Sportsbook has a debit card to use for Withdrawals

Ok for 2 weeks now I have been waiting and waiting, and talking and complaining to whoever who will listen, then all of a sudden I get this email that says hey by the way we can give you a debit card that you can have your money withdrawn to, it will take 6 weeks to get the card but in the future you can have your withdrawals in days instead of weeks. Why not tell me this 2 weeks ago or supply that information when you sign up, why keep it a secret. here is the email I got.
My name is Carl Richards and I am part of our Quality Assurance Supervisors team. It has come to my attention that you rated your recent chat as poor because you are in disagreement with our current time frame for withdrawals (4 to 6 weeks).
First and foremost Lisa, I want to apologize for any inconvenience we have put you through in regards to this matter. I know it seems like a long time, and we are very sorry for any inconvenience this causes, however it is our policy to remain honest with our customers at all times rather than give unrealistic timeframes. This takes into account online processing, our security process and receipt and delivery to you by our processing partner.
I do understand your frustration and wariness about this time frame Lisa, and we really appreciate your patience and understanding. We have been in business for over 14 years now and, to this date, we have never missed a single payout to our customers. Rest assured you will receive your withdrawal within the stated 4 to 6 weeks or less.
For future withdrawals Lisa, there is an option you may be interested in: the debit card method. If you decide to use this alternative, we will mail you a debit card to your billing address. This can take up to 6 weeks to arrive but, once you have it in your hands and you have activated it, we will process any withdrawals to it within 24 hours. Please bear in mind the limits for this option: $250 (minimum) and $5000 (maximum). If you want to get more details about this alternative, please get in touch with our Customer Service department.
Finally Lisa, I want to thank you for your patience and understanding in regards to this matter. I really hope you keep enjoying your plays with us for many years to come. Have a nice afternoon!
Should you require further assistance or information, please reply to this message or chat live by clicking the link below. Your reference ID for this email is LTK57201912609X; please quote this number in any further communication on this subject.
Sincerely,

Ok I contact Sportsbook ask to send me the card and you just won't believe what happen, read for yourself.
Mike Adams: Hello Lisa
Mike Adams: Please hold for a moment while I look up your account...
lisa: sure
Mike Adams: You have order a bankwire, not a debit card
lisa: i know that but i was sent an email stating that in future i could use the card for withdrawal and that i should contact customer service to request on
Mike Adams: In order to receive a debit card, you will need to cancel the bankwire and order a debit card
lisa: no thats not what the email said
Mike Adams: Lisa, we don't send out empty debit cards
lisa: here is what it said: My name is Carl Richards and I am part of our Quality Assurance Supervisors team. It has come to my attention that you rated your recent chat as poor because you are in disagreement with our current time frame for withdrawals (4 to 6 weeks).
lisa: For future withdrawals Lisa, there is an option you may be interested in: the debit card method. If you decide to use this alternative, we will mail you a debit card to your billing address. This can take up to 6 weeks to arrive but, once you have it in your hands and you have activated it, we will process any withdrawals to it within 24 hours. Please bear in mind the limits for this option: $250 (minimum) and $5000 (maximum). If you want to get more details about this alternative, please get in touch with our Customer Service department.
Mike Adams: $250 (minimum) and $5000 (maximum).
lisa: i know this
Mike Adams: Ok so you have to go to the cashier, cancel the bankwire and rerequest the fund as a debit card
lisa: this email says i can have the card sent to me now and it will take 6 weeks to get it, it does not say i have to cancel my withdrawal
lisa: it says for future withdrawals not this one
lisa: my reference id for this email is ltk57201912609x
Mike Adams: So you want us to send you a card that needs a minum of $250.
Mike Adams: where does the $250 come from exactly
lisa: no the card is suppose to be empty, then i activate it and when i want to make a withdrawal it will be applied to the card
Mike Adams: Please bear in mind the limits for this option: $250 (minimum) and $5000 (maximum). If you want to get more details about this alternative, please get in touch with our Customer Service department
Mike Adams: This was mailed to you.
lisa: yes
lisa: i gave u the id number
Mike Adams: Then you know now that it is impossible for us to send you an empty debit card
lisa: no i dont know that
lisa: my email says for future withdrawals not current withdrawals
lisa: the limits are so i know that i can not withdraw less than 250 and no more than 5000
Mike Adams: Ok when you have $250 in your account then you can make the withdrawal for a debit card
lisa: that is not what this email says
lisa: please refer to the email id reference #\
lisa: again the reference id for the email is ltk57201912609x
Mike Adams: I have read the email
lisa: so as u see, it reads send card, takes 6 weeks, activate card and then when i request a withdrawal i can have it in 24hrs not 6 weeks
He then goes on to repeat the email to me verbatim.
I ended the conversation with this:
Mike Adams: verbatim
lisa: yes, that is correct, future withdrawal is the key words
lisa: not this withdrawal
Mike Adams: So when you have $250 in your account you can request a debit card
lisa: no thats not what it says, never mind, i will make another complaint because obviously there is a problem with the language of this email
Mike Adams: Please do.
lisa: thank u for not helping me, it has been a pleasure as usually.
Mike Adams: Thank you for chatting with us today. If you've got a moment, please click here; we'd really appreciate your feedback.

Well, I sorta get it. Maybe there is some hang-up in their system where they can't send an unloaded debit card. I think this is a really cool option and one that I am surprised has taken this long to be provided. Now, in the U.S. this may be a bit tricky, but overseas this would be great. I would also like to see some sort of exchange for say Amazon gift cards or something like that which could be done in a more timely fashion.

I am sorry you are not having a more pleasant experience. Customer service teams tend to lack customer service, a fact that I have found especially in regards to poker sites. Good luck in the future!

gefishy

I pretty much understood from the email sent to you what Mike was trying to tell you. It never said that you have to cancel wire. But, it did read that your next withdrawal could be taken as a card and then any future withdrawals would be faster.

I thought that Mike was very cordial considering your persistant rudeness. It was obvious to me that you were reading something into it that was not the case. Maybe he could have been more tactful, but I bet English was not his first language.

In order to get good customer service, it is sometimes necessary to be a good customer. This sometimes means conceding that you misunderstood something and acting accordingly.

I tend to agree with tbdbitl. He who has the gold makes the rules. If there is a misunderstanding, the poker site can attempt to train us in if we just listen. Otherwise, we can mope around that we did not get our way. I mean, it is right there in red and white.
For future withdrawals Lisa, there is an option you may be interested in: the debit card method. If you decide to use this alternative, we will mail you a debit card to your billing address. This can take up to 6 weeks to arrive but, once you have it in your hands and you have activated it, we will process any withdrawals to it within 24 hours. Please bear in mind the limits for this option: $250 (minimum) and $5000 (maximum). If you want to get more details about this alternative, please get in touch with our Customer Service department.

Come back when you have the minimum withdrawal. The minimum withdrawal is not zero, you know that, the minimum withdrawal states $250. Case closed. I would apologize to the phone rep if it were me. I would say sorry I wasted their time. And they would comment back, not at all, we are here for you whenever you need us. You make things hard on yourself.

Geez tenacious, mellow out a bit. Most of your recent posts are "don't play there, they take too long to pay out". Are you expecting sites to charter a flight and deliver an envelope full of cash to your door in a limo?

As others have said, get back to at least $250, get your card, go thru one more waiting period, then you're GOLDEN.

Yeah, I think the email was obvious that it was meant for future cashouts. The OP seems a bit unreasonable in her expectations here.

Regarding the new card, it's a new approach Merge is taking with cashouts across all their skins, it's not unique to Sportsbook. From reports on 2p2 from people who've already received them, you get a PIN and can withdraw the cash from an ATM, which is a huge plus -- a lot of prepaid/gift cards don't let you do this. The last thing I'd want is a card I couldn't get the cash from and had to swipe to spend it.

On its face it seems like a pretty clever way around the US banking restrictions. But prepaid cards are issued by a single issuer, which constitutes a financial institution under UIGEA. So if the issuer wises up, or gets pressure from DOJ, then they won't accept cashouts to the card anymore and then you're back to waiting for them to find another issuer, ship a new card, etc. At least with checks/EFTs they could pretty easily switch around banks/processors, but I think this approach won't be nearly as flexible when they need to find another one. Still, while it works, it seems a pretty neat approach that I'm surprised hadn't been tried before.

Personally I'm happy with the approach that Lock is taking regarding handling payouts themselves through their casino, rather than going through Merge's poker cashier. So far the results have been positive, and much quicker than Merge payouts.

I believe there is some confusion regarding this.

Merge is issuing cashouts (AFAIK, for <$1k) via prepaid gift cards. These cards are not re-loadable, and they must be cleaned out within 15 days of activation.

These skins (Sportsbook, Players Only, Superbook -- owned by Jazette, but allegedly, ownership changed hands within the past couple weeks) -- are offering re-loadable debit cards. The [former] Jazette skins do not process payments via the core Merge cashier.

Obviously, if the debit cards are sustainable, they are much better than the prepaid gift cards Merge is using, as cashout times will be much shorter (supposedly, anyway), you don't have to empty the account within 15 days, and you have the convenience of using the same card over and over.

Ah, my mistake then. Coincidental timing and all, I assumed they were referring to the same cards.

So I'm assuming those skins you mention are paying out of another arm of their company? Like Lock with their casino? Because my understanding is that Merge tightly controls cashouts from the poker side and requires all skins to go through their cashier for poker withdrawals. So the skins that have a casino or sportsbook that doesn't fall under Merge control have gotten creative, since Merge allows poker funds to be transferred over to the casino/sportsbook side, where the skin can handle payouts themselves.

This obviously negates one of the benefits many saw in Merge, i.e. a rogue skin can't withhold player funds. But with Merge's current payout fiasco, I'm glad to see some skins doing something to help out their players.

The single-use gift card approach, while less convenient than the reloadable cards, would seem to be a more reliable end-run around UIGEA though. They can just buy them up from any GC vendor, rather than have to process payments through accounts as a reloadable card would require. As long as I can get at the cash via ATM, I'd be fine with a gift card.

Not all skins use the Merge cashier. The Jazette skins mentioned are a group that does not. Pokerhost is another example. Lock [Casino] is another (on the casino side). This is why these skins all have payment methods not available at other Merge skins.

The single-use gift cards have their own problems. These are sometimes counterfeit -- many Bodog customers recently had their gift card cashouts seized by US Customs. Also, IIRC there were Bodog customers that received gift cards but could not access the money (not totally clear on that, it's been a while).

All in all, all current payout methods have problems. Some of us will get lucky with one, some will get lucky with another. We'll have to wait and see how both of these respective debit card methods work out in the next few months.

Right, I realize that (I mentioned Lock's Casino specifically). My point was that skins that aren't using the Merge cashier must be processing it through another side of the skin (casino, sportsbook, etc.). If they process it as a poker withdrawal, it must go through Merge or else violate their contract (at least that has been my understanding, and Lock reps confirmed this). So skins that don't have casinos or sportsbooks or other non-poker business they can transfer poker funds to, are locked into the Merge cashier.

I get paid through Lock Casino now because it's a lot easier than getting paid through Merge. That said, you do lose the sense of protection that comes from having the parent network manage player funds.

You're right, this is just a matter of semantics. The aforementioned rooms process all payments through their sportsbooks or casinos. My point was that, with the exception of Lock (and possibly others I can't think of now), these rooms do not process payments through Merge at all.

I'm not all that clear on how funds are held at Merge rooms. My gut tells me that your funds at Lock are "held by Merge" up until the point that you transfer them to the Casino for cashout. I suspect this differs from the situation of other rooms -- e.g. the Jazette rooms -- which IMO never have their funds held or processed by Merge.

When you get down to it, though, I'm not sure how much safer I feel having funds held by Merge as opposed to individual skins -- with the exception of shady rooms like Pokerhost. Either way, I have to be prepared to lose my BR in a moment's notice.

This is good to know and THANKS for the intel... I was wondering how painful the experience was going to be withdrawing from my account.