intercasino free flight offer not honoured

eichmann

Dormant account
Joined
Dec 7, 2003
Many of my friends opened intercasino accounts because of a bonus offer promising a free flight to the USA . I live in Australia and it sems that TLC ( the company handing the promotion for intercasino) have no intention of honouring the promotion. they are giving out false phone numbers and false email addresses to avoid anyone trying to claim their prize. Now it seems the latest ploy is to change one of the conditions of not flying on a public holiday to now mean that the customer can not travel if the travel period contains a public holiday ( in australia or the USA !) This effectively eliminates all possible travel dates.


Has anyone here from Europe successfully managed to collect an air ticket from this promotion ?
 
seems the latest ploy is to change one of the conditions of not flying on a public holiday to now mean that the customer can not travel if the travel period contains a public holiday ( in australia or the USA !) This effectivel

An exaggeration, surely? That would mean that between the USA and Australia -- there's 365 public holiday days a year!?? If that's the case, I'm spending half my time in Las Vegas and the other half in Brisbane :D

Intercasino are an extremely well established and reputable casino; I'm sure they would never knowingly offer any sort of dodgy promotion! Have you PM'd the rep here for help/explanation?
 
Intercasino may have a good name but TLC who organised the promotion certainly do not. Try googling TLC with "free flights" and words like scam and fraud.

It is quite possible they never understood the cost of flights from australia to the USA. It is hard to get a fare to the USA from Australia for under $2,000. routing restictions on the ticket mean it would probably cost them much more.
whatever the reason is they seem quite determined to make sure australians cannot collect

check the relevant post on the australian poker forum
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I am extremely disappointed to hear this feedback. I have spoke to TLC Marketing at length over the last couple of days to reiterate the importance of them providing the high level of service we demand. I believe the time difference between their main UK booking office and Australia has been a key factor in Australian players initially having difficulty contacting booking agents over the phone. I sincerely apologise for this and would encourage any Australian players to alternatively e-mail this specially designated e-mail address (which will be manned locally) with any booking queries going forward australia.concierge@tlcmarketing.com

Please can I also reassure all players who took up the promotion that you will all receive your flight. We pride ourselves on honesty and communicating information up front. The full terms and conditions for the promotion were viewable throughout the duration of the promotion and can be viewed again here -
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. Despite my huge annoyance at the unsatisfactory service some of you have received, we have had a number of positive responses from players who have been delighted that this promotion has given them the opportunity to fly to the States. TLC Marketing are a global company, approved by the ISP (Institute of Sales Promotions) and I have their word that they will meet the promise of a flight to the USA for each and every player who sends in their booking form (no matter where you are located).

If any players experience further problems, then please feel free to contact me and I will personally do all I can to assist ryanh@intercasino.com

Ryan Hartley
InterCasino Manager
 
Please can I also reassure all players who took up the promotion that you will all receive your flight.

Ryan, please stop spewing this crap to us. I will NOT get my free flight, because of this dodgy promotion, and neither will several of my friends. No-one was told when signing up for this promo they could fly when TLC Marketing deem fit - they were told they would receive a flight to the USA.

At first I was going to give you guys the benefit of the doubt but after thinking about it you are either a) complicit in this dodgy scam or b) a company who made a terrible error in judgement using a company known the World over for scamming people out of what they are entitled.

Either way InterCasino is VERY much to blame in my opinion, and your absolute failure to do anything about the situation reflects poorly on you and your company.

At the end of the day online sites rely on having the trust of their players (shall we look at the Absolute Poker example) and at the moment, I dont' see how anyone could trust your site.

If you have any integrity you should personally step in and do something about this - rather than hiding behind the "I know nuthink" excuse.

At the end of the day, whilst TLC are the company who are screwing people here, you are the guys who enlisted their help, you are the guys who benefited financially from running this promotion, you are the guys who should own up to your mistake / error in judgement or complicity in this scam and you are the guys who need to make it right for the customers who put their faith in InterCasino.
 
Ryan, please stop spewing this crap to us. I will NOT get my free flight, because of this dodgy promotion, and neither will several of my friends. No-one was told when signing up for this promo they could fly when TLC Marketing deem fit - they were told they would receive a flight to the USA.

At first I was going to give you guys the benefit of the doubt but after thinking about it you are either a) complicit in this dodgy scam or b) a company who made a terrible error in judgement using a company known the World over for scamming people out of what they are entitled.

Either way InterCasino is VERY much to blame in my opinion, and your absolute failure to do anything about the situation reflects poorly on you and your company.

At the end of the day online sites rely on having the trust of their players (shall we look at the Absolute Poker example) and at the moment, I dont' see how anyone could trust your site.

If you have any integrity you should personally step in and do something about this - rather than hiding behind the "I know nuthink" excuse.

At the end of the day, whilst TLC are the company who are screwing people here, you are the guys who enlisted their help, you are the guys who benefited financially from running this promotion, you are the guys who should own up to your mistake / error in judgement or complicity in this scam and you are the guys who need to make it right for the customers who put their faith in InterCasino.
I don't really understand why you're getting aggressive here - the only probelm I see is that one can only fly during non-holiday period times - and this is stated clearly in their terms and conditions.

Australian holidays (at least in Sydney):

Well there's today - the Queen's birthday
4 August - Bank Holiday
6 October - Labour Day
25 December - Christmas
26 December - Boxing day

US holidays
4 July - Independence day
1 September - Labor day
13 October - Columbus Day (don't know if that counts)
11 November - Veterans Day
27 November - Thanksgiving
25 December - Christmas

You guys are making it look like they said "no weekends". You have plenty of room to work with here. You have virtually the entire month of August (except one day in the middle), nearly the entire month of September, and most of October. What are you complaining about? :what:
 
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Just another note - it really doesn't matter which company Intercasino is using for travel arrangements. If Intercasino says you'll get your flight, you'll get your flight.
 
Ryan, please stop spewing this crap to us. I will NOT get my free flight, because of this dodgy promotion, and neither will several of my friends. No-one was told when signing up for this promo they could fly when TLC Marketing deem fit - they were told they would receive a flight to the USA.

At first I was going to give you guys the benefit of the doubt but after thinking about it you are either a) complicit in this dodgy scam or b) a company who made a terrible error in judgement using a company known the World over for scamming people out of what they are entitled.

Either way InterCasino is VERY much to blame in my opinion, and your absolute failure to do anything about the situation reflects poorly on you and your company.

At the end of the day online sites rely on having the trust of their players (shall we look at the Absolute Poker example) and at the moment, I dont' see how anyone could trust your site.

If you have any integrity you should personally step in and do something about this - rather than hiding behind the "I know nuthink" excuse.

At the end of the day, whilst TLC are the company who are screwing people here, you are the guys who enlisted their help, you are the guys who benefited financially from running this promotion, you are the guys who should own up to your mistake / error in judgement or complicity in this scam and you are the guys who need to make it right for the customers who put their faith in InterCasino.

just wow. he said he was getting it sorted, so chill. also, i can think of a myriad of reasons someone would want to trust intercasino. it takes quite a magnitude of cock-up to undo the years of good and generous customer service intercasino have.

mind, i haven't played since they made their bonus way junkier, but they lost a lot of money over the years to that monthly. i know many players would even play the bonus no-risk, since crypto had it set up that bonus money is played first. so to say inter are cheapskates or bad promoters lacks weight.

a flight is difficult to set up, especially if you guys get to choose the day/time. put yourself in their (tlc's) shoes: if you had hundreds of people (from various nations?) all wanting to book flights (to different destinations within the USA?), it's going to be tough to secure flights that meet everyone's needs.

and i didn't read the terms but both ryan h and you phrase it as plainly "a flight to the USA". if they wanted to be super-mean they could require that flight to be flown in the year 2084 or at any other absolute time of their choosing. also is there a promise of a flight "from the USA" back to your original point of departure?

just saying it could be a lot worse and ryan came on and promised everyone eligible is getting a flight booked. so what is there to be so aggro about? i suppose you send back a complimentary ice cream that doesn't come with a cherry?

relax, dude. :thumbsup:
 
Casinomeister - please find me a 4 week window where I can travel to the United States that includes no public holidays or airline lock out periods between now and March 31st next year (heres a tip, most of July is summer holidays and therefore a lock out period in the USA).

Now I could be a real jerk and say find me a 3 month period, since that's what the T&C says I'm entitled to, but I'll settle for 4 weeks.

As for being clearly stated in the T&C my solicitor strongly disagrees with you ... but I assume you have a law degree ???

My biggest problem stems from the fact that NO ONE would ever return my calls to discuss this with me, so in the end I had to go out and book my own travel just days before departure, meaning the cost sky-rocketed.

TLC are renowned for making their promotions so difficult to claim that the VAST majority of people just give up and stop trying - and InterCasino should have known better than teaming up with a company who has thousands of complaints recorded against them the World over.

I will NOT get a flight to the USA from InterCasino, and neither will most of my friends.

Maybe they should change the name of the promotion to "you will fly when we god damm well tell you to fly to the USA".

Ryan Hartley needs to do something more than send reassuring emails and post lies on internet forums.
 
Just another note - it really doesn't matter which company Intercasino is using for travel arrangements. If Intercasino says you'll get your flight, you'll get your flight.

They will most assuredly offer me a flight - of that I have no doubts.

Of course the fact that I will not be able to choose my dates for travel could be a bit of a problem dont you think ???

They NEVER stipulated that they would TELL us when we could fly - they asked us for 3 different dates for travel which would be acceptable to us. I supplied them with 3 and they knocked back all of them.

So yes, techinically, we will all be offered a flight - but that's not what we signed up for.
 
you're upset you can't have your return flight whenever you please? please. circa one month is not long enough of a trip for you? your flight is paid for. bummer it doesn't work out that you can stay any longer, but i'm sure they would have no problem with you paying your own way home and staying a decade if you like. you want the flight home for free too? you leave when they say to leave then, eh?

if taking the flight is really too much of an inconvenicence to you, maybe just keep making noise about it and inter will give you some kind of refund; i'd recommend $1000 in chips with a 50x turnover.

it's hoops, but what isn't? the free lunch went extinct long ago. take it or leave it.

:thumbsup:
 
Im sorry you feel that way, but you might have to just change your plans so that you can fly in their time limits. Its no different then i can see as if you used your free air miles program we have here in canada. Or some of the dif travel programs they do offer. I have talked with a few that have won free flights from casinos and yes they had to work around dates offered and they did land getting their flights. I know it puts a damper prob on your plans that you had for times you wanted but when places offer discounts or free travel really there is always blackout dates. Take a deep breath rethink with your friends and set up new times and have a blast after all its a free trip.

good luck
 
Casinomeister - please find me a 4 week window where I can travel to the United States that includes no public holidays or airline lock out periods between now and March 31st next year (heres a tip, most of July is summer holidays and therefore a lock out period in the USA).
I'll find you plenty of two to three week windows. The terms and conditions are 100% clear and there is no room for any dodgyness. Intercasino has been in business for over 10 years and has never acted in an unprofessional or rogue-like manner. I don't think anyone here will disagree with me. Sure they aren't perfect - who is? But they go out of their way to please players and to treat them as fairly as possible if or when they make mistakes. You can't get much better than that.

Now I could be a real jerk and say find me a 3 month period, since that's what the T&C says I'm entitled to, but I'll settle for 4 weeks.
Eh? I didn't read that anywhere.
As for being clearly stated in the T&C my solicitor strongly disagrees with you ... but I assume you have a law degree ???
What are you, twelve? What makes you think I give a flying rats ass what your "solicitor" thinks about what I stated. Ask him what he thinks about accusing a corporation of criminal activity on a public highly Googled message board. :p

I will NOT get a flight to the USA from InterCasino, and neither will most of my friends.
Funny how you seem to be the only person complaining about this, and in fact, I'm not sure what exactly you're complaining about. What person at Intercasino stated that you were not going to receive a flight? :what:

Ryan Hartley needs to do something more than send reassuring emails and post lies on internet forums.
Where did he lie? Be specific.

If you need to have a problem solved concerning an online casino or poker room, you've come to the right place. If you came here to slag off on someone or some thing, please re-read the forum rules that you agreed to when signing up.
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1.6 - No "Libelous" Posts. Do not make posts that could be considered libelous, defamatory, or posting merely to cause harm to another's business. Opinions are expected, but do not attack others with accusations of criminal activity unless this has been proven in a court of law.


2. Posting Complaints

2.1 - Complaints against casinos or pokerrooms will only be posted in the "Online Casino and Poker Complaints" forum.

2.2 - Do not post a complaint without notifying the appropriate casino representative by either PM or email. The casino representatives are listed here.

2.3 - Ensure your complaint is free from offensive or abusive language, and that the complaint is tactful and truthful. Making false claims are grounds for banishment or drawn and quartering.

 
Wow This is a AWESOME promotion, I didnt even know about it. Luckyshades The T&C's may be a little vague to you but they have not held back any information they have been forward with everything. I really wouldnt be speaking to Bryan Like that when all the man is trying to do is help you (hes given you flight times and looked up our public holidays to give you the times you can fly, which i assure you-you didnt do yourself).
And at the end of all this how much has it actually cost you and your friends for these flights, I would personally wait and see how things pan out.
 
Brian, look I think you do a great job on this site.

But I feel that I'm well within my rights to tell people of my entirely unsatisfactory dealings with Ryan Hartley and InterCasino. Maybe not on your site, and if that's the case I'll respect your decision - however in my opinion InterCasino can't be trusted. Thousands of people will disagree I'm sure - good for them.

The promotion was AT BEST ambiguous and impossibly restrictive and at worst designed to ensure that as few people as possible could get what they were entitled to. But that's what TLC Marketing do. They make it nigh on impossible to actually claim what you are entitled to.

At the end of the day InterCasino went into a partnership with a company which is known the world over for screwing people. Just google TLC Marketing Scams and find out what they did in America with the Dockers campaign and Washington Mutual credit, in the United Kingdom with the Ebay MasterCard and in India where the case last year went to the Supreme Court.

InterCasino used terrible judgement in using this company, and I firmly believe that reflects on the site as a whole. If they enter into partnerships with companies who can't be trusted - then THEY can't be trusted in my opinion, and I'm well within my rights expressing that to as many people as I choose.
 
Lauram, I agree 100% with you.

And it should be noted I was extremely foolish to go out and make onward travel plans and accomodation arrangements before having my flights confirmed.

But I gave TLC Marketing plenty of time to contact me to discuss my flights - made 10 phone calls to their London offices which were never returned, sent repeated emails which went unanswered.

If TLC MArketing had of answered any of my calls or emails, they could have told me straight away my dates would not work and save me a great deal of money, time and frustration (not to mention International phone calls!).

Anyway, I'm pretty over this now. I went out and paid twice what I would have paid 2 weeks ago for a return flight leaving when I want to, returning when I want to. It's what I should have done in the first place.

TLC Marketing will go on making these impossibly restrictive conditions, and companies will continue to use them and make their customers unhappy much like the Dockers customers, the EBay MasterCard customers, the Washington Mutual customers, 35,000 banking customers in India ...
 
...InterCasino used terrible judgement in using this company, and I firmly believe that reflects on the site as a whole. If they enter into partnerships with companies who can't be trusted - then THEY can't be trusted in my opinion, and I'm well within my rights expressing that to as many people as I choose.
Sure, no one said that you could not voice your opinion. There's just a right way to do it, and a wrong way to do it.
 
Hi again i know your upset. I just talked with a friend of mine is there anyway you can at least work out with them a deal that you can go on your trip even on standby and pay the service fee for this. Now with saying that the service fees
are low under 100 they are happy they got a bit of money out of this and lets hope they can make you happy and adjust and see if they can give you next cancellation or first add ons.

good luck keep me posted
 
These free flights offers are riddled with problems. Right back when HOOVER had a similar offer for those who bought their products. They expected only a small(ish) increase in sales, and the promo was intended to get rid of hard to shift stock. It went wrong because so many people bought "cheap flights with a free vacuum cleaner", and there were not enough actual flights available to meet the number of eligible claims. This lead to customers being denied their free flights simply because there were not enough to go around. Added to this, the company operating the promo deliberately set out to cover their asses by making it difficult for customers to claim their flights by sabotaging the process, such as deliberately leaving phones unanswered, not replying to letters etc. They were exposed by BBC Watchdog, and were in trouble with tranding standards. Eventually, pretty much everybody got their flight, or a compensation deal, but HOOVER lost credibility.

Pity that many other companies keep on making the same mistake, and it is down to how these promotions work. These are bought in, and operate on the basis that only a few of the eligible customers will actually bother to use their free flights since they are generally only available outside of peak travel times, and are obtained by bulk purchasing empty seats from airlines at a deep discount.
It goes wrong when people actually WANT their free flight, simply because it is there, and they get far too many claims than they can deal with. Unanswered and unreturned communications is a symptom of an overload of demand over staffing levels at their booking office. This can also mean that despite giving the proscribed 3 travel alternatives, there will simply be nothing available at all, making it look to the customer like the whole thing was a scam from the beginning.

Due to the nature of these promotions, NEVER book accommodation etc UNTIL you have a confirmed flight, even if this means delaying travel because things have not been arranged in time.

I won a "free flight to Europe" in an earlier Intercasino promotion, but as expected, the terms were pretty restrictive (had to be in the WINTER, and to a choice of only 5 cities), and I would have had to fly for the sake of it, rather than having a reason to, so I recycled the booking form through my printer. Having already won two full blown holidays with flights, I have no need to just fly for the experience of it.
I would most likely have been offered a flight if I really wanted one, but I would have had to pay for accommodation, travel, etc.

I can fly for 1p with Ryanair anyway, so nearly free, and would have more chance of going when and where I wanted, but the extras would probably cost a packet with that crafty Irishman:rolleyes:
 
dear Herr Casinomeister,
i first recommended this site to friends a few years ago when they were having trouble getting paid by some shifty online casinos. in every case the casino suddenly paid after your involvement ( for amounts totalling in the thousands of dollars).

when a large numer of australian poker players qualified for this "free" flight and had no success claiming their prizes i had no hesitation in recommending they post on this site. i also posted on this site the link to the thread on an australian poker forum where many of the disgruntled "free flight" winners were posting. RyanH posted on the australian thread promising that no one would be denied a flight. since then there has been no change , TLC have continued to refuse to answer phone calls and emails or to reject almost every possible flight date. if pressed hard enough TLC will eventually offer a flight route with taxes and "surcharges" totalling in excess of $1,400 .

the one australian who tried posting on here has experienced a totally biased response from you where you accuse him of libel and imply that he is the only disatisfied customer and therefore must be lying . The reality is that TLC are trying their hardest to make sure no australian can claim a flight and Intercasino are choosing to do nothing to support any of the "free flight winners"

I see you are the "independant" arbitrator for disputes with intercasino and that this must put you in a difficult position. Are you actually able to assist in this situation or will you have to just going to run with intercasino's official line that it isnt their problem take it up with TLC




again a link to one of the threads on this fraud on australian sites
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I sent my Flight Booking Request Form back filled out on the 3rd June 2008.

Since then I have read other posts where they are charged over $1400 for taxes and surcharges, and also now that TLC are refusing to answer phone calls and emails again.

I feel sorry for LuckyShades who tried to get in early because he was going to the WSOP and wanted to use his free flight. He got mucked around and didn't get his flight and then had to pay double what he would normally have paid to go to the US because he bought the ticket at short notice. So really, he lost a flight to the US rather than got a free one as he paid double for his. I certainly would have been fuming too if it had been me, it certainly looked and sounded like a genuine promotion when I took it up.

I personally just believe the posts I read, they have no reason to lie, and I won't be chasing it if my free ticket costs me over $1400, not to mention that I probably won't get the dates I want.

If anyone deserves compensation, LuckyShades certainly does. At least I know now not to get my hopes up.
 
I sent my Flight Booking Request Form back filled out on the 3rd June 2008.

Since then I have read other posts where they are charged over $1400 for taxes and surcharges, and also now that TLC are refusing to answer phone calls and emails again.

I feel sorry for LuckyShades who tried to get in early because he was going to the WSOP and wanted to use his free flight. He got mucked around and didn't get his flight and then had to pay double what he would normally have paid to go to the US because he bought the ticket at short notice. So really, he lost a flight to the US rather than got a free one as he paid double for his. I certainly would have been fuming too if it had been me, it certainly looked and sounded like a genuine promotion when I took it up.

I personally just believe the posts I read, they have no reason to lie, and I won't be chasing it if my free ticket costs me over $1400, not to mention that I probably won't get the dates I want.

If anyone deserves compensation, LuckyShades certainly does. At least I know now not to get my hopes up.

History repeats itself again - will big companies EVER learn.

Looking at the Australian site, it is becoming clear what has happened. When TLC made the deal, they had some kind of mathematical model as to how many players would be eligible, and of those would actually want to fly. This set their budget, and informed them of what price to quote to Intercasino.
It went wrong because someone promoted this offer to Australians as part of promoting the Intercasino brand. This has lead to far more applications from Australian players than TLC had anticipated, and TLC are unable to match these people with flights unless they buy in more flights. They also lack the staff to deal with this, as it has turned out to be more popular that they thought.
Now, they are using "trickery" of sorts to try to cut down the number of flights needed between Australia and the US. They are using the same tricks that were used in the notorious "Hoover flights fiasco" many years ago. This consisted of tactics designed to deter claimants. In the case of Hoover, the company had a policy of offering dates that they thought the customer was unlikely to accept, even though the customer's preferred dates were actually available. The other tricks were looking for minor loopholes that they could use to delay or decline the application. A fine example comes from a player who opted to pay the taxes by cheque, which was allowed, but then had their application returned as declined because they had not filled out the credit card details for payment (not necessary, and also against advice of many banks, as giving a card number when you do not intend to use it as a payment method means that an unscrupulous company could charge it).
Failure to return calls, answer Emails, and seeming to go to great lengths to "hide" their live contact numbers from the claimants is also what happened with Hoover (except it was not Email in those days, it was snail mail - they deliberately destroyed claims and then said they never received them when they were chased as to why nothing was happening).

TLC have already been caught out, telling one player that his forms were never received, clearly without ever checking, since it turned out the player had the sense to send them by recorded courier, and they had tracking data and a signiature of receipt from TLC.

This promotion should not be run again until all these issues have been resolved, and changes made to ensure it will not happen again.

Australian players should ask for a breakdown of these "taxes", they seem to be far too high, and if there is an element of payment towards the flight itself involved, would be a breach of the promise of a "free flight".
 
it is now clear beyond any doubt that TLC is acting totally fraudulently with the australian victims. RyanH has apologised saying intercasino would never have dealt with TLC had they known. at this point we have to ask what this means for the future. Apparently even a previously reputable company like intercasino can involve a third party in any promotions ans then deny any liability. the facts are simple, an unknown number of australians joined intercasino specifically for this bonus and have been denied it by a series of blatantly fraudulent actions. intercasino have apologised , washed their hands of the affair and denied any responsibility or liability. when we consider that each individual victim here is being robbed of around $ 1,500 it is hard to see how intercasino cannot get rogued or at least come with a warning here at casinomeister.com


The Casinomeister himself has damaged his credibility with his vicious attack on one of the victims . The facts are all out there if he wishes to check. Perhaps he should ask RyanH exactly how many australians have been able to use their "free" flight. If RyanH can apologise then perhaps the casinomeister can too. Perhaps for the sake of restoring some credibility casinomeister.com should sever it's cosy links with intercasino
 

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