BetOnline - Dishonest Call and Promotion

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jagr_rottman

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BetOnline called me about an hour ago and told me I would receive a 200% bonus on my first deposit. It sounded good and I thought- this company must be making a lot of money so they can cover this; they are mentioned all the time. So I made the deposit. The caller never said anything but there's a 200% bonus. No "terms and conditions". No 'check the webpage on it'. Nothing. Just make the deposit and in a few minutes you'll get the bonus.

I made the deposit and waited for the email. When I got the email, I couldn't believe it. There were massive terms and conditions which required me to make MANY more deposits. And the rules are so complicated, it would take me a day or two just to figure out how much I need to further deposit.

This is the email (i added some bolding emphasis)

"This is Steve from player services, hope this email finds you well.

We would like to inform you that the poker bonus requested has been added to your account. Please feel free to log in and start playing towards releasing the bonus to your account.

This bonus will be released in five stages.

1. Stage 1 will release 10% of the 200% bonus and will require a player to rake the equivalent of 30.3% of the deposit amount. This equates to earning 3.03 POP per dollar deposited. For example, if the deposit amount was $100, 303 POP would have to be earned in order to release $10 of the bonus amount.

2. Stage 2 will release a further 20% of the 200% bonus and will require a player to rake the equivalent of 99.27% of the deposit amount. This equates to earning 9.92 POP per dollar deposited. For example, if the deposit amount was $100, 992.7 POP would have to be earned (from the start of the bonus period) in order to release $30 of the total bonus amount.

3. Stage 3 will release a further 40% of the 200% bonus and will require a player to rake the equivalent of 220.4% of the deposit amount. This equates to earning 22.04 POP per dollar deposited. For example, if the deposit amount was $100, 2,204.8 POP would have to be earned (from the start of the bonus period) in order to release $70 of the total bonus amount.

4. Stage 4 will release a further 60% of the 200% bonus and will require a player to rake the equivalent of 402.3% of the deposit amount. This equates to earning 40.23 POP per dollar deposited. For example, if the deposit amount was $100, 4,023. POP would have to be earned (from the start of the bonus period) in order to release $130 of the total bonus amount.

5. Stage 5 will release a further 70% of the 200% bonus and will require a player to rake the equivalent of 652.3% of the deposit amount. This equates to earning 6,523 POP per dollar deposited. For example, if the deposit amount was $100, 6,523 POP would have to be earned



Should you require further assistance or information, please contact us by replying to this email or initiating a Live Chat.



Enjoy the site!


Best regards,

Steve Smith

Player Services

Betonline"


And here is the paraphrased summary of the call I got from them:

BetOnline: We see you signed up to BO; and you're missing out on our bonus of 200%.
Me: So if I deposit $100, I just get $200?
BO: Exactly. You get the 200% in a few minutes; you'll receive confirmation with 5 minutes.
Me: So if use my credit card online, I will get the bonus?
BO: Yes, don't use any promo code when you sign up. And you will get the bonus.

As you can see above, that is not the case. When I talked to support, they said 'oh there's a webpage on it'. But the webpage was never referred to on the call- how would I know it even existed?

Here is the image of my chat with BO:
http://postimg.org/image/sfwl22a1p/


You can see Support initially tries to ignore my inquiry; and tries to stiff-arm me by saying they can't do anything unless I give them the name of the BO employee who called me; he didn't give me his name so how could I do that.

So basically I made a decision based on how much I deposit (which costs me processing fee and a withdrawal fee- which could be more than 40% of my deposit combined), based on their incomplete, and in my view, dishonest promotion.

Now I know some out there are saying "you are a sucker". Yeah, I was. But I can't escape that BetOnline is a scummy organization which lacks ethics. Sure I've been tricked before but in those cases I had the information or they referenced what I needed to look over, but I never did. In this case, they misrepresented the promotion. They offered to refund my deposit; but I still lost the processing fee and we'll see if they charge me anything to withdraw (since they have these fees and they are not minor as a % of the total, especially if your deposit is not that much). Yeah, lesson learned. But I also wanted to put the word out not to fall for this scam.

I refused to keep my money on the site because basically I don't trust them. The install didn't work at first, the App crashed in the 5 minutes I used it. The only good thing in my experience was the customer support- they pick up their phone and do online chat relatively quickly.

Any questions on this, I'll try to answer.
 
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jagr_rottman

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Update: BetOnline agreed to refund my money.

Any perspectives from you guys on this promotion; is it legit, am i crazy, etc.
 
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jagr_rottman

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I receive an email today from BetOnline saying they checked their phone records and the salesman DID warn me of terms and conditions. Except this sounds extremely fishy because when I talked to support online, they said they could ONLY retrieve the phone call if I had the salesman's name. I didn't. You can see the online support saying this in the image I linked to above.

So now BetOnline claims they tracked down the phone call miraculously when they said they couldn't. The support guy I talked to earlier assured me that they would refund my money. Now two days later they say they won't. Actually they don't say they won't explicitly but they say they sales rep told you and our terms are online. I know for certain he never said any of this. I've requested BO share with me the audio or the transcript. This is SUCH a waste of my time; but it's a matter of principle.

This company is using hardball, deceptive techniques to get you to put as much money upfront because you think it will be doubled. They then slide in the T&C afterwards which makes clear you will NEVER get the bonus unless you practically pour in additional thousands.

Bet Online seems like a really shady outfit.
 
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