Does Twin Spires always suck?

[sighthound]

I rarely use this ADW platform (YouBet) - signed onto it today, and discovered YouBet is now Twin Spires.  Tried to sign onto Twin Spires (as they said I could with the Youbet info), locked me out immediately.  You cannot get through on the telephone to customer service.  Sent an e-mail for a reset password, which was sent, but that doesn\'t work either.

Is Twin Spires customer service always non-existent?  This is unbelievable.

I was trying to sign on to take my account funds out, at least!

[drbillym]

Hang in there.  I have used twinspires for over 12 years and only recently encountered problems-probably due to the merger and new pasword requirements.  It has been the easiest of all platforms to use and very reliable with fund transfers.

[SoCalMan2]

drbillym Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Hang in there.  I have used twinspires for over 12
> years and only recently encountered
> problems-probably due to the merger and new
> pasword requirements.  It has been the easiest of
> all platforms to use and very reliable with fund
> transfers.

I, too, am having a rocky transition.  Will give them a little time to try to straighten it out -- but after that, sayonara.

[spook_express]

Historically been very solid.  Give them time to work out merger.  Been great on busy days -- Derby, BC, etc.

[MoonshadowFarm]

I actually just recieved a letter from you Bet today Telling me in order to Log on to Twinspires I needed to use my (youbet) acct# and the last 4 digits of My SS#.  It worked and I have since Changed my password.

[P-Dub]

Have not had any problems with TS, as noted no problems even on busy days. Easy withdrawals take just a day or 2 right into your account. Give them a chance.

[sighthound]

Thanks for the answers, good to know that on busy days they don\'t collapse (exactly why I have them) - I still can\'t get either account access (thanks for all the suggestions on PW, not working) or customer service on the telephone.  Will keep trying.

[jmetro]

TwinSpires is owned by CDI (Churchill Downs, Inc.) so they will always understaff as oppossed to overstaff when the situation presents itself.   I too am a long time user transfrerred over from AmericaTab a number of years ago.   Still the best company I have used.

I knew they were changing some things around but had heard that a lot depended on how long you had been a customer and that not everyone would need to change their login and password info so I waited until they actually would not take my login.   Mistake!

Tried to login one day last week and was locked out, tried calling a bet in instead and waited for two minutes and got shutout, on a winner of course.   Called their customer service and got a message they were not taking calls due to the high volume.   Tried e-mailing and got a \"canned\" reply that they would get back with me within 24 hours.  Finally called again and, after waiting 45 minutes, was put through to evidently only one of a handful of people in their customer service.  They resolved the issue fairly quickly.

Overall, like others have said, TS has been good to use but have been shutout by their lack of understaffing, or just incompetence (see Big Brown Derby when their servers went down), more than once.  

I live in Louisville but will spare you my other comments on Churchill Downs and how they run a racetrack/simulcasting center.  Let\'s just say it\'s not just the casinos that are killing their business.

[Lost Cause]

Agree with you here on twinspires...They were very good...but lately (the past 6 months) there has been a significant increase in wait times when calling in.  On Busy days (Breeders Cup, KY Derby..) you better get your bets in early or else you\'re dead.  The music will play forever while you\'re on hold and race after race will go off...They\'re not answering.
Interstingly enough, Xpressbet which used to be terrible has become lightning quick even on big days..

[sighthound]

It took 15 minutes for the phone to be answered by customer service this afternoon (as opposed to \"not at all\" yesterday) and it took her another 15 minutes to try and figure out what the heck was going on with my password (wouldn\'t take my log in) and we just had to create new.

So I\'ve been on for an hour watching the races - they copied the YouBet platform (how it looks on the screen) but not all of it\'s functionality!  They left off alot of very helpful little features.

Very frustrating.  This is quite amateurish, compared to what we had at YouBet.

Edit:  And after another few minutes of trying to move around track to track, and place a couple sample bets  - this is officially awful.  

They are calling it a \"beta\" version of the YouBet platform.  Thus I don\'t understand why so many features are missing and why things are not working reliably.  They purchased YouBet, I assume they were handed the keys to the programming, if they are going to try and duplicate YouBet\'s user pages.

[jmetro]

.....so I go to the track today, CD that is.

Smallish crowd since it\'s cold and damp, meet a friend at an inside seating area that is packed, it is in their 2nd floor bar/simulcasting seating area, they have about 4 waitresses waiting on probably 50 tables.   Classic CD

Light on cash so I go to their Twinspires window for a withdrawal from my account.  Man serving the desk enters my info but it will not accept either my new password or old 4 digit PIN in order to make a withdrawal, he says to call Twinspires.   Classic CD

My friend likes to watch the races live so we try to go outside at post time and up to a viewing area, get stopped by a lady working the door since we don\'t have \"stickers.\"  Go to the TS desk to get some comp stickers with my card....they are out.  Classic CD

Finally get outside after explaining to the door people that they are out of stickers.   While watching a race outside notice row after row of box seats empty.  Seats that include Bet Pro machines (machines that allow you to bet and watch all races from your seat) that are usually in their main simulcasting area and always used by the regulars.  Probably 60 to 80 of them that are not being used that would be if only moved inside.  Classic CD

Later my friend orders a beer and after about a 20 minute wait the waitress returns and promptly spills it all over him and his DRF.   She apologizs and starts wiping up the spill saying she will go get him another form.  She goes to the program stand but they will not give her one because they need know who to \"charge it\" to, she sends another guy over and he returns with the \"short\" form with only CD, AQU and CRC in it, instead of the one my friend had spent the day handicapping with tracks like Hawthorne and Woodbine included.  Classic CD

I could go on forever...

[sighthound]

Um ... did you see the episode of Undercover Boss?

[jmetro]

Yep, the Undercover Boss for CDI struck me as someone who had never made a bet in his life and didn\'t know one end of a horse from the other.  It ain\'t rocket science.

[analizethis]

Since I was traveling down to CD for the BC I called a week before the races and asked if I could access my TS account at the track using my card and the machines which I regularly do and they respond \"yes no problem\" so I leave the funds in the TS account.

On Friday when I try to use my card in the machine I continue to get the message that they don\'t know who I am. I phone and they tell me that they can\'t help but I should talk to the Twin Spires rep on site. I find the Twin Spires booth and they say, \"oh yeah the Arlington Park cards don\'t seem to be working and we don\'t know why, maybe AP froze the accounts\". I decide to use the phones to wager and finally after getting a couple of bets down started getting the message due to heavy call volume we can\'t help you.

When I return on Saturday, I go back to the TS booth thinking maybe in the past 24 hours they have found a fix and they say yes we will give you a substitute CD card and you can use that. So they do and I return to the machines, log in but have no account balance. I return to the on-site booth and they determine, oh no the account balance isn\'t accessible it\'s just a new card for the day which I would have to fund, like buying a voucher, and use at the machines for the day but also accruing the very generous twin spires points.

Oh well, my handicapping wasn\'t great so I guess I saved money by only being able to bet the cash I had. I guess I\'ll know better next year.

[moosepalm]

For a sport whose trend arrows are mostly pointed downward, it\'s truly amazing how low a priority customer service remains at most tracks.  I know there are multiple concerns accounting for a dwindling business, e.g take-out, but if you harbor any hope of growing a customer base, you need to think like Wal-Mart vs. K-Mart and Target, and have someone greeting you as you walk into the track conveying the message that we\'re here to make this as pleasant an experience as possible while we take your money.  OK, I can do without the greeter, but the point remains that, in my experience, some (most? all?) tracks shoot themselves in the foot when it comes to running a customer-oriented operation.