Many of us will experience poor service or a subpar gaming platform throughout our gaming lives. Companies do get it wrong, and humans make mistakes. However, the make-or-break element of whether we continue using their service or recommend them to others is often determined by how effectively they handle our complaints or grievances when we seek help from their customer service team.
Access to online complaint advice has helped customers better understand their rights when making a complaint and what they’re entitled to, depending on what’s happened.
Exploring the complaints process
Customers who feel aggrieved at how an online platform or organization has treated them have several options to voice their concerns. Unlike other industries with a clear, regimented, hierarchical structure to deal with complaints, the gambling world uses a different model.
Central industries dealing with electricity, banking or other types of financial complaints, such as mortgage mis-selling, don’t follow the same structure as gambling complaints. Instead, you must deal directly with the gambling platform.
While gambling commissions and third parties will provide some level of oversight, especially for customers who have received the short straw, it’s usually at the casino’s or sportsbook’s discretion how they deal with the complaint.
If you do feel like your matter has been grossly mishandled, and you have exhausted all potential avenues, you can seek more information via resources on askgamblers.com. They have a checklist you can follow to explore the matter objectively to help determine if the casino is guilty and refusing to admit its fault.
Handling complaints quickly and efficiently
Casino gamers and platforms share a mutual interest in resolving the matter quickly and fairly. Clearly, this isn’t something that usually happens at the first point of contact, but gambling platforms will typically want to reach a prompt conclusion, so the issue doesn’t continue dragging on.
A well-handled complaint is a blessing for some companies, it can actually enhance customer reputation and restore faith in their platform, so just because somebody is complaining, it doesn’t mean it’s too late to turn the ship around.
However, if it’s dealt with poorly, it reaffirms the initial customer complaint and can exacerbate the situation. If the matter needs further investigation, companies can typically be contacted via:
- Phone
- Letter
- Live chat
However, some companies will direct you to a specific complaint form on their website and assign it to staff with experience handling customer escalations.
If a customer remains unhappy with how the casino has handled the matter, a third-party organization may be called upon to assist further and explore objectively. You can also discuss the matter with the local legislative body or gambling commission if you’re looking for further advice.
Compensation and other resolutions
Usually, anything that has caused you emotional distress or financial harm will be considered a complaint by a gaming platform. If it’s an extremely serious issue, such as one that has the potential to turn into a news item, then platforms will be more inclined to offer a resolution that goes above and beyond their standard response.
For instance, I know somebody personally who lost money due to identity theft, and the leak was traced back to a company they’d purchased clothes from. Obviously, this can happen with any digital company, so it is a highly serious complaint.
In a bid to resolve the matter as efficiently, and in the casino’s case as quietly, as possible, platforms usually supply betting credits as compensation. The amount varies depending on the severity of the complaint or how mistreated the customer feels, and many casino or sports betting platforms aim to de-escalate the matter in this way.
Conclusion
Some gaming platforms may offer a combination of real money compensation and betting credits to resolve the complaint. Others might send:
- Gifts such as flowers or chocolates
- An apology letter
- Gift cards to their land-based shops
There are plenty of potential resolutions. The main thing is that it’s an outcome that both parties are happy with, and the customer confirms they’re happy to resolve it with that outcome.
It’s not in a casino’s interest for a complaint to drag on for weeks or months, but they will not meet excessive demands from a complainant if they deem it to be completely out of scope based on the matter they’re complaining about.
Clearly, complaints are dealt with on a case-by-case basis. Speaking from personal experience, as somebody who has worked in a complaints role and had to make a complaint every now and again, provided there’s a mutual understanding of empathy, fairness, respect and a solution that works, then the majority of these matters are easy to solve.
Gaming platforms that gain a reputation of poorly handling complaints will begin to lose customers and, ultimately, lose ground on the competition, so it’s in their best interests to ensure they have a watertight and fair way of dealing with any grievances that customers have regarding their service.
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