Mecca bingo website...

katebl

Just a rant - got an email saying there was £5 free in my account (hadn't used them since they changed their T&C's as I thought they were ridiculous) so used it up and won 2 lines - only a few quid but still money for nothing.

Have gone to withdraw and after updating my debit card as the one they had expired it now refuses my driving licence details and locks me out of the account saying it cannot verify my age :mad:

Emailled customer services who said they had to check my age due to the card type I had registered being possible under 18 but had verified me through the electoral roll and all would be fine now - however logged in and exactly the same again. They said any more issues use the live help - that is broken and says to call them which I will not do (0800 from a mobile). My card is over 18's only, I can tell from my bank's website, and I've never had this issue in the past 5 or more years I've been signed up with them.

Anyone else had this problem? I personally can't see how something so simple has turned into a farce!!

paddyrg

I once tried to collect winnings from a (different) online bingo site - it was about as painful as can be, they threw every obstacle, manual check, 'please photocopy your driving license and passport', just about every personal detail possible - way beyond 'know your customer' and more 'ID theft your customer'. In the end it became obvious they were just not interested in paying out, and for a few quid it was not worth my life force. Now I just don't bother with those sites, and it sounds like they've managed to drive you away too...

katebl

Absolutely! I will wait and see what the next email from them says and whether I manage to withdraw the money or not I won't be using them again, not worth the hassle.

fozmcfc

What always gets me, is that you need to be a certain age to register with them, to register a card with them and to gamble with them.

Yet it's only when you want to withdraw they suddenly want proof etc. Not just Mecca Bingo, but a lot of online gambling sites.

I've no doubt the info isn't required at registration, because they know a lot of people wouldn't bother and they would lose potential customers. No doubt the government would see this as a potential way of them losing money they cream off from the gambling industry, so sites are able to operate in this type of way.

During my bad days of gambling on online casinos, they used to want emails including scans of my passport photo page etc, which when the company is quite often based abroad I wasn't keen on doing.

Quite a few times, I would say I'm not happy in sending the information and the company would back down as a gesture.