My UB Problem

[carys]

Below is a series of emails between myself and UltimateBet. I would be very grateful if anyone could provide information on how I can get help with this situation since the only way it appears you can contact the company is via email and as you will see below, if they don’t feel like getting back to you, there isn’t much you can do. Is there some sort of body I can complain to? I am based in the UK.

First email received from UB (Thur 4/12):

Dear Carys,

We review withdrawal requests and have a concern on yours.

It appears that you are receiving transfers from player poker_dog and cashing out without any play. This appears to be money laundering. Can you please explain?

Thank you,
Emma

First Reply to UB (Thur 4/12):

This is hardly money-laundering – it is simply that my boyfriend plays poker but we would prefer the money to come into my bank account and hence cheques made out to me (you will notice that our home address is the same). The money is earnt legally so I am not quite sure what your definition of money-laundering is.

If you would prefer, James (poker_dog) could:

a) Simply ask for the withdrawals to be made direct from his a/c but in my name
b) Play under my account
c) Leave things as they stand

Please advise.

Second Reply to UB (Thur 4/12):

Hi

I received an email regarding withdrawals from my account (carys) to which I replied. I haven’t received any reply from you but I do notice that my recent withdrawal request is still pending.

In my email, I explained the situation as it is and suggested 3 ways to continue from here – each of which would be equally convenient for me and my boyfriend (poker_dog). Since I have given a clear explanation as to what is happening with my account, and since everything is honest and ‘above-board’, I would like a reply confirming UB’s position. I completely understand that from your perspective you would like clarification. I trust you understand that I would like this clarification reciprocated.

Kind Regards

Carys

- This email will be sent from [email address here] (poker_dog) as confirmation


Reply from UB (Fri 5/12):

Hello,

We have passed this to Accounting Services in order to assist you in a better way. Please let us know if there is something else we can do for you. Thank you.

Henry
Customer Service Department

My Reply to UB (Mon 8/12):

I have not received any correspondence from your ’Accounting Services’ and my withdrawal request is still pending despite it being made last Tuesday – over 2 business days ago. This situation is totally unacceptable. You have queried my withdrawals and I have been happy to explain the situation fully to you. You have not replied to me since then and you seem to be withholding my funds, having suddenly taken a u-turn and made the very serious allegation (are you accusing me? I don’t know – you won’t communicate with me) that I am money-laundering. Simply providing me with a fax number so that I could fax over copies of both mine and poker_dog’s passports would have seemed sensible but you have not even done this.

I expect to know what the hell is going on – this is absolutely ridiculous. I will be posting both my emails to you and your replies (both past and future) on all the poker forums that I know of unless you reply to me today (12pm UK time) explaining what is going on. This is certainly not what I want to do – I simply wish to know, as is my absolute right, what you are doing with my money.

It has been hit home that one of the most important parts of the relationship with a company like yours is trust. I have replied to your queries in a timely and honest fashion. You are behaving appallingly.


Reply from UB (Mon 8/12):

Hello,

We apologize for the inconvenience, your message has been forwarded to our Cardroom Management.

Thank you,

Mike
Customer Service Department

My Last Reply to UB (Mon 8/12):

Yes, but I was previously told it was forwarded to your Accounting Services and I received no reply from them – I expect a reply from someone who can tell me what is actually happening, not just that my complaint has been passed down the line.


Final email sent to UB at 23:00 on 8/12

Further to my previous emails, I would just like to confirm that I will be posting our recent correspondence on the poker forums that I am aware of unless I receive a reply in the next hour specifically dealing with the concern I have been writing to you about over the past week.

I just cannot comprehend why you are not communicating with me, other than emails from your customer service department comically informing me that my query has been passed on to other departments so that I can be better served. As a result, I feel I have no other option than to publicise my predicament, especially since I have done absolutely nothing wrong.

I will continue to write to you on this matter and continue to post my emails.

I hope that you will reply to me tonight as requested and as seems totally reasonable.

[Al_Capone_Junior]

try using a name of an ex-AMERICAN major criminal, like me. Then you'll get the red carpet treatment, like me! Us AMERICANS adore our major criminal icons, it's a basic function of our society. I can't help it if you polite types in the UK don't have MAJOR AMERICAN CRIMIMAN ICONS to help you get your cash in a timely fashion....

OK just kidding, couldn't resist.

Seriously, my first step would be to CASH OUT ALL MY ACCOUNTS THERE, both of you. FORCE THE ISSUE FURTHER. There are plenty of other sites worth playing on, and let them know you want to move your money to one of those sites ASAP. Post it publicly here, and everywhere else. Send links to the posts to UB in your emails to them. Send emails to not only customer support, but cashier, general manager, tournament director, and any and every email you can find regarding UB. Play serious hardball with them.

You/he should probably play pokerdog too. One of you can play on the other's account and you'll still make the same amount of money. But I would be pissed off at this, same as you are.

I also enjoy giving chit to people who deserve it too.

al (major AMERICAN criminal)

[Poker blog]

You are going way, way overboard. Two business days is hardly anything to get all huffy about.

Calm down, drink a beer. Wait a couple days.

[tpir90036]

i was with you right up until the 2 business day part. i know it's annyoing but i am sure they have a lot of customer problems to get to. if it gets to be a week...then drop the hammer.

[theBruiser500]

I'm having a problem with UB customer service too, it's extremely annoying. They don't even have phone numbers to reach them at. I downloaded UB on a friend's computer to play and then they ban me. They don't even tell me what's going on, they just don't let me sign onto UB so for a couple of days I think I wrote my password wrong or something. They banned me probably December 2nd or something, they didn't even respond to me for a couple of days so this has been going on for a full week. So I request a new password and this is what happens:

December 4th

Hello,

We have forward your message to the Cardroom Management, which will contact you as soon as possible.

Thank you,

Mike
Customer Service Department

December 6th

Hello,

Your account has been temporarily closed by our security system, due to an association with another account. In order to avoid collusion at the tables, our security system disables associated accounts, that can only be re-activated by our cardroom management department. Please let us know if you have allowed anyone else to use your account or computer, or if you have logged on to the game from a different location than usual.

Once we receive the reply to this e-mail, your message will be forwarded to the cardroom management department for re-activation of your account. Your account will not be affected by this suspension after it is enabled. Thank you for your cooperation.

Please let us know if you need further assistance.

Stephen
Customer Service Department

December 6th

Hi, I tried playing on another computer. Please unblock my account. If you have any further questions my phone number is 413-546-2970.

thanks,
danny

December 7th

Hello,

We apologize for theinconveniences we may have caused you on this matter. We tried to solve it immediately but it seems as though we could not retrieve the original message thread where you provided an explanation. We would really appreciate if you could send this message back to us explaining why it is that we received a message from our servers. Please let us know if you have allowed anyone else to use your account or computer, or if you have logged on to the game from a different location than usual. Once again, when we recive this reply we will forward it to cardroom management. Thank you.

Alonzo,
Customer Service Department

December 7th

I logged on to play on another computer.

danny

December 8th

Dear Danny,

Please let us know which player names are active on the computer you logged into. We will then open those accounts and close the others.

Thank you,
Emma

December 8th

I basically went over my friends house, downloaded Ultimatebet software onto his computer and played it over his place. Then my account got closed. This was very suprising because I didn't do anything wrong. And then I got a mail saying I am accused of collusion or something like that. I don't like this at all. Open my account immediately because I didn't do anything wrong.

[nicky g]

UB customer service is like somethng out of Kafka. All I ever seem to get from them are emails saying: "we have passed this onto the accounts department." Why I can't email the accoutns department directly, I don't know. I requested a $200 cashout 10 weeks ago; it never arrived, and I have since moved house, and though they eventually agreed to reissue it, they refuse to confirm that it's being sent to my new address, or even reply to my emails any more ( last time they replied, they seemed to have forgotten the entire correspondence). I'm beginning to despair of ever getting my money. /images/graemlins/frown.gif

[CrackerZack]

you do realized you posted your home number on a public forum?

[Lazymeatball]

Funny thing is, I recognize that phone number i think.
Danny, if that's you, you owe me $20 still, just a reminder, no rush.

[scrub]

Ok, this freaks me out. I play on my UB account from a number of different computers, mostly hanging out somewhere that has wireless with a friend's laptop. Most of the computers I play on are owned by players with their own UB accounts. I've never had a problem, but I'm beginning to wonder if it's just a matter of time. Does anyone know if this is standard practice for UB (freezing an account when it is deemed to be "associated" with another account?)

scrub

[carys]

With regards to the post about it being only 2 days, UB state that they will process the withdrawal within 2 days, and it was getting on for a week. Not normally a problem, but when there has been a suggestion that i was committing a serious crime and when a considerable amount of money was at issue, i would expect to have been dealt with in a much more professional manner. Now, in fairness to UB:

I apologize for the lack of care given to your emails. We certainly did not conduct proper follow up, and this issue is being addressed with all staff.

We have cancelled the withdrawal from the Carys account, thus returning the funds. We cannot allow a cashout to be done this way. I see that your Poker_dog account has successfully cashed out before. We therefore see no reason that you cannot cash out on your own account. Due to our policies of returning funds using the deposited method, we must ask that you complete your own withdrawals rather than transfer the funds to immediately cash them out.

Withdrawals from your poker_dog account will be processed as quickly as possible.

Sincerely,
Emma

[daryn]

so what are you going to do , call him?