Upgrade schmupgrade

Upgrade schmupgrade

So I had to change my name to get rakeback, and so my UB handle is no longer Sub_Zero. So much change at the moment: new flat, new ISP, and now I will go by the name Incrediboy (at least on the UB poker tables - don't think I can implement in the office just yet! ). Which leads me on to my next topic, which is actually more of a rant. It's about Victor Chandler poker, that's right - the unreliable, unwieldy beast that is VC.
In the past VC was an acceptable site for poker, and that was as far as it went. The players were largely weak (see 'Internet Poker') but the site was slow, tables frequently crashed and the waiting list system was a joke. Once I had setup my UB account, I only went back to VC when there was no action on UB or I needed to play in a 'softer' game. About a month ago I logged on when my housemate was hogging all the juicy UB 2-4 tables, and discovered I had accumulated over a million Action Points! I quickly checked what I could buy with these, and found that I could do far better than a dealer visor or hoody - I was entitled to a £200 sound dock for my iPod!!!
Awesome, I said to myself, I'll order that soon as I'm moved into my new flat.
So I moved, and I got internet access installed. In the interim, VC had 'upgraded' their software. Logging on, I was asked if I wanted to perform the (mandatory) update. The alternative of course being never play again and lose every cent I'd made on the site. After the upgrade was installed, a prompt informed me that "username Sub_Zero was no longer valid", and I was recommended to "use subzero4 to access your account".
That's annoying, I thought, but I can handle it.
So I type the new handle into the login prompt and enter my password. "Username/password is invalid. Please re-enter". I carefully re-type both. "Username/password is invalid. Please re-enter". I try my original handle. Invalid. Original handle, all lowercase to tie in with the new format? Invalid. I call customer services, small amounts of steam issuing from my ears.
CS: "What is your username sir?"
"Well... I'm afraid I don't know anymore. You seem to have changed it."
CS: "Do you hold an account with us?"
"Yes." [You changed my username. Quid pro quo, moron.]
CS: "Can I have your details please....[details given] ... ok sir, what you should do is enter your original handle, changing it all to uppercase, along with your original password."
I try this, and it works. I don't have the energy to rant about the stupidity of the system I have just encountered, so I give a terse "Thankyou" and put down the phone.
This is pissin' me off, I think, but it'll be ok now.
So I checked My Account, to see how my VC experience has been upgraded. Upgraded was not to be my experience. My balance was now displayed in £ stirling, rather than $US. And my 1,000,000 APs seemed to have shrunk to 210,000. I checked whether the shop had also been changed. To my relief, the 'prices' had also been dropped. Then I saw the same sound-dock I was waiting to order. It now cost 240,000. I had been well and truly dicked.
I am Jack's white-hot rage.
Needless to say there wasn't much in the way of an upgrade to any other part of the site, the tables were large and visually unfriendly, and almost every button meant a new window. The only thing that was mildly improved was the waiting lists. I have resolved to abandon VC as soon as I have got my sound-dock. Upgrade? Quite the opposite I'm afraid.