Complaint #77
PlayOJO Casino
Consistent Issues with Kicker List and Appalling Customer Support
7 years ago
This will take some explaining. First, a little background about me. I work in the technology industry. I have held positions as a software developer, architect, consultant and management positions. I also spent 7 years working in the online gaming industry making soft games and the back end systems that run them, integrating these into online casino operators to provide them games. I only say this to prove that I am not a 'Dumb Customer'.
I've been using PlayOjo for many months, and to begin with, everything was working well. I routinely got kickers for a number of offers such as their 'Ready to Raffle', 'Mystery Prize', Play Insurance' and others. I still continue to get these and they work.
I also used to get a number of deposit kickers, where you deposit a certain amount and get a number of free spins in return. However, about 3 months ago, these stopped appearing at all. I contacted support to ask why, and was told that these were based on account activity. This is fine. I play quite a lot, but am nowhere near being a 'high roller'. I am level 14 on the site.
However, shortly after the deposit kickers stopped appearing, I started seeing other issues. Offers would appear on the home screen (on the advertising banners) and when I would click on them, it would open my kicker list but nothing would be listed there. These were often special events such as Halloween, Easter, Black Friday etc, which would indicate that these offers were available to everyone (Why put them on the home screen if they aren't available to everyone, especially as they are seasonal). So again I contacted customer support. I was told that the home screen is the same for everyone but the kicker list is still personal, so therefore even if something appears on the home screen, I may not be eligible. This seems like very odd behaviour, but I accepted the reason.
Another thing PlayOjo does is challenges where you have to complete a couple of tasks in the fewest spins to place on a leaderboard to win free spins. This might be collecting free spin symbols or something like that. I've played in a few of these challenges and normally they appear in my kicker list, telling me the T&C's and directing me to the games in question. When I go to the game, I get a popup asking me to join and everything works. However, recently, I've not been getting the card in my kicker list, so I'm unable to view the detail and the T&C's, however, if I go into one of the games, I get the popup asking me if I want to join and everything appears to work. I contacted support about this issue and sent in screenshots. I was basically ignored and told that if it wasn't in my kicker list then I wasn't eligible, even though I had joined the challenge and placed on the leaderboard. I was unable to convince customer support there was any issue and was treated like an idiot.
Fast forward a few more weeks (with still no 'special' kickers appearing, but the 'regular' ones working fine) and we come to the two issues that have led me here.
Issue Number 1
There was an advert on the home screen for an 'Instant Win' challenge. You play a certain game at a certain minimum stake and there is a chance to win instant cash prizes. The offer did NOT appear in my kickers.
I decided to go into one of the games and I was offered to join the challenge. I played a number of spins and was lucky enough to get some free games, so overall I won money from the session (I did not win any of the instant prizes).
I contacted support to ask why it had not appeared in my Kicker list. This chat took 1.5 hours and I was passed through 3 different advisers. Eventually the last adviser told me that, even though the game was letting me join the challenge and was showing that I had joined, the fact that it wasn't in my kicker list meant I wasn't eligible and therefore could not have won any of the prizes.
Now, I am 99.9% sure I was eligible and I could have won prizes, however the adviser would rather tell me this (complicated and unlikely) reason than admit there may be a problem with their kicker list (the simple and more likely). I said that if I wasn't eligible then I should be due a refund of the money I spent on the game. The Adviser agreed and passed the request to the payment team saying I would get an email update. This was on 16/11/2018. I received no email updates and contacted support 2 times asking for an update where I was told they would 'speed it up'. Today (06/12/2018) I contacted again. After 1.5 hours of chat and 2 different advisers, I was told that I was not illegible for a refund because I had won money on the game (more than I staked). I said that the issue was that I played the game on the understanding I could win instant prizes but due to a technical issue, I was not eligible. Therefore could she guarantee that I would not have won an instant prize during my play. The CSR was unable to confirm if I would have won a prize or not. I was told that if I wanted a refund, I would also have to return any winnings. This is fair apart from the fact that they could not tell me if I would or would not have won an instant prize, and because they couldn't confirm that, I was forced to decline the refund as I would lose my winnings as well. The fact that it took 3 weeks to come to this resolution, several hours on chats and I never once received an update unless I went searching for it, is shocking. Also there has been no investigation or acknowledgement of the technical issue that cause this in the first place. I was given 10 free spins for all the 'inconvenience' (whoop de do).
Issue Number 2
On Cyber Monday, a banner advert on the home page advertised 'Cyber Monday Extra Free Spins'. As usual, this did NOT appear on my kickers. There was also another campaign called 'Cyber Monday Goodies' that was in the form of a 'Reel Spinoff'. This appeared on my list of 'Reel Spinoffs' correctly. I contacted support. I spoke to a helpful person by the name of Jutta (I believe was male, but I apologise if this is incorrect). I informed Jutta of the problem and sent in screenshots, first of the 'Cyber Monday Goodies' spinoff working, and then of the 'Cyber Monday Extra Free Spins' not working. Jutta checked my account and said that he could see the kicker and that I should be able to see it as well. I tried another computer, a mobile device, a different browser and cleared my cache (at the request of Jutta) and could still not see the Kicker. Jutta said that I should be able to see it (Finally, a CSR actually confirmed that there was a problem) and said it had been passed on to the technical team and that I would get an email updating me.
This was 26/11/2018. I have not had an email update. I have chased for updates with support and have been told it is being looked in to. Today 06/12/2018) when I contacted support, I was told that 'Offers change day to day depending on your account activity' with no acknowledgement of the evidence I had submitted (screenshots) or that one of their own CSR's had confirmed the issue. I was told that they would look into it for me and update me. I do not believe this will happen and I doubt I will ever get an update. I was also told if it happens again, to contact support. I do this every time (on about the 5th time now) and I submit screenshots etc. I never receive a resolution or an update. I am treated like an idiot and there is an utter refusal to believe there is any issue.
I also know that this issue doesn't effect just me. My wife has the same problem on her account, however she refuses to contact customer support due to the experience I have had with them.
Conclusion
So all this has led me here. There appear to be constant issues and there is no willingness from PlayOjo support to acknowledge or even believe me that there might be an issue, despite their own CSR's confirming it. I am consistently given the same reasons (like i'm an idiot who couldn't understand them the first time) and many of the CSR's I speak to don't even read what I am writing. They ignore any of my reasons and evidence and just tell me the same reason they have already given me, forcing me to repeat myself 3 or 4 times before they will even acknowledge what I'm writing. I've wasted countless hours on chats with customer support and the irony is that I'm trying to HELP them. I'm trying to get them to understand they have some kind of issue, but they refuse to believe it.
I have screenshots and chat logs, but I don't want to attach them here because they contain sensitive information (emails, account names etc), but I can provide them if necessary (PlayOjo support have them already anyway). I didn't want to go straight to a complaint with the UKGC so I figured I would start here first and see if maybe this would get some traction.
Thanks
I've been using PlayOjo for many months, and to begin with, everything was working well. I routinely got kickers for a number of offers such as their 'Ready to Raffle', 'Mystery Prize', Play Insurance' and others. I still continue to get these and they work.
I also used to get a number of deposit kickers, where you deposit a certain amount and get a number of free spins in return. However, about 3 months ago, these stopped appearing at all. I contacted support to ask why, and was told that these were based on account activity. This is fine. I play quite a lot, but am nowhere near being a 'high roller'. I am level 14 on the site.
However, shortly after the deposit kickers stopped appearing, I started seeing other issues. Offers would appear on the home screen (on the advertising banners) and when I would click on them, it would open my kicker list but nothing would be listed there. These were often special events such as Halloween, Easter, Black Friday etc, which would indicate that these offers were available to everyone (Why put them on the home screen if they aren't available to everyone, especially as they are seasonal). So again I contacted customer support. I was told that the home screen is the same for everyone but the kicker list is still personal, so therefore even if something appears on the home screen, I may not be eligible. This seems like very odd behaviour, but I accepted the reason.
Another thing PlayOjo does is challenges where you have to complete a couple of tasks in the fewest spins to place on a leaderboard to win free spins. This might be collecting free spin symbols or something like that. I've played in a few of these challenges and normally they appear in my kicker list, telling me the T&C's and directing me to the games in question. When I go to the game, I get a popup asking me to join and everything works. However, recently, I've not been getting the card in my kicker list, so I'm unable to view the detail and the T&C's, however, if I go into one of the games, I get the popup asking me if I want to join and everything appears to work. I contacted support about this issue and sent in screenshots. I was basically ignored and told that if it wasn't in my kicker list then I wasn't eligible, even though I had joined the challenge and placed on the leaderboard. I was unable to convince customer support there was any issue and was treated like an idiot.
Fast forward a few more weeks (with still no 'special' kickers appearing, but the 'regular' ones working fine) and we come to the two issues that have led me here.
Issue Number 1
There was an advert on the home screen for an 'Instant Win' challenge. You play a certain game at a certain minimum stake and there is a chance to win instant cash prizes. The offer did NOT appear in my kickers.
I decided to go into one of the games and I was offered to join the challenge. I played a number of spins and was lucky enough to get some free games, so overall I won money from the session (I did not win any of the instant prizes).
I contacted support to ask why it had not appeared in my Kicker list. This chat took 1.5 hours and I was passed through 3 different advisers. Eventually the last adviser told me that, even though the game was letting me join the challenge and was showing that I had joined, the fact that it wasn't in my kicker list meant I wasn't eligible and therefore could not have won any of the prizes.
Now, I am 99.9% sure I was eligible and I could have won prizes, however the adviser would rather tell me this (complicated and unlikely) reason than admit there may be a problem with their kicker list (the simple and more likely). I said that if I wasn't eligible then I should be due a refund of the money I spent on the game. The Adviser agreed and passed the request to the payment team saying I would get an email update. This was on 16/11/2018. I received no email updates and contacted support 2 times asking for an update where I was told they would 'speed it up'. Today (06/12/2018) I contacted again. After 1.5 hours of chat and 2 different advisers, I was told that I was not illegible for a refund because I had won money on the game (more than I staked). I said that the issue was that I played the game on the understanding I could win instant prizes but due to a technical issue, I was not eligible. Therefore could she guarantee that I would not have won an instant prize during my play. The CSR was unable to confirm if I would have won a prize or not. I was told that if I wanted a refund, I would also have to return any winnings. This is fair apart from the fact that they could not tell me if I would or would not have won an instant prize, and because they couldn't confirm that, I was forced to decline the refund as I would lose my winnings as well. The fact that it took 3 weeks to come to this resolution, several hours on chats and I never once received an update unless I went searching for it, is shocking. Also there has been no investigation or acknowledgement of the technical issue that cause this in the first place. I was given 10 free spins for all the 'inconvenience' (whoop de do).
Issue Number 2
On Cyber Monday, a banner advert on the home page advertised 'Cyber Monday Extra Free Spins'. As usual, this did NOT appear on my kickers. There was also another campaign called 'Cyber Monday Goodies' that was in the form of a 'Reel Spinoff'. This appeared on my list of 'Reel Spinoffs' correctly. I contacted support. I spoke to a helpful person by the name of Jutta (I believe was male, but I apologise if this is incorrect). I informed Jutta of the problem and sent in screenshots, first of the 'Cyber Monday Goodies' spinoff working, and then of the 'Cyber Monday Extra Free Spins' not working. Jutta checked my account and said that he could see the kicker and that I should be able to see it as well. I tried another computer, a mobile device, a different browser and cleared my cache (at the request of Jutta) and could still not see the Kicker. Jutta said that I should be able to see it (Finally, a CSR actually confirmed that there was a problem) and said it had been passed on to the technical team and that I would get an email updating me.
This was 26/11/2018. I have not had an email update. I have chased for updates with support and have been told it is being looked in to. Today 06/12/2018) when I contacted support, I was told that 'Offers change day to day depending on your account activity' with no acknowledgement of the evidence I had submitted (screenshots) or that one of their own CSR's had confirmed the issue. I was told that they would look into it for me and update me. I do not believe this will happen and I doubt I will ever get an update. I was also told if it happens again, to contact support. I do this every time (on about the 5th time now) and I submit screenshots etc. I never receive a resolution or an update. I am treated like an idiot and there is an utter refusal to believe there is any issue.
I also know that this issue doesn't effect just me. My wife has the same problem on her account, however she refuses to contact customer support due to the experience I have had with them.
Conclusion
So all this has led me here. There appear to be constant issues and there is no willingness from PlayOjo support to acknowledge or even believe me that there might be an issue, despite their own CSR's confirming it. I am consistently given the same reasons (like i'm an idiot who couldn't understand them the first time) and many of the CSR's I speak to don't even read what I am writing. They ignore any of my reasons and evidence and just tell me the same reason they have already given me, forcing me to repeat myself 3 or 4 times before they will even acknowledge what I'm writing. I've wasted countless hours on chats with customer support and the irony is that I'm trying to HELP them. I'm trying to get them to understand they have some kind of issue, but they refuse to believe it.
I have screenshots and chat logs, but I don't want to attach them here because they contain sensitive information (emails, account names etc), but I can provide them if necessary (PlayOjo support have them already anyway). I didn't want to go straight to a complaint with the UKGC so I figured I would start here first and see if maybe this would get some traction.
Thanks
Screenshot
