Yeah, I probably would too.

Like others, I don't think it would make a huge difference to have a different site rep on here vs. Shane, but I do think the way this has unfolded is once again indicative of how disorganized/incompetent/contemptuous to the poker community Lock is. Basically, they faced a serious PR crisis in possibly being blacklisted by 2p2 and they dealt with it by lying to 2p2 in order to buy a few more weeks of not quite as awful PR. If we're stuck with Shane, then we're stuck with Shane. And we should continue to deal with him as best we can to get information and leverage pressure on Lock. But we should be aware of what has just happened here.

Bottom line is a new rep doesn't change anything. Shane or any other person appointed to that position still wouldn't have the power to decide on how Lock poker is operated nor would he have any pull in the speed of payment processing or other player issues other than forwarding them to get looked at.

So new rep or old rep it won't change a thing and so far Shane has always helped me out with any issues I had apart from payment processing.

I am still not entirely convinced of this. But obviously there are quite a number of people who do believe this to be the case.

I was particularly encouraged by the announcement on May 3 that a new rep would be coming here. Hey, I'm also encouraged that I saw at least one poster mention that he received a cashout today. So yeah...that means things could be looking up too.

But on the new rep that we were told was coming, I thought that indicated that Lock was owning up to some of their PR mistakes, that a rep might come here who would be easier to deal with and communicate better in BOTH directions, etc.

I feel like my suggestions pretty much go nowhere on here. I do not know if Shane communicates effectively FROM the customers TO the company. Many of us have an opinion of how ineffective he is at communicating FROM the company TO us so I think it is reasonable to suppose the other way around might not be so strong either.

Based on some of his posts (last few days as well as several months ago), I feel as though his message to Lock about the situation here is perhaps little more than, "Yeah, the community is upset. But it's a bunch of people who don't know anything about the online-poker business-side just giving bad opinions. And frankly, they are taking their frustration at the company out on me and that's all it is."

But that's NOT all it is. Many of Shane's answers in his Q&A thread are pretty damn weak. And I am not convinced that he is told from Lock to say exactly what he says and how he says it.

This is also the person who has blamed the community here for the situation Lock is currently in. That is not someone who should be continuing to represent the company on here...or represent the community in the message back to Lock.

There is an overall message that is worth communicating to Lock that they should not lie to their customers. When a cashout is NOT on its way they should not be telling their customers, "the cashout is on its way and you can expect it shortly"...which is exactly what they do over and over.

I have no idea whether anyone on the Lock business-side has actually heard my complaint/observation about that. I mention it in here...to Shane...and he likely blows it off as me just trying to be a pain. I notice that he did not address my multiple attempts to ask that in the Q&A thread. He just rolls his eyes and moves on (I'm guessing). Does he even forward that message to management?

Would a different representative on here with a different brain see that and think, "Hmmm,he might have a point here. Perhaps we should change our email approach and we should address the very REAL problems that the customers are observing." Well, at least there's a chance that would happen.

Amidst all the torches and pitchforks for Lock and Shane in this forum are very REAL recommendations and observations and complaints that Lock would be well-advised to at least consider (if not fully implement). But they are almost certainly falling on deaf ears, or rather, Shane's ears. He filters out some of the accurate criticisms and does not pass it along to management. And consequently nothing gets done.

I had a couple of issues with Eric Lynch when he was on here. But I did feel that my complaints or observations were in the very least UNDERSTOOD by him. And he was always professional and reasonable to deal with. With Shane, I'm really not sure he understands my point...and I do feel he believes me to be, "somebody who does not know a thing about the online-poker business" (he has said this about me multiple times) and therefore any complaints or observations I might have are thus not valid or worth listening to at all. Easier to just ignore him.

That's part of my reasoning for wanting new representation on here. As well as receiving a more accurate and professional message from the Lock side of things to us.

This whole bit of them trying to figure out the cashout situation and him frequently saying, "give me your Lock information and I will chase someone up for you" is NOT the end-all-be-all of the representation he should be providing here.

Conclusion: I do not know if a new representative from Lock would change anything at all in any aspect. But I do not believe it would hurt. And I do think there is a chance it COULD be helpful in some way (or multiple ways).

Shane Bryan tom tim... I think if this happens it can still by him new name.. Unless 2p2 makes reps prove there identity.. This im not sure of. I don't believe booting him will fix anything. That said it would be nice to know he got fired.

Have you guys considered that Shane might very well be the most ethical and competent Lock employee, the straightest shooter and the best communicator that they have?

For all we know, it could be true.

Just saying.

Frommagio, it is possible certainly. But it was not at all the case when rizen was involved.

If Shane is currently their most effective communicator they are not excused from securing a better one. You don't simply keep somebody who does a job poorly in their position just because he is the only one remotely capable of doing it albeit badly. You find somebody who can do it conptently. That's my belief anyway.

Firstly just want to mention that I have never blamed the community here for the situation Lock is currently in. Our poor cashout times and mishandling of situations like the Transfer scandal are what put it us in this situation. Ive admitted as such several times.

While this post talks in general terms I feel this is more related to you rather than the community not being listened to. You have obviously made several suggestions to me, and you have also made suggestions directly to Jen as well and it feels like you are frustrated that your ideas arent being taken up and ran with. And while I might not always find the softest words to sugar coat it the core reason remains, many of your suggestions fall down because they are based on idea that doesn't come from a solid understanding of the operational side of poker. There are many things we cant talk about publicly, hell there were many things I wasnt trusted enough to be told in the first couple of years I worked in the industry. Its an industry rooted in fear and so how many things work remain inside secrets. Without knowing a lot of these finer details many of your suggestions fall down right off the bat.

I mean we know you are in broadcasting, so I have watched sport all my life so based on your idea I should be able to call up your radio station and make several suggestions on how the game should be called. Possibly even walk into the booth and start calling a game, I mean I have watched enough sport so surely that works? Of course we both know that just doesn't work, I mean we have seen enough former players walk into a booth and just die on screen to know that being a broadcaster is a learned skill, preferably matched with a voice or look and possibly even a catchphrase. (I mean Marv without his YESSSSSS just wouldnt be the same) Anyhow I digress, there are things that you dont realise about broadcasting that you dont pick up from watching games that you only learn though study and experience, and I have neither of those in that field.

Now could I have given you the lip service "thanks for those suggestions they are great, we will totally take them on board and try to put them to practice". Yes I could have. Would the suggestions have been put into practice? No they wouldnt. Ive never really been one to say things for the sake of saying them Id rather tell you openly that we wouldnt use the suggestion and try to explain why. The explaining why gets tricky with what Im allowed to talk about in many cases but thats the hand Im dealt.

Instead of saying nothing shane like with the Portugal trip , like most reps would do you jump in with a statement on your own to show up someone with a lie. You could have remained silent on the issue but you choose to lie epic fail. You seem to go out of your way to create or make up stuff , just to laugh about how you fooled that guy . It makes you look bad instead of them. I mean even after that you could have said im sorry and apologize about it but you continue to defend what you wrote . I have been wrong a lot in my life , I say im sorry and try to do better , that's my advice to you. Carrying grudges and contempt will not do you any good. gl

GO AWAY SHANE NO ONE LIKES YOU

The situation with Lock was nowhere near as bad when Rizen was helping people in this forum. Once the **** started hitting the fan Rizen ran for the hills.

Shane - Some of my suggestions are in regards to simple communication with your players...on here (you) and via email (Lock support).

I do listen to input from my "customers" (listeners) in regards to my own work. I am also involved in our company's public relations and marketing departments....and our office absolutely listens to our customers in regards to such matters. I listen. And I have been there in the office when our other staff have dealt with various complaints. Some are solid observations...and some of our customers are just a bit loopy.

If an irate (or relatively calm) customer comes into our office or calls or sends an email regarding a problem they had...we absolutely sit down with them and say, "okay, what happened here? And what can we do to make this right?"

Mind you, this is sometimes a complaint over something as small as a game-ticket that cost the customer $15 or something...or even a $1 hot dog or something. Yes, we have our fair-share of crazies amongst the group doing some of that complaining. But we still listen to every customer and frequently will act or discuss their suggestions.

Similar to the negative post containing erroneous information smearing your company (referring to the one that you recently reported): We had a situation with a fan complaining about mistreatment smearing us on facebook and drawing some concern amongst other customers. We investigated the situation, communicated with the customer about it to obtain more details, determined the allegations to be false, reported our determination back to the customer (he was mistaken), reported our findings to the customers, and offered the customer a coupon as a show of thanks for his support (over something that we never did).

Public relations is more similar across different business-models than you might think. When many people are on here are saying you are maybe not doing such a good job at this, it does not necessarily mean they are equating all of Lock's problems to you.

You have email support that is still horrendous. They sometimes don't respond. Or they do respond with a total lie ("your payment is on its way...you can expect it next week.")

Lock would be wise to dispense with the line, "our email service is great and continues to make fantastic strides" in the face of such incredible frustration your customers are experiencing in such a not-difficult area.

My suggestions (and those of others) are not designed to be immediately implemented at the drop of a hat. I have never expected that. But you would be wise to re-consider the model you have in place in some different areas...particularly in terms of communication with your customers.

I have looked over my previous emails to Jennifer. I have only once made one suggestion to her regarding her business. Certainly not several. I've exchanged a couple of other emails with her in the past but zero suggestions about her company were involved. 2 of them I was seeking clarification about simple issues at Lock in which I was not receiving competent answers from you and the email support. The only other time I emailed her was on the suggestion of either you or Rizen (can't remember...might have been both during your transition time) when I was informed by Lock that I should go to her in order to get the casino-bonus thing cleared up. I emailed her to arrange for a Skype chat...but we never hooked up with that...and eventually you were able to straighten out the casino-bonus issue anyway...and learned that I was not the one interested in initiating conversation with her and only cared about getting my problem solved which it eventually was.


On the tail-end of my last email to her I sent the only thing that could possibly be construed as a suggestion to her (which I have copied below). And, again, it certainly was not "several" suggestions.




The fact that you said I had made "several" suggestions to Jennifer perhaps goes to my point about you rolling your eyes at your customers' suggestions.

The way you describe it, the customers' suggestions can't possibly be informed anyway. So basically you should just tell everyone, "look, you're not in the business and don't know what you're talking about...therefore your suggestions are moot." This is a terrible attitude for a customer-service representative to have.

Blame has been put on the overall complaining in the past....or at least hinted at. I don't have time to try to find the posts and link. We're talking awhile ago. I can't really think of examples more recently though....but maybe others can find something.


I did find this memorable incident from last year that involved a few posts where you did put some amount of blame on me personally for your own work-related issues. Somehow it became my fault. That included a ridiculous mis-truth that you repeated (after I had informed you that you were not correct) that it was mandatory that you answer me on 2+2 due to me being a mod (haha, I wish).

Here is one of the posts you made about me.


http://forumserver.twoplustwo.com/sh...&postcount=274

2+2 has been blamed for the cashout issues as well -- supposedly we drove the price down, created a bunch of phony affiliate accounts, and clogged all the cashout pipes.

Jim, well...sort of. I knew there was something in there I was forgetting. Thanks. Although technically Shane would blame the affiliate-scammers and not 2+2, right? So I'm not sure how much that counts.

Other implications about 2+2'ers who are personally trying to ruin Lock's reputation or something like that.

But supposedly at one point I had the power to cut Shane's support abilities by half! Those were fun times. But I'm glad I don't have that power anymore.

For what reasons is he still here? Is there faith in him that he will change?

Yeah, I'm sure they're not blaming all of 2+2.

But basically, the accusation is that all the people criticizing Lock on 2+2 are in on it -- that almost all of the complaints on this forum are made by just a few affiliate scammers with hundreds of 2+2 gimmick accounts. Most Lock customers are in fact happy! This subforum is all smoke and mirrors, allegedly.

Now that I think about it, to be fair, this is not all from Shane -- this narrative is a combination of Shane's/Jen's statements and statements made by another Lock affiliate manager on Kilowatt's forum.

this is beyond embarrassing. cant wait to hear the deflection on this one

Well, it was from several months ago and he didn't really deflect at that time...he just moved on and eventually stopped talking about it.

If he has a response to it in relation to today he would probably state that he didn't really accuse me of cutting into his support tine by half and that he was exaggerating...which, of course, would not really be the point in regards to stuff like that from him which had just been so colossally inappropriate. Note that in the thread where this was being discussed he said this in response to me expressing concern and alarm that support told a player to stop contacting them. So his statement to me may have actually been the less severe violation they committed in that whole deal. Amazing. Also note that at the time he said...and similar stuff..to me I was far more polite with him than the much of the community or that I even am now.

Anyway, at that time I absolutely was not trying to get under his skin as he seemed to accuse. They were terrible and me saying so and expressing concern was perfectly reasonable. I still truly wish he would accept some of the advice offered him on here and not so frequently add grease to his own fires.

honestly i think shane tries to do what he can. Any rep for a site is pretty limited and clearly has to do as his bosses say. Don't blame shane imo, blame the management. All this fuss and anger is directed at the wrong person. And as Josh said earlier, it's great for lock that so many people want shanes head instead of them calling for Jen Larson's head (not saying that needs to be done or really will fix anything)

Microbob, I agree with you completely. My post was in fact a humorous jab at Lock, possibly a bit too subtle. Shane's record here speaks for itself.

Enough said.

Shane is not personally responsible for lock's failures. I don't blame him for that. I blame him for his excess attempts of trying to make right out of something that is so screwed up. He might be making good money out of this, who knows. If he does than I understand and so be it.

He just needs to decide on whether or not to earn his wage with is "Harvard mouth" or take a cut in pay and take back his dignity.

....again, Shane I'll back you up if you leave.....

Its not too late....