Last weekend proved to be embarrassing (and probably expensive) for PartyPoker after its newly upgraded software client caused network errors that ended in a more than 7 hour crash over a peak period Saturday.
The company quickly came forward with an apology and an assurance to players that refunds will be made in respect of interrupted or cancelled events
The failure caused the rescheduling of at least one Grand Prix Poker Tour (GPPT) online event, but the upgrade had been withdrawn and the site was running efficiently by early Sunday morning.
The company issued the following statement to players:
“As you are aware, partypoker experienced some unexpected downtime to our services on Saturday 20 February, 2016, resulting in several tournaments being cancelled. Over the past 12 months, partypoker has worked tirelessly to improve all aspects of the site and the feedback from you, our valued customers, has been extremely positive.
“One of the reasons for the positivity is the fact partypoker has been transparent when it comes to giving you information about the changes being made to your online poker site, the poker site for the people, and that transparency continues today as we explain what caused the downtime on February 20, what we have to done to rectify the issue, and what happens next.
“Firstly, we would like to sincerely apologise for last night’s system downtime. This seems to have been caused by issues with a routine update to the software deployed earlier this week and is now under investigation by our technical teams. Until the underlying problem is solved in full, we have taken the decision to reverse this update, thus ensuring that everyone has a smooth over the next four weeks, starting with the Featherweight Week on Sunday 21 February.
“We understand the frustration felt by our players who had their tournaments cancelled and rest assured that we will honour all of the guaranteed prize pools in full for those tournaments that started before the technical issues arose last night. The customer support team is working around the clock to process these refunds. As you can appreciate this is a substantial task, but should you not receive your refund in the next day or two, please contact customer support who will be happy to assist you further.
“We would also like to apologise to those players who were unable to participate in the scheduled Grand Prix Poker Tour Newcastle Online Day 1 and we have decided to run a special GPPT UK Online Leg at 7:00 pm GMT on Wednesday 24 February so that you have the opportunity to use your GPPT $109 tickets. This tournament will have a $50,000 guaranteed and we are adding an additional $10,000 to the guaranteed prize pool.
“Finally, we would like to take this opportunity to thank all each and every one of you who have supported partypoker and helped us grow the site over the last 12 months. We know that there will be bumps along the way, but rest assured, we all remain 100% committed to the cause of bringing poker back to the people.”