eurobet / ongame locks $60,000, investigates, finds me guilty, then re

[shahmat]

Well here's a long detail of my 3 stress filled days from eurobet/ongame. If you don't feel like reading it, I'll summarize it here. Basically they locked up my account without contacting me, told me they were investigating suspicious activity(chip dumping specifically). After they investigate they tell me I've been found guilty and are keeping my funds. The next day they send me an email saying sorry they were wrong and give me full access again. The story has a happy ending, so I'm glad about that, but was sickened by how they handled it.

Just for the record I have never cheated and never will. Here's the story if you feel like reading:

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Well just thought I'd post my experience that I've had with Eurobet/Ongame network as a friend sent me a 2+2 link detailing a similar situation.

On Jan 29, 2007 I tried to login to my Eurobet account and was greeted with the message, wrong username/password. I tried my password a few more times but that wasn't the problem. Finally I ended up phoning Eurobet support. I was on hold for a while and when I finally got through I was told that my account was temporarily suspended due to suspicious activity, specifically "chip dumping". Now I've never done anything of the sort so I was concerned but they told me they were just investigating it and my account was only temporarily on hold while they did this. He then told that in maybe a couple days they might email me and let me know what the situation was. I told them that I was not happy with that and wanted to know specifically when I would be contacted by them. He said for sure by Friday (it was Wednesday morning when I phoned). He also said I could try phoning back tomorrow and maybe they would have a decision for me then. I said okay I'd try that tomorrow as that sounded reasonable.

So the next day I phone them again and I talk to a different operator who looks up my account info. They tell me that a decision has been made, and I'm thinking "good, I'll be able to play today". He/she then goes on to tell me that I have been found guilty and my account has been closed. They informed me that I will not have access to my funds and I will not be able to play there anymore. I asked for an explanation and the operator could give none other than "you have been found guilty of chip dumping". Which I have NEVER done. I asked for the specific hands in question and he/she tells me that they don't have information on that but if I have any concerns I can write to some place and they'll take a look at my complaint. Here is the address they gave me to contact.

Government of Gibralter
Office of Finance and Development Secretary
Treasury Building
#23 John-Mackintosh Square

At this point I was livid. First they accuse me of cheating and find me guilty. Then they won't give me any explanation as to why and instead of being able to talk to a person I have to write a letter to the middle of nowhere which will probably never get dealt with. I immediately asked to speak with a supervisor. I again explained my situation to the supervisor and he basically told me the same thing the operator had. I asked specifically what had i done and he kept telling me "chip dumping". I finally got him to tell me that he had no specific knowledge of what exactly I did but he could contact the poker department to find out the specific hands. This was after asking him about 5 times(or at least it felt like that many, not sure how many it actually was) what exactly I did wrong. He assured me he'd call me tomorrow and explain to me why I was found guilty after he got the details from the poker department. At this point it really sounded like I was screwed and I wasn't very happy.

So I started looking for Ongame phone numbers as they had told me that this decision had been reached by the Ongame security department and not their own. I finally found a phone number and talked to someone there who gave me another phone number. I called this and got what I think was there poker department. I explained the situation to them and they repeatedly told me they don't deal with eurobet support, they told me to call eurobet and straighten it out with them. I asked to speak to their security department and they told me "no one can talk to security the department they can only be emailed and we can give out that email". So I was left waiting for my phone call from Eurobet the next day.

I wake up the next morning check my email and I find this:

Dear Mr Bergen,

Our Poker Department wishes to inform you that following an investigation into suspicious play, your account has been reactivated.
I apologize for any inconvenience caused and if I can be of any further assistance please do not hesitate to contact either myself, or the Eurobet Customer Service team.

Kind Regards

Dimitrios
Eurobet Customer Services

They even spelled my last name wrong, well done Eurobet! I immediately logged on and cashed out everything. I haven't been back since.

Oh my user name on that site was shahmat.

http://www.sollucas.com

[r0eKY]

lolocoaster

[cooldude345]

ahehehehehehehhehehe

[OngameClassic]

Hi Shahmat and the rest of the 2+2 crowd,

This is the Ongame Network Ombudsman speaking.

First off we would like to refer back to the post we made last week detailing what this Ombudsman service is all about.

This link should take you to that thread.

Please read it before continuing on.
Most of what is brought up in this thread is somewhat explained or answered in that thread - but we'd still like to reiterate a few points.

1. We don't apologize for occasionally, and temporarily, closing down some of our operators' player accounts due to one of our security systems triggering. It is of course not something we LIKE having to do, but it is virtually impossible to run a tight operation from a security standpoint without now and then erringly flag players who, as was pointed out in the previous thread, are on a fantastic streak, are in the wrong place at the wrong time or who are playing...well... outside the norm.

Left with the choice of never troubling players with these temporary closedowns or compromising security, the choice is simple.

2. We, Ongame Network, do not run a card room - we only supply the technology behind them. Should you have any queries or issues with one of our operators, it must go through them.

3. We have reckognized the need for players to be able to voice their concerns directly with us. Hence this service. This Ombudsman service, however, is not in any way a customer support operation. We are “merely” exist to listen and learn. We take notes, make inquiries and follow up on issues. But once we do that, our operators will sort everything out with you as players.

4. We deeply apologize for the run-around you were given. That was bad service on the part of us and the operator in question.
Further explanation of why that can happen can be found in the aforementioned thread.

5. We have noted the handling of your case and will forward it to all involved parties.

6. Had your account not been re-opened, we would have inquired further, but since it was, there is no need for us to intervene.

Again, being handed run-arounds is not the nuts. Far from it. Hopefully you will be treated to a more enjoyable experience the next time you visit our gaming ground.

Sincerely,

Ombudsman Services,
Ongame Network
ombudsman@ongamenetwork.com
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Are you good enough to become the King of the Hill?

[AntonHeat]

These are the kinds of scares why I would not play on your site along with many other people. When a company [censored] s up like this -ev Even if everything was fixed right after still looks bad I atleast hope you guys compensated OP since this probably scared the [censored] out of him plus a lose of money and time [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

[Gregg777]

They probably gave him free entry into a $1k freeroll [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

[OngameClassic]

Thanks for your comments,

Keep in mind that the OP is not a customer of ours.
That doesn't mean that we do not have an interest in what happens between our operators and their players, far from it, but we have no direct influence upon the OP.

However, since security alerts such as the one that struck the OP are generated by our security systems, we are of course inadvertently involved anyway. That's why we will gladly explain our position and apologize for instances where communication between us and our operators do not transpire as smoothly as we aim to.

Our mission is to ensure that players are provided some form of report service which can be used to keep us up to date on what is going on. This will allow us to further increase monitoring of our operators (and to a certain extent ourselves) and thus increase our capacity to intervene and react should things go wrong.

Sincerely,

Ombudsman Services,
Ongame Network
ombudsman@ongamenetwork.com
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Are you good enough to become the King of the Hill?

[r0eKY]

good to see a response from Ombudsman Services,
Ongame Network
ombudsman@ongamenetwork.com

wish every place would be this close to their customer base

[RikaKazak]

[ QUOTE ]
These are the kinds of scares why I would not play on your site along with many other people. When a company [censored] s up like this -ev Even if everything was fixed right after still looks bad I atleast hope you guys compensated OP since this probably scared the [censored] out of him plus a lose of money and time [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

agreeged...playing on ongame is just -EV...too many other "reputable" card rooms to play on to risk your money getting frozen on ongame.

[Soul Rebel]

[ QUOTE ]
These are the kinds of scares why I would not play on your site along with many other people. When a company [censored] s up like this -ev Even if everything was fixed right after still looks bad I atleast hope you guys compensated OP since this probably scared the [censored] out of him plus a lose of money and time [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]

These instances at Ongame are downright scary. Not so much because they are incredibly incompetent, but because accounts get flagged and frozen seemingly at random and without an explanation. If this happens to you, like OP said, there is not much you can do. I had a measly $2k locked up almost year ago by "the security department." After no less than a month and 20 phone calls later, my account was unlocked with no apology or anything like that. I had to track down the Pokerroom affiliate director and get her involved to help me get my account unfrozen. Ongame keeps saying they are working to fix things like this, but nothing has improved, and I think I'm actually glad I can't play there anymore. If I did, I would keep a maximum of 3 or 4 buyins on the site, as there is no game on that site that requires a $60k balance. Seriously guys, do not leave that much cash on any Ongame site.