VIP Player owed $11,000 ---Party not paying (very long)

[ZServe]

Just wanted to bring the following situation to light:

I won my first WSOP seat in the June VIP promo, getting 25k points in 4.5 days. A day or two later I emailed the VIP team to see if i would be refunded if I won an additional seat in a satellite. The following is the full email exchange:

My email to VIP

--Original Message--
From: xxxxxxx@hotmail.com
Date: 2006-06-14 18:12
To: vip@partypoker.com
Subject: WSOP seat[#5337343]

Hi, I won a seat in the VIP WSOP promotion. Thank you very much for running
this promo!!!

I just have one question. If I play in one of the nightly satellites and win
another seat, will I get the $11,000 in cash? Or will I win an entry into
the 2007 WSOP?

Thanks again!!
xxxxxx

Response from VIP Team

From : <vip@partypoker.com>
Sent : Wednesday, June 14, 2006 11:41 PM
To : xxxxxxx@hotmail.com
Subject : Reply from VIP at PartyPoker.com [#5337343]


Dear xxxxxx,

Thank you for contacting us.

Congratulations on being one of our lucky 30 VIP's and winning this seat in to
the WSOP!

Now, as for your question regarding subsequent wins, you have really thrown us.
We have specified in the VIP terms and conditions, that if a player has already
won a seat in the WSOP through any other means, he will not be eligible to take
part in the VIP promotion, but we are unsure about the other way around.

I will find out this information for you when the events team are back in the
office, and ask them to contact you with the correct information. I will check
that this has been done when I come back for my next shift and ensure you have
been informed.

Please allow me 24 hours to find out this information for you.

Kind Regards
Rachel
PartyPoker Customer Care

Now the response from Events Team

From : Events <events@partypoker.com>
Sent : Thursday, June 15, 2006 7:40 AM
To : xxxxxxx@hotmail.com
Subject : WSOP Question

Dear xxxxxx,

In response to your question, we will refund up to 4 additional packages you win via any of our regular Satellites, STEPS, or Gateway tournaments. Once you have won more than 5 total WSOP® packages no more refunds will be granted.

If you have any further questions or concerns please do not hesitate to ask.

Kind Regards,

Your PartyPoker.com Events Team
-----------------------------------------------------
Pretty clear, right? I thought so, until a week later when I won my second seat in a $215 satellite. Two days went by and no $11,000 in my account, so I email events team. Their response:

From : Events <events@partypoker.com>
Sent : Wednesday, June 28, 2006 2:04 PM
To : xxxxxxxx@hotmail.com
Subject : 50K

Dear xxxxxx,

It has come to our understanding that you have already won a partypoker.com WSOP package. Unfortunately we will be unable to give you the package you won via the 50,000 points promotion. We will put your 50,000 points back into your account.

Thank you for your understanding on this matter.

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask.

Kind Regards,

Your PartyPoker.com Events Team
---------------------------------------------
Obviously a misunderstanding right? I email them back, attach the original email correspondence, and am ignored. I send the email again, and they respond with a FORWARDED copy of the "50k" email above with no additional comments.

I then contacted my affiliate who has been very helpful in the couple instances I had issues in the past. He emailed one of the higher ups at Party with all the evidence in question and Party's response was this:

He won the seat via a points promo, and was told for that promo that he wouldnt be able to win another seat as the promo seat was basically a $10,000 comp. He then asked a general question can I win multiple seats, which of course the answer is yes. But he didnt ask the question in context with the promo seat.

They tell me they have offered to refund the 50,000 points he used to win the promo seat and also give him a bonus for his play during that time. But we wont be refunding $10,000 to him.
---------------------------------------------
This is absolutely false, as the ONLY email correspondence I had with Party is copied in this email. I was NEVER told that I would not be refunded for additional wins, and my email CLEARLY stated that I won my first seat in the points promo.

I have been a happy player at Party for a long time now and am in disbelief at what I am going through here. I am hoping that the "higher up" who sent the last email was just busy and didnt closely look at the situation. Does anyone have any suggestions on a next step? I am a very laid back person but $11,000 is a TON of money to me and I am extremely upset.

My affiliate has a follow up email in to this "higher up" and I sent one to a supervisor of the VIP team.

Thanks for reading and I will follow up with any additional information, including if and when I am paid the $11,000.

[AntonHeat]

wow this is bad... see if you played at pokerstars this kind of [censored] wouldn't happen, but with party its standard [img]/images/graemlins/frown.gif[/img]
hope they give you some sort of deal or something [img]/images/graemlins/spade.gif[/img]

[bobbyi]

That sucks. It seems pretty clear from the mails you quoted that you are right and they are wrong.

[poker-penguin]

[ QUOTE ]
That sucks. It seems pretty clear from the mails you quoted that you are right and they are wrong. and yet they'll still [censored] you around.

[/ QUOTE ]

FYP

[AllinDan]

call them. demand to speak to a supervisor who speaks english. I don't think you'll get anything done over email. You could try emailing mike O Malley directly perhaps, but this isnt his deal. I'm pessimistic about your chances.

[-zero-]

That is absolutely ridiculous. I hate Party.

[spino1i]

I would call them.. trying to get stuff done over email is not a good idea. You can probably resolve the situation by just takling to the VIP dept.

[heater]

"We will put your 50,000 points back into your account."

Nice consolation there. You can get an ipod or maybe half a dozen books that you probably already own. Yay.

[whittiphil]

this is terrible

[Arnfinn Madsen]

Try to escalate to the Pokerroom manager. Oh wait, he is just the manager of good times [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img], the bad things gets rightfully descalated until it gets to a person with neither competence or authority to handle it. Naming tables contests and announcing no-download-upgrade is cool [img]/images/graemlins/cool.gif[/img], making sure promises are kept is rather boring. No point not having fun at work [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img].