STOP USING SIMPLEMINE

[garion888]

Hi guys,

Thank you all for your in-depth discussion of this matter. I have refrained from commenting in a public forum such as this due to the universality of my internet handle, and my contention that I have done nothing wrong.

That being said...

I don't know that a legal point may have been missed here. Whether or not Party Gaming believes I am a cheater and decides to confiscate my funds is irrelevant. I remember a tidbit about contracts that goes something like:

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If a part of a contract is illegal based on the laws of the land...that part of the contract is not binding.

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Think of the situation where someone signs a contract that states somewhere in its body:
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I will be working for less than the federal minimum wage.

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Based on the laws of the United States...no one can work for less than the federal minimum wage(I'll leave the immigrants out of this). A contract cannot be signed in which one of its clauses breaks a law of the land.

I believe there's a law in Britain against theft. If this contract law idea applies in Britain, I can't see how they are able to enforce this particular clause of their T&C.

2. Even if you can rationalize their T&C legally...They have a giant conflict of interest on their hands. They are the ones who decide who is in violation of their T&C...and they are the ones who benefit from the closure of accounts. It would seem someone else should decide if a customer is "cheating" and then the money should not go to PartyPoker's coffers but somewhere else...ANYWHERE ELSE.

I'm about a half a bottle of wine in right now so some of this may not have any bearing on the matter whatsoever...

Again thanks for the discussion...

Thanks
-J

[MentalNomad]

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This is CRAZY. How can they shut you down and let a product like PE fly?!?!?

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Well, they don't let PE fly. See: Poker-Edge forum post

Excerpt:

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I have just finished dealing with the Empire/Party support group and was successful in recovering my money. During the course of our discussion they made it very clear that Poker-edge is not permitted to be used and that was the reason why my account was locked.

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[MentalNomad]

garion888, it's not true that nobody can work for less than minimum wage (jobs that get substantial gratuities work for less than minimum; most waiters/waitresses get much less than minimum wage), but that's neither here nor there. . .

You have a long ways to go to try to construe this as theft. You didn't have your money on deposit in a bank; you gave it to a gambling house to buy gambling priviledges (like buying chips at a casino.) Your original deposit has long since washed (been put through pots.) The remainder consists of winnings from pots. As a result, if they make a case that you cheated (per their rules), they can refuse to honor your cash-out request and it's not quite theft.

I'm not setting anything down here; I'm just saying this is grey area and you shouldn't make any assumption.

However, as you can see from the Poker-Edge post, you can probably get your money back. You might do better with an apologetic tack than with a threatening one. Good luck.

[garion888]

Well here's my second e-mail to them. I don't think I'm being at all unreasonable(threatening, etc.).

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Greetings,

I have recently been in multiple phone conversations with your customer service representatives regarding my account being closed. This morning I spoke with a female representative who instructed me to send this e-mail.

I was told by this female representative that your procedure when dealing with these matters is to send a warning e-mail to the customer in question before you actually close their account.

SPAM e-mail is unsoliticited e-mail usually sent by a commercial entity. E-mail services have recently been SPAM filtering e-mail so their customers do not receive it in their normal inboxes. Instead, SPAM e-mail is put into a special SPAM folder. It is normally the procedure to check the SPAM folder about every 4 weeks in order to make sure that no real e-mail gets filtered out. The systems are not yet perfect.

Your initial warning e-mail to me was filtered by my e-mail service's SPAM filter. It was sent to my SPAM folder and I did not even know it was there.

I believe your intention with the warning e-mails is just that...to warn your customers of a problem with their account. I never received this warning and was unaware that this issue existed until I received your e-mail on Jul 2, 2005 stating that my account was closed.

Had I received your initial warning e-mail I would have investigated this matter immediately. I want to make very clear that it has never been my intention to exert any unfair advantage over someone else using your services. I have trained myself to play poker over the past two years. I take all issues such as this very seriously.

I have been a patron of PartyPoker.com for the past 6 months and have every intention of continuing to patronize your services should I be so allowed. I do not think our relationship should be severed over a simple mail delivery error.

Thank you for your consideration. As always, your customer support services have been exemplary and I applaud their efforts. I know that a reputable company such as yours(congratulations on your recent float on the London Stock Exchange by the way), will not allow this matter to go unnoticed. I am sure we can come to an agreement about these issues very soon.

My contact information is listed below, you can reach me by either e-mail or by telephone at any time.

Sincerely,


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