Fortune Lounge - they've had their last $/ from me!

[Dirk Diggler]

I've finally come to the end of the road with FL - they're just not worth the hassle they've become to play at.

I'm a VIP there (just dropped down to Gold Level from Platinum and will be dwindling down to non-existant by next month) and have been for months (gambled over $500,000 there in total over the past year since I took up online gambling).

The last straw came for me over the weekend when they emailed me to say they'd confiscated bonuses (this is 4th or 5th time they've done this in the past month - each other time they've eventually returned the bonus when I've proved them wrong with Playcheck logs) from my cashin at Havanaclub - I made a cashin of 290 after depositing 300 of my own money and having a 20 bonus in there a week or so ago. The 20 bonus that was part of my cashin had a 200 wagering requirement attached to it - which I easily met unsurprisingly enough which they don't deny. However they are claiming that the wagering for other bonuses played to extinction both BEFORE and AFTER the cashin stand.

To quote from their email-

Hi Steve,

Thank you for your email.
When your account reaches a zero balance, the account needs to maintain that balance for a specific time period in order for our systems to pick up the zero balance.
If your account reaches zero balance and you make another purchase within that time period, the wagering requirements for any bonuses will stand.
Thank you and enjoy your gaming

Neil

So it looks like once again they're going against what they posted in here about wagering requirements not carrying over - now you have to leave your account at a zero balance for a 'specific time period' (notice no mention of what this is) before wagering requirements don't carry over

As I say - they've had there last $/ from me and I'd advise the rest of people to follow suit if they don't want to play at a casino that constantly moves the goalposts. The Bellerock Group and the Cryptologic Casino's are going to be the future of my gaming.

By the way they somehow managed to deduct a total of 100 from my cashin - this must have been the total amount of bonuses I'd ever received from Havana

 

[Dirk Diggler]

Wow - didn't realise how often they must read this forum, just got an email telling me they'd mistakenly removed the bonus and they'd recrdited my account with the 100 which I could withdraw straightaway!

Still - not worth the hassle of having to go through all this time wasting every time you make a withdrawal.

They've gone from the best to one of the worst in my opinion.

 

[clj7221]

Is havanah casino part of fortune lounge? I played there a few times this year but had no luck there and play time never lasted to long

Wow - didn't realise how often they must read this forum, just got an email telling me they'd mistakenly removed the bonus and they'd recrdited my account with the 100 which I could withdraw straightaway!

Still - not worth the hassle of having to go through all this time wasting every time you make a withdrawal.

They've gone from the best to one of the worst in my opinion.

 

[fortunelounge]

clj7221: Although Havana Club is not part of the Fortune Lounge Group, we administer their back-office on an outsourced basis.

Dirk Diggler: Your account was refunded after I read a mail you sent to our support staff. I monitor every incoming mail we receive.

Due to an unfortunate combination of situations we had several instances where the calculation of wagering requirements and forfeiture of bonuses were incorrectly applied. We are putting in an enormous effort to rectify these issues and to ensure that all staff understand the processes properly. We understand that this has caused severe aggravation and we apologize profusely for this.

I, again, invite anyone who requires my intervention in getting issues resolved to contact me at my e-mail address.

VP Operations
Fortune Lounge

 

[Dirk Diggler]

Fair enough - I accept mistakes do happen occasionaly, however when I've had 4 or 5 bonuses WRONGLY removed from my cashins in the past month it just takes the point of playing away - I must have spent hours wasting time copying and pasting Playcheck logs, writing and sending emails etc. Leisure time that could be spent getting on with what I love doing - gambling!

Why would you really expect regular customers to continue playing with all this hassle? - especially when most online casino's just refuse your cashin if they think you haven't met their terms and conditions, not confiscate the bonus.

 

[GrandMaster]

Due to an unfortunate combination of situations we had several instances where the calculation of wagering requirements and forfeiture of bonuses were incorrectly applied. We are putting in an enormous effort to rectify these issues and to ensure that all staff understand the processes properly.

Staff should have been trained *before* the new rules came into effect.

 

[Clayman]

Staff should have been trained *before* the new rules came into effect.

I was hoping maybe fortune lounge could directly address the issue of whether there actually exists a "specific time period" that one must maintain a zero balance. Is all that is required that you log out and in again? Is even that required?

Also, is your policy to now automatically confiscate the bonus upon cash-in if WR's have not been met? I know you used to just reverse it. In other words, would I ultimately get the bonus credited if I e-mailed after the fact? All confiscating the bonus would do, I would think, is make every player send a pre-cashin e-mail to you guys asking if all requirements have been met before initiating a cash-in. Obviously a waste of everyone's time and a strong reason to not bother playing.

And, can you say if you have changed how often you give bonuses, to whom you give bonuses and how much the amount of bonuses are? It seems some people get them but I haven't received an e-mail offer in 2 months. Are these offers done by a 3rd-party marketing company?

 

[GrandMaster]

And, can you say if you have changed how often you give bonuses, to whom you give bonuses and how much the amount of bonuses are? It seems some people get them but I haven't received an e-mail offer in 2 months. Are these offers done by a 3rd-party marketing company?

Make sure you have enable marketing e-mails in your players' club profile. The offers come from a FL address, but you have to claim them at fortune-promotions.net (at least this week, last week it was comps4life.net), which, I assume, is owned by FL.

I don't know how they decide what sort of offers to give. After my losses last week on the 10% promos, I got 15% purchase match bonuses this week. I still had a gambling loss this week, but less than the bonuses I got, so I am showing a net profit of $35 this week. In two weeks I played 12500 hands, and lost 230 units, which is about a 1 in 15 chance. The weird thing is that I had a small win (even without the bonus) at one casino last week, and I kept winning there. I had my worst loss in a long time at another one, this week I lost even more. I am down 135 units in 2800 hands at this casino , which is about a 1 in 50 chance, but it hurts. If I had had such bad luck when I started online gambling, I am sure I would be complaining everywhere that online casinos cheat.

 

[clawback]

fortune lounge wrote

Due to an unfortunate combination of situations we had several instances where the calculation of wagering requirements and forfeiture of bonuses were incorrectly applied. We are putting in an enormous effort to rectify these issues and to ensure that all staff understand the processes properly. We understand that this has caused severe aggravation and we apologize profusely for this

And how many players had bonuses unjustly forfeited,I for one believe I had after banging my head of the live chat facility being told you needed to wager x amount and this is how much you`ve wagered and me me replying ive wagered this amount and this as how much ive wagered ect ect ect.The robotic mantra being thrown back at me is sorry sir our SYSTEM IS 100% correct,well is it now.From what fortune lounge has just iterated here has confirmed that thier SYSTEM is not 100% correct end of story.I would`nt play at a FL casino again for love nor money.

 

[GrandMaster]

Due to an unfortunate combination of situations we had several instances where the calculation of wagering requirements and forfeiture of bonuses were incorrectly applied. We are putting in an enormous effort to rectify these issues and to ensure that all staff understand the processes properly. We understand that this has caused severe aggravation and we apologize profusely for this.

I, again, invite anyone who requires my intervention in getting issues resolved to contact me at my e-mail address.

VP Operations
Fortune Lounge

Would you care to comment on the following e-mail I received from John Hughes, Director of Marketing, which is devoted to bonuses and WR?

"An initial purchase is usually required before a bonus will be applied to the account. Unless specifically stated otherwise, all bonus money that has been awarded must be wagered at least ten (10) times before it may be cashed in.

I.E. Purchase + Bonus x Ten = Wagering Requirements."

If someone quite senior in the casino cannot get it right, how do you expect players and customer support to understand it. Can we now use John Hughes' e-mail to claim lower WR than stated on the website?

 

[jpm]

I believe what is stated on the website is for the signup bonus. The email you (and I) got are for existing player bonuses, which do have a 10x WR.

 

[GrandMaster]

I believe what is stated on the website is for the signup bonus. The email you (and I) got are for existing player bonuses, which do have a 10x WR.

10x what? The actual WR is 10x(D+B), the e-mail says 10xB in one place, it certainly does not mention having to wager the deposit 10 times, then the formula says D+10xB. The only way to interpret this e-mail so that it does not contradict itself is that you have to wager the deposit once before the bonus is awarded, and 10 times the bonus afterwards. There is no way you could deduce the correct WR from this e-mail.

 

[tim5ny]

clj7221: Although Havana Club is not part of the Fortune Lounge Group, we administer their back-office on an outsourced basis.

Dirk Diggler: Your account was refunded after I read a mail you sent to our support staff. I monitor every incoming mail we receive.

Due to an unfortunate combination of situations we had several instances where the calculation of wagering requirements and forfeiture of bonuses were incorrectly applied. We are putting in an enormous effort to rectify these issues and to ensure that all staff understand the processes properly. We understand that this has caused severe aggravation and we apologize profusely for this.

I, again, invite anyone who requires my intervention in getting issues resolved to contact me at my e-mail address.

VP Operations
Fortune Lounge

You seem to be right on top of things as soon as somebody has a gripe with the FL group... and I commend you for that... but with the amount of complaints I see against your group on this forum, that something isn't right. I have a friend that works for an insurance company in the claims dept. His supervisors instructed him that it is best to first decline payment in a claim against the company, and in doing so, a certain percentage of the people will go away and never try to pursue it... thus saving the company alot of money. If the customer is persistent and continues to pursue his claim that is rightfully his, then the company will eventually pay.. without any penalties. It would seem to me that this policy is used very often by alot of the online casino groups out there.

 

[Dirk Diggler]

You may be right - each time they took a bonus away from me (wrongly each time) it took at least 3 or 4 email's to VIP support which ended in me having to email playcheck logs before they finally gave me the bonus back.

They actually claimed that my balance never went to zero at one stage (basically calling me a liar), so I had to send Playcheck logs to prove it.

Considering online gambling is one of the fastest growing markets in the world I really think they're shooting themselves in the foot.

They must have lost so many regular customers over this whole saga - their first decision of rescinding bonuses rather than just reverse them from cashouts WITHOUT telling players they changed must have annoyed many regular customers as it was.

 

[pokermaven]

"Although Havana Club is not part of the Fortune Lounge Group, we administer their back-office on an outsourced basis"

Why do you people continue to use these BS statements? What does that even mean, that you handle their backoffice? To me that sounds like you own and operate them. Start taking some responsiblity for your actions instead of laying it on the player.

You gave the guy back his own money, do you want an award?

You also get these same people talking about proc cyber services. "We don't own proc cyber but they control all of our money". WHAT A CROCK!

You need help with a cashout you have to call proc cyber. You call proc cyber and they say you have to call the main casino. They all claim to be independent but are not.

Why don't you casino managers be upfront with your players instead of blowing a lot of smoke up their arses? If this player did not complain via email or casinomeister, he would have never seen that money. Is that the way you people operate, by taking money out of players accounts hoping they do not notice?

I am so sick and tired of seeing player after player come here, and complain about your casino group. It is utterly sickening.

Clean up your act, I would not play on your site if you had a 1000 percent bonus!

Sorry if I seem rash, but I am just sick and tired of this.