Hi,

This is my first post so I hope I am putting it in the right section. I felt compelled to join to warn people about what happened to me yesterday playing the M level SCOOP 13 event which was a 3 handed Zoom tournament.

We were over 90% of the way through a 7000+ field and I had double the average stack. My table was 'Waiting for players'. After a few minutes I suspected something was wrong as it seemed like I was waiting longer than normal.

I contacted support straight away asking for urgent assistance to see if there was something wrong and let them know I hadn't been dealt a hand in 5 minutes. I had just over 151,000 in chips.

I kept trying to 'take my seat' and click on the table and nothing happened. I noticed the average stack had increased by 20,000 chips since I last had a hand and realised there was definitly something wrong. I repeatedly tried to contact support to figure out why I had stopped being dealt in.

Finally, after almost an hour I received a response. Unfortunately it said that my refund request could not be processed! I immediately responded that I was not requesting a refund but help getting dealt back into the tournament.

Long story short, I continued to request help multiple times. I ended up getting an email that I had finished the tournament(!?) and did not receive any help or explanation about how I had been knocked out or why I stoppped receiving cards. As far as I could tell, my connection was fine and I can only assume that there was a software glitch or connection problem on Stars end.

I watched the tournament continue to progress whilst I sat on a table 'Waiting for Players' and apparently knocked out. After the tournament I continued to try and get a response about what had happened and how I could be compensated for the fact that I just stopped getting cards!

This was the very inadequate resolution offered - with no explanation as to what happened or why:

Hello Katie,

Thank you for reaching out on this.

We are sorry to hear you were affected by this issue.

In regards to your refund request, after a careful review of your recent playing history we determined that you were affected in the following event:

#1871888987

We have issued a credit of $34.69 to your account for the tournaments that were adversely affected.

Let us know if there is anything else we can help you with.

Regards,

Ricardo
Stars Support

I entered the tournament twice so this 'refund' was about 1/3 of my buy in.

I am not a professional player, just a girl who likes to play poker. I'm sure others can appreciate that is hard/rare to get so deep in a tournament with double the average stack and I can't believe something like this could happen. I am even more shocked by the lack of support provided both whilst the tournament was sill playing and afterwards.

Very disappointed with PokerStars

Next time reopen the software and I'm sure it'll workout immediately.

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

Surely support would have told me to do that straight away if that would have fixed it? I repeatedly tried to reset the table - I didn't close the software though as that can take several minutes to reopen.

This happens to me every now and then, to fix it open up the tourney lobby, exit the table you've been playing on and then click the take my seat button in the tourney lobby

I tried that several times.

on what pc does it take several minutes to reopen the software??
it should only take 30sec 1minute max
and i would close and restart software after 1-2 minutes of not getting cards

The replies seem to indicate no one thinks it was a Pokerstars problem which I think is surprising.

Regardless on whether I should have shut down the software (mid tournament) - I requested urgent assistance from support multiple times and was not responded to.

My friends have always advised not to play online for security reasons. I now agree with them and will not be playing again.

it was pokerstars problem and they maybe should refund you more $
but there is a good chance that restarting your software would have solved the problem
and i do not think that there are huge security issues on pokerstars

Thanks for the advice on what would have fixed it. Sounds like I would have received a quicker response by asking what to do here instead of the help desk!

I have always thought Pokerstars was the best and most trusted site and gave them 100% of my business. I remember I had an issue when I first started playing and the response was quick and resolution way above expectation. I was always an advocate after that as I thought you could never have a problem on pokerstars and if you did they would make it right.

I don't know what has happened but the customer service policy must have changed significantly since then - and unfortunately this experience has taken my trust in the site with it!

Dude, some issues can't be solved at the same freaking second. Unfortunately every company in the world can't have a person to immediately solve every single clients problem. It's just impossible. Sometimes you just have to work things out by yourself. Their help will never compensate the money you lost due to technical issues. If you check my posting history you'll see I post complaints in the pokerstars thread very often. But I always try to solve it by myself because I can't stop playing just cause support isn't answering me. I'd be losing a lot of money that way. So next time, try reopening the software. If that works and it took you like 5 minutes, you email them anyway. I remember once I did that and told them the amount of time I lost due to the technical issue made me lose a part of my stack and affected the outcome of the tournament for me. They checked, saw that I was right and even though I wasnt blinded out they still compensated me. That's pretty fair in my opinion.

Sent from my Moto G (4) using Tapatalk

If I had known closing and opening the software would have fixed the issue then I would have done so obviously. Never mind, the damage is done (although I still don't understand how I can blind out without being dealt a hand.)

Yes, your outcome sounds fair.

This happens on zoom tables when you are playing on a mobile device and you go to break have noticed it myself , it doesn't find a table properly after the break until you close the app and open it again which should take seconds

So surprised that this is a common and accpected thing. I wasn't playing on a mobile device but thanks for the info.

I was reading the Pokerstars thread as suggested above and it seems alot of people have lost faith in the site as of late.

It's all good - I have worked out the remaining SCOOP buy ins for the tournaments I would have played is almost first prize money. I'll just consider those savings a win and figure out something else to do with my time - lol!

Happens all the tine in america. I often have to restart my computer and that does the trick. If you're going to do anything with computers and wifi you have to know that simple trick ... good luck.

It's not accepted, but since Pokerstars has become a ****show we have to deal with it and we are on our own, we have to take it for what it is. Therefore it's best to count on yourself.

Thanks for the advice!

I would be interested if there are any other sites people would recommend looking into.

Yeah well you shouldn't have to restart pokerstars because the tournament isn't working properly. Simple as that. The service is unacceptable and the performance of their client is unacceptable. You were not the only one affected here eother.... I've seen a few complaints about this particular tournament. You are entitled to a refund of at least your tournament buy ins.

Thanks for your input Afteryastack. Unfortunately pokerstars seems to disagree as I have received zero response to my follow up emails.

Very interesting to hear that others had issues with this tournament. I hope they share their experiences!

As a successful entreprenuer with a fierce belief that customer serivce is the core of any business, I am dumbfounded by the (lack of) service provided here.

I can only guess that I am an ideal customer for pokerstars but the service provided certainly suggests otherwise.

My research thus far seems to suggest poker sites are more intersted in 'gambling customer bases' to sell casino games to - and the poker player, recreational, serious or otherwise has been left by the wayside.

Is there an opening here for a new poker only site??

Winamax is easily my favourite even though they just withdrew from Poland. Partypoker is my number two. 888 software gives me nightmares but many players lime it as well.

Thanks mashxx for your feedback. I will look into all of these options and be sure to update anything positive.

It is funny how all of you started to bash PokerStars and recommend 888 and Party when they got 10X ****tier and buggier sw (not even talking about visual appearance).

I feel I should report that Stars have made a belated attempt to rectify this situation by issuing a small additional refund and providing a detailed response as to how they derived at the figure.

The gesture is defintely appreciated however I still don't undertand what actually happened!

I've had similar issues with Betfair (ipoker) - although somewhat different in that the entire tournament crashed rather than it just being an individual problem - ( it used to happen all the time with the old software) They would compensate according to an estimate of the $EV of each player - If Pokerstars are doing this it's fine ( sounds like they aren't even with the extra payment) I would keep complaining if you can be bothered.

edit: Had the exact same issue, couldn't read op on phone.
Refund request sent with reference to this thread, let's see.

It's their policy to never give reasons for how they calculate refunds (also due to what kind of illegal behaviour [botting, multiaccounting etc.] of other players u get a specific refund). I don't think that's the best approach when it comes to marketing and giving out additional $ is more than fair since we don't play the scoop to get some icm value of the stack after 15 min of play, but for the chance to win big.

Update: They rwfunded me the 5.5$ BI which I consider not fair cause the ICM value alone of my blinded out stack was multiple times that. Gonna message again and see what they do.

"Hi YYY,

Thanks for your quick reply.
However I'm not satisfied with the refund as it stands. The ICM value alone of my stack that was blinding down due to the software issue cause by stars was multiple times the 5.5$ buy-in. Furthermore in my opinion players don't play the SCOOP to win around their BI but for the chance to win big which was significantly reduced for me due to blinding down, so an additional refund greater the ICM value seems a fair deal to me.
Please let me know how you decide to handle this. I'll have to add that I'm a long term customer since 2007 and have paid >100k USD in rake lifetime. I'm also active in varioius poker boards, so my opinion on the issue matters for stars financially more than 5.5$, as the readers on 2p2 alone are potentially multiple thousands as u can see in publicly available numbers. I posted my honest opinion on the matter in the following thread, along with other players:
http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/18...ation-1666442/

If u're fine with it, I'm going to share your answer on that board, please let me know of your decision.

Kind regards and have a nice day,
XXX"