by check deposit? Also, like I have said over and over again, Firepay knows nothing about this event. I didnt tell Fortunelounge forget it until they raised the amount they claim I owed and Firepay confirmed they knew nothing about it, fine though I will drop this but I hate being accused of this. Honestly, if these people really think I owe them $120 I will western union it to them like I offered forever. Every email copy will show I offered this until the one they changed the amount. It just smelled of scam when all at a sudden the number nearly tripled. That was really all I wanted to speak about when I posted. Bryan, since you got involved how do I straighten this out? If you dont want to be involved I understand. $120 is not an issue but they wanted me to download their software again, open up an account with someone else to make the deposit (which after this mess with firepay I'm not willing to do again) Sending a western union is VERY fair but the emails which you seem to have copies of show they refused to give me a way to make it good other then installing their software.

 

[pokeraddict]

Bryan, I sent a pitch a bitch cause i didnt know which email you use. Read it please, I never meant for a fight its just frustrating being accused of things I didnt do. I hope you might provide ideas on how to fix this problem.

 

[The Dude]

Actually the casino was giving Pokeraddict the benefit of the doubt.

I'll post this to try and clarify this situation.

The following is the e-mail sent to the player on 10 October, 2002 at
9:09:45pm:
[color=119911]
Dear xxx
It has come to our attention that there has recently been an amount of $290
reversed from us on purchases made by you using your Firepay card to
purchase casino credits.
We view these reversals in a very serious light as the casino deposited
these funds into your account and were subsequently used by you. It is our
intention within 3 days to report these reversals to the necessary credit
agencies.
However, if you are unaware of these reversals or require clarity on what
has transpired, or, if these reversals where perhaps made in error. Please
contact the Investigations Officer Mervin at xxxxxx@fortunelounge.com and he
will gladly provide any necessary information you might require.
We would really like to unlock your accounts so that you may continue
enjoying your gaming experience with us and therefore would like to resolve
this as soon as possible.
Kindest Regards
Fortune Lounge Player Security.[/color]

On the same day at 9:32pm Pokeraddict wrote amongst others (direct copy):

[color=0000ff]"The $290 would but the number way above my balance that Firepay says I owed
though,
especially since Paradise Poker had the transaction numbers of the last 3
deposits I know I must owe them." and "We'll get this fixed and I will pay
at least the
$90 of it but I think Firepay has tried to cheat me, I have all transactions listed, number of etc. and all but 5 cleared. 3 were Paradise pokers."[/color]

On 17 October at 6:32pm he wrote (direct copy):

[color=0000ff]I offer again to Western Union the amount outstanding,
that is $90, I'll even send $100 since that is my first offer but I'm not
going to let Firepay use me to be scammed.[/color]

On 20 November at 4:36am he writes again (direct copy):[color=0000ff]
"I owe only $100 but I'm willing to pay $120 to cover lost money from
firepay inability to draw from my account anymore." and "To show my good
faith i'll pay the $120 until they do, just give me a way to do it."[/color]


On 27 November at 1:31pm Mervin from Fortune Lounge writes (direct copy):[color=119911]
"Kindly be advised that we have not as yet received your payment of $290.00
in regards to the reversal
that was received on your Royal Vegas casino account xxxxx.
Please could this payment of $290.00 be made to the casino at the earliest
and I would advise you to make this payment
via Net Teller or via ACH or either by credit card."
[/color]

4 December 2002 at 8:09am Mervin writes (direct copy):[color=119911]
Kindly be advised that the $290.00 that I have mentioned , has been returned
from purchases
who have made using your Firepay card.Now the ticket numbers and individual
amounts that I have
sent you , have been supplied to the casino by Firepay.[/color]

Then we decide to rather accept the $120 offered and to end the run-around
he was giving us and Ewald writes to him on 11 March 2003 at 4:56pm:[color=119911]
"I am contacting you with regards to the outstanding amount of $120 on your
Royal Vegas Account. We need to finalize this matter and it has come to our
attention that this amount has not been paid by yourself and neither has
Firepay re-issued these funds to our account." and "Once this outstanding
amount has been settled, the matter would be regarded as resolved and
finalized."[/color]

The issue is therefore very clear. We informed the player of the $290 charge
back. He responded with an offer of $90, increases it to $100 and then again
increases it to $120. He continues to insist on paying via every conceivable
payment method we do not accept or cannot process.

Although there are several other examples, the above prove that the fault
was not on our part and that we did not, at any stage, try to increase the
claimed amount.

The issue of his Blackjack losses are totally separate and has no bearing on
this case.

I have replied on several forums on the issue of cancelled checks. Checks
are only cancelled when fraud has been identified and we did not manage to
stop the processing of the cash-in, in time. Again that also has no bearing
on this case either. The player had no funds in his account to fund the
Firepay purchase. We informed him of the amount and the situation. The rest
has been explained in detail.


Regards
VP Operations
Fortune Lounge Group

PS I also do not think that Casino on Net or Paradise Poker will tolerate
this either. This is not a service or software issue.
*****end of message

Pokeraddict: They don't accept Western Union. Western Union is primarily a US based operation. I accepted a Western Union payment once and I had to travel 35 miles to pick it up. When you send these sort of payments abroad, they only go to a specific office in some city. Thus most comapanies overseas don't accept them.

This was made clear to you by Fortune Lounge of what payments they accept. ACH, Neteller, or Credit Card. Why don't you simply open up a Neteller account and send them the $290? I'm sure this would solve this problem and leave you in somewhat good standing with this casino group.

I still don't understand why you were insisting on W.U. Don't you have a Neteller account??

 

[Antonia1953]

Fortune Lounge and Desert Dollar are directly related. An email I sent to Desert Dollar was answered by Dwald.

 

[The Dude]

Hi Antonia,

Well, maybe not as directly related as you think. They (Fortune Lounge Group, Vegas Towers, Desert Dollar) all use the same outsourced back-office support, as well as marketing. So yes they are related, but not directly.