Hello 2+2!
I have a big Problem and since I am not the only one with this Problem I hope we can use this thread to collect people, who are waiting for weeks and months for their Pokerstars cashout.
I have been playing on Pokerstars for over 10 years, but basically haven't played for like 4 years or so. But I still have significant money in my account. I cashout from time to time and live of that money. I know it was stupid of me to keep all the money on Pokerstars, but that should not be the matter of this post now.
On May4th I requested a cashout to which they responded to sent in documents for security reasons. I sent them the documents two days later. They then sent me this e-mail:

Thank you for contacting Stars Verifications.

Please be aware we are currently experiencing a period of very high volume so a response to your query will be delayed.

In order to resolve your query have tried our Help Centre

Our most common queries are:
- How do I verify my account?
- What is the best way to send verification documents?

FAQ

Rest assured that we have received your email and will get to it as soon as we can, but regrettably, you may need to wait for an extended period before we can get back to you. We sincerely apologise for any delays incurred during this busy time, and thank you for your patience.

Many thanks,
Stars Verifications


I have then waited for over 3 weeks but nothing happend. So I then wrote them an e- mail in which I basically say, that I sent them the documents 3 weeks ago and despairetly waiting for the cashout to proceed.
They replied with the following e-mail:

Thank you for contacting Stars Support.

We have forwarded your email to the team responsible for handling this issue. You will receive a reply as soon as possible.

Your patience is highly appreciated.

Regards,
Stars Support

Since my first cashout- mail in early may I have received a couple of promotion e-mails, which I haven't received for months prior. To me it looks like they want to say: "Hey if you want your cashout to be done, come back and play."
Because I haven't played their for years I have the feeling they delay me as much they can, beacause I'm not a regular any more.
I don't by the " Hey we experincing a high volume of request, so you need to wait for an extended time" bull****.
How long could it take to prove a simple ID?
I am really worried that i do not see my money at all! I'm rellay desperate and I have read on a german forum ( I am german) and on 2+2 that other people are waiting for months as well. This can not be accaptable.
So I wanted to make this thread so other people post their Verification/Cashout experience as well. I am also interested if people like me who barely played for a long time are the only ones affected by this or if much more active players are still waiting for months to get their cashout.
Sorry for the long post and my mediocre english, but I really don't know what to do any more so I decided to make this post, hoping to get attention towards this issue.
Thank you for reading.

How much money did you leave in your account while you didn't play for 4 years?

How often do you cash out and when was the last one before this?

Are you saying you keep your money on stars for 4 years never play a hand but take money off every now and then?

Much more than I should. But that should not be the subject of this thread. I should be able to get my cashout now the same as I should have gotten it 4 years ago.

To the second questions: yes
The last time I cashed out was in setember last year I think. I cashout like once every 9 months or so. Except for my first deposit like over 10 years ago I never had to sent any documents in, so my cashouts were done immediatly.

How come you keep money on there out of curiosity? Why not withdraw it all? Do you live in a place where you're legally allowed to play on Stars?

I think you will just have to keep chasing them to get your verification put to the top of the pile.

Pretty odd coming from stars, shouldn’t take more then a week to confirm who you are unless they are investigating you for other reasons ....

Can’t think of many times where stars just held players balances ransom,

However this is the “new” Amaya stars that don’t give a **** about players/customers so not surprising

Gl getting money

As Josem wrote in another thread:

Perhaps OP is in a country where the tax laws are such that he isn't taxed until he withdraws the money. Or at least he thinks that's how it works. But as he said, I guess that shouldn't be the subject of the email.

OP, it seems like you have the opposite problem of some people that come on and post about their issues, and mention that they've emailed Stars 985 times in 3 days. Or a couple dozen times, anyway. In your case, it sounds like you emailed them once, and then never bothered again for 3 weeks. While obviously they should be dealing with this without a reminder email, sometimes **** happens. If you're truly desperate for this money, it probably would have been a good idea to email them after a few days, or a week.

What you've most recently received is a standard cut-and-paste reply - I'd suggest following up in a day or two if you haven't heard back.

Seems like it would be unsurprising if they are investigating you or your account further for suspicious activity ( having a significant amount of money on their site for 4 years withdrawing annually-semi annually without playing).

As in other cases they do not like / appreciate if people are using them as a bank or purely for xfers etc. They are a poker site and I have seen them require certain play through before withdrawing or removing features such as xfer from your account until you play through certain $$$ amounts etc.

As bobo said though send another email or join live chat and ask to get a direct answer since obviously no one here will tell you why exactly it is taking longer than usual to verify your new documents. I've never seen them take weeks to respond to any issue so something could have gone wrong with your documents or sent them to the wrong place. (or you missed a reply from pokerstars with additional info/requests)

It seems nowadays most threads started in internet forum is about stars security support being super slow.

4 years? Well at least on other sites where they start taking admin fees after stupid levels of inactivity your money is still there

OP,

In situations like this, players formerly could complain to the Isle of Man Gambling Supervision who were super-accessible and responsive.

In the case of many (most?) players, PokerStars is now regulated by the incredibly low-end and unreliable Maltese Gaming Authority. The Maltese Gaming Authority have earned a very poor reputation amongst players after they were incredibly ineffective at protecting players from a series of frauds.

Another player had a similar problem to yours in this thread here.

You'll see that the player contacted the Maltese "regulator", but the regulator wouldn't speak to them in any meaningful way until they first went to PokerStars' self-selected Alternative Dispute Resolution provider. PokerStars chose a private company called IBAS - and that player reported that IBAS has "arrangements with several gambling operators that [they] will not look at a dispute until you, as the customer, have been advised in writing that you should contact [them] or have been issued with a reference code or number to indicate that the company agrees it can do no more to resolve the dispute."

So, basically, there's not much that you can do here for the time being. You'll be stuck in limbo for as long as PokerStars decides.

All I can suggest for the future is that you cash out your remaining balance when you can, and keep your money closer to home in a local bank account or similar.

I too am being held captive by Pokerstars. Been waiting a whole stinking month to play.

Verification took ages for me earlier this year, I recommend messaging their twitter support account, both times I messaged them I got an email back within 12 hours.

Just a quick update from me:
After contacting the live chat several times I got the cashout done. Still have been dealing with them about other issues, but they seem to get things done. They are just very slow and its frustrating to deal with them, because I never got a response via e-mail which worried me.
Thank you for your responses and good luck to all of you!

Since I am done with Poker, how can I delete my account here on 2+2?