Party transaction rates and my (likely) useless protest

Wires · #1 07-12-2007, 11:51 AM

This is basically a cross post from a message I created in a thread in the bonus section. I'm a bit slow coming to this realization but I did not realize the awful exchange rate and transaction fees being charged by Party Poker.

At the beginning to June I lost my rakeback at Party so I made the decision to move to Full Tilt. I play 100NL 6 max. In the daytime hours there is no comparison. Party is far better than FT. Because of the lack of Americans and the time zone difference with the Europeans you can find great games at 10 in the morning EST.

In the evening (EST) Party isn't all that great. There are a lot of regulars at 100NL and the table averages take a large dip with it being too late for many of the casual European players. And after 11 PM on a weeknight? Forget it. I'm not saying that the games can't be good at night but they are not nearly as good as the daytime games.

Full Tilt is the opposite with games being tighter during the day with great games in the evening.

I played a Party pretty much exclusively for the last 2 years and never had to make a deposit other than to take advantage of the occasional deposit bonus. I withdrew all of my funds at the beginning of June and only yesterday made a deposit to take advantage of the deposit bonus. Maybe I've been living under a rock but I was shocked at the profit they were making off of these transactions. I sent the following letter to Party:

__________________________________________________ ____

To whom it may concern,

With the exception of the last month I have been a regular player at your site. Today I saw that it was the last day to take advantage of a bonus offer so I decided I would start playing again. I made a deposit of $700 Canadian to your site and after the exchange my account was credited with $643 US. I was surprised by the terrible exchange rate so I went to your Cash Out page to see what my account would be credited if I withdrew my funds immediately. I was shocked to see I would receive only $656 Canadian. That is $46 in fees for a simple deposit. I'm down $46 and I HAVEN'T EVEN PLAYED A HAND. I addition to giving yourselves a very profitable exchange rate you have the nerve to charge an additional $2.50 fee on the withdrawal. This is shameful.

In the current climate where it is much more difficult to move money in and out of poker sites you should be making every effort to make this process as easy as possible Unfortunately you have opted to make an obscene profit off of these transactions. My intentions are as follows. I am a member of several poker forums and I plan to be very vocal on this matter. I will also discourage other poker players from playing on your site. I will continue to play until I clear this bonus in order to recoup some of the costs of this deposit however this will be the LAST time I play at your site.

Your profit should come from raking pots, not shamefully stealing money from players on transactions. To charge $46 in fees on a $700 deposit is grotesque and greedy. I would hope that this letter makes it beyond the computer screen of some first level customer support representative and into the hands of someone who has the common sense to effect some change in regards to these practices.

Sincerely,

XXX

__________________________________________________ ____

I don't expect this letter to make a shred of difference but I was so frustrated that I felt I needed to say something. I also do not believe that it is worth staying at Party because they games are so profitable it outweighs their dickish behaviour. There are plenty of great games on the net. About a billion players are logged on to Stars at any given time and about half of that on FT. It's not like all these players are sharks who are killing the game. Party was my home for several years but there is no way I can stick around with these ludicrous exchange rates. It's a slap in the fact to their players.

teddyFBI · #2 07-12-2007, 12:10 PM

i feel the same way but unfort am much lazier than you -- let us know if anything comes of it. my guess is that if u catch a support rep on a good day he might offer u some sort of $100 deposit bonus.
p.s. use their bank wire withdrawal method and u can keep everything in US dollars. or request a check in USD. or open a moneybookers acct in USD and request checks or EFTs from them. ur not stuck with party's terrible exchange rate. it's just a headache to get around.

_Towelie_ · #3 07-12-2007, 12:26 PM

Here's an email I sent 4 days ago. Not nearly as well crafted as yours, but it gets the point across.

[ QUOTE ]
Hello Party,

I'm just writing to let you know how much I don't appreciate your new outlandish currency conversion rates. If I understand things correctly, if I make a deposit of $1000 CDN and choose to withdraw it after conversion and fees I'm only looking at like $930? This is a terrible way to treat your Canadian customer base. It has become clear to us (Canadian players) that you're much more interested in fattening your bottom line than treating this share of the market fairly and with respect. Tread carefully Party. If this doesn’t change you will lose us. There are lots of places to play.

Justin

[/ QUOTE ]

Regardless of Party's past history of completely ignoring their customers, I think everyone who is outraged by this should at the very least send an email.

Wires · #4 07-12-2007, 12:38 PM

ur not stuck with party's terrible exchange rate. it's just a headache to get around.

It's for this reason I will no longer play on Party. The onus should not be on the player to jump through hoops in order to deposit on a site. The online room should be making every effort possible to ease the transition of money to their site. Party's EFT is a great idea and it worked very well when they offered a competitive exchange rate. What they are doing now is shameful.

I'll keep you posted but I think we all know that I'll be receiving some generic customer service letter.

sonneti · #5 07-12-2007, 12:59 PM

Can you not play in your home currency? My account is in GBP and I think it gets traded back and forward at the same rate.

Wires · #6 07-12-2007, 01:05 PM

[ QUOTE ]
Can you not play in your home currency? My account is in GBP and I think it gets traded back and forward at the same rate.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't think so because every I transaction I make is automatically converted to or from US funds. I don't see an option to do anything else. Which is bizarre seeing as they do not allow US players on the site.

Marc Desjardins · #7 07-12-2007, 01:20 PM

I sent similar emails, also complaining about the new point base bonus structure. Basically, before, when it was calculated in raked hands, I could clear a 100$ bonus playing 4 tables of NL25 in about 7-8 hours. I now play NL 50 and now it would take me 23 hours to clear the same 100$ bonus. And in the end, with the exchange rate, it turns out that it's only a 60$ bonus.

It's not worth my time anymore. I emailed them, complained about the exchange rate and bonus structure. They basically told me that there is nothing they can do.

So I cashed everything out. I won't be back until they give us a fair exchange rate and a better bonus structure. But I don't see that happening soon unfortunatly...

sonneti · #8 07-12-2007, 01:24 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Can you not play in your home currency? My account is in GBP and I think it gets traded back and forward at the same rate.

[/ QUOTE ]

I don't think so because every I transaction I make is automatically converted to or from US funds. I don't see an option to do anything else. Which is bizarre seeing as they do not allow US players on the site.

[/ QUOTE ]

Take a look at the "Your profile" tab (in the party website) I have an option to change my currency there if I want.

tommyd7878 · #9 07-12-2007, 01:50 PM

[ QUOTE ]
i feel the same way but unfort am much lazier than you -- let us know if anything comes of it. my guess is that if u catch a support rep on a good day he might offer u some sort of $100 deposit bonus.
p.s. use their bank wire withdrawal method and u can keep everything in US dollars. or request a check in USD. or open a moneybookers acct in USD and request checks or EFTs from them. ur not stuck with party's terrible exchange rate. it's just a headache to get around.

[/ QUOTE ]

You can get an EFT from Moneybookers??

teddyFBI · #10 07-12-2007, 02:03 PM

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
i feel the same way but unfort am much lazier than you -- let us know if anything comes of it. my guess is that if u catch a support rep on a good day he might offer u some sort of $100 deposit bonus.
p.s. use their bank wire withdrawal method and u can keep everything in US dollars. or request a check in USD. or open a moneybookers acct in USD and request checks or EFTs from them. ur not stuck with party's terrible exchange rate. it's just a headache to get around.

[/ QUOTE ]

You can get an EFT from Moneybookers??

[/ QUOTE ]

yes, and u can keep it in USD.
or u can request a check from them in USD.