December VIP offers anyone?
 

Party has yet to send me an email and I haven't gotten a pop up...

Re: December VIP offers anyone?
 

nope, I am finishing my PPA/100MORE bonuses and jumping ship. [censored] YOU PARTY POKER

Re: December VIP offers anyone?
 

lol. I like party.

Re: December VIP offers anyone?
 

I am now playing at another site for the first time in more than a year because of this BS that Party is pulling.

Re: December VIP offers anyone?
 

From: vip@partypoker.com <vip@partypoker.com>
To: xxxxxx.com
Date: Dec 16, 2005 2:07 AM
Subject: Response from PartyPoker.com VIP Club [#xxxxx]
Reply | Reply to all | Forward | Print | Add sender to Contacts list | Delete this message | Report phishing | Show original | Message text garbled?
Dear xxxx,

Thank you for contacting the Customer Care Team.

You will be receiving your December offer during the latter part of this week. Please keep an eye for emails and pop-ups from ourselves during the next while.

Note: Please do not disclose your password to any individual/organization claiming to represent us. We will never ask you for the password to your account. If you receive any email or phone call from anyone requesting you to provide your password please report it to us immediately.

Please let us know if you need further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact our Customer Care Department at any time. We are here 24/7 to assist you via email or telephone.


Kind Regards,

Catriona Byrne
Poker Customer Care

Re: December VIP offers anyone?
 

so is thursday considered the early part or more the middle part of the week? late middle maybe?

Re: December VIP offers anyone?
 

It has gotten to this point for me.

To: vip@partypoker.com

So.......am I going to receive any thing from you? I'm not sure if you noticed, but I have taken all of my money off of the party network for the first time in over 2 years.

Well done.

Re: December VIP offers anyone?
 

do we need 2 dec vip threaDS?!

Re: December VIP offers anyone?
 

Don't know if this has been covered in another thread since I havent read read these boards in a while but I called Party today and talked to someone in the VIP department and this is what they said:

The VIP club bonus this month is only the 30% up to 100 max pop up bonus. There will not be any other VIP offer this month

I told him that the rep from Party that offered me my November bonus said that my December offer would be better if I met my goals for November (which I doubled)

I bitched about getting a $1,600 bonus in November and asked them if they were joking about offering me $100 for December. He then went on about Santas Party Pack bonus and the Football bonus

I havent played at all this month due to my fiances surgery but I told them I had been playing on a different site because I have not recieved a VIP offer yet for Party. He then urged me to start playing and start saving my Players points as they will be offering a Party Poker millions cruise promotion to VIP players and it will be out this week. I mentioned the week was over as it was 10pm on a Thursday night and he just said it will be out this week.

He then went on about Santas Party Pack bonus and the Football bonus and to keep playing and save those points!

I told them that if this was all im getting I'll keep playing elsewhere, his response was, "I'm sorry to hear that is there anything else I can help you with tonight Sir?"

Guess 20K a month in MGR isnt worthwile enough for them to keep me a as customer.

Re: December VIP offers anyone?
 

I sent this:

=======================

Hi,

It's the 15th now, and I have yet to receive my offer for a month that's
half over. As I am a purely SNG player, reload bonuses and other bonuses
requiring raked hands are useless for me, so please don't mention the popups
as I find it insulting. I'm generating thousands of dollars in MGR, and I'm
not working with any affiliates to get "under the table" rakeback. I chose
to give your VIP program a shot. I'm extremely unhappy with the results.

I'm contacting PokerStars to ask them about their VIP program. If they come
out with anything at all for January, I gaurantee you I will send 100% of my
business over to them. As much as I prefer playing on PartyPoker, I'm not
so bad a businessman as to give up hundreds of dollars playing here. I'm
sure after a few weeks I'll get used to PokerStars structure and interface,
and I won't be coming back unless they mess up worse than PartyPoker has.
I'm sure you guys keep up to date on the many public online poker forums.
Many many other people feel the same as I do.

All that said, I do appreciate the courteous responses. Your customer
service team is very professional and quick to respond. In fact, it's the
only reason I'm still at PartyPoker. Your marketing team, however, needs to
catch up and fast. Their execution is sorely lacking.

Here are some of the opinions I've read about PartyPoker December VIP offers
(or lack thereof) in the last 24 hours:

" nope, I am finishing my PPA/100MORE bonuses and jumping ship. [censored]
YOU PARTY POKER -jba"

" I am now playing at another site for the first time in more than a year
because of this BS that Party is pulling. -Back In Black"

" I got a partial bonus for Nov, haven't heard anything from them for
ec. -adspar"

" However, I must admit that I am beginning to drift to the analogy of the
"it's rigged" view with regard to Party's management by thinking that "the
marketing group" really is a group of drooling idiots. This program, as
viewed from a player's perspective, is very poorly run -- labor intensive
without the cooresponding benefits one would expect for the business by
investing all this labor, and communicated in a way that is confusing at
best and outright contradictory at less than worst. The only explanation for
the interminable delays and incompetence that makes any sense to mme is that
Party is watching revenue numbers very closely on a daily basis and is
trying to play with 6 different levers as the month wears on in order to
spend the least but still hit the top-line numbers (i.e., Santa pack,
football thingy, reload bonuses, VIP program, etc.) Just seems to be very
poorly run. -Catt"

" Poorly run is an understatement. A third of the month has gone by and we
don't know what is what.This is not poor it is pathetic. They should be
working on January's offers now and not in Febuary. -JOEL_"

" in this day and age of computers and actuary programs, i am surprised a
billion dollar company is doing stuff by trial and error. -AA suited"

" Yeah. Especially since they have info on the response to previous
promotions (reloads, etc.) over years and years of play. Even if they are
trying to fine tune the quarter, there's no logical reason that this sort of
promotional / loyalty program should be even close to this level of
complexity / confusion / cost. Again, I don't want to disappear down the
rabbit hole of "they're idiots" but I'd surely be interested if I were
running marketing / a manager in marketing resonsible for this program's
budget / a manger responsible for this program / a finance person allocating
for this promotion / a director / a stockholder / etc. -- just makes no
sense. -Catt"

" It's almost as if they are trying to chase us away. -DarkKnight"

The fact that I took the trouble to write all this down should tell you how
badly I want things to work out with PartyPoker. But it should also tell
you that I'm ready to give my business to another online poker site.

Regards,
-Jim

=======================

and got this in response:

===================================

Dear Jim,

Thank you for contacting us.

The VIP offers may change from month to month, hence the offer you receive this month may not be a cash redemption for Player Club Points earned.

We are working on new and exciting offers for the future. PartyPoker Million V cruise packages will be awarded to a number of players based on the number of party points they earn during a specific period. This specific offer is being prepared and you will receive an email or a post log in pop up with further details.

The bonus pops up are software related and will be removed automatically when the promotion end.

Please do keep a look out for emails and post login pop-ups with more info on VIP Offers.

Thank you for choosing us as your online gaming site!

Kapilesh
Poker Customer Care
=========================================

Looks like there will be NO cashback for December at all. I'm switching to PokerStars, and I really didn't want to.

Re: December VIP offers anyone?
 

Since this is the same letter that a bunch of people got I think its clear that they dont care about what you had to write. You could have typed "where is my VIP bonus?" and you would have gotten the same response. God bless the "Personalized Customer Service" that the VIP program was assured to provide.

Re: December VIP offers anyone?
 

hi jim,

thanks for taking the time to put together a convincing email. too bad all they did was send you a form letter. i'm sure you expected as much, but it was worth a try. apparently, either these messages are not getting to the people with influence or worse, they don't give a ... hoot.

regards,
jc

Re: December VIP offers anyone?
 

[ QUOTE ]
They dont know, dont show, or just dont care whats goin on in the hood.

[/ QUOTE ]

Re: December VIP offers anyone?
 

After closing my account I sent off an email detailing the various lies that had been told to us and what we as VIPs are looking for.

Below is the exchange that followed. My rep's last email is exceptionally telling.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

To: vip@partypoker.com
Cc: info@partypoker.com
Subject: RE: Response from PartyPoker.com VIP club

Serkan,

I have closed my account but I'd like to continue this discussion.

While I did get paid some additional money the following was not true

"and I can assure you that you will be credited the amount that was discussed"

I was still shorted another $100 dollars. This really reflect poorly on the VIP program and on your company. My friends and I are noticing a disturbing pattern of deceit on party's part.

Also, either the VIPs were offered a pitiful deposit bonus or there still is no December offer. Either way this is no way to run a railroad. I enjoyed playing at party and I enjoyed your fish but it's very difficult to do business with a company that treats its best customers this way.

Party's actions over the past month almost leads me to conclude that you are trying to run its VIPs to other sites. I've played at party for several years (perhaps 3?) and its sad to see what its come to.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Dear Paul,

Thank you for contacting me,

I do apologize that your November offer was short of $66 which I would have added with out question. It was not my decision to make at the time when you was $166 short and it was escalated to management.

Secondly we have 3 bonuses running in December which you could have taken advantage of, had you not closed your account. Santas promotion, Touch down promotion and the reload bonus. $300 + $300 + $100 respectively. On top of that there is a Christmas bonus which will be released on the 20th of December for our VIP players, where we are giving away a very good number of cruise packages.

I do admit we have had many teething problems with in the process and I know you are clearly upset within that time period. I just wished you spoke to me with your concerns as I would have made you my priority as you were my responsibility.

If you have any further queries, please do not hesitate to contact us. Our email address is vip@partypoker.com

Kind regards,
Serkan
PartyPoker.com VIP Club
Customer Care
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


To: vip@partypoker.com
Subject: RE: Response from partypoker.com VIP Club

Serkan,

Thought you'd be interested in the responses from one of the many boads I frequent about how well your VIP program is going over....

"I am now playing at another site for the first time in more than a year because of this BS that Party is pulling"

"nope, I am finishing my PPA/100MORE bonuses and jumping ship.
[censored] YOU PARTY POKER"

"OMG.. I guess i will receive the same answer if i email them.. In November i got more than 45000 points and paid more than 11000$ in rake and they are making fun of us. I am waiting for pokerstars to announce their VIP program."

These are all people like me who play 20K+ hands per month.

Enjoy!

xxxxxxxxxxxxx


Dear xxx

I am not interested in these phantom "boads" of people you refer to! I can read forums just as well as any other person. I know as long as I am on this team we will reach far higher than any other second rated poker site. I swore to you that I will do what ever I could and I have kept that promise. The fact that we shared the same birthday is the only reason your account stood out to me. It seems that you are reluctant to leave us. I don't know why you are living in the past. Now is what is important!

Your decision to leave is your own and now you have closed your account there is nothing further I can do for you. If you can find a service better than mine let me know, now theres a challenge for you if you wish to choose!

Kind regards,
Serkan
PartyPoker.com VIP Club
Customer Care

Re: December VIP offers anyone?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Your decision to leave is your own and now you have closed your account there is nothing further I can do for you. If you can find a service better than mine let me know, now theres a challenge for you if you wish to choose!

[/ QUOTE ]

ENJOY!!

Re: December VIP offers anyone?
 

[ QUOTE ]

nope, I am finishing my PPA/100MORE bonuses and jumping ship.
[censored] YOU PARTY POKER"

[/ QUOTE ]


I'm famous!!!

Re: December VIP offers anyone?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Dear xxx

I am not interested in these <font color="red"> phantom "boads" </font> of people you refer to! I can read forums just as well as any other person. I know as long as I am on this team we will reach far higher than any other second rated poker site.

[/ QUOTE ]


Love it! It would have still been funny spelled correctly.

Welcome to the Phantom Forum! [img]/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]

Re: December VIP offers anyone?
 

Jeeez.

Re: December VIP offers anyone?
 

Another update. I forwarded the form letter response to their Promotions Manager. I only added one line to the top: "You've gotta be kidding me...." I got this response later in the day.

================================

From: Daniel wexler
To: bazuul_poker@comcast.net
Sent: Friday, December 16, 2005 2:38 AM
Subject: PartyPoker.com VIP Program


Jim:



The only thing I can say at this point is that I understand your frustration with this issue.



I only ask you stick with PartyPoker.com while we sort out these issues, and promise it will be cleared up shortly with good results for you, our player.



Thank you,



Daniel Wexler

Promotions Manager

Party Gaming

Email: xxxxxxxx@partygaming.com

Direct: 011 350 78700 ext. xxxxx

http://www.partygaming.com


============================

This is good enough for me to wait out the month. Even if they come up with a decent program, if I don't get compensated for the MGR I've already generated in December, I'm probably moving on to some other site(s).

Re: December VIP offers anyone?
 

man, what really really pisses me off is that I want to be on that damn boat in march so they just might suck me in and I absolutely hate myself for that [!@#$%]

Re: December VIP offers anyone?
 

ya, I'm a sucker. I will be shooting for the boat too. 5 of em available.

Re: December VIP offers anyone?
 

[ QUOTE ]
5 of em available.

[/ QUOTE ]


how do you know this?


FWIW - I played a ton of hands in one week last Feb to win a 'party till you cruise' promotion.
didn't sleep a whole lot that week but I won the cruise...and I cashed in the tourney too.

Re: December VIP offers anyone?
 

microbob,

can u give us the details on the promotion where you won your seat last year? how many hands did u play? how many seats were given away? time frame? thanks.

Re: December VIP offers anyone?
 

The cruise isn't going to be 18+ is it...grrr...think they will actually compensate underage VIPs with CASH instead of brushing them off in normal party fashion? I've played 40k hands THIS MONTH. If it's a marathon hand playing promotion for a free cruise, I will win one. I promise.

Re: December VIP offers anyone?
 

[ QUOTE ]
ya, I'm a sucker. I will be shooting for the boat too. 5 of em available.

[/ QUOTE ]

DETAILS, my friend. you sound like you're in the know.

Re: December VIP offers anyone?
 

[ QUOTE ]
The cruise isn't going to be 18+ is it...grrr...think they will actually compensate underage VIPs with CASH instead of brushing them off in normal party fashion?

[/ QUOTE ]

They'll almost certainly screw you over.

Re: December VIP offers anyone?
 

Last year on Feb 1 they announced a promotion right at midnight that if you were one of the first 20 players to earn 30k points that week you would get the cruise package ($12.5k in value total...tourney-entry $10k).


They weren't doing the 'regular points' thing for their promotions then.

Happy hours (3a-1p) for double 'bonus-points' was important for this reason (wouldn't matter now that they do 'regular' points for their promo's).

4 tables (the maximum then) of 10/20 6-max.
1 downswing and I would have been back at 5/10.

Most people in the Zoo and on my blog thought I didn't have much of a chance to get a seat. all 20 seats had already been awarded to people who just referred 23 people on fake-accounts (the number you needed to get 30k points I think) or 'teams' in frat-houses or something were playing non-stop 24-hour stretches or that some people knew about it ahead of time and made enough $500 deposits the week before to get all the points without having to do anything else.

I stuck with it though not even knowing if I was 'drawing dead'.

6k points the first day (dinner and basketball game plans for that evening)
8.5k points each of the next 2 days
9k points the last day (just to be sure I got there).

20k hands in 4 days while 4 tabling to make it to 30k points.
This was about 14-15 hours per day I believe including about 16 or 17 hours on the last day.

the last day was really awful, my stomach hurt from all the coffee and soda, and I was a total freaking vegetable.

I started off with a decent upswing to keep myself going.

by the end of it my vision was blurry and I was making REALLY terrible mistakes (raising and re-raising my flopped straight after the board had double-paired, not seeing 4-flushes on the board, etc etc).

I finished -20BB's for my 4 days which i thought was pretty damn good all things considered. I had been up 150BB's at one point though.

They notified me a few days later that I indeed won the package...and on the cruise I placed in the money (177th out of 735 for $5210).

The cruise was awesome hence the reason I'd like to go again.

If they really are only giving out 5 packages to the first 5 people though I suspect there will be much more competition for it this year (lots of you guys trying it mostly) and that it will be more difficult to attain.
I'm hoping they don't do it that way and that there are more packages to go around.

One week after I won my seat they did another one where it was the first 10 players to earn 15k 'regular' points in a 7 day stretch.
I think they just threw out any people who tried to claim it via fake-accounts they signed-up or other weird ways. A couple people in the Zoo were whining that they played by Party's rules but got turned down because Party doubted the validity of the 23 referrals.

I met one 2+2'er on the cruise who told me he followed my lead and played the BBJ tables the 2nd time they did the promotion (faster point accrual on BBJ).


I also met my original party affiliate whom I was NOT getting rake-back from.
He gave me $50 when I signed-up or something (I was just a 1/2 and 2/4 player part-time player at the time and knew nothing about rake-back).

I suspect that he had me on MGR (just assuming) and that it was my play alone that got him the money to buy himself onto the cruise (maybe hewon his way on...not sure) .

I obviously generated a ton of rake that week for him and he made probably made quite a bit of money off of me.

hey, more power to him I guess.

(I have since closed that account when he did not want to provide me any extra incentives to continue playing under his tracker).
not sure I should name that affiliate or not.

Anyway, a big change for this year would be the fact that you can play more than 4 tables max and there are higher-limit tables above 15/30 and 10/20 6-max where you can earn points faster than the lower limits.

but how many out there are really gutsy enough to try to 10-table to 10/20 6-max or the 20/40 full-ring or somethng like that?

Anyway, that's the whole story.

I'm currently half-heartedly doing the promotion on UB for 150k points (300k raked hands) for a Bellagio $25k entry in April. But it's a real battle and I'm not committed to going all the way with it. If party's terms are favorable then I'll do that instead.

Re: December VIP offers anyone?
 

here is the one email i got from a vip rep.

Thank you for contacting us.

I have now reinstated your bonus for you. There are release restrictions
applicable. You are required to play 1000 raked hands by the 23rd December 2005.
As soon as your raked hands have been completed, your $100 will be transferred
from your bonus account to your real money account.

We are having an offer for December. This, like the others will be different to
previous offers. This month, the offer is for one of 5 PartyPoker.com Cruise
giveaways. This will be based on partypoints. You will be sent information on
this promotion within the next week by email or pop up.

Good luck with the promotion. Don't forget that we are still funning the Santa
PartyPack worth up to $300 and the Touch down Tournament to win a share of
$1,000,000 just for answering a few questions about the National Football
League!

Thank you for choosing us as your online gaming site!

Rachel
Poker Customer Care

Not much details besides the 5 cruise giveaways. I'm sure all the vip's will get the pop-up around the same time.

Re: December VIP offers anyone?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Don't forget that we are still funning the Santa
PartyPack

[/ QUOTE ]


I don't want anyone to be funning on santa's party pack. Just keep your private activities to yourself please.

Re: December VIP offers anyone?
 

I got the same email about the poker cruises as well. Am i alone here in think that this is absolute junk? I can pretty much guarentee that there is no chance in hell of me "winning" a package if its based on monthly points quite honestly because while i play alot poker is not my life.

Re: December VIP offers anyone?
 

[ QUOTE ]
This is good enough for me to wait out the month.

[/ QUOTE ]

This sounds like bait-n-switch to me. I expect that party isn't paying out because they don't have to to keep you guys. "We promise, just keep playing and we'll have something for you later." They'll keep stringing people along as long as you keep playing.

Except to the extent that sharks keep games going, I think Party loses by having us play there. Any money we pull out of the game means the fish go broke faster, which means Party takes less rake. I honestly don't think Party has an interest in keeping us around.

Re: December VIP offers anyone?
 

[ QUOTE ]
Am i alone here in think that this is absolute junk?

[/ QUOTE ]

You are not alone. Party sucks and I'm moving to stars next year.

Re: December VIP offers anyone?
 

If they indeed do a cruise promotion, I will go on an ADSHOC for as many days as is necessary. 10 tabling the $10/20 6max is no problem for me and I'd probably earn a crapload in the time to make it worth it anyways.

I gotta email these idiots again to add me to the program, though I'm not sure what program even exists at this point.

Re: December VIP offers anyone?
 

[ QUOTE ]

You are not alone. Party sucks and I'm moving to stars next year.

[/ QUOTE ]


I have been playing on Ultimate Bet.

They have excellent software. It's faster than Party, and I thought Party was fast. I usually get at least 80-90 hands per hour in at UB.

They have a beter rake structure than Party.

It's actually a better deal.

The only negative is the game selection. But once the day gets going I'm able to get 3 tables up.

If more people switched to Ultimate Bet, I would be able to get my 4 to 6 tables up.

Euro Bet software sticks, rake structure stinks.
PokerStars, no rakeback. Even with their "new" VIP program, their not gonna give us cash rakeback.
Paradise, no rakeback, limited games selection.
And all the others have below average software,no rakeback, and/or terrible game selection.

So Ultimate Bet is the best choice for me. I would just like more people to start playing there.




blue_water

Re: December VIP offers anyone?
 

Lattest emails i received.

The VIP offer for December will be a points-for-cruise deal.


Earn x points and redeem them for a PartyPoker.com Million V cruise package.



More information will come out this week.



The VIP offer will change from month to month, and it will not always be a points-for-cash or hands-for-cash offer.



Thank you,



Daniel Wexler

Promotions Manager

Party Gaming

Dear xxxx,

Thank you for contacting us.

First of all I would like to express my appreciation for your patience.

I have to admit that the information that was sent out to you is very contradicting and I would like to apologize for that once again.

Please note that the information I sent out to you in my earlier e-mail today still stands. I am very sorry that this month we don't have a bonus offer for you similar to the one last month.

I have forwarded your concern to our management. They will look into it and decide on the best course of action.

Thank you for choosing us as your online gaming site!

Wouterv
Party Poker VIP Club
Customer Care

Re: December VIP offers anyone?
 

[ QUOTE ]
If more people switched to Ultimate Bet, I would be able to get my 4 to 6 tables up.

Euro Bet software sticks, rake structure stinks.
PokerStars, no rakeback. Even with their "new" VIP program, their not gonna give us cash rakeback.
Paradise, no rakeback, limited games selection.
And all the others have below average software,no rakeback, and/or terrible game selection.

So Ultimate Bet is the best choice for me. I would just like more people to start playing there.

[/ QUOTE ]

I am going to try UB next. I will probably try some of the other sites later in the year. The main problem is that only Party seems to have enough tables at the limits I want to play. Perhaps I would be able to play multiple sites to get enough tables.

Party may still wind up being the most profitable place for me to play (especially if I move up in limits), but I hate the idea that my entire income depends on the whims of one such company. At least if I can prove to myself that other sites are viable for me, this will alleviate those concerns. Of course if Party had never cut off the skins I wouldn't even be considering giving some of my play to other sites.

Re: December VIP offers anyone?
 

yeah thats where i am stuck right now. Party has continually lied to me and been decieptful and does not deserve any of my business. That being said I have a hard time finding tables in quantity at other sites which are so easily beatable.

Damned if you do, Damned if you don't

Re: December VIP offers anyone?
 

[ QUOTE ]
If they indeed do a cruise promotion, I will go on an ADSHOC for as many days as is necessary. 10 tabling the $10/20 6max is no problem for me and I'd probably earn a crapload in the time to make it worth it anyways.


[/ QUOTE ]

You gotta love that 18 year old confidence at work.

Re: December VIP offers anyone?
 

let me guess... no vip offer by Dec 21, like someone posted when he spoke to VIP?

Re: December VIP offers anyone?
 

nope, other then that [censored] party points thing to get into a free roll for the cruise