Monty Update

by Otis

A running commentary on the sad state of affairs at Pacific Poker (to be read from end to beginnning if you care about chronology:

Iggy has heard back from Pacific. It appears there is a make-good in the works.

[SEE UPDATES BELOW! They are in reverse order with the most recent at the top.]

[CJ UPDATE #2]

By now, I'm guessing most of you have received the "make-good" e-mail from Pacific Poker. If you didn't here it is:

Dear [CJ],

This is Mike Herea, the Promotions Manager here at Pacific Poker.

I would like to humbly apologize for the non-appearance of the
guinessandpoker.com tournament which was scheduled for August 22nd 2004. We experienced unforeseen circumstances which have stopped us from starting
this event. I would like to ensure you however that we are doing our
best to make sure that there will not be a repeat.

I’m aware that you were scheduled to play in this tournament and as a
gesture of goodwill and to show how much I value you, our member; I have
credited your account with a $25 bonus – so don’t wait logon today and
play.

The good news is that the guinessandpoker.com tournament will be
rescheduled and you will be updated – more details to follow.

Again please accept my sincere apologies and thank you for your
anticipated understanding in this matter.

Good Luck at the tables and play well.

Yours faithfully,

Mike Herea
Promotions Manager
Pacific Poker

Additionally, Iggy reports Pacific will add $500 to our private tourney prize pool when we reschedule. Nice to see real action on their part.

[END CJ UPDATE #2]

[OTIS UPDATE #1]

Here's my response to Pacific's "sorry" e-mail (below):

Fernanda,

As I'm sure you know by now, The Monty Memorial was a 75-person tournament in memory of a noted poker writer's pet cat that passed away recently. While that may seem silly to you, the tournament and its origins meant a lot to the people who played.

If that doesn't help Pacific understand, perhaps the negative public relations will. Beyond being fans of the tournament organizer, more than 2/3 of the participants maintain websites about poker. Some of the participants maintain the most noted poker "blogs" on the intertnet, with readership in the thousands every day.

A majority of the paricipants did not have accounts with Pacific prior to the tournament organization. I think it's safe to say that most of them will not have Pacific accounts after last night's debacle.

Like any customer who has been wronged--no matter how unintentional the mistake was--we require an explanation of what happened. The tournament was set up weeks in advance and resulted in dozens of people establishing accounts with your business.

So, here's what we want to know: What happened? Why did it happen? What are you going to do to fix it?

Sincerely,
OtisDart

-----------------
My phone rang at 9:30am. The Privacy Director function saved Pacific Poker from an ear-reaming. I checked my e-mail a little bit later to find this:

...This is Fernanda a Member Support Representative at Pacific Poker.

I have tried to contact you today (08/23/04) in regards to the
Restricted Tournament but unfortunately I could not get through as the
privacy director you have on did not recognize the caller.

First of all, please accept my sincere apologies for the cancellation of
the tournament mentioned above, which will, unfortunately, be postponed
until further notice. I would kindly ask you to keep an eye on your
E-mail Inbox as our Promotions Department will be contacting you soon at
bswillis@bellsouth.net for further information in this matter.

Thank you for your patience, understanding and cooperation in this
matter.

Thank you for choosing Pacific Poker.

Kind regards,

Fernanda
Member Support Representative
Pacific Poker

Uh-huh. Now, let's all say it together: Cashout and find a new home for the WPBT.

What I fnd amazing is that the support team over at Pacific still isn't saying anything different than it was last night. I've always found in dealing with angry people who have been wronged that an EXPLANATION of what happened help ease the sting of getting screwed.

That must not be in the Pacific Support manual.

Keep readng to find out what the support team was REALLY doing last night.

[OTIS UPDATE #1 ENDS]

[CJ UPDATE #1]

I imagine the rest of the poker blogosphere received this email tonight:

Dear Member/Blogger,

Please accept our sincerest apologies for the non-start of the Monty
Memorial Tournament as organized by "Iggster".

I can assure you that this matter is being fully reviewed by our
technical department, and you will be contacted by our Promotional
department regarding this matter as soon as possible. We do appreciate
that this has caused great inconvenience to yourself and the other
players, and will be taking this into account.

Your satisfaction is our top priority and we are always willing to
listen and understand our member's needs and concerns. We value your
time and thank you for your patience.

Regards,
Kim
Member Support Representative
Pacific Poker

Now let's see how they really respond. I'm already pissed I haven't heard back on the $11 they stole from me when I got bounced after registering for an SNG and before it started. Just got the form e-mail, and nothing since. This could be the end of Pacific Poker. Otis loves his boycotts!

[CJ UPDATE #1 ENDS]

--------------
Let's take a peak inside Pacific Poker's support office, shall we?

Support Guy: Have you seen the latest edition of our company newsletter. It says we're raking in money hand over fist.

Support Girl: That's not all you're doing hand over fist. I've seen what you look at on the Net.

Support Guy: Seriously, it says we're doing so well that our support staff is so swamped we can't answer e-mails for a week.

Support Girl: I thought we were supposed to delete e-mails as they came in unless they had Dutch Boyd's name on them.

Support Guy: No, no. That was when we working for Poker Spot. Now we pretend like we're fixing the problem...

Support Girl: Oh, yeah, now I remember. We pretend like we're fixing the problem while we use the customer's rake money for self-gratification stimuli.

Support Guy: I'm finding you very attractive right now.

Support Girl: You want to roll around in the rake?

Support Guy: Wait, we may have a problem.

Support Girl: It's okay. I'm on the pill.

Support Guy: No, I mean, we were supposed to set up a tourney for a majority of the online poker blogging community and we didn't.

Support Girl: I thought you were doing it.

Support Guy: I was going to until I clicked on a "boobies" section on Fark.com. I've been busy.

Support Girl: So what should we do?

Support Guy: Just tell whoever calls that we're working on it, and we'll get to it after we finish rolling areound in the rake.

Support Girl: Should I call Public Relations?

Support Guy: You know what they'll say...

Support Girl: That's right...

Together: Whatta we care? They're only our customers!

--------------
From an automated e-mail support response:

Dear Member,

Please be informed that due to the success and popularity of Pacific
Poker, we have received an unprecedented influx of emails from our
members. We have been overwhelmed with emails and as a result, our
response time has lengthened significantly.

Sincerely,

Member Support Manager
Pacific Poker


"...due to the success and popularity of Pacific Poker"

Just cutting and pasting that to get ready for a week-long tirade of flames.

------------
Pacific support says it is taking care of the Monty problem. They took my user name, first and last, phone number, and a portion of my password.

They said there has been a delay and they will CALL ME when the tourney is supposed to start.

HUH?

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