****RANT ALERT****
On Saturday I placed a bet in person at the William Hill kiosk in the Main Stand at Goodison. I won £95!! Utterly amazing and thank you Kevin Mirallas. Point 1: my bet was accepted without question. It says on the back of the coupon that winnings can be collected from 10am the next day. So I went to the bookies at 11am the next day "Sorry, there's an issue with the servers, we can't pay you. Come back after 2" So I did. Young man makes a phone call "We can't pay you, the servers are down" Point 2: why can't they pay me out in the shop with a winning slip? Drove home to County Durham (via an amazing gig at The Sage Gateshead by The Real Thing but that's for another day) Got home at about midnight decided to claim my money on line. I had to open an account to do this. I don't want a William Hill account but now I've got one with my winnings in. Tried to take winnings out - I can't, I need to be verified as over 18. Point 3: they will know from my betting slip that I placed my bet in person at Goodison. If I was under 18 the bet wouldn't have been accepted. I'm 56 FFS and even when I'm really rating myself I will never be mistaken for being under 18.
Phoned them today at around 2pm- explained all of the above, got put through to the accounts verification team who verified me on line (no idea how but I wasn't arguing) Attempted to withdraw winnings. I had to register a card before I could do this. Guess what? To register a card you have to make a deposit. Yes, you have to give them money before you can take any out. Point 4: why is this? Deposited £5, withdrew £95 which will be in my account in 3-5 days. Hooray, end of story.....OH NO IT ISN'T. At 4pm I get an email from an audit team "about your withdrawal, can you send us proof of address, and some kind of photo ID. We need to verify you" Small localised nuclear explosion in a quiet corner of County Durham. Phoned them again about half an hour ago, explained all of the above again including the previous conversations with them and a question why I didn't have to verify myself when I put money into the account . Was told that the person I was speaking to would have to talk to accounts. So I waited only to be told that "It might be a long process, we'll get back to you" Have just received an e mail saying they have been unable to resolve my query but are still trying - thank you for your patience.
Dear God, what a performance. And they still have my £95. Never ever again. Am I just unlucky or has anybody else experienced this?
TL DR William Hill are rubbish
