Bookies - what do they want?

After a couple of differing experiences this week, I thought I'd share a few odd (and annoying ones).

Now, bookies traditionally block or limit accounts of those that are winning but I'd like to give a massive shout out to TitanBet, who after 18 months of betting with I was a net -£460. Not massive really, but not winning overall.

A few weeks ago I had a nice little run on tennis wins with them, mostly in dire womens games, backing the opponent to break serve. Had an 80% win rate on those, lovely. Suddenly every bet I placed, no matter how small, was getting referred to a trader. They even had the cheek once to offer me half the odds when I wanted £15 @ 3/1 on a tennis game (why not offer half the stake..?!) which was a little bizarre in itself, surely you can't price up according to the customer. I had a bit of money in there so I tried to back a basketball game at 5/6, only wanted £10 on and they offered me 63p. Why that amount, and as someone that's not really done that well with them, why limit me anyway? Asked their live help and you get the generic guff of "each bet is taken on its own merit" yadayadayada but it seems baffling that they limit what is essentially a losing account. What kind of business is that?! Never mind, I'll stick with betfair then.

Round 2 - Korals. In their shop, midway through the 3rd Ashes test they had England priced up at 7/2, Draw 3/1 and Australia 4/9. I was visiting my family at the time in Devon, I live in Hampshire. Thought that seemed a bit long, Australia had been skittled for 136 or something silly. Wrote it on the slip and asked for £40 at 7/2. The shop manager herself checked and authorised it and accepted the bet. Anyway, England won the series, job's a good 'un.. right? Wrong.

Went to collect about 4 days after the 4th test ended and the troll barks "IT AINT SETTLED YET" at me.. Told her England had won regardless of the final test result but no, I was told to wait until the 5th test was over, so I did. Went back in to collect, and she looks rather confused and got straight on the phone without telling me what the issue was. Area manager was in there at the time too. After much deliberating they decided that the odds were actually 2/1 and not 7/2, which I wasn't pleased about, having had to go back to be told I'm going to lose out on £60. Quibbled it and the AM said he can't authorise it as it wasn't his area but he'll get it sorted, go back to the shop I placed the bet.

So I went to said shop, handed over the ticket and they said "oh god, it's THIS one". Nice. One of the guys said "we told you at the time the odds might be different" - utter carp, nobody said anything of the kind and the bet was accepted by the shop manager who has more authority than a goon who empties FOBTs all day long, surely? Tried palming me off saying it was basically 2/1 and that's that. After plenty of arguing, they got on the phone and said they'd sort it. Went back in (this is now my FOURTH visit) and they paid up the £180 which they admitted was their mistake and they'd honour it. Now, fair play to the 2 lads that sorted it out after many phone calls as they did all they could.

The question begs: WHY is the onus on the customer for a mistake they didn't make? They claim their "screens froze" - well, fix it then. The bet was given the go ahead by the manager who even checked it herself and her exact words were "yep, looks fine to me", only for them to go back on it?

So if you win, you get hassle.
If you lose, you get hassle.

Why do we do this again?