Refer-A-Friend Policy--TGC

[Inthacup]

Hello everyone,


I have been talking at length with the people at the gaming club. Considering that most of the RAF bonuses are dropped manually, I think they've done an exceptional job. Overall, there have bee no problems with the RAF bonuses and TGC has been very flexible.


The only thing that has become an issue is the players who downloaded the software through my link but did NOT enter Inthacup in the referral field. What I did not find out until two days ago is that my Inthacup username must be put in the referral field to get the full $100 bonus. The $100 bonus comes from two things: the $50 I receive for the CPA I get through my affiliate program and $50 through TGC entering Inthacup in the referral box.


Since some of you did download through my link, you did receive the $50 from my end(after depositing $30 and playing 150 raked hands), but since you did not enter my name in the referral field, it seems that you can not get the other half of the bonus. I have had several conversations with them, and by my reasoning, since you downloaded through my link, it is understood that I am referring you. I wish that I knew that you HAD to enter my name to get the full bonus. I would have stated it specifically from the beginning. But like I said, I only found out about this two days ago. I will continue to try to work this out, but for those who have only received $50, I wanted you to know why you haven't been credited with the other $50.


All this being said, I feel kinda stupid arguing with them about this. They have been incredibly generous with us so far and have handed out $100 or more to pretty much everyone. If you have any questions about your account feel free to PM me.


Cup

[SamJack]

Apparently, I'm on this list of people who did not enter InthaCup's username while signing up through his link.

I share in InthaCup's sentiment that TGC has been very kind in making this OIC a possibility as well giving participants' some free $$s to get started.

However, if they clearly know that I and others have signed up through InthaCup's link, what is the problem here?

In fact, I don't recall seeing a field that asked for his usernmae at all. In the end, I feel confident that TGC will recognize that this is merely an administrative problem and credit everyone with their $50s.

In principle, they are screwing InthaCup here. Cup has been generous to give his $50's to us because he chose to. I believe, in essence, TGC is denying InthaCup his portion of the RAF.

SamJack

[Inthacup]

Sam,

I appreciate your sentiments.

I don't really think the TGC is screwing me. The reason why I did this in the first place is because I realized how many people I could help in getting the bonuses. A few people have been generous enough to let me keep my half of the RAF bonus they receive. I greatly appreciate that gesture and it has made this entire experience worthwhile. In the beginning, I was only expecting the players to receive the $50 bonus from me. The RAF bonus was an unexpected surprise from TGC. So, it doesn't really bother me that much, because I wasn't expecting the players to receive any more than $50 extra, which is still very nice of them.


Cup

[HavanaBanana]

[ QUOTE ]
All you have to do to be referred by me is click here when you go to download the software.

[/ QUOTE ]

I didn't put InThaCup in the referal box because of this info from you.
What exactly did me downloading the software through your link do?
1.) Give you a one time 50$ to your account (which you made TGC send to me as soon as I had played my required hands after my deposit?) but not giving me the initial 50$ that a ordinary RAF gives.
2.) Give you a %age of the rake I create, still sending me 50$ after playing a certain number of hands etc etc.
3.) None of the above, please clarify.

In any case, what was the benefits of not doing it as a regular RAF?

I'm not swetting the 50$ was a great deal in the first place, but would like these Questions answered, thanks /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[Inthacup]

I didn't put InThaCup in the referal box because of this info from you.

At the time, it was my understanding that putting Inthacup in the referral box was not necessary.


1.) Give you a one time 50$ to your account (which you made TGC send to me as soon as I had played my required hands after my deposit?) but not giving me the initial 50$ that a ordinary RAF gives.

This is correct.


In any case, what was the benefits of not doing it as a regular RAF?


The primary reason was a concern about tracking players. Everything was thrown together on the fly. I'd like to not that it wasn't even known that we could do the RAF bonus when the OIC started. But, since there were so many retro-bonuses where people just signed up with the OIC without letting me refer them, the only way to track them to me was to track them back to the affiliate program. From what I've been told, TGC is not able to retroactively give someone the RAF bonus.

Basically, signing up through the link was another way to make sure that everyone was tracked to me, thus receiving the proper RAF bonus. In that sense, it was very effective. Everyone who signed up through me and met the requirements has gotten my $50. It's just the other $50 for entering "Inthacup" that was lost in communication. I guess you can blame me for that because I never specifically asked if it was necessary.

I'm sorry if I've disappointed anyone who did not receive the full $100.


Cup

[Stagemusic]

Cup,

As far as I am concerned, there has been no problem at all with anything that has been done with the RAF at TGC. I used your link, got the RAF bonus. Made a deposit and got some more... How could I not be happy? If there is more coming...COOL. I hope you are able to make some money with this. Keep the faith man... /images/graemlins/cool.gif

[ExNihilo]

Well, I also downloaded from you link and I attempted to put in your name under the RAF box (I don't know if caps matter) and to date I haven't received any money into my account.

I think this is a great promo and I've enjoyed playing in the OIC and so far am happy with the software, but it's been more than 2 weeks since I signed up. I received my OIC money almost instantly and was very impressed. But I have yet to receive other monies.

[PokerNoob]

I also downloaded from your link and put your name in. Maybe I put InthEcup, but I'm pretty sure I spelled it with an "A". No bonus. I've been playing the OIC for at least 5 or 6 nights since it started for multiple hours a night.

[alekhine8]

1) Inthacup - I put your name in the box and used your link. So far, I got the $50 when I emailed GC support to join the OIC, and finally last night I got $50 from somewhere (I presume GC) when I hit the raked hands requirement. Now that I got that, what else am I getting? $50? $100? Im throughouly confused as to whats going on with affiliates and RAF and all that but whatever the answer is, thanks for referring me! /images/graemlins/ooo.gif

2) To those that havent gotten anything, playing 150 raked hands at the GC takes a LONG time. Im not sure how they measure a raked hand (and I think there are some threads on this), but I played about 10-15 table hours after factoring in multi-tabling and still wasnt there yet. So be patient, and email support at the GC for a raked hand update.

Thanks!

[Homer]

Also, if you feel that you've met the raked hand requirement, e-mail them to ask how many raked hands you have played. I e-mailed them and they told me I had played 275 raked hands and to give them the alias of the person I signed up under so the funds could be credited to my account (btw, I had already told them twice that I signed up under Inthacup).

-- Homer

[Inthacup]

Homer, as of Mon. Nov 10, The update I received placed you at 110 raked hands. However, on the update I received yesterday, I have that you played 0 raked hands. Obviously there is something seriously wrong with that. I'll email TGC now and see if I can get your bonus dropped ASAP.


If anyone else has any problems like this, please PM me because things get done much quicker when I can forward the info to my contact.

[Inthacup]

Exnihilo,

As of yesterday, you have accumulated 128 raked hands. Did you make a deposit immediately after signing up? If not, the actual amount of raked hands towards the bonus may be less than 128. Just wanted to let you know that you will receive the bonus, but you haven't played enough hands yet.


Cup

[Inthacup]

Noob,

Have you made a deposit of $30 or more yet? You are also eligable for a bonus(to be honest, I don't know whether it's $50 or $100). According to my records, you've played enough raked hands, but you have not made a deposit yet. You must play 150 raked hands AFTER making the deposit to get the bonus. If this is wrong, please PM me and we'll go over the details.

Cup

[Homer]

Hmm, that's strange. Here's the e-mail I received yesterday:

Hello Mike,

Thank you for e-mailing The Gaming Club Poker Room.

We are pleased to inform you that you have played 279 raked hands to date. As a result you are eligible to receive the Refer-A-Friend Bonus.

Kindly reply to this e-mail with the alias of the person by whom you were referred so that we may investigate the account that you are linked to.

We hope to hear from you soon so that we may further assist you.

Please be sure to keep up to date with our latest tournament information by clicking on the "Promotions and Events" button in the Poker Software.

Have a wonderful day!

We are confident that this e-mail has answered all of your questions and should you require any further assistance, feel free to contact us. For your convenience, we have a friendly helpdesk available 24 hours per day, 7 days a week.

Kind regards,

Adeeb

Poker Team

In any event, thanks for your help!

-- Homer

[Homer]

I didn't make a deposit until after having played for a few days. It could be that I have played 278 total raked hands, but only 110 since having deposited.

-- Homer

[ExNihilo]

I haven't deposited any money...I guess I missed that part. I supposed that that means I have 0 raked hands.

Go ahead and let me know what I need to do to finish out the RAF.

[dangolf]

Cup,

I received an email from TGC last weekend after I sent a raked hand request to them, that stated that I only needed to play ONE more raked hand. I have played several more since that email, and have received $50 from an unidentified source into my account. Did they drop it to my account? Did it come from you? Should I be looking for anything else? Should you?

dangolf

[rusty JEDI]

I signed up by clicking on your link and i am 100% sure i entered "inthacup" into the referred by field. I have also played over 150 raked hands and made my deposit.

On monday i was given $50 for part of the referral but am still waiting on the other $50 despite following all of the steps.

[Inthacup]

Rusty,

Thanks for the heads up on that. I can confirm that you only received the $50. I will email them about this as well.

If anyone has any other requests or bonus questions for me to look at, I would prefer that you send me a PM. It makes it easier for me to keep organized.

[esknights]

Would like to also do the refer a friend. Where is the link and what is the amount to be deposited? Thanks

[Inthacup]

Esknights,

Sorry for not replying to your PM sooner. I have sent you all the info you need to get the RAF bonus as well as the OIC bonus.


Cup

[Gaming Club]

Ex / Noob / alek / Homer,

First, the raked hand count doesn't only start after you have made the $30 purchase --- you can rake the hands first then make the purchase afterwards and you'll get the RAF

Second, alek: the $50 you got out of nowhere does sound like the automatic first half of the RAF; the second half will come manually shortly if that is the case -- we'll chase this up anyway. Re measuring a raked hand, it's a hand in which you contribute to the pot and the pot size meets the minimum for rake to be taken from it.

Last, Homer: we're sorry for the raked hand count discrepancies that you've seen in your email correspondence and in what Cup has been given. We'll look into what caused these and will revert with an answer ASAP.

[Gaming Club]

[ QUOTE ]

I have been talking at length with the people at the gaming club. Considering that most of the RAF bonuses are dropped manually, I think they've done an exceptional job. Overall, there have bee no problems with the RAF bonuses and TGC has been very flexible.


[/ QUOTE ]
Thanks. Since many players didn’t follow the correct process (which, before we get flamed, we do recognise isn’t the most intuitive process in the world, hence our flexibility on this issue), this has been a very manual affair, requiring substantial auditing of individual accounts to ensure eligibility in each case. Not a lot of fun, and not anybody else’s problem we know, but thanks anyway for the patience and understanding all round.

[ QUOTE ]

Since some of you did download through my link, you did receive the $50 from my end(after depositing $30 and playing 150 raked hands), but since you did not enter my name in the referral field, it seems that you can not get the other half of the bonus.


[/ QUOTE ]
Any player who gets the one half should automatically get the second half as well -- barring any gremlins in the manual process which of course we will cover as and when they arise and we are notified. If you've received one end but not the other please email our support desk and they will follow up for you (please don't PM us here unless you get nowhere with the support desk -- we can't guarantee response times on PMs so chances are a PM will only frustrate you further)

We think that the confusion re all of this arises because of the following sequence of events:

1. It was brought to our attention that many players were not aware that they had to follow the RAF process properly (i.e. enter Inthacup’s details in the RAF box when they open an account) in order to qualify, and thus some that did sign up via Cup’s referrals were not getting the $50 + $50 even tho they were meeting the minimum purchase and rake requirements.

2. Consequently, we posted guidelines (see here (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Number=392695&page=&view=&sb =5&o=&vc=1)) on the zoo for manual correction of these cases, and corresponded with Cup in order to get a list of the affected players. All of these players are eligible for the RAF and are being dealt with manually.

3. As part of these guidelines, we gave a cut off beyond which players would have to ensure they followed the proper process in order to qualify for the RAF and Cup’s kickback. The reason behind this cut off was two-fold: firstly to prevent abuse from anyone who saw these threads after signing up independently of Cup, and secondly because the administrative load from this process is going to kill us if we don’t put a lid on it at some point

This issue came up for discussion in other posts, and in those posts we again made the cut-off clear (see here (http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/showthreaded.php?Cat=&Number=394936&page=&view=&sb =5&o=&vc=1)). In our minds, therefore, it isn’t unfair for us to require that new sign-ups follow the process properly in order to qualify for the RAF.

Having said that, we do recognise that the automated process isn’t all that intuitive, and that there were also perhaps gaps in the discussions that Cup had with us that would have resulted in imperfect understanding on both sides as to how this process was going to work.

We do therefore recognise that there is a need for us to be flexible on this one last time, and at the very least we need to propose a compromise. That said, we don’t want such a compromise to be open-ended, since we need to get this process back into automated mode ASAP so that we can get away from all the gremlins inherent in the manual alternative.

So here’s our proposal – we think it’s fair but comments please anyway:

1. In recognition of the likelihood that genuinely referred players have been prejudiced by the misunderstandings around this, we’re prepared to open the door to a maximum of 50 (fifty) players who meet the requirements stipulated below. All such players will also have to meet the minimum RAF purchase ($30 minimum) and raked hand (150 minimum) requirements before the $50+$50 is credited to them.

2. To qualify, you must have

a. Signed up with Gaming Club AND for the OIC by no later than yesterday (ie 12 November)
b. Previously sent Cup a PM (as per his referral posts in this forum) asking for the kickback.

3. If you qualify, to get a shot at the RAF this time around you need to PM Cup (sorry Cup, but we’re going to press you into service again here else we’ll never get this done in an orderly fashion) with your GC alias, and the date you opened your account so that he can pass the list on to us if he’s satisfied that you did come in via his referral. If more than 50 people PM cup we’ll leave it up to him as to how he decides which 50 get thru to us in the final list.

Again we hope you agree this is fair. Going forward, we’re going to have to insist that all new accounts follow the process in the software, so for ease of reference here’s a brief primer on how it works:

1. You need to PM Cup with your name and email address.
2. Cup will then use the GC software to send you an email referring you to our site
3. When you open your account, make sure that you specify Cup’s GC alias (which will be given to you in the referral email) in the Referrals box
4. Then make a $30 purchase and rake at least 150 hands and the first $50 will get to you automatically (the second $50 will follow shortly thereafter)

Here's a screenshot to help you understand all of this better: https://mppv2valueadds3.valueactive.com/MPP_ReferAFriend/MailTemplates/SampleMail/SampleMail_3.gif

[ QUOTE ]

They have been incredibly generous with us so far and have handed out $100 or more to pretty much everyone.


[/ QUOTE ]
Cup, thanks for the vote of confidence. We have tried to be fair all round, and we do feel that we have far more to gain in the long run by erring on the generous side than we stand to lose by being tight-fisted in the short run. That said, at some point we have to draw a line in the sand on this issue, so your understanding in particular is very much appreciated.

Comments / questions anyone?
[PS: we’ve got a lot of posts to catch up on, so bear with us if we only revisit this one in a while from now – regardless of how long we take, we’ll make sure this is dealt with properly and appropriately]

[PokerNoob]

Oh, Ok. I missed the "deposit thirty bucks" part. I'll do it when I get home tonite.

[Gaming Club]

[ QUOTE ]

I received an email from TGC last weekend after I sent a raked hand request to them, that stated that I only needed to play ONE more raked hand. I have played several more since that email, and have received $50 from an unidentified source into my account. Did they drop it to my account? Did it come from you? Should I be looking for anything else? Should you?


[/ QUOTE ]

dan / rusty / anyone else who has seen $50 drop out of nowhere and is still awaiting the other $50:

As previously stated, the crediting of the second $50 is a manual process, so bear with us if it takes a while (the automated process gives the funds to Cup, so we have to manually reverse that and give them to you instead). It should never take more than a couple of days so apologies if it has taken longer -- we'll chase up to resolve the outstanding cases as quickly as we can.

[Inthacup]

Gaming Club,

Once again, you have handled the situation with class and generosity.


3. If you qualify, to get a shot at the RAF this time around you need to PM Cup (sorry Cup, but we’re going to press you into service again here else we’ll never get this done in an orderly fashion)


I have no problem with this. From the updates that we have been bouncing back and forth, I already have a good list of players that already meet these requirements for the other $50.

Going forward, I will use the standard method of referral to make sure that the players get the full RAF bonus.

[ExNihilo]

Alright, this is all very good news. From what I can see, I have to deposit $30 (I'll probably deposit $50) and then rake a mear 22 more hands to qualify, and considering that I raked 128 on my first $50 this shouldn't be too hard. I appreciate all the extra clarification and the promo itself which helps me to convince my wife to allow me to play online /images/graemlins/grin.gif I guess I need to PM InthaCup again with my information.

[yct]

wonder if i could qualify as one of the fifty since i didn't get either RAF bonuses...

[Abe]

Played my 150th raked hand yesterday (whew --- that took a long time) and TGC put the $50 in my account last night.

Thanks, cup.

[Inthacup]

I just wanted everyone to know that I will be in Tunica from now until Sunday. If anyone has any RAF questions, feel free to PM me, I will address the issues when I get back in town.


Cup

[HavanaBanana]

Good Luck tou you in Tunica /images/graemlins/smile.gif

Tunica was the first place I went to play poker in a Casino, I left dead broke in a Limmo!
Watta Playa /images/graemlins/smile.gif

[PokerNoob]

I haven't seen the other $50 drop. I'm pretty sure I've played enough hands.