Today at Harrah's Las Vegas I again ran into the missing points syndrome.
When I played at a bank of single line $1 VP I tested to make sure points were
accruing properly. First time fine, 2nd time fine, third time over 200 Base
Points vanished and did not appear on account. This is at least the fifth
time this has happened since July. I have contacted the Floor Supervisor each
time and eventually they determined that the points were earned, but somehow
never were sent to the central computer keeping track of player's points.
Several times I was told "technicians will look into it and fix it."
Today was the last straw when I again spoke to the same Floor Supervisor I'd
contacted at least 3 times before and explained problem yet again.
(Note in each previous case they hand-adjusted my accounts for the missing
points - though in some cases not as much as I actually had lost)
Fed up, I contacted the Casino Control Commission. Fortunately they were
able to send an agent over at the same time as yet another Floor Supervisor was
investigating the problem. The Supervisor was able to confirm the points
were played, and they could see the points had not shown up on my account, even
though printouts showed the points being directed to my account - somewhere.
I am convinced that once the points vanish they do not show up later.
Naturally Harrah's tried to say that the computer was "slow" and they would show
up. There was no explanation why in several of the past cases the points had
not shown up and were hand-adjusted. There is no good way to totally
contradict a casino that says "points will show up later" - when later could be
hours, days, weeks, months, or infinity.
Note - this problem is intermittent. On transaction 1 (all on same machine)
points went into account; transaction 2 points went in, transaction 3 points
vanished. I tried to recreate problem and for 5 times everything okay, then
points vanished; then in another attempt with them watching, after over
10-15 times, everything worked normally/properly.
In my opinion it makes no sense that the computer could be "slow" if
Transaction 1 goes in correctly, transaction 2 is okay, transaction 3 is lost, and
then transactions 4, 5, 6,7, etc. all are okay. If #3 is "slow" it would seem
to me that the transactions should all post in order and #4,5, etc. won't
arrive before #3.
I'm not the only one who has had this problem at Harrahs. A friend had this
happen at Laughlin, so the problem isn't just in Vegas (the Laughlin problem
was apparently fixed).
At any rate I'm sure my points will magically show up in the account, to
negate the report to the commission (and their agent said as much). So I would
like to contact anyone else who has had this problem with Harrahs Vegas.
Please send me private email, with all possible details if you are willing
to pass this on to the Casino Control Commission (or I will give you agent's
name).
My theory is that hundreds, perhaps thousands of people have been affected
since at least July, who don't notice due to the intermittent nature of the
problem and if they do, they are told "computer is slow" only to have points
vanish entirely.
Meanwhile, if you are playing at Harrahs Vegas, especially on single line VP
(which seem to be the machines with the problems), be sure to note down all
your accumulated points before you pull your card. AFter pulling put your
card in and out about 4 times. If the points fail to post to your account they
may be lost. Contact a Floor Supervisor immediately (Sherry Hankin is the
one I usually contact) and make sure you get a manual adjustment of both Base
and Bonus Points.
Again, if anyone else has had this happen, please write me email privately.
-Linda
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