Poker Sites With Best Customer Support
Reviewing the customer support teams for the top online poker rooms
Support is one of the most critical - and one of the most often overlooked - aspects of an online poker site. A great support staff can elevate an otherwise ordinary room to the status of an elite room, and bad support can undermine even the strongest online poker room. Whether you've never thought about online poker customer support before or you think about it a little too much, this page will help you better understand how to appreciate, evaluate and select the rooms offering the best possible support to online poker players.
How Much Does Support Really Matter?
Online poker support is one of those things that you just don't think about until you really need it - and at that point, it may be too late. Support is basically your only direct link to the business that you're trusting with your money, personal information and online poker play, and if that link is weak, inefficient or incompetent, your money and your security can be put at risk.
Beyond those big risks, there's a lot of value that can be found from a quality support team. Being able to get quick, accurate answers from support about bonuses and promotions, for example, can help you to better understand (and therefore exploit) those offers. Ultimately, you're just going to feel more comfortable at a room that provides attentive, responsive and helpful customer support.
What Constitutes Poor Poker Room Support?
You know it when you see it, that's for sure. Slow response time is a major complaint for many players, as are answers that don't address the questions asked or a failure to provide clear information. Of course, no answer at all is also a quite poor strategy for support.
Another thing to look for is the different types of channels a room offers for support. Which channel you prefer is obviously a personal choice, but if you like being able to pick up the phone and talk to a person, not all rooms are going to accommodate you. Having more channels available doesn't necessarily mean that a room offers better support, but having a channel that fits your preferences can make a big difference.
Tips for Interacting With Online Poker Room Support Staff
Many players don't realize that customer support is a two-way street, and that one path to getting better answers is to ask better questions. Avoid writing angry emails or typing in all caps in chat. Think about the questions you want to ask - and any relevant follow ups - before you contact support, and try to anticipate some of their potential answers ahead of time. Finally, do yourself a favor and see if the information you're looking for is available somewhere on the poker room's website. You might just get a much more comprehensive answer without having to wait at all.
Poker Room Customer Service: Try Before You Buy
It's amazing to us how few players use customer support as a way to test rooms before they try them. You don't need to be an active player at a room to contact customer support - usually anyone can open a chat or send an email to customer support. You can also use this test to kill two birds with one stone by testing support with a question about rake, tournament schedules or some other aspect of the room you're looking to learn more about.
Poker room support is basically a litmus test for the overall quality of the poker room. If you have a poor experience with customer support, you can safely assume that there are some other problems behind the scenes.
Top-Ranked Online Poker Room for Customer Support
PokerStars has built a well-deserved reputation for customer support that goes above and beyond what most players expect. Obviously support can't answer every question every player has, but PokerStars has a long track record of fast, accurate responses and a willingness to engage with customers in a friendly, clever way that can make support requests entertaining as opposed to frustrating.
You don't have to take our word for it - try out support at PokerStars for yourself. Ask support about what games the room offers, the history of the room or just about any question you can think of, email it off and see how you feel about the reply.
Best Customer Support Among US Poker Rooms
Carbon Poker stands out from the crowd, with reasonable response times and competent support. The live chat option generally results in quality answers with very short turnaround time, and email support is generally responsive and competent. While not quite to the lofty standards established by PokerStars, players at Carbon will feel better about their overall experience after interacting with customer support at the room.
