Without further adieu .....
Ok, here's my recent odyssey with two casinos and the accounting company they use. These are the facts - as I have lived them. I can back up everything with evidence - save the telephone calls that occurred between myself and the casinos.
The two casinos are Intercasino and the Sands of the Caribbean and their mutual payment merchant - ECash Direct. I want to start by saying that I do not bear ill will towards the casinos - but I am disappointed in the treatment they gave me. I was a very loyal player with Intercasino - in one month alone I bet through the equivalent of $110,000. That's a lot of cabbage.
Ok so here goes.
In July of this year I ran into some serious money troubles such that I incurred chargebacks with several online payment merchants.
These chargebacks resulted from deposits that I made with Intercasino. Before the banking merchants even realized that the chargebacks would occur - I informed them and worked out a repayment plan. These payment merchants included NETeller, 900Pay and Citadel. These problems resulted in Intercasino locking my account with them until all vendors were paid. They also locked my mother's account as well. I believe they locked both our accounts because 900Pay uses one's phone billing information. Her name appears as the owner of my phone bill, though I pay that bill. Long story short, they locked her account due to my issues.
All the merchants were paid for any outstanding funds within a 4 - 6 week period. This included any chargeback fees the merchants were owed as well those charged by my bank. And let me tell you it was pricey. I took responsibility and got the mess cleaned up.
I got my financial house back in order and was playing at Interasino again before too long. Incidentally, Intercasino also immediately unlocked my mother's account once they had the all clear from the merchants involved. They (Intercasino) acknowledged locking both of the accounts together because of some relationship with 900Pay.
Upon playing at Intercasino this time, I was much more cautious and exercised better control over my finances. Once burned - lesson learned. Yada yada yada...etc.
After several weeks of playing - in the last week of October - I discovered that Intercasino had once again locked my account (and my mother's account). This locking of the account's was only discovered by attempting to log in. Intercasino, it seems, takes no active role in alerting players to whatever problems lead to the lockout. I knew it had to be 900Pay because I hadn't checked that account in awhile. Checking their site confirmed it for me. Initially Intercasino informed me it was 900Pay as well.
As it turned out, a deposit I had made back in July with Intercasino (using 900Pay), was charged back to 900Pay by my telephone company. In fairness to IC, I knew the chargeback was coming but not to 900Pay. My phone company had sent me a special paper bill acknowledging the chargeback to a company other than 900Pay. I fully expected to be contacted by this company but never was. To be honest I thought the name looked like that of a collection company but I guess I was wrong. This chargeback to 900Pay occurred because my phone company had simply charged the funds back to 900Pay without allowing me time to pay it when it was on my bill. (An aside: my phone company failed to send my electronic bills to my email account using their "electronic billing". They don't send you a phone bill when they do this, except for special issues as noted above. I had it out with them over this as well.)
Anyhow, suffice to say it took 900Pay over a week to confirm that the amount in question was actually a chargeback from my telephone company. Apparently no one there knew what or where it was from - for quite some time. Once they confirmed what it was, I paid it. End of story.
Now, it then took Intercasino approximately a week to get this straightened out. At first they said it was 900Pay - and they needed an email directly from 900Pay confirming my account with them as clear. I got 900Pay to send it. Then once they had that, they insisted I forward them a copy of the message that 900Pay had earlier sent to me, which stated my account was clear. Yes this was redundant but I did it anyway. Keep in mind, all the while now I am being promised that once all the information is in, my account will be reopened.
After getting them all the information they could possibly need they then switched their tune.
Now, they said there was a NETeller chargeback and that NETeller wasn't clear. At this point I was completely confounded with Intercasino's treatment of my account. If it were true that NETeller had issues with my account with them would I have been able to make several recent deposits using NETeller with Intercasino?
Anyway, I got NETeller to email Intercasino directly and then also forwarded Intercasino an email that I had subsequently received from NETeller stating the same all clear message. Yes, this was also redundant but I did it anyway.
Sometime around the middle of November my account was cleared again and was reopened.
Now here's where it gets hinky (strange).
For the grief they caused me at Intercasino, the casino graciously awarded me a $100 bonus.
It was quite nice and unexpected. The problem was that my mother's account was still locked at this time. They apparently forgot this time to reopen her account when they cleared mine.
She emailed them again and again over a 10 period or so with no response. Because of this oversight and the fact that she was being ignored I got involved to try and clear things up with IC once more. After all, it was my fault she got locked out.
After trying to explain the mistake that Intercasino had made in keeping my mother's account locked I learned just how messed up they had things there. Sometime near the end of the third week in November, Intercasino locked my account again. In intervening on my mother's behalf they pulled the same chargeback issue that was still on the books in her account (that I had just cleared mind you) back into my account!
Now I was back to square one and both of us were locked out again!
In trying to get them to see what they did - they simply insisted this was a new issue and had to be dealt with.
Again, I got 900Pay and NETeller to vouch for the status of my accounts. And despite all Intercasino's promises this time, that my account would once again be open this never happened.
Once they received the all clear from NETeller and 900Pay and had been informed that there were in fact no chargebacks at all in November - Intercasino permanently locked my account. I was informed of this during a phone call I made to Intercasino which I thought I was making to finally get things sorted out. This was now the end of November.
I was in shock. This was their error. They ghosted the chargeback that had been cleared from my account back into my account when I explained that they had not reopened my mother's account. Instead of clearing it from my mother's account too, they simply spread it back to mine.
Now here's another thing that frustrates me. Intercasino insisted, at least at the time, that they didn't ban me but that ECash Direct was responsible and as far as accounts go they defer completely to ECash Direct. So I am not banned by the casino per se just permanently locked out because of ECash Direct. (An aside: currently the account appears to have been deleted.) The final kicker is that I wasn't allowed to speak directly with the accounts people at ECash Direct who, according to Intercasino, were responsible for closing my account. I got some "go between" at Intercasino who insisted he was as shocked as I was that they wouldn't reopen my account. As for Ryan Hartley at IC, he got involved at one point and then I never heard from him again. So as far as I know he's aware of the problem but wasn't or isn't interested in my problem.
To IC's credit - they did reopen mother's account and she is able to play there to this day. So they did get the issues cleared from her account. But once they ghosted the problem back into mine it was there to stay.
It would however take another three weeks before they would send me my money that had been locked in my Intercasino account. Approximately $500. I had been winning at the time of the final lockout. The final insult was that they charged me a cashout fee! They lock my account for their mistake, and then charge me a fee to send me my money. But I got paid, eventually.
I wish it was over at that point but unfortunately it was not. Why, do you ask?
Well, in really enjoying the avatar type casino that Intercasino uses I sought out another casino using similar software and found the Sands of the Caribbean. I found it by checking out the accredited casinos links on Casinomeister.com.
It looked good so I created an account with them. I wasn't happy to see that ECash Direct was their merchant so I gave them a few days to delete my account if their was going to be a problem.
After a few days my account was still fine and working so I deposited. Not only did they not give me the playing bonus they offered, but they locked my account as soon as they had my money! When I went to play at a table - I was informed my account was locked by an onscreen message. The Sands informed me of a payment issue with NETeller when I contacted them.
AAAAAAAAAHaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Total frustration. And now the problem at Intercasino was keeping me from playing at another casino. Supposedly an independent one.
Forgive me for beating a dead horse but if it were true that NETeller had a problem with my account, would NETeller have approved the deposit that I had just made to the Sands!? I think not. In fact, I know they wouldn't have from my earlier experiences outlined above.
So apparently, ECash Direct still has there facts wrong. What makes it worse is it that despite having no history with the Sands - ECash was using information gathered with other casinos! I was never informed of this nor consented to this.
My gripe with the Sands and ECash is this. If I'm not allowed to play at your casino then don't allow me to create an account. Don't allow me to deposit either. And don't lock up my money. To the Sands credit, it only took two weeks to get my money back and it was credited back to NETeller. Ofcourse I requested this immediately this time. And they didn't hit me for the cashout fee that IC did - which is only just since they never let me play. The Sands did make the same promises however about getting all the proof from NETeller and 900Pay with the ultimate goal of opening my account. The account never opened again.
Now aside from all this mistake stuff with IC and ECash Direct, I am left wondering what the real relationship is between ECash Direct, Intercasino and The Sands of the Caribbean. Does ECash Direct really own these casinos or are they truly an independent accounting firm? Like I said, I am left wondering.
Ok, I think that's most of it. Perhaps if the Casino Reps and a real ECash Direct Rep care to respond we can debate the finer details and perhaps get my accounts open again. But this post is already rediculously long so I will leave that for another time, if that time comes to pass.
As far as what I would like to see done - I would like to play at Intercasino again. Intercasino had always treated me fairly before this debacle. I really enjoyed the realistic casino atmosphere and the multiplayer modes.
And while I recognize that chargebacks are an issue here - I paid all involved merchants in short time. Intercasino never lost a single dime on me and only made money. And all the merchants still accept my deposits to this day. Why shouldn't they when they made a mint off me with the chargebacks?
If this is how loyal players are treated at casinos then, in my mind, that's just not good enough. They treated me like someone who stiffed them when in fact they all made money on me.
Unfortunately, the message I am getting here is that if you incur chargebacks with online merchants don't pay them. Because the casinos involved will lock you out anyway, no matter if you make good with vendors or not. That is the logic being implied by the actions of Intercasino and Ecash Direct in their refusal to see that facts.
So a warning to players who may incur chargebacks with banking merchants - the casinos that accept them may ban you anyway. So buyer beware.
Well, that's my peace. It's out there. Let's see where logic leads us. I would like to see the casinos respond with a well thought out reply. Not the typical empty drivel.
Oh, and one more thing. If these casinos change their story now about why they locked my account - then what does that say about how much they can be trusted?
My apologies for the length of this post.
