Absolute Poker taking funds from my debit card!!!!

I wasn't sure where to post this, but here goes: I have been playing on Absolute Poker for years. The other day, I used my debit card to deposit $100 into my account. The deposit was approved, then only $40 was available. So, I contact support and they tell me there was a problem with my account and gave me a number to call. I call this number and it is the recovery department for Absolute Poker. The go on to tell me that two deposits from 1-2 months ago (payments made via e-check) did not go through, so they took it from my most recent deposit of $100. I was a little upset that I was never notified that the payment didn't go through, or that they were going to take it from my next deposit. I explained this to "Joe" from recovery, and he was VERY rude. So, I decided to close my account.

Today, I check my bank account and Absolute Poker withdrew 4 amounts, totalling about $250 from my bank account via my debit card. I am not sure if my bank possibly declined a few other payments in the past, and Absolute Poker is now charging my debit card. First of all, my bank account has always had plenty of money in it to fund the withdrawal. I think my bank just won't accept APs requests any longer (maybe this is why they don't offer e-check anymore). Secondly, Does Absolute Poker have the right to automatically use my debit card as a payment method if the check deposit had been declined.

I have no problem paying the amounts that I deposited if the e-check was declined. I just don't think its good practice for Absolute Poker to not notify me that it didn't go through and then just process my payment with another method. Any thoughts or suggestions? Thank you all!

How can you NOT tell if deposits to a site cleared or not?
And coincidentally your first post here, Welcome to cardschat.

use a netspend prepaid visa. www.netspend.com they cant take money thats not there.

I had the something similar happen that you talk of.

Depositing with insufficient funds, the bank will charge you for depositing on the site without enough so within the same amount you deposit with be charged by the bank. That's how I owed my bank over $100..

I got really choked at my bank because how can I go overdraft when I don't have that option. And they were letting my pay for poker when I didn't have the funds. I thought it was BS and still do somewhat.

Either way I choose a different bank and stopped playing on Party Poker

The reason I could NOT tell if the deposits cleared my account is that I closed my Absolute account, and I do not have access to the deposit history from their site. Yes, I can look at my bank statement, but I really don't know what I am looking for since I have nothing to reference to. Secondly, since I never had problem with this payment method, I assumed that the payment had went through. I had never had a deposit not go through. I guess I assumed that if a deposit didn't go through, they would notify me rather than charge another payment method I had used in the past. I guess if everyone was as smart as you, Poofy, we wouldn't have any problems. Also, I am sorry this is my first post. I guess I should have posted 10 or 20 times before about bad beats or something. Thanks for making me realize that there are still a few true geniuses out there poofy!

I am not saying I am smart but I can tell if my bank account has withdrawn a certain amount or not.
I have also bounced several things saying I didn't know when I did. That is a fact of life. I have a hard time believing you did not know you could not cover the deposit at the moment. which is fine but to complain they collected.......

I am not going to argue with ignorance. The fact is that I just didn't think it was right that they went ahead and charged another payment method without my approval. So, after they went ahead and used my debit card for the payment, this is the email I receive one week later:

"You recently attempted to fund your account using E-check. Please be aware that your E-check deposit(s) totaling $59.92 (was/were) not billed due to an error with our payment processing provider
Kindly note that we are no longer able to submit this transaction for billing. As a result, we have adjusted your poker account accordingly to reflect any outstanding balance.
Please take the time to access your poker account to verify and clear up the discrepancy. If you have any questions or need assistance please feel free to contact us toll-free at 1-866-253-3268. Our agents are available from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m. ET Monday to Saturday and from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 a.m. ET on Sunday.
Thank you in advance for taking the time to resolve this issue. We apologize for any inconvenience this matter may cause. We value you as a player and appreciate your cooperation. "

This obviously shows that the error was on Absolute Poker's side. Do you think that it's proper customer service to issue this email 1 week after they already charged your debit card? Don't you think they should have sent this first? At the time the payment was returned, I had over 3k in my account. I was just posting this because I didn't think it was right, and thought others may like to know some of the things that they are doing at Absolute Poker. Especially after the whole cheating scandal, this raises flags to me that I shouldn't play there.

I would just have started off with the bank and tell them that you have not been authorizing those transactions. Since online gambling is Illegal in the US the financial institution has no leeway and has to reimburse you all your funds.

I know a lot of people who went on losing streaks and did this...

Sorry to hear about the F up though man. Hopefully all will be sorted.

Moe.

FYI - I had the similar situation with this but it was at ultimatebet - it is same merger company - CERESUS poker network with Absolute Poker/Ultimatebet together. I just received my birthday check and I wanted to play Ultimatebet because I was coming back to play poker online after few years later (back in 2008) and then I had to deposit 3-5 times because Mastercard did not go through. I had to repeat those steps and it showed the bank statement of the duplicate charges from international countries and then bank got suspicious and then fought to get the charges back and I received my funds back. Don't PLAY at Ultimatebet/Absolute Poker! They are the pure ripoff!

They should just notify you and tell you what has happened. I understand that it's a poker site and they just want money, but they should atleast explain you this before just goin in and taking from you. Try a different site out, I have never had any problems with Full Tilt or pokerstars, that is unfair that they did not notify you.

I, like Poofy, find it hard to believe you did not notice your e-cash balance did not reflect your Absolute deposits in the past.

Basically, Absolute advanced you a deposit when e-check aired them. The method you use to fund your poker account is irrelevant to the fact that you owe Absolute the money they fronted you 2-3 transactions ago.

Now that you replenished the funds in your poker account with your debit card does not relieve you of that debt. Neither does saying Absolute did not notify you of a e-check deposit problem. If they told you that the next time you deposit $60 would be withheld would you deposit again? Of course not. You would go ahead and close your poker account like you did when it caught up to you. Furthermore, Absolute did not request the debit transactions - you did! All they did was take the funds you owed them from your poker account which has nothing to do with your bank card. If you dispute funding your poker account account with your bank debit you're only creating problems for the entire poker community.

Overall, it looks to me like Absolute is being very fair and trying to keep you as a customer whilst recovering some of their losses on your account. You owe them 2-3 $100 deposits they never got and they only took out $60 from the $100. You're ahead for now but in future you'll miss out on any promotional opportunities at Cereus.

I can't seem to get the hang of this site. I hope I am not reposting. I can't start a new paragraph without the post disapearing.

I guess it didn't post. It looks to me that they are just ripping you off. When I make a deposit on Poker Stars, they don't let me see the deposit until it is confirmed. No way are they letting you play with no money. They would have frozen your account until it was cleared up if they did. I would go to my bank and dispute the transactions. I would also tell them to not let them take any more money out. If they don't comply I would unfortunately close my account and open another.

Their rake is pretty ridiculous too IMO. Their withdrawal fees are way to damn high too.