Account suspended for premium charge avoidance

[Exacta]

Found this on the betfair forum, WTF! Is this a wind up?

hi all, for the past year, I have been using betfair regularly for football trading, and the week before last, my account has reached the point where I have to start paying betfair premium charges. But just then, I hit a big loss trading the liverpool/chelsea game, which made my entire week's profit negative and thus no premium charge for that week.

This morning, I got an email from betfair saying my account is suspended for suspicion of premium charge avoidance, and that they are to conduct a 10-days investigation on my account in which period I won't be allowed to perform any activities on my account. I am really outraged and baffled by betfair's such actions.

Just wondering if anybody has encountered similar situation before. How are they going to carry out their "investigation" and what will be the possible consequences?

[toptrader]

Had a friend with similar issue and they also suspended my account, but wouldn't even give a time period. They locked all the money away so you couldn't access it despite the fact i was going on honeymoon and wanted to withdraw it

best resolution is to keep hammering the call centre adn try and get as high up as you can. I find writing to the CEO ofen works with this sort of thing, where people lower down don't take you seriously

Good luck. As you say, you've done nothing wrong, it's bordering on illegal for them to withhold the money in your account.

[LeTiss 4pm]

Stories like this don't enhance Betfair's reputation or respectability

To treat customers like that is bordering on the despicable

[Human123]

Bizaare that they could try and put it down to someone losing money to avoid the charge!

I am sure they even encourage you to arb more so that you might not have to pay the charge?

If they are claiming he arbed the money away so he could avoid the charge then they are surely claiming he had inside information as how can anyone know for sure that their bet was going to lose?

[toptrader]

Could try and claim he was colluding with another customer to place a bit on the exchange who would take the opposite side as soon as it appears, therefore guaranteeing a transfer of money between accounts

Was the losing bet at strange odds compared to everything else that got matched?

[Euler]

Never heard of this before, you sense that there was something else going on here. But it seems odd that Betfair would pick up on a bet, as they would earn comission on that?

[hgodden]

Surely they can't suspend your account for just taking a one off big hit? I've been thumped a couple of times with one off big losses due to going in play since the introduction of the PC which have pretty much wiped out my weeks profit but this didn't start an investigation! I can only think that something else must have happened for them to flag him up, if not then they're out of order

[andyfuller]

Agree witht he last few comments - something isn't quite right here. there is no reason for Betfair to suspend anyone for premium charge avoidance much like there is nothing wrong with tax avoidance. I suspect that this is not the whole picture and something else is happening for example using different accounts and switching money between them, not that I am saying that is what happened here but something isn't right with this story.

[Ferru123]

I'd take the bastards to the small claims court, and include a sum for the hassle and stress they've put you through.

I strongly suspect they'd settle out of court to avoid the publicity. The last thing they want is punters worrying about whether they'll get their money back...

Jeff

Had a friend with similar issue and they also suspended my account, but wouldn't even give a time period. They locked all the money away so you couldn't access it despite the fact i was going on honeymoon and wanted to withdraw it

best resolution is to keep hammering the call centre adn try and get as high up as you can. I find writing to the CEO ofen works with this sort of thing, where people lower down don't take you seriously

[mister man]

interesting on two counts.

1. whatever the rights and wrongs here, i think betfairs customer service levels are a joke.

2. the responses highlight the shortcomings of internet forums. where facts and opinions/debate are very rarely transparent.