Sky Ute Casino & Resort

Had been going to this casino for almost 7 years but after a string of poor customer service experiences, they finally did something so atrocious that my husband and I have decided we won't go back.

They began offering a new online app a few months ago for which you can link your players card and earn rewards such as Walmart gift cards, free play, food & hotel discounts, etc. I signed up & began playing immediately. The way it works is that you "redeem" the rewards online but then must physically go to the players club at the casino to "claim" it. It took me about 2 1/2 weeks of playing in my free time (or setting autospins) to earn enough for a $25 Walmart gift card. When I redeemed the reward online, everything looked good, & the instructions just said to take the reward certificate to the players club. My husband & I live an hour from the casino so rather than make a special trip I planned to just wait and claim it the next time we decided to go play. (We typically go around 3-5 times a month.) When I showed up a few days later to claim my reward, the players club employees seemed shocked and I was told "They haven't even brought those to us yet. You'll have to come back." (Keep in mind this was approximately 3 weeks after the app was up and running and there was already advertising plastered all over the place (in the casino, the website, their facebook page, and their mailers) encouraging people to "Play for Real Rewards", etc.)! The head players club employee gave me her card & told me to check with her the next day. After I mentioned that I wouldn't be back until the next week and asked if they could do anything for me since I drove an hour (one way) to get there, they gave me $15 of Free play. Then the head players club employee took the initiative the next day & emailed me that they had received the gift cards so I let it go & was able to get my gift card the next week. Little did I know that was just the beginning!

Soon thereafter, they began offering new rewards that required less points for redemption, such as $25 Freeplay with an expiration date in November 2016. There was a stipulation that you could only claim one of the $25 Freeplay rewards per week. We had plenty of points so since they didn't expire until November we each "redeemed" several of the the $25 Freeplay rewards online as well as a few of the other types of rewards & planned to just take in a reward approximately weekly. The first couple of times all was well but then on the website they changed the $25 Freeplay reward to where it could only be claimed on Monday and also increased the amount of points required to redeem it. We work during the week and don't ever go to the casino on Monday so we just didn't redeem any of the "new" rewards. We still had a few of the "old" $25 Freeplay rewards that had no restrictions as to the day of the week they could be claimed & again, did not expire until November. The next time we went in, the players club employee wasn't sure if "it would work since they're supposed to be claimed on Monday" but she scanned it & it went through. However, the next week another employee wouldn't even try to scan it & I was told that no, I would have to return on Monday even though it was the "old" reward. I dislike confrontation & am fairly long suffering so even though I felt this was wrong (the phrase "bait & switch" comes to mind) I didn't argue & instead used a lesser $10 freeplay reward. 

The final straw occurred on our next visit. When we went up to the players club, before they even scanned our players cards, we were told that neither of us could claim ANY type of reward until we talked to the manager who of course wasn't there. We were told to come back on Monday from 8-5 to speak to him. We received no other explanation other than there were a "few people" that this applied to and the implication seemed to be that somehow we had done something wrong, which was of course not the case. We didn't argue or get rude with the employee and were both so shocked to be treated this way that we just left. (Of note is that other than this time we always played in the casino after claiming our rewards.)

The more I thought about it the angrier I got & we decided that was the last straw & we wouldn't be back. I still had the head players club employee contact info as well as another person with whom I had been in contact with about a casino sponsored birthday party (that I'd now not be attending!) Without being rude & making sure they knew that my issues weren't with them specifically, I sent a lengthy email explaining how I felt about being treated so poorly & asked that if they weren't the proper person to field my complaint to please forward it to the appropriate personnel. I mentioned that we had been loyal customers for almost 7 years now and that we also brought friends and family to play in their casino, eat in their restaurants, and bowl in their bowling alley and that as business professionals my husband and I would never dream of treating our clients so disrespectfully, etc. I also mentioned that I couldn't help but wonder in what other areas might there be dishonesty that we as players would not be as readily aware of such as machine paybacks, settings, etc. and that I was not willing to spend my money in a place I can't trust will treat me fairly. I also said that we have a choice and will be taking our business elsewhere, etc. I guess one or both of them did forward my email to Director of Marketing because I received a short response from him that said the reason he placed a restriction on our redemption was due to "play restriction triggers that were tripped on you and your husbands account over the last several weeks". He requested a phone number to contact me at to "clear up these issues". 

I sent him the following response the next day:
Mr. _________,
Thank you for responding but at this point there is nothing you can do to make this right with us. It did not go unnoticed that no apology has been issued and that there is still an implication in your email that WE did something wrong when that is not the case. Things would be different if you had reached out to us when you realized there might be a problem (the problem being on your end and not ours as we understand it). However, to instead wait until we came in to claim previously rightfully redeemed rewards and embarrass us at the players club in front of other patrons is completely unacceptable. 
Sincerely,
My name.

That was a couple of weeks ago. I wasn't expecting, nor have I received any additional response. The slots have seemed even tighter the last several months anyway, the food is just average with so so service & when I think about it I wasn't really enjoying myself all that much anyway! I'm sure we'll still go to other casinos now & then but we are through with Sky Ute and feel they can't be trusted.