FURIOUS with Thrills casino

[AC7X]

*Bashes head against wall.

I don't gamble that much anymore. Certainly not as much as I used to. I injured my back the other week and was bed bound; having spent hours watching YouTube (everyone was out enjoying the sun) I caved to temptation and made a quick deposit on Thrills.com for some slotting action to take my mind off the pain. (Thrills is one of the few casinos I'm not self-excluded from).

A £50 deposit came and went in no time at 45p spins without even a bonus round. A further £100 deposit did likewise. I deposited yet another £100 and got an error message of some description. No funds were added to my account and an automated message showed the transaction was cancelled. So I tried again and this time it worked. I promptly lost this deposit and decided to go for broke with a final £150 (which I quickly lost on roulette).

Frustrated that a "quick punt to take my mind off things" had escalated into a £400 loss, I self-excluded from the casino. I checked my online banking and could see that my "available balance" was £500 less than my actual balance, when it should only have been £400. I checked with Live Chat on Thrills.com and they confirmed I had made deposits totalling £400. I figured I must have had something else coming off the card and forgot about it.

I checked my account a few days later and sure enough, the following THRILLS debits showed up:

£50 14:20 07/05/18
£100 14:27 07/05/18
£100 14:45 07/05/18
£100 14:46 07/05/18
£150 15:05 07/05/18

It's pretty obvious that the payment at 14:45 failed and that's why I re-deposited at 14:46. Again, I contacted Live Chat and explained the situation; they confirmed that they had only received £400 but there was a £100 transaction showing as cancelled and should not have been taken from my account. They checked with the payments team and assured me that the funds would return to my account within 72 hours.

More than 72 hours have passed and the funds have not returned. Again, I contacted Live Chat today - now I'm being told that the payment was cancelled and was never received by Thrills.com. I was instructed to send a copy of my bank statement for them to "investigate further". I don't particularly want to share further personal financial information with a company whose trustworthiness I am now beginning to question, especially since I am no longer even a customer of theirs. I just want my £100 back. Like I was told would happen in the last conversation.

I got off Live Chat and called my bank directly. They CATEGORICALLY ASSURED ME that all five transactions totalling £500 had been debited and there were no reversals or anything of that sort in the works. She also provided me with the Acquirer Reference Numbers (ARNs) for the transactions in question and advised that the casino would be able to locate the payments using these.

I went back to Live Chat to explain the situation and was once again advised that the ONLY way they could resolve my issue was for me to send in a copy of my bank statement. I asked to speak with a manager and was told he was in a meeting until 5pm. I asked for a call back when he was available and was told they don't have a phone service.

Now, perhaps I'm digging my heels in and should just send the bank statement. But the facts as I see them are as follows:

• This is a THRILLS.COM error - their website broke, took the payment and failed to credit the funds;
• Had I not checked my bank account (and who wants to look at their account when they know they've just blown £400) I would not have even noticed that I was £100 short;
• I was told a "reversal" was in progress but this is not the case;
• I'm being asked to provide yet more personal financial information to a company I no longer wish to have a relationship with;
  
• I get a useless copy/paste response from Live Chat with absolutely no effort to see sense and use the ARNs I provided; and
• There is literally no manager available, and even when one is available they won't speak to me on the phone. I have to waste yet more of my time typing out the circumstances for the nth time.

I just wanted to share my experience (blow off steam!). What do you guys think?

 

[greylady]

Why not just send the bank statement but redact all other transactions including the balance - they can at least still see the deposits.

I did this at another Casumo and it was sufficient as they could still see the transactions.

 

[ThrillsRep]

Good afternoon!

Thank you so much for reaching out.

We apologize for the inconvenience that this case has caused.

Could you please send us your personal details in a PM so that we can further investigate this case? Please include information like Username, date of birth and email address. Would you also please provide us the ARN's so that we can see if we can get any additional information out of these?

It would be very hard for us to give any good reply to your case before actually having looked through it again as cases like this tend to be isolated, and therefore have to be investigated as such.

However, we again wish to apologize and assure you that we will do our best to solve this inquiry in a timely manner.

In the meantime, we wish you all a good afternoon.

- Thrills rep.

 

[AC7X]

PM sent.

 

[AC7X]

Update:

I contacted the rep at CM and provided the requested information. I have not received a response.

I have received the below e-mail from Thrills.com, however:

Hello XXXXXXX,

I am contacting you regarding your missing deposit of 100£.

We need a bank statement showing all transactions made to and from your account from the 7th of May until today to investigate this. Without this document, we can't escalate this to the provider and look for your missing deposit, unfortunately.

But if you can get this document to us then we will, of course, take a look at this right away. The bank statement needs to contain the transactions from 7th until today, your name, account number and the bank's name/logo.

Thanks a lot in advance and do not hesitate to ask if you have any questions.

Best regards

Oscar

Customer Support Team Leader

I just can't wrap my head around why they think this is reasonable?

1. I am £100 out of pocket due to THEIR SYSTEM ERROR.
2. I have given them the information required to locate the payment.
3. I am being instructed to send them an UNREDACTED bank statement (so that some voyeuristic customer service rep can have a good look through my personal data to resolve a problem not of my creating).

How exactly do they propose to keep this data safe? I know they don't have secure e-mail. I don't have a secure e-mail account.

Increasingly, this feels like theft. They have absolutely no right to arbitrarily demand to see my bank statement. What happens if I refuse - they keep my money?

 

[dunover]

You may find that although the bank confirmed 500 of transactions, the 100 was a 'dip' and may yet return to your available funds as this can take a few working days sometimes. You could find (depending on when these deposits were done) that you are in banking 'no man's land' at present where the bank can see the 100 debit and the casino can see that they themselves haven't redeemed it.

 

[nikantw]

First time something like this happened to me was 13 - 15 years ago. It happened a few more times to me and many to others.
The money are held by your bank and will be returned to your bank acc. It may take up to 30 days, but you can be 100% sure it will be returned.
Nothing anybody can do, it is never casinos fault. It is the banking system that is made this way. Don't worry about it.

 

[mimi26]

I agree with Dunover, its happened to me many times and usually returns to bank on 6th day

 

[AC7X]

Deposits were made on Monday the 7th of May - so it has been over a week.

Given that I have provided the Acquirer's Reference Numbers to Thrills - surely it is just a matter of them checking those reference numbers against their system and confirming whether or not the payment was received? If it is as you suggest - what possible relevance could my bank statement have to the situation?

 

[colinsunderland]

If they are showing on the statement then it won't be returned to the account, if they are showing as pending then it might. It should only show on the statement if the retailer processed the voucher, in which case, unless they refund, it won't be returning.
Theres no reason to show the full statement, or any statement really if you have provided the ref from the bank, as its traceable by that.
Just do a chargeback if you are 100% sure it was not added to your account. The casino can't complain as according to them the payment was never made. Just ensure you do the correct transaction.

 

[Guntis]

That's your bank's error. I had a similar situation with Playfrank casino. Money actually "stacked" somewhere between and then appeared on casino account on next day. The casino is unable to confirm that payment as they see no such transaction from your end.

 

[AC7X]

If they are showing on the statement then it won't be returned to the account, if they are showing as pending then it might. It should only show on the statement if the retailer processed the voucher, in which case, unless they refund, it won't be returning.
Theres no reason to show the full statement, or any statement really if you have provided the ref from the bank, as its traceable by that.
Just do a chargeback if you are 100% sure it was not added to your account. The casino can't complain as according to them the payment was never made. Just ensure you do the correct transaction.

They are showing as completed transactions on the statement and the bank has confirmed they have all left the account and been received by the casino (or their provider, or whatever).

I just wish common sense would prevail. I want to put this loss/experience behind me and get on with my life and back rehab - I have SE'd from the casino and just want to forget about it. But I can't because they're insisting I jump through ridiculous hoops. We're talking about £100 - I'm hardly trying to run a scam on them for a paltry, random £100. I really don't need this right now.

They have the times and reference numbers - they can check if the payment was received without a bank statement. This should not be my problem to solve; terrible customer service.

 

[sueyh]

I understand your frustration, but oversea online transaction can be funny sometimes, the money could wonder around internet for weeks.

Why don't you just send bank statement? All they want to see is transactions regarding to Thrills casino-they are not asking the statement for money laundry, gambling problem issue so I'm pretty sure you can black out the transactions that has nothing to do with the casino transaction if you want.

And I believe most casinos ask bank statement for the situation like this.

 

[Valhalla]

They have the times and reference numbers - they can check if the payment was received without a bank statement. This should not be my problem to solve; terrible customer service.

I agree with you. They could easily (and very quickly) check the reference numbers you have provided without seeing your bank statement, and avoid all this fuss.

Yet another example of a casino wanting your life story for no reason whatsoever, and I wouldn't be surprised if they are fannying around because you've SE'd and are no longer of any monetary value to them.

 

[AC7X]

I understand your frustration, but oversea online transaction can be funny sometimes, the money could wonder around internet for weeks.

Why don't you just send bank statement? All they want to see is transactions regarding to Thrills casino-they are not asking the statement for money laundry, gambling problem issue so I'm pretty sure you can black out the transactions that has nothing to do with the casino transaction if you want.

And I believe most casinos ask bank statement for the situation like this.

Actually, they stated that they need to see all transactions - so I can't black out anything. But the point is that they have no right to see my private banking information at all. It's an invasion of my privacy and I shouldn't be held to ransom in this way.

I'm sure this is a fairly standard response across many casinos - but that doesn't make it acceptable.

 

[pinnit2014]

Maybe it’s a ruse to get the details and conduct a SOW without asking for it specifically

Happened to me with a casino and was bounced back into account in 3 days.

 

[henkiedekker]

A couple days ago i made my first deposit at thrills, i wanted to make use of the first deposit bonus.
But because i had a failed deposit before it, the live chat told me the bonus could not be given (anymore).
He offered to manually give it on my next deposit, told me to contact live chat if i was going to deposit. (could not promise that other deployees also would do it)
Doesn't really make sense to me not getting the bonus, because there was no transaction done.

Is this a common thing?

Sorry for hijacking your thread man im kinda new to this forum, didn't know where to put my question otherwise.

 

[ThrillsRep]

Good morning!

We have escalated your matter externally and are awaiting an answer from that as we speak, that is part of the reason for the long waiting time as we would want to have clearer information when getting back.

We want to stress that we will absolutely figure out what has happened here and where your money is, as stated earlier in the thread: "They are somewhere in Internet limbo".

As far as bank statements go, this is one of the only ways for us to check certain things when there are missing deposits or withdrawals, this can be provided to us by uploading it on our homepage instead of sending them per email. As this is a depositing issue, we would need to see all transactions from the date the deposit was made until the day that you provide the statement.

However, we have escalated it on the information that you have provided in PM and that we could find in our systems and will, of course, get back to you in a PM as soon as any progress or solution comes back to us.

And henkiedekker, if you wish to send us your personal details in a PM, we can check your case further. On a general basis: We do not credit bonuses manually if the funds have been played as we would need to register the bonus to those funds. As said, this is on a general basis and we would need your personal details to give you an exact answer.

In the meantime, have a very nice day guys, and be sure that we are doing everything that we can do make haste and find the correct solution!

- Thrills rep

 

[AC7X]

Good morning!

We have escalated your matter externally and are awaiting an answer from that as we speak, that is part of the reason for the long waiting time as we would want to have clearer information when getting back.

We want to stress that we will absolutely figure out what has happened here and where your money is, as stated earlier in the thread: "They are somewhere in Internet limbo".

As far as bank statements go, this is one of the only ways for us to check certain things when there are missing deposits or withdrawals, this can be provided to us by uploading it on our homepage instead of sending them per email. As this is a depositing issue, we would need to see all transactions from the date the deposit was made until the day that you provide the statement.

However, we have escalated it on the information that you have provided in PM and that we could find in our systems and will, of course, get back to you in a PM as soon as any progress or solution comes back to us.

This response is contrary to the e-mail I received this morning, which reads:

In regards to your bank statement, it will not be viewed by support. But a highly trained responsible team of professionals. Without the bank statement we will be unable to continue our investigation further and apologize.

We thank you for your patience whilst we handle this process, should you require any further assistance. Please do not hesitate to contact our dedicated support team available 24/7.

Best regards
Lawrence
Support Advisor

So which is it - are you carrying out an investigation with the information available or are you calling it a day and keeping my money? Seems like, at the very least, there's a real lack of communication internally.

I very much doubt that, this long after the transaction, the funds are in any form of limbo - they're in your/your provider's bank account. And that can be checked with the reference numbers I have provided. What is your ETA for coming back to me on this? (Since I haven't received a response by PM I might as well ask here).

I'm scratching my head right now trying to think of ANY OTHER PROVIDER OF PRODUCTS OR SERVICES - other than an online casino - that would treat a customer this way after making an error which put them £100 out of pocket. Why have we, as consumers, been conditioned to think that it's okay to be treated this way by casinos?

Still furious. Let me reiterate that I'm not debating the outcome of a game or the terms of a promotion - I'm highlighting that due to a system error an extra payment was taken from my card. It should have been as simple as them identifying the error at their end and refunding the money (with an apology). As I said in the OP - it was lucky that I checked the account at all, since normally that's the last thing you want to do after a brutal losing session.

 

[nikantw]

...Still furious....

Take a breath, take in the experience from the members here (posted above) and the latest casino response (also posted above) and try to calm down. Everybody said it, the money are in the internet (banking transaction) limbo, but you can be 100% sure they will be returned once your bank is satisfied there is no pending request for them. Unfortunately that takes time, I get your feelings (I have been there) but trust us and trust our collective experience. Even if you didn’t notice this and didn’t do anything about it, the money would be returned anyway once your bank was satisfied there is no pending request.

 

[AC7X]

But the bank have confirmed that the monies have been taken from the account. They are not pending or in limbo or due to be returned. They have told me - in no uncertain terms - that the casino have the money. I think it's more likely that there was a software error with Thrills - the money arrived but THEIR software didn't recognise it and didn't credit the funds. But that's just speculation.

And I'm not getting adequate customer service - or even an explanation - from the casino. They're basically telling me to send in a bank statement or go away. I think my frustration is justified.

 

[ThrillsRep]

Good Afternoon,

We understand your frustration, naturally, we are keen to resolve this asap. We have escalated this and continue to pursue it until we are able to provide you with an audit trail of the issue. Until then we would ask you to remain patient and we will ensure the funds are returned to your account where they should be.

Please feel free to PM us at any stage and we will be on hand to discuss. You are welcome to share our responses within this forum but you will understand we cannot discuss your account in an open environment like this.

This is obviously not the experience we work hard to provide and for that we are sorry but rest assured we are focused on this and have every intention of following this through to a positive resolution.

- Thrills rep

 

[nikantw]

But the bank have confirmed that the monies have been taken from the account. They are not pending or in limbo or due to be returned. They have told me - in no uncertain terms - that the casino have the money. I think it's more likely that there was a software error with Thrills - the money arrived but THEIR software didn't recognise it and didn't credit the funds. But that's just speculation.

And I'm not getting adequate customer service - or even an explanation - from the casino. They're basically telling me to send in a bank statement or go away. I think my frustration is justified.

Yes, that is what they told me also, it drives you crazy. But it wasn't true in my case (all the times it happened) and I bet it is not true in your case. It took a lot of calls to the bank to finaly find out the truth.
Every deposit you do has many steps before it is finalized, but the money are removed instantly from your bank acc. if the transaction is authorized. What they didn't tell you is that there is a pending period before it is finalized and if there is a problem like this the transaction won't be finalized and the money will be returned. It is all automated.

 

[colinsunderland]

Yes, that is what they told me also, it drives you crazy. But it wasn't true in my case (all the times it happened) and I bet it is not true in your case. It took a lot of calls to the bank to finaly find out the truth.
Every deposit you do has many steps before it is finalized, but the money are removed instantly from your bank acc. if the transaction is authorized. What they didn't tell you is that there is a pending period before it is finalized and if there is a problem like this the transaction won't be finalized and the money will be returned. It is all automated.

If it's showing on his statement then it is finalised, pending funds don't show like that

@ThrillsRep you will have no objection to a chargeback I presume, if you havent got the funds as you claim, then there can't be any harm in doing one?

 

[AC7X]

Good Afternoon,

We understand your frustration, naturally, we are keen to resolve this asap. We have escalated this and continue to pursue it until we are able to provide you with an audit trail of the issue. Until then we would ask you to remain patient and we will ensure the funds are returned to your account where they should be.

Please feel free to PM us at any stage and we will be on hand to discuss. You are welcome to share our responses within this forum but you will understand we cannot discuss your account in an open environment like this.

This is obviously not the experience we work hard to provide and for that we are sorry but rest assured we are focused on this and have every intention of following this through to a positive resolution.

- Thrills rep

I will send a PM. I hope to receive a response this time.