Why do some poker rooms have stupid rules?

[nb1961]

Sorry Bob, if it is wrong to post this please delete

Party Poker P***** me off yesterday by sending me this email

Dear nb1961,
Our records show that that you have not logged into your account for 180 days.

A $ 0.35 administration fee** has been charged to your inactive account. The next charge will be deducted from your account balance on: 14-Jan-2012 ET.

However, this fee will NOT be charged if your account, or any related account, is reactivated on or before 13-Jan-2012 ET.

Reactivating your account is easy: Just log in and place a cash wager, enter a tournament with a cash entry fee, or play a raked hand.
**TERMS & CONDITIONS If you do not access your Account by "logging on" to your Account using your Account name and password for any period of 180 days, then after those 180 days (the "180 day grace period") your Account (and any related account with any ESP) will be deemed "Inactive". If your Account becomes Inactive, then the Company is entitled to charge you an administrative fee (the "Inactive Account Fee"). The Inactive Account Fee shall be deducted from your Account Balance at the end of each calendar month in accordance with the Inactive Account Fee Schedule. We will stop deducting the Inactive Account Fee from your Account Balance if your Account is re-activated.
If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact us. Our Customer Care team is available 24/7.
Sincerely,
Party Team

I played Party for a while but the game selection wasn't to my liking. There wasn't enough micro NL Full Ring games, the sng's weren't really interesting to me and they didn't have many good tournaments. So I stopped playing there. Like many rooms I left a little money on because a promo may come up that's interesting and I don't want to keep paying payment processor fees. Well after receiving this the money is off the site the software un-installed. What a dumb, stupid way of trying to get players back playing.

[Ramster]

I had this a couple of years ago from PP
I had about $3 on site and they wanted to take it all in admin charges and then charge me every month(i think that bit is generic and everybody gets told that)

I sent them a mail back asking how they proposed to take monies out of my account which wasn't there and that they must be hard up if they wanted to effectively steal all my poker funds and leave me potless

I got a mail back saying that they had let me keep my monies but next time they would take it.

I entered a $2 freezeout with it,FTed,and won about $70 which i withdrew straight away and i havent been back since

[scrawnybob]

hi NB

yep I agree its a stupid rule - party and a couple of other sites have

I think alot of it is to try and reduce their theoretical player balance liability on dormant accounts

basically they think - well we are not going to be able to rake away the balance over time yet we have to keep that money in segregated account available

if the account got "raked" via inactivity charges then they get your money + they dont have to have that amount showing available

it's basically some accountants idea of a good idea - which means it's a dumb idea ;-)

players dont think its a good idea - quite rightly

cheers SB