NYRA Rewards Meltdown

[samyn on the green]

http://gregcalabrese.blogspot.com/2011/05/nyra-rewards-meltdown.html


For the last nine years I have had a NYRA wagering account. First it was NYRA telebet then NYRA one now it is known as NYRA rewards. This was the best account. Friendly staff. The key thing was that on a busy day like the derby or breeders cup they were the only ADW that answered the phone. The rest of them are always overwhelmed. Then the NYRA corporate stiffs got involved and outsourced the NYRA call center to twinspires. Now the service is unusable.

When I was visiting Las Vegas on derby weekend I attempted to make a few wagers from my room. No luck. This was clearly the worst big day for nyra telebet in the 9 years I have had the account. Now it is only Black Eyed Susan day at Pimlico and after about ten attempts I can not reach an agent at NYRA.

Only corporate stooges- blinded by numbers yet far removed from the daily operation of customer service would close the most efficient call center to sub-contract out to the most over whelmed call center. With the outsorced help in place NYRA rewards is now a useless service. I urge all NYRA rewards members to close their accounts and spend the time they used playing horses serving some charity. It is not worth making ten phone calls to make one special daily double that is only available on the phone. This beleaguered outfit does not answer the phone.

[OTM Al]

NYRA moved telebet to Twinspires because with the close of NYCOTB they knew they were unable to handle the new volume which was more than triple of what they formally had to handle. This move was made to give better public service despite the backlash received by the Governor and other politicians. Unfortunately, you got terrible service. Rest assured, this issue is being addressed.

[samyn on the green]

Better service? This is like breaking up with Megan Fox to hook up with Roseanne Barr for a better looking chick. Before NYRA outsourced their call center NYRA rewards had the best customer service, was the most reliable ADW on big days and was staffed with professional tellers.

Since the cutover to the outsourced agents NYRA rewards it is now the worst ADW. Frequent busy signals, agents that do not tell you the cost of the wager and hard to understand agents with backwater vernacular. If it is really busy or 2 mins to post they just don't answer!

[OTM Al]

Better service? This is like breaking up with Megan Fox to hook up with Roseanne Barr for a better looking chick. Before NYRA outsourced their call center NYRA rewards had the best customer service, was the most reliable ADW on big days and was staffed with professional tellers.

Since the cutover to the outsourced agents NYRA rewards it is now the worst ADW. Frequent busy signals, agents that do not tell you the cost of the wager and hard to understand agents with backwater vernacular. If it is really busy or 2 mins to post they just don't answer!

Believe what you will then. Some things don't work out as planned sometimes.

[Spiderman]

NYRA went to Twinspit call center to save employment and overhead costs. NYRA could have selected a call center that would be dedicated solely to their business.

[OTM Al]

NYRA went to Twinspit call center to save employment and overhead costs. NYRA could have selected a call center that would be dedicated solely to their business.

You not only are talking those costs but you are talking equipment and space for startup as well. I know many think businesses can just wave their hands and whatever they need magically appears, but unfortunately that isn't the case. You have a business to run with a phone center. You suddenly get a tripling of business through that center, a capacity you can't handle and the largest volume days of the entire year are coming up too soon to be able to have something up and running to handle that volume. Here's your options. 1) Do nothing. 2) Outsource to a company who is well acquainted with this sort of business. Sadly there have been problems with the selection made, but do nothing wouldn't have worked either.

[riskman]

NYCOTB closed its doors just before Christmas 2010.
Without going into all the politics the bottom line NYCOTB was in bankruptcy.NYRA and other racing interests are owed tens of millions of dollars and at the end NYCOTB was left to die on the senate floor.
NYRA knew at the time that the horseplayers of New York City,would inevitably find their way to action either through NYRA or some other ADW. NYRA aggressively advertised for new accounts which they should have then planned to handle this new business. Why did'nt NYRA approach NYCOTB and try to negotiate the equipment, floor space and employees of the call center and internet wagering operation? It would seem they would be in a favorable bargaining position to do this. I am sure there is more to this scenario then I am aware of[I know little] but it has been 5 months since NYCOTB closed its doors.
Personally, I have a NYRA account in addition to other ADW accounts.So far, I have not experienced any major problems since most of my wagers are placed on the internet. Many of my friends who call in their wagers are not at all happy with NYRA and are looking at other ADW's. You would think after 5 months some plans would be in place to do everything possible to gain and keep new bettors and to capitalize on the void left by NYCOTB.

[OTM Al]

NYCOTB closed its doors just before Christmas 2010.
Without going into all the politics the bottom line NYCOTB was in bankruptcy.NYRA and other racing interests are owed tens of millions of dollars and at the end NYCOTB was left to die on the senate floor.
NYRA knew at the time that the horseplayers of New York City,would inevitably find their way to action either through NYRA or some other ADW. NYRA aggressively advertised for new accounts which they should have then planned to handle this new business. Why did'nt NYRA approach NYCOTB and try to negotiate the equipment, floor space and employees of the call center and internet wagering operation? It would seem they would be in a favorable bargaining position to do this. I am sure there is more to this scenario then I am aware of[I know little] but it has been 5 months since NYCOTB closed its doors.
Personally, I have a NYRA account in addition to other ADW accounts.So far, I have not experienced any major problems since most of my wagers are placed on the internet. Many of my friends who call in their wagers are not at all happy with NYRA and are looking at other ADW's. You would think after 5 months some plans would be in place to do everything possible to gain and keep new bettors and to capitalize on the void left by NYCOTB.

There is a lot more to this scenario than you are aware of. Unfortunately I am not at liberty to divulge what I do know and I'm sure there is even more that I don't. The whole point of the response I made is that the problem is known and not being ignored and that the current outcome is in no way what anyone wanted or expected to happen.

[classhandicapper]

NYRA is learning that NYCOTB bore significant costs for gathering phone, internet, and branch bets and that in transferring some of that betting action hoping to keep more of each dollar bet, they also faced significantly greater costs.

[riskman]

There is a lot more to this scenario than you are aware of. Unfortunately I am not at liberty to divulge what I do know and I'm sure there is even more that I don't. The whole point of the response I made is that the problem is known and not being ignored and that the current outcome is in no way what anyone wanted or expected to happen.

Just a frustrated horse player venting on my part.
I am sure NYRA did not expect an inferior result by outsourcing telebet.

[OTM Al]

Just a frustrated horse player venting on my part.
I am sure NYRA did not expect an inferior result by outsourcing telebet.

I can't comment on that, but then I also wouldn't argue with you on that one.

[classhandicapper]

NYCOTB closed its doors just before Christmas 2010.
Without going into all the politics the bottom line NYCOTB was in bankruptcy.NYRA and other racing interests are owed tens of millions of dollars and at the end NYCOTB was left to die on the senate floor.
NYRA knew at the time that the horseplayers of New York City,would inevitably find their way to action either through NYRA or some other ADW. NYRA aggressively advertised for new accounts which they should have then planned to handle this new business. Why did'nt NYRA approach NYCOTB and try to negotiate the equipment, floor space and employees of the call center and internet wagering operation? It would seem they would be in a favorable bargaining position to do this. I am sure there is more to this scenario then I am aware of[I know little] but it has been 5 months since NYCOTB closed its doors.


That was actually the deal that the Senate shot down.

It's not 100% clear who was really behind shooting it down and why, but it is clear that NYRA wanted the OTB phone and internet business because it was growing.

Like I said in a previous post, I think NYRA saw potentially higher attendance, more phone and internet wagering, and keeping a higher percentage of each dollar bet with the demise of NYCOTB without understanding how much it cost NYCOTB (or anyone else) to gather that extra handle. It takes more clerks, more phone clerks, technology people, busing people the track, supporting the OTB network etc...

[samyn on the green]

Outsource to twinspires?

These comments boggle the mind. The person calling these shots is not only green but naive. It is common knowledge that Twinspires is the worst ADW on big racing days. I have had an aaccout there for six years since it was bris. I used to use it but I abandoned it after the merger with youbet and reliability feel below my operationally accepted performance envelope.

Twinaspires can not handle their own volume of calls and frequently crash or feature an all day busy signal. The main reason I selected NYRA as my main ADW is reliability and local people that tawk my vernacular. Now some new to the industry idiot outsources to the worst -as far as customer service and reliability-operator in the industry. Who is calling these shots? Numbers are one consideration but you can not just ruin the product to chase numbers.

You not only are talking those costs but you are talking equipment and space for startup as well. I know many think businesses can just wave their hands and whatever they need magically appears, but unfortunately that isn't the case. You have a business to run with a phone center. You suddenly get a tripling of business through that center, a capacity you can't handle and the largest volume days of the entire year are coming up too soon to be able to have something up and running to handle that volume. Here's your options. 1) Do nothing. 2) Outsource to a company who is well acquainted with this sort of business. Sadly there have been problems with the selection made, but do nothing wouldn't have worked either.

[PaceAdvantage]

This was the first year I can remember in quite some time, where there were no complaints about TwinSpires on Derby Day, at least as far as their online operation went...FYI...

[samyn on the green]

I'm talking phones and tellers. The twinspires call center is swamped every Saturday. The website has capacity issues as well. The NYRA call center was more efficient right up to the last few days than it is now. Now both are unreliable.

This si more problamatic for NYRA rewards as the website still requires many bets to be called in. You want to make a 50 cent pick four on the pimlico card? Not available on the web so you have to call it in. How about a special daily double? Only available on the web. Then you call in and it is nothing but a busy signal. NYRA used to be better than this. This was the first year I can remember in quite some time, where there were no complaints about TwinSpires on Derby Day, at least as far as their online operation went...FYI...

[classhandicapper]

Do you really want to laugh?

Before so many options became available on the internet, I had a NYCOTB phone account for many years. The service was almost always excellent. Every once in awhile I'd get a busy signal nearing post time for a big race, but on a day to day basis it was excellent.