If you haven't found yourself in a situation where you paid for a service but were denied a certain aspect of it, you should consider yourself lucky! To most of us, this has unfortunately happened more than once, compelling us to engage in sometimes long and arduous back and forth with the service provider.
When speaking about online casinos, we might get distracted by the cute design of their websites, a virtually endless offer of games, or bonuses that are too good to be true. But we should always keep in mind what is perhaps the most important aspect of gambling websites: customer support.
Knowledgeable and friendly online casino customer support that can answer your questions and concerns should always take the top spot among your priorities when choosing a new online casino.
In this week’s blog, we set out to help you sort through the scope of online casino customer support, different issues that can be resolved with support agents, numerous support channels, and finally, procedures you can turn to once you’ve exhausted all options with the casino in question.
The Importance of Online Casino Customer Support
Having reliable casino customer support is a must for every business, regardless of the service rendered. However, when real money is at stake, as with online gambling, customer support becomes even more critical.
From a player's perspective, the genuine importance of casino customer support is to provide reliable, efficient, and extensive assistance whenever a problem arises.
Clarifying a specific clause in the General Terms and Conditions; resolving a technical issue with the casino website, or a withdrawal request that hasn't gone through; these are some situations in which players will reach out to online casino customer support for help.
Among the many instances where casino customer support may come in handy, here are a few essential ones most frequently cited by players:
- Offering general information
This one's self-explanatory; whenever a player has trouble understanding how the casino works, they will most likely turn to online casino customer support for help. Bonus terms, rules for a particular promotion, accepted deposit methods from your country of residence, or simply navigating the website, the casino customer support agents should be there to help.
- Assistance when choosing a safe gambling site
Above all, players want to feel safe when playing at an online casino. Customer service is there to fill this gap, so knowing that a customer support agent is available 24/7 might indicate that a casino listens to players' needs.
- Directing customers to outside sources of information
Online casino customer service may also come in handy when looking for further information. The agent might not be able to answer your query about a reliable casino or game review, but they will most likely be able to refer you to other websites, like AskGamblers, for more thorough information.
Most Important Factors of Casino Customer Support
There are several factors that make up an excellent online casino customer service. Online casinos generally strive to provide the best customer experience possible; however, not all succeed.
To help you navigate through the dense forest of online casinos and their client services, we compiled a handy list of the essential factors that lie at the heart of any efficient, player-focused customer support service.
Working Hours
As providers of global services, online casino operators must make sure they meet the needs of their players in any timezone, which is why offering access to support round the clock is crucial for keeping customers satisfied.
The more countries they cater to, the bigger the need for non-stop customer service. This is a vital sign of how serious a casino takes its players and may indicate how enjoyable playing there will be in the long run.
As a general rule, you should try to stick with online casinos that have customer support agents available 24/7. Knowing that someone will help you whenever you need assistance gives you much-needed peace of mind, doesn't it?
Available Channels
When it comes to available support channels, our motto is the more the merrier. Limiting players to a single support channel is never the way to go. Different players have different habits; some will prefer to chat, while others may find it more useful to dial a number and hear a real person's voice.
Casinos that care about customer satisfaction will go above and beyond to include as many support channels as possible. And in the 21st century, there are so many means of support to cater to anyone's needs.
Some of the most common support channels at online casinos are:
- Live chat: In recent years, live chat has proven to be the most sought-after and efficient communication channel with a casino. Just look for a live chat pop-up button, and you will probably find one at most online casinos! Being able to talk to someone in a matter of seconds can mean a great deal for customer satisfaction and business growth alike.
- Phone: Some things never go out of style, and a good old-fashioned landline phone is one of them. And if it's a toll-free number, even better! Talking to a real person can mean a lot in a world filled with chatbots and captchas.
- Email (contact form): Contacting a casino via email is usually performed through a contact form. The casino will ask you to provide your details and explain the request and notify you about the waiting time. A word of advice: avoid using these for technical issues unless you don't mind waiting 24 hours or more for a response.
- Messaging services (Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp, Viber, etc.): If you use a smartphone, there is a 100% chance that you are using at least one popular messaging service. Some sites include this type of support channel as many people find it the most convenient.
- Fax and postal: You may think: Who in the world is using fax machines and sending letters nowadays? But you should keep in mind that serious issues with online casinos may require a more formal approach. Although a minority of online casinos offer these services, it's good to know that you have these options at your disposal.
Available Languages
Operating an online business means catering to a vast number of people who speak different languages. Sure, English has held and still holds a tight grip on the title of lingua franca, but some people either can't speak it or feel more comfortable using their mother tongue.
One way to make online casino customer support more universal and approachable is to hire well-versed representatives in languages that are not English. Usually, if a casino is serious about keeping its players happy, it will offer its customer support in as many languages as there are versions of the website.
Clear Privacy Policy, Terms and Conditions, and FAQ section
We can see you eye-rolling and asking, Who bothers to read Terms and Conditions anyway? However, as an online casino player, you should always make an effort to go through these and other crucial documents before playing.
When choosing an online casino, take a moment of your time to check the T&Cs, Privacy Policy, and Frequently Asked Questions section. They can offer an insight into how much effort a casino operator has put in to make it easier for players to understand them.
Of course, a knowledgeable and reliable online casino customer service must be familiar with these documents, or otherwise, agents won't be able to clear your doubts.
Which Issues You Can Solve With Online Casino Customer Support
Fortunately, high-quality online casino customer support can help you sort many issues. Casino customer support should offer a smooth resolution of your concerns, from withdrawal issues to technical problems on the website.
Taken from players, these are the most common problems for which they are turning to customer support agents for advice and assistance:
Payment Issues
Nobody should shut their eye to having their money tempered with, and neither should you! Most times, it will turn out that there is a technical issue with the banking service; other times it may happen that a casino is not playing by the rules.
These issues mostly concern the withdrawal of your funds: no matter if you won a jackpot or wish to take the money from your account back, the casino should let you take whatever action you are entitled to.
To get a better grasp of the scope of payment issues here’s a breakdown of the most frequent situations cited by players:
- A payment delay/decline
- Not being able to get a refund
- Having your account closed with money still in your account
- No being credited a prize in a tournament
These are the most common, but it doesn’t mean that they’re the only issues you may encounter. Whatever your mishap with payments may be, you can always express your concerns to online casino customer support representatives.
Deposit Issues
When it comes to money transactions between you and the casino, issues may arise when depositing, too. Again, these are sometimes practical glitches, e.g., delays from the banking service’s side. However, if a significant time has passed since you tried to deposit money, you should seek answers from the online casino customer service.
Players have shared with us their experience of the following situations:
- Casino denies a transaction that was charged from your bank account
- Lengthy delay for what’s supposed to be a quick deposit option
- Deposit limits not functioning
- Failure to verify your deposit method
To broaden your knowledge on the topic, check out our deposit and withdrawal guide for any questions about casino payment methods you may have.
Issues and Questions About Bonuses
A dedicated online casino customer service should be able to answer any questions you may have about bonuses or address a number of bonus-related issues. Some of the most common bonus issues occur when a casino:
- Refuses to honour a bonus offer
- Fails to credit a welcome offer
- Fails to issues bonus spins
- Refuses to credit a free bet prize
- Scams people on social media into activating a bonus
- Locks your account until a bonus expires
As you can see, there are a number of instances in which an online casino can mess up your bonus. The first thing you should do is get in touch with the customer support team and ask them to look into it.
Technical Issues With the Casino Website
Casino operators put a lot of thought into the design of their websites. Making a website easy to navigate and games easy to find on both desktop and mobile is a must; however, technical issues may arise despite all of the efforts.
Here are several issues you may encounter on the casino website:
- You can’t activate a bonus
- A page/game doesn’t load
- You can’t opt-in for a promotion
- You have trouble signing in/logging out, etc.
- The casino has lost your game history
- Your cash balance has disappeared
These are some of the most common issues players report. Even if yours isn’t on the list, online casino customer support should be your first stop to tackling it.
If you're looking for the best experience, we suggest you pore over our extensive online casino guide that lays out all of the essential aspects of casinos on the internet.
When to Look for Other Solutions
The first step in resolving an issue with an online casino is to contact the online casino customer support. Unfortunately, there will be instances where casino customer support agents can't help you. Hey, they're only humans, after all!
Once you've exhausted all channels of support at an online casino but are still not satisfied, or the casino hasn't offered any solution at all, it's time to turn to alternative dispute resolution channels.
As a player, you are entitled to take the dispute to an Alternative Dispute Resolution, or ADR, that conducts an impartial investigation into your issue. These services are free, so you don't have to pay a penny. For more information about the ADR chosen by the specific casino, you will need to look at the casino's website.
Another way to resolve your issue with a casino is to contact AskGamblers Casino Complaint Service (AGCCS). Our team of professionals has over a decade of experience dealing with player complaints and boasting fantastic results. So far, they have helped nearly 15,000 players return over $40.5 million in unfairly confiscated money.
Apart from having such a fantastic track record, AGCCS is also free of charge, so it's definitely worth a try! If you have an issue with an online casino, you can submit casino complaint via AskGamblers and we will do everything in our power to help you!
Bonus: Casinos with Best Customer Support
The most surefire way to find a casino with the best online casino customer service is to browse through our selection of the most trusted online casinos!
Our unique CasinoRank algorithm considers the quality of customer support service, including the availability of live chat, working hours, the languages a customer service is offered in, and the number of support channels.
As usual, you can rely on AskGamblers to find only the most reputable online casinos whose customer service lives up to your expectations and offers an added value to your overall playing experience.
