First time poster here with a very sad story about Unibet and looking for help and suggestions.
I have been a Unibet customer for about one year. Did some deposits and some withdrawals during this time period, but overall I had lost money with Unibet.
Two weeks ago I won a few small bets and asked for a 600 Euros withdrawal on Tuesday. I kept money in my account and did some more betting (soccer). On Sunday the 8th, I won a few more bets and my account balance went to about 1200 Euros (with a 600 Euros withdrawal still pending, so total they have about 1800 Euros). That same day, and although I did not ask for a withdrawal my account was blocked with the following message: "Your account has been blocked, please contact customer service for more information."
I sent them an email to which I received a reply a few hours later:
"Dear Customer,
As a routine security check, we need you to come back to us with the following documents before we are able to handle your withdrawal request/can reactivate your account:
- A copy of your ID/Passport/Drivers license.
- A copy of the credit/debit card. Make sure that you leave the 6 first and the last 4 digits on the front of the card visible to us i.e. 4552 11** **** 1111.
Cover the six middle numbers on the front of the card (without all the 16 numbers,the card is unusable).
All other information on front at the card have to be left visible to us. On the back of the card, you have to cover the security code ( the last three digits) . All other information has to be left visible."
In a few minutes I sent them the information they requested. This on Monday the 9th. This was the first time I ever heard of a site blocking and account confirm identity, but no big deal.
On Wednesday I sent an email inquiring to the status of my situation and received no reply. Sent another on Thursday and nothing. At this point I am getting nervous with the situation. Also tried "live chat" but no one was ever there.
On Friday I filled my first complaint with the Lotteries & Gaming Authority explaining the situation.
On Saturday, and after I sent about 20 email and tried to get someone on "live" chat I finally received the following email from Unibet:
"Dear Sir
The docs you have sent so far are Ok and have been approved.
However our security department need before approving your withdraw a Printscreen of your MB profile page and Proof of address(Phone- Electricity Bill(No Mobile)Bankstatement etc.) Please send this docs as soon as possible so we can close the issue."
Notice that they said the documents had sent, the only ones they asked for, were "approved", yet they asked me for even more information. Makes you wonder what they would ask for had the documents NOT been approved!!
Again I sent in the requested documents within a few minutes.
I have no clue what Unibet trying to "verify", but I have already told them to give me my money and just close my account. Obviously I donīt want to use a sports book that doesnīt pay out players winnings!
I would like help and suggestions on how to deal with this situation. I also have a blog (not gambling related) with about 3000 RSS readers and 1000 email newsletter subscribers. I have though of asking my readers (first using the newsletter only) to search for "Unibet" on Google.co.uk and run up there adwords budget. I used this technique successully with a hosting company that was refusing to turn over the backups of my blog sites once. Obviously I can run up a couple of thousand of Adwords expense for them in just a few hours, but since my blog is not gambling related I really donīt want to take this public with my blog readers.
Toughts, ideias or suggestions?
Thanks in advance.