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Greektown -- You have to be kidding

Went to Greektown today with my wife and I played some poker while she played video poker. After about 2 hours we took a break for lunch and decided to play a little more afterwards. I went on to lose some more playing poker and Peg had a session with 700 points earned at video poker. She pulled her card, re inserted it and the point total was 619. Hmm, something is not right.

So, Peg goes to the booth and the lady at the booth tells her she has 619 points and that is the end of it. She didn't want to hear anything else. The boothling also said there is no point discrepancy form and there is nothing she can do. I have filled out point discrepancy forms at Greektown, Peggy has filled out point discepancy forms at Greektown but this lady didn't know that they exist.

We end up going downstairs to the main booth, waiting in line for another 15 minutes and talking to a supervisor. This lady was about 5' 3", maybe 175 lbs, black and very rude. Once again, the points on her screen are all the points earned and there is nothing they can do. I didn't realize that the 13 year old tracking system Greektown uses was infallible. I'm surprised more casinos don't junk their 2 and 3 year tracking systems for this older version that never makes a mistake.

After going back and forth with this supervisor, Peggy plays enough to earn one point, but this doesn't add to her 619 point total. The supervisor and slot tech ( who she called over) both said that the points earned by each countdown are points towards drawing tickets and not points towards your cashback and comps. I think about this for a minute and then ask him if he is freaking kidding. Sure enough, the countdown on the tested slot machine was $5, we earned 1 countdown point, but this didn't increase our cash back point total. The second point earned did. The cashback values are the same but the display is misleading at best.

I am debating whether to file with MGCB or not. We all know how much luck I have had with them over the years. The big question is whether the points displayed on a card tracking system have to be your actual, earned points for cash back and comps. It certainly is deceptive to display points earned for ticket drawings instead of actual points earned.

I still think Peggy got shorted on at least some of her play. Be forewarned about point totals at Greektown.

The biggest issue wasn't the silly way Greektown is handling their slot card display. It is their arrogant, condescending way they treat their customers when there is an issue. I don't think Peg will be putting many ( or any) dollars in at Greektown anymore. I'll post if I decide to file with the MGCB. I think if Steve S. were still at Greektown, this would not have happened and if it did, it would have been handled a lot better.

More to follow.

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Johnny; Greektown Casino has a new CEO "Randall A. Fine" [head of las Vegas-based "Fine Point Group"] for the past few months.
He used to work at Harrahs and developed "Total Rewards" for them.
This may have a lot to do with all the bad customer changes happening down there.
Nick

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--- On Sat, 5/2/09, greeklandjohnny@aol.com <greeklandjohnny@aol.com> wrote:

From: greeklandjohnny@aol.com <greeklandjohnny@aol.com>
Subject: [vpFREE_Detroit] Greektown -- You have to be kidding
To: vpfree_Detroit@yahoogroups.com
Date: Saturday, May 2, 2009, 10:35 PM
Went to Greektown today with my wife and I played some poker
while she played video poker. After about 2 hours we took a
break for lunch and decided to play a little more
afterwards. I went on to lose some more playing poker and
Peg had a session with 700 points earned at video poker. She
pulled her card, re inserted it and the point total was 619.
Hmm, something is not right.

The Greektown issue with the countdown not matching what is actually accrued has been going on for a while now..... I first noticed it on the $ Jacks bartop progressive. I'm on the road right now, and don't have my notes with me, but my recent experience was that my coin-in equaled the advertised CB rate. I noticed the issue with the point display and simply did a manual count of hands played to determine the CB rate. It was initially confusing but since the earned CB was correct I don't really see anything worth running up the flagpole.

On a sidenote....If memory serves me correctly my earned comp rate was about 0.4%. Pizza Papalis was quite a value when factoring in product quality, quantity and price. $40 for two goes a loooooong way there.

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--- In vpFREE_Detroit@yahoogroups.com, Hapycro1929 <hapycro1929@...> wrote:

Johnny; Greektown Casino has a new CEO "Randall A. Fine" [head of las Vegas-based "Fine Point Group"] for the past few months.
He used to work at Harrahs and developed "Total Rewards" for them.
This may have a lot to do with all the bad customer changes happening down there.
Nick

Earned CB on the machines with the funky countdown was definitely 0.166% on the machines I played. Earned comps were 0.36%. Just recd my first mailer which was quite generous given the game and amount of CI I ran during my first stay.

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--- In vpFREE_Detroit@yahoogroups.com, "hockeystl" <vegasstl@...> wrote:

The Greektown issue with the countdown not matching what is actually accrued has been going on for a while now..... I first noticed it on the $ Jacks bartop progressive. I'm on the road right now, and don't have my notes with me, but my recent experience was that my coin-in equaled the advertised CB rate.

Thanks for the input.

This 'feature' is new on the machines we were playing. I don't play the machines much at Greektown anymore ( for a host of reasons) but it sure seems like when I do, the countdown matched the VP countdown of $20/point. I agree that the CB is what it should be but I dislike having the displayed countdown related to drawing tickets ( which can be revoked at any time) vs actual Cashback, which cannot be revoked. Also, the slot technician mentioned that some of these machines are set to pay zero cashback. That would be bad since there is no indication of that. He also mentioned that the pick 'em game pays 98% so I don't think he has all the information.

As far as letting Gtown know about the issue, I may end up letting this one go. I can't think of a single casino that displays a countdown for drawings instead of cashback. I'm not sure why you would want to do that.

On Bounceback, maybe Gtown is trying to cater to out of towners now that they have a hotel. What I have found is that if you play one month, you will get mailers for probably 6 months, even if you don't play much or at all.

On comps, be careful if you don't use them for a while. I haven't tested this lately, but not too long ago, comps dropped off after 3 or 6 months. They have changed comp policies so many times, it's hard to keep track.

Lastly, if the slot boothling and supervisor would have at least been polite, we wouldn't be as unhappy. I've come to expect that I will understand how their slot club works better than they do. I also understand that they are understaffed, don't make a whole lot of cash and aren't always chosen for the job based on their casino acumen. What I won't accept is someone in a customer service position at a casino in bankruptcy being rude and condescending.

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--- In vpFREE_Detroit@yahoogroups.com, "hockeystl" <vegasstl@...> wrote:

--- In vpFREE_Detroit@yahoogroups.com, Hapycro1929 <hapycro1929@> wrote:
>
>
>
>
> Johnny; Greektown Casino has a new CEO "Randall A. Fine" [head of las Vegas-based "Fine Point Group"] for the past few months.
> He used to work at Harrahs and developed "Total Rewards" for them.
> This may have a lot to do with all the bad customer changes happening down there.
> Nick

The Greektown issue with the countdown not matching what is actually accrued has been going on for a while now..... I first noticed it on the $ Jacks bartop progressive. I'm on the road right now, and don't have my notes with me, but my recent experience was that my coin-in equaled the advertised CB rate. I noticed the issue with the point display and simply did a manual count of hands played to determine the CB rate. It was initially confusing but since the earned CB was correct I don't really see anything worth running up the flagpole.

On a sidenote....If memory serves me correctly my earned comp rate was about 0.4%. Pizza Papalis was quite a value when factoring in product quality, quantity and price. $40 for two goes a loooooong way there.