About the PokerRoom X-mas tourney

[[Phill]]

I got the email in question.

The only mention of the tourney is:

[ QUOTE ]
Christmas is a time for giving, and we are giving away the best gifts this holiday season in our Big Christmas Tourneys. The festivities begin this weekend at PokerRoom.com:

Big Xmas Tourney 1
Sat Dec 16 at 1430 ET (1930 GMT)
Buy-in: $20+2
First Prize: HD Flat Screen TV worth $2000

Big Xmas Tourney 2
Sun Dec 17 at 1430 ET (1930 GMT)
Buy-in: $30+3
First Prize: Luxury trip to the Maldives Hilton Resort

Avoid the Christmas rush and register for the Big Christmas Tourneys as soon as you can because they'll fill up fast.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is of course irrelivent. It is their fault that someone screwed up when entering the details of the tourney when it went up in the lobby.

[MicroBob]

[ QUOTE ]
If the email exists, please post it in this thread.

[/ QUOTE ]



Yes, we should see this e-mail.

Hopey - I did work some in media-relations. But I wasn't very good and it was only a side-duty in my job.
I'm not a very good writer, but I think their strategy in this situation coud definitely have been improved.


Just to clarify - PRRoom guy's 2nd response came while I was still typing the post that is a couple posts down from his.

[mjm]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
It took me 2 mins to find numerous players confirm that you sent out a promotional email on the 15th December advertising the tournament as $19,000 guaranteed, plus the additional prizes.

[/ QUOTE ]

I would very much like to see that promotional e-mail you speak of (mentioning the $19,000). But somehow I doubt that it exists. This is exactly what I meant about rumours being spread, instead of facts. Should I be wrong about this, I'll gladly eat crow.

Sincerely,
Oskar Hornell
Founder of PokerRoom.com

[/ QUOTE ]

Founder of Pokerroom

I recently claimed that PokerRoom sent a promotional email stating that the xmas tourney would have a $19k guaranteed prize pool. This in fact is INCORRECT and my statement was due to an error on my part. I apologise profusely for the error I made and hope that this post rectifies that error in a timely manner.

[ninenine_zoe]

[ QUOTE ]
I got the email in question.

The only mention of the tourney is:

[ QUOTE ]
Christmas is a time for giving, and we are giving away the best gifts this holiday season in our Big Christmas Tourneys. The festivities begin this weekend at PokerRoom.com:

Big Xmas Tourney 1
Sat Dec 16 at 1430 ET (1930 GMT)
Buy-in: $20+2
First Prize: HD Flat Screen TV worth $2000

Big Xmas Tourney 2
Sun Dec 17 at 1430 ET (1930 GMT)
Buy-in: $30+3
First Prize: Luxury trip to the Maldives Hilton Resort

Avoid the Christmas rush and register for the Big Christmas Tourneys as soon as you can because they'll fill up fast.

[/ QUOTE ]

This is of course irrelivent. It is their fault that someone screwed up when entering the details of the tourney when it went up in the lobby.

[/ QUOTE ]

i got exactly the same...

[holdin2]

[ QUOTE ]
I don't usually handle support or communication issues

[/ QUOTE ]

You probably should have kept it that way. You're posts have only compounded the problem.


[ QUOTE ]
But what bothers me...

[/ QUOTE ]

In dealing with customers in any job/service/level it's probably good advice not to tell your customers what bothers you about them.

[PokerRoom.com]

[ QUOTE ]
I recently claimed that PokerRoom sent a promotional email stating that the xmas tourney would have a $19k guaranteed prize pool. This in fact is INCORRECT and my statement was due to an error on my part.

[/ QUOTE ]

Apology accepted. But do you see now how easy it is for negative rumours to spread? No one likes to be called a crook or a liar. We made a mistake in our tourney (and the way it was handled) but we didn't do it to cheat anyone.

As some of you have noticed, I'm speaking my mind here and I get a little personal. I don't work for support and I'm not within corporate communications either. I'm probably too involved in the company to have that cool distance that perhaps would be better for public statements. In the near future, we'll get someone like that to handle the public posting for us. The only reason I'm here is that I felt that the issue needed to be resolved and commented on right away.

I'd also like to think that, given a little time, we can improve the parts that need improving (customer communication etc).

Sincerely,
Oskar Hornell
Founder of PokerRoom.com

[adanthar]

I'm a US player so I'm completely irrelevant to you now, but let me say one thing: the reason I had accounts on 10 sites pre-ban (still do actually) but not PR was because, with rare exceptions, PR has always been shady and counted pennies.

Continuing involvement with rogue skins after it's been pointed out for months that they're rogue? Check.

Continuing and still ongoing involvement with Futurebet? Check.

Freezing high limit accounts with little communication back and forth? Check.

Highest rake in the industry to pay for the great CS? Check.

Right now, you're in here after 3 weeks talking about 19K. I will honestly say I never heard of the story before and this is the first chance I have to form an opinion. Okay, fine, a software glitch cost you guys some fraction of 19K...so you confiscate the money once it's been awarded. I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you had no idea that taking out money from people's accounts on Christmas would be received negatively. But how on earth does a poker site, by default, act in such a cheapskate fashion? You know there's a site in direct competition with you that is likely to give away over a million in overlays this month alone, right? Congrats, getting back that 19K cost you that same million. (I'm not mentioning when Stars completely randomly and unexpectedly drops a grand per VIP to upgrade their hotel rooms in a tournament. I know that one'll never happen at PR. But jeez, the nickel and diming involved is just nuts.) Nobody else in this industry except UB pulls stunts like this, which is why UB is the only site whose numbers are not going anywhere post-ban.

But you know what? Forget the 19K, it's small potatoes. I just want to know why you're here over the 19K but not over Futurebet. Which one do you think is more important?

[MicroBob]

[ QUOTE ]
I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you had no idea that taking out money from people's accounts on Christmas would be received negatively.

[/ QUOTE ]


I laughed.

[Scorcho]

This whole thing pisses me off so much that I'm going to do everything I can for the US to reverse this gambling law just so I can sign up, deposit, withdraw, and email you to let you know that you lost a customer.

Seriously though, this part of PokerRoom.com's reply is really terrible:

But what bothers me a little is when people who weren't in the tourney in question, people who don't know the details behind the situation, people who may not even have visited our site, are very quick to voice an opinion about exactly what happened and what they think our motives were.

I don't need to be in the tourney, nor go to your site, nor need to know any details beyond the obvious to make my opinion here. You got players to sign up for a tournament thinking it was for $19,000 guaranteed and then you pulled it from them without warning. It's pretty cut and dried, regardless of whether it was done with any malice or unintentionally with a glitch. If it was just a glitch, then you should have honored it and considered it a $19,000 mistake that you can prevent from happening in the future with less carelessness.

[darom03]

[ QUOTE ]
Apology accepted. But do you see now how easy it is for negative rumours to spread? No one likes to be called a crook or a liar. We made a mistake in our tourney (and the way it was handled) but we didn't do it to cheat anyone.

As some of you have noticed, I'm speaking my mind here and I get a little personal. I don't work for support and I'm not within corporate communications either. I'm probably too involved in the company to have that cool distance that perhaps would be better for public statements. In the near future, we'll get someone like that to handle the public posting for us. The only reason I'm here is that I felt that the issue needed to be resolved and commented on right away.

I'd also like to think that, given a little time, we can improve the parts that need improving (customer communication etc).

Sincerely,
Oskar Hornell
Founder of PokerRoom.com

[/ QUOTE ]

It is good to see that you are actively trying to resolve the situation via dialog. But what I fail to fathom is that it took well over two weeks before Pokerroom rectified the situation.

I honest believe that the time it took for you to act, plays a major part in the widespread and outrage we have felt (and still feel) towards your company.

The damage done by that passiveness will be more severe than you may even think at present.