Hey everyone,

I'd like to share my experience with Lock and would to love to see others chime in in order to collect general feedback for Lock (in case they read it) and give new players an idea of what to expect.

So, first of all, what do I expect from a good poker site:

1. A good variety of games and traffic
2. Nice rakeback and promotions
3. Fast cashouts (as I am an ROW player, this means 24-48h max for Skrill and Neteller)
4. Good, intuitive and up to date software
5. First class support via mail, maybe live chat and here on the forum if applicable
6. Segregated player funds

To start off with the positives, I have to say that Lock is really a nice site with huge potential, offering a variety of games with decent traffic and a lot of rakeback and promotions (currently around 100% for high rakers). The software is imo totally fine and easy to multitable. The cake network has always been one of my favorite smaller sites in terms of software, rakeback and I would love to play here for quite some time.

However, there are some negatives that I'd like to summarize quickly:

The degree of professionalism in this company concerning overall customer relations is the worst I have seen since starting to play online in 2006. They have a pretty much non-existent email support that takes ages to answer, if they answer at all. They have a sponsored forum here on 2+2 but continuously ignore a lot of threads and issues brought up by their customers. One of their reps (Rizen) is pretty much non-existent and the other one,Shane, tries sometimes to get things done but is obviously unable to cope with the volume of PM's, Emails and threads needing his attention. An announced intake of more support employees has failed to show any improvements until today (25.07.2012).

Lock's overall inability to quickly release official statements in regard to actual issues is really disturbing and imo unprofessional. The only recently released statement took more than a week to be released and most of its promises haven't been held.

A second thing which is hugely intertwined with CS is the current speed of cashouts. ROW players have been waiting for weeks to get their money and some are still waiting. No statement has been released, nobody helped, nobody answered and nobody offered any support...

This clearly has to change:

• If there is an issue, people want a quick "We are aware of the issue and will fix it asap" kind of statement to ease their minds. These kind of statements should either be stickies or new threads and not only some random post within one of the threads concerned. It would be perfect if oyu would inform affected players by email.

• If you state that you fix something (what you should do), then fix it asap and offer ongoing actual information about your progress. A Newsletter or Blog would be great here too.

• If you made a mistake, admit it! People will understand if you are honest and communicative instead of silent...

• If you have a sponsored forum on 2+2, you should have the staff to quickly deal with all upcoming issues no matter how big or small they are in a timely fashion, which is imo within 24-48hrs.

• Email support shouldn't take longer than 24-48hrs max to respond with an answer. If an email gets forwarded, the responsible department should answer within the same time frame.

• Cashouts for ROW players should never take longer than 24-48hrs max. If there is a problem, contact them asap and explain the situation

• Player funds should always be kept in segregated bank accounts. I know this is kinda dreamland here, but it would be the most responsible and logic thing to do for a business operating in the current environment. And I don't want you to say that you do it. I want you to actually DO IT!

• Never ever repeat any of the mistakes of the past, that lead to various known scandals, this post and a quite shady image in the poker world.

That's all I can think of right now and maybe others have something to add. Point is, that Lock has the potential to really be one of the top sites around but they continuously fail meet these expectations and seem to be run by a rather unprofessional bunch of people who have no idea of good CS! This has to change. I wish you good luck and hope you will succeed!

With the current state online poker's in, lock can pretty much do as they please. I don't see a point in complaining (clearly they don't care). Point blank: accept the site as it is, or don't play at all. If PP and stars ever hit the U.S. market again, revolution will die.

/thread

I disagree with everything you said. However, OP makes some valid points. Lock has great potential and with a few tweaks can be an amazing site to play on.

Lock has made steady progress I am now getting some answers by email. The worst is the cashouts to ROW players. Makes no sense. Lock has made up for the pain being suffered with money (massive RB) that was a good move on their part. I am rooting for them

When I hear that ROW cash outs are slow that really scares me as an American player . I can understand getting money into the states can be a bit slow but not ROW. This was the same problem on the cake skin a while back and maybe still a problem over there. I know cake still has problems with cash outs to US players, checks take about 3 months over there.(why I had to stop playing there) So you can can only get 8k i believe off in a year since you can't do another cash out while one is pending. So they obv have money problems. I would think with lock buying the network off of them it would help them out with paying players back. But I guess what I"m getting at is it's really important for lock to make sure ROW payments are going out fast. When they don't it only looks like one thing and we all know what that is. And if there is a problem with the ROW payments let everyone know so it will give everyone a peace of mind on why they are slow.

Im a ROW player made 8 withdrawals with neteller in June/july all took max 48 hours, some even in 12 hours, I think its a Skrill problem, mabye they want more juice from Lock who knows, i have played on alot off sites and rank lock in the top 5 with cashouts for me, its way better then 888.com, withdrawing money there takes a week, with neteller, because they want you to spend it, so they give you a cancel withdrawal button for like 3 days and then they start proccesing you're withdrawal. I mean it must be hard to take over a network that was pretty bad and turn it into a good network it takes time. i get the feeling that alot off USA players want things to be like they where pre blackfriday but that's not gonna happen. Don't give lockpoker a bad name, i get sick with al the negative post about the site, Give the site time, and stop ackting like black friday never happend, times changed, i mean the wild west days off online poker are over, theres a new sheriff in town(DOJ) and hese is a. douche, we godda deal with it.

what is ROW?

Rest off world....

Funny how this term is used at all. Who/where isn't the "rest" then?

I'll make a fair assumption and say we're talking about the US? They're the center of the world? XD

Well said, Bobo.

Well, it looks like Neteller cashouts slow down, too. A friend of mine waiting since sunday ( so much for 48hrs max bobo)...

I requested my last withdrawal on Thursday(at about 23:00 hours Dutch time) last week, i thought i would not have it in my neteller account until Monday this week because of the weekend, but it was in my account within 12 hours, so don't know if it's because im in the Netherlands, my government has better things to do i guess then pick on the online poker community, i mean Ladbrokes lost a lawsuit here a few weeks ago and was order to stop letting Dutch players play on there sites(sportsbook and poker), but i still can play there without a problem.

Well, I am not saying that you're wrong and I am happy that you get your cash that easily but for me and some others, it is different. I am living in Germany and never had any issues with Skrill withdrawals anywhere I have played so I guess it is okay to ask for improvements and point out problems they obv. have atm. Btw I have received my Skrill withdrawal today 14 days after I requested it, so people get their money (which I was pretty sure of all the time) but the main problem is the speed (or lack of it) of processing times...

This whole thread is based on good intentions as I have also underlined that I in fact really like Lock and would like them to succeed as a major poker brand! It is called a feedback thread and my intention is not to scare people away or bash them continuously. If they take feedback like this serious and improve on all the aforementioned issues, then I am happy to stay for quite some time

However, it really sucks seeing them wasting the huge potential they have with horrible CS and these cashout as well as technical issues in the past weeks. Let's just hope they'll get their **** together and make Lock the great site it actually could be...

They took over a network that was running software that was scripted by Edison, They are gonna make it into a good network, i think the first thing they did was set new deal with the other sites on the network, this takes alot of manpower, and this is why i think CS was slow, Mabye they had to transfer all the sites on the network that used the cake cashier to there cashier, this takes time and could be the source for the problems with cashouts for US and ROW players. Taking over a network with 60 pokersites on it is not easy, it takes time. they when from having there skin on Merge to having 60 skins to worie about and make new contracts with.

That's all true but nevertheless they knew what was coming and could have made the transition much smoother and no one can deny (not even Shane does) the issues concerning players over the last weeks. And one of the main issues is how they deal with these issues in public which has pretty much been a marketing disaster. Thus, in our own and Lock's interest, we should voice our concerns, wishes, feedback, ideas etc. in order to help them improve as quickly as possible. Just laying back saying "Well that's all normal and can happen" doesn't get us anywhere.

In fact, that kind of passive attitude is an underlying problem in our modern pseudo-democratic society anyway, but that's another topic...

We play, we pay, we need to be taken serious and they need to listen and improve! Simples...

Bobo, that may all be true. It also does not prevent them at all from communicating better with their customers. Cashouts are screwed up and will take longer? Okay, communicate about it. On here, website, Facebook, twitter, email. Easy.

The issues there may be software, cashouts, double deposits and even terrible email support can all be made a lot better with improved communication on here.

I still have a "we've forwarded your question" type situation pending. Nobody there is going to follow up on it for me. They should. But they won't. It's simply a matter if whether the non-support dept it was forwarded to will feel like getting back to me...or whether it will be lost.

That isn't bad software. It's just sketchy organization and lack of professionalism.

I'm glad they are doing better. From where they were before pretty much ANYTHING is better. I hope they continue to make strides and appreciate the input of their customers some of whom seem to be pretty sharp.

There are two types of customers, one that would take a public statement on cashout delays and be glad there was communication. The other type of customer would see this statement and then would lose trust in the brand and be less inclined to put money on the site.

Now if the fish are scared away whose deposits are the the sharks going to cash out?

Im the first to admit we can improve on our communication, but its certainly not as black and white as your post would imply.

Nice to see you in this thread, Shane

Anything you wanna say towards my general feedback?

And in defense of MicroBob, I'd say that most people prefer open communication instead of silence when it comes to problems, issues and personal concerns towards various topics. Transparency and honesty are key in order to gain and keep customers' trust and confidence. It is not about haters or people who doubt everything you do. It is about Regular John who wants help and information if something goes wrong, even if it is a simple "sorry, there has been an issue/mistake that we are aware of and that we are going to fix asap and will let you know personally when it happens!" etc. kinda stuff.

I mean just look at Stars and ask yourself why they are the uncontested number 1 in online poker. The answers can be found within this single thread

Yeah I agree, so maybe just start by sending out emails to elite vip players and maybe even black. I'm not sure how many fish hit black vip but i'm sure none ever hit elite. By doing this you keep your most important players happy. Lets be honest its the regs that keep all these sites going so you guys should start first by making them happy and well informed.

The lack of communication, even on here to questions being asked, and the near-total silence for awhile caused quite a bit of panic. I didn't deposit more to take advantage of the reload. I was concerned and wanted to see some evidence that it wasn't completely falling apart. I wasn't alone.

Shane's point is somewhat reasonable but much of it also felt like it was just being undermanmed and some amount of just not getting around to it as much as it was a specific strategy. And that doesn't look good either.

Players are getting double deposited and essentially are all getting together here and freaking out about that and the lack of response from support too. Some were feeling they had simply been scammed. Others were talking chargrebacks and some may have done that. If it was lock's specific strategy to not say something about it on here almost immediately then that is terrible decision. If it was because basically the one person who is occasionally here was sick and lock just decided to blow it off for awhile then that is terrible too.

The whole bit of chasing up whoever to help instead of following through directly or simply saying that you personally assure it will be taken care of I think could use improvement.

It all becomes "thanks for doing that for me Shane" and then "Ummm, hello? Am I still supposed to be waiting?" Same happened on my casino bonus thing when rizen promised someone would get back to me, then they didn't and I was still waiting, and eventually rizen would say so again, and then nothing again. Nonstop passing the buck thing is what it feels like to many customers.

I do appreciate Shane's response here though. That post alone is better communication than have been typically given.

things may be improving - I did make a small deposit to check things out and have played a bit. the deposit went through with no problem and was immediately credited to my poker account. the only problem was that I did not receive credit for my bonus. No big deal - it was a small deposit. what is a big deal to me is that I've sent 2 polite emails inquiring about this and no response at all from the new, massively augumented support department. and at the end of the day it's still the same old clunky Cake software that reminds me of Pacific back in 2005. this is not how you take ownership of the U.S. market.

Just wondering, how the hell do you figure they have "60 skins" to worry about?! What in god's name are you talking about? lmfao

Well it's there network now, so lets say 1 or 2 skins go down the tube, and players, playing on thoes skins loose there money, it will make revolution gaming and lockpoker look bad. check there stats on pokerscout.com. 60 skins on the revolution gaming network.

bob u seem to think that this forum represents a huge percentage of lock poker players. U seem to think if some players are complaining here then theres a panic going on the entire site.

i see zero reasoning for that logic, and think its really misguided. If there was a panic, as u said, then with all the complaining done on this forum u think locks numbers would of gone done, not going up as they are doing.

i totally understand the frustration of not getting emails answered right away, I had to deal with that for years with Full Tilt, but I never really had those issues here.

Shane an in earlier email had already addressed these issues with u, about the percentage diff of players complaining and issues getting resolved, i think its time to move on buddy.

sorry mate, but you have so many options to play as a ROW player on a room in the revolution network, that you wouldnt need to complain

there are plenty of rooms with own cashier ect.

its also nothing bad for Lock if players keeps in their network i assume