Partybets bet resettlement

[CountryLad]

I'm posting to make a record for anyone else who comes across this issue, and to ask for advice, and other's experiences on this one, although I'm pretty sure my only sensible option is to let them take my money, since any other option I can think of would likely lose me the account, and so lose access to future bonuses.

I got a 200% up to £200 match bonus a few days ago and deposited the full £200 to bring my locked bonus balance to £400 (as you would expect), with a 3*WR. I dealt with this by making 2 underlaid £200 bets.

In short the 1st bet was mis-settled as a win and then resettled as a loss. The other bet was in play at this time. As a result of their mistake, £200 of the money from the mis-settled bet ended up in the bonus balance, which they apparently cannot reclaim. So they set my real money balance to -£200 to compensate (it still shows zero, but is in reality at -£200).

The second bet settles; it has lost as well, so as far as I'm concerned I have lost both bets and have bust out. I log in the next day when I'm doing my records, and see that the bonus balance is at £200. I did what I would always do, and covered myself by emailing them to let them know that there was £200 in my balance when i was expecting to see a balance of zero. Because of this balance, the bonus WR was still active.

The response from customer services was to encourage me to play with the money, but that any winnings above £400 would be seized to cover the negative real money balance. they did also warn me that if I made any deposits that they would similarly be seized.

I responded to ask what would happen if I just let the bonus expire, and got this;

With the particular offer you have in your account, if you let the bonus expire or if you choose to cancel it, only the bonus amount will be taken from your available balance. We will deduct whatever remainders you have from the bonus amount or the full amount if you have enough money to cover that. However, once this is done, we will not ask you to cover any outstanding balance with future deposits.

However a supervisor now confirms that the £15 test deposit that I made will be kept, and that I now still owe them £185. There is a little bit more to this story, but it does not affect what I have posted; I have kept to the basics in order to keep things as clear as possible, but this is the line that the CS and the CS supervisor have taken.

They made the mistake in initially mis-settling the bet, but because they are unable to recoup the funds from their mistake, the customer has to pay for their mistake.

As I stated at the beginning, the worst result of this would be a closed or bonus gubbed account; I reckon I'm best just accepting the short term loss for long term gain, I will still be in net profit from them even with the loss, but any advice is appreciated.

[cleaner]

As I stated at the beginning, the worst result of this would be a closed or bonus gubbed account; I reckon I'm best just accepting the short term loss for long term gain, I will still be in net profit from them even with the loss, but any advice is appreciated.

I don't quite understand your post and what has actually happened, but anyway, you are going to trade real loss ('short term' as you call it) against potential future gain which may or may not materialise, aren't you?
It's obviously the matter of believing in any future reloads, bonuses, etc.
But I would never trade what I have now against unknown future profits as:
a) we are dealing with the bookies here (which are sc****gs, anyway),
b) you don't know your future (will you be still "around", will you be able to bet, will law be the same, ....).
Don't know if what I mentioned is of any help to you, sorry.

[Nintendo2k]

Yes I am a bit confused too. But I will say that I consider a party/game account to be worth way more than £200.

[pinkyexcel]

From what I understand, as far as your account is concerned, both bets lost and they paid nothing out in real cash. They made a mistake and because they can't retrieve the money they put in your bonus account they made your real balance -£200.

This makes no sense. I cannot believe they can't just reset everything to zero, which sounds to me like that is where the account should be. Or if they really can't sort it, why would they not be able to cancel this account and let you open a fresh one with no negative balance. I might be misunderstanding something but I have no idea why the fact that they have put £200 in your bonus balance would mean you have to pay them back £200 real cash!

If I have it right, I also cannot see how you have done anything wrong to be able to be gubbed... both bets lost, they lost nothing.

[fraser]

As a result of their mistake, £200 of the money from the mis-settled bet ended up in the bonus balance, which they apparently cannot reclaim.

Utterly ridiculous. Had you placed the second £200 bet before the first one settled? If so, then this is unbelievable. So they can't 'reclaim' the £200 that ended up in the bonus balance? Why not! It was never your money to begin with! It is just bonus cash! So why can't they take that back?

What they are trying to do here is get you to wager through the bonus amount rather than using that money to cover the -£200 they have forced into your real money balance and as they made the mistake, they should be fixing it.

Diabolical behaviour here from Party (and I say this as a fan of them, used to make so much money from their over-generous casino bonuses in 2008....).

[CountryLad]

Utterly ridiculous. Had you placed the second £200 bet before the first one settled?

This is a good question and is what they are now saying. However, I am a new customer and this was my first reload, so I am not au fait with their bonus system. I seem to remember that they was an entry called 'reserved funds £200' when I placed the second bet, but I certainly only had £200 available to bet with at that point. I assumed the reserved funds entry was the in play bet and that it was just very slow to settle. As it hadn't won, I didn't think too much of it at the time.

Yes it's wrong, yes it doesn't make real sense to me either, but this is their line, and since it went to supervisor level, I can only assume it's their final position. You could speculate that it's something to do with the 'white label' setup they have with Partybets, but I don't see how that would work either, since bet settlement and the bonus system are surely administered by the same people, and even if they weren't, it seems unreasonable.

Thanks for all the comments/advice, guys. I signed up via the TGT link and used the 'norwich' code, but I don't want to take it any further if it risks the account, since as I said, I reckon it's worth playing ball for the sake of the future e.g. I don't have a GB account yet.

[munk]

Very confusing indeed, ideally you would have wanted them to just correct the mistake they'd made wouldn't you and to say they can't do that is completely ridiculous. I'm sure they would have corrected it like a shot if it was a palp or another mistake that went against them.

So can you not mug the balance now (I know you had the £15 test deposit but not a huge amount to lose via a mug... probably not the best thing to deposit that £15 maybe)? What would happen if an evens shot you mugged won etc? No way to gain from it?

EDIT: just read what you posted above, so it sounds as though you possibly placed the second £200 bet with the funds/mistaken winnings that weren't really yours then? If so I can see how it's causing a headache to them and at least they sound like they're trying to do the right thing to some extent. But still it's a genuine mistake isn't it on all sides, I suppose it is bad though for you if you layed that second bet off that was money you shouldn't really have won and then they decide to take it back... maybe that's what you were saying all along sorry is very confusing!

[pinkyexcel]

Ah, okay, so their system thinks you placed a real money bet with fake winnings and still have a £200 bonus to complete the WR on. So if you match that £200 bonus now... if it wins, they will take the remaining £185 and leave you the rest which you have to complete the WR with... and if it loses, you still owe £185 which you could pay off with the money that you win at the exchange. Does that sound right?

I don't entirely follow their explanation of what happens if you allow the bonus to expire... do you still then owe £185?

[CountryLad]

EDIT: just read what you posted above, so it sounds as though you possibly placed the second £200 bet with the funds/mistaken winnings that weren't really yours then? If so I can see how it's causing a headache to them and at least they sound like they're trying to do the right thing to some extent. But still it's a genuine mistake isn't it on all sides, I suppose it is bad though for you if you layed that second bet off that was money you shouldn't really have won and then they decide to take it back... maybe that's what you were saying all along sorry is very confusing!

nope. I initially had £400 (£200 deposit + £200 bonus). I placed a £200 bet, and then another £200 bet. At the time that I placed the second £200 bet, there was only £200 available, as I said in the post above. I only saw the extra £200 after the second bet had been settled (I have no idea whether they credited the extra £200 before the second bet had settled, but I assume that they had done. At the point that I saw the extra £200, I immediately contacted them by email to point out that it should not be there, and I stated this in my original post.

[CountryLad]

I don't entirely follow their explanation of what happens if you allow the bonus to expire... do you still then owe £185?

With the particular offer you have in your account, if you let the bonus expire or if you choose to cancel it, only the bonus amount will be taken from your available balance. We will deduct whatever remainders you have from the bonus amount or the full amount if you have enough money to cover that. However, once this is done, we will not ask you to cover any outstanding balance with future deposits.

I took the bit that I have highlighted in bold to be very clear.

edit: I can certainly understand that people are curious, and I can understand that I have started this by making the initial post/warning, but I don't feel that adding much more extra information will do anything but cause me problems in terms of losing the account, so I hope that people can understand if I start to leave questions unanswered. What I have posted is fair and accurate as far as it goes, but if I publicly post the full email exchange and bet details then I'm opening myself up for a gubbing.


Edit 2: I've been contacted by someone who has also had this problem with GB/PB.