Quote:
Originally Posted by Mason Malmuth
Hi Everyone:
A little earlier today, Mat Sklansky and myself had a positive conversation with the top officials of Lock Poker. Here are the results:
1. Lock will voluntarily pull all banner ads and stop all promotions until the issues in question are resolved to our satisfaction.
2. The Lock Forum will stay open but will be operated in a support capacity with no emphasis on promotions.
3. A new Lock representative will come on here and give a more detailed explanation of how they currently see the issues and the steps they will be taking to get everything resolved.
4. This representative will take an active role in answering any questions that our posters may have.
Best wishes,
Mason
Thanks to Mason and Mat for taking action regarding this situation.
First, I want to say that they've done the right thing here. They took the banner ads down (most important), and they are leaving up the Lock forum so people can openly discuss the scamming/stealing going on there (also important). Finally, they have disallowed usage of the Lock forum to promote the site, and have converted it to a support forum, which is great. This is exactly what I would have done if I were in charge.
However, I am
NOT optimistic about this "new representative", nor do I believe anything will get resolved.
Appointing a new Lock representative to take the heat for Lock's shadiness is like appointing a new White House spokesman when the President is doing a bad job. You're getting the same news from a different voice.
I believe that Shane lacks customer service skills, but none of that is the reason we aren't getting useful information from him. He gives us nothing useful because the powers above him (i.e. Jennifer Larson) won't let him say anything useful. And Jennifer won't let him say anything useful because Lock is actually broke, but are clearly afraid to admit it. Basically they send Shane out there to weakly explain their various coverup attempts with semi-plausible backstories, but all of those fall apart under scrutiny. Indeed, it's hard to pretend money exists where it actually doesn't.
Therefore, this "new" Lock rep (if it isn't just Shane under a new name) will likely be more polite and appear more willing to help, but it will add up to the same frustrating runaround and campaign for misinformation.
Those expecting the truth or an expediting of cashouts will be sorely disappointed.
It is possible that Lock will engage in a strategy of paying the loudest voices to give the false impression that everything is fine. This is known as a negative-check-off-system scam, where you rip off a large number of people, with the intent of making whole only those that vigorously complain. In such a scam, you still end up successfully ripping off mass numbers of people who either never complain or back off easily.
I just hope everyone has realistic expectations.