PokerStars only compensates 42% of players affected by server problem

[McMelchior]

As Lee Jones announced earlier today on this board PokerStars have compensated players affected by a technical problem in the $22+R satellite to the $700,000 guaranteed event today by a "roll forward", a way of distributing the prize money according to each players equity at the time of the problem.

Only problem is: Only 42% of the players still in the tournament at the time of the glitch are receiving any compensation; the remaining 58% either are receiving no compensation or they are compensated "on a case-by-case basis".

This is plain and simply wrong, and this is not the level of customer services and fairness we have become used to with PokerStars.

I was one of the players still in the tournament at 2:48 PM EDT today, when a problem stalled the server. For half an hour no hands were dealt, but in the mean time the tournament clock progressed unaffected.

At the time of the problem the tournament was progressing at level 4 with blinds 50/100, 659 players were still in, and with 1,413,555 chips in play the average stack was 2,145.

I held 3,400 chips, 34 BBs, well above average and a good stack to maneuvre.

No detailled announcements were given during the 30 minutes of server "down time", but suddenly - without any warning - the tournament restarted at 3:18 PM EDT. And now the blinds were at level Ten (10)(!), 400/800, and my 3,400 chips suddenly was reduced to 4 BBs!!! As everybody knows such shallow stacks turns a tournament into pure randomness.

Unexplicably the tournament continued approximately 10 minutes from here with the new blinds, and in this period not only I but a total of 382 players busted out leaving only 277 of the original 659 (at the onset of the technical problem). Since the blinds were 400/800 and about to
increase to 600/1,200 when I lost my chips it didn't make any sense to rebuy at this point, since a 1,000 chip rebuy barely would cover the BB.

When I received a mass-email from PS's support announcing the "roll forward" compensation and discovered that I was not "on the list", I once again sent an email to support with the above content. Five minutes later I received a reply, stating that "Tournament refund requests are being handled on a case-by-case basis. To request a refund for an affected event, please write us an e-mail at support@pokerstars.com with the subject line:
"REFUND: TOURNAMENT #XXXXXX, $Y BUY-IN" [..]"

Conclusion: The 382 players (58% of all players in the tournament at the time of the glitch) will only be compensated after individually complaining and individually being evaluated by PokerStars - in spite of the fact that their fate in the tournament 100% was caused by PokerStars' error!

Interesting enough based on what happened I could have chosen to keep re-buying, and would have received compensation in excess of the cost of multiple rebuys. But since no detailled announcements of the fait of the tournament was made I - and other players in my position - had no way of knowing that.

Letting the tournament continue after jumping the blind level from level 4 to level 10 and then only compensating the 40% of the players that - exclusively by chance - survive additional 10 minutes of play - is NOT a just way of dealing with PokerStars' error. I and everybody else still in the tournaments at 2:48 PM EDT - the time of the onset of the technical error - should be compensated for their loss - without having to complain about it.

Best,

McMelchior (Johan)