rant about DirecTV

[Thomas Church]

OK, I know that a hurricance is FAR more important that a football game but I'm still irked that DirecTV can't (won't) televise the Kansas City vs Miami game tonight. Here is the B.S. reply I got from DirecTV in regards to this situation. Keep in mind I pay $200 a year for the NFL Sunday Ticket and another $100 for the College Game Day and still receive crappy customer service.





Dear Mr. XXXXXX,



Thanks for writing and for your question about the last minute schedule change for the 10/23 Kansas City Chiefs and Miami Dolphins game, due to Hurricane Wilma. And I'm really sorry for this inconvenience. I completely understand your frustration and how this issue affected how you feel. However, Here is the latest information:



-- The game will play live tonight, 10/21 in Miami at 7 pm ET.



-- DIRECTV NFL SUNDAY TICKET subscribers nationwide will see the delayed telecast of tonight's game in it’s normally-scheduled window: Sunday, October 23 at 1:00 pm ET on channel 706.



-- In addition, all DIRECTV customers with the TOTAL CHOICE package and above can view this delayed broadcast later that Sunday night on the NFL Network (channel 212) at 8:00 pm ET.



--DIRECTV customers who receive local channels in Miami and Kansas City will be able to view the live game tonight via their local CBS station.



We realize that this may be disappointing for fans who live outside of the team’s home markets. Please understand, legal restrictions do not allow the NFL to air live games on Fridays or Saturdays without getting waivers from high schools or colleges. Because of the last minute switch, the NFL and CBS were only able to secure waivers from schools in the Kansas City and Miami local areas and not nationwide.



We truly appreciate your understanding and for taking the time to write us and let us know your concerns. You are important to us and we certainly want to keep you as a customer. A service specialist will call you in the next few days to discuss what we can do to meet your needs.



Thanks again for writing and please stay tuned to DIRECTV.com for the latest news and information about our service.



Sincerely,



Honey P

DIRECTV Customer Service

 

[scott r]

If they couldn't get the nationwide waivers from the high schools and/or colleges, they could be sued by each and every one of them.

I can see where this could be mighty disappointing to you, as a fan too, though. However, if DirecTV was sued into oblivion, you would get no football at all.

 

[Fer Echegaray]

And wasn't it the NFL the one suppossed to get the waivers?

 

[Thomas Church]

Well, next year I won't be getting my football from DirecTV. This has happened several times in the past, as well as missing the start of some games due to other games running long. Case in point, last weekend I missed the 1st quarter of the Penn State vs Michigan because DirecTV was showing the K-State vs Texas Tech blow-out! And, the K-State vs Texas Tech game was on my local stations! Needless to say it is becoming a waste of money and is very frustrating. Thank goodness for the internet, at leaset I can get live updates.

 

[scott r]

Does the NFL have the live game via internet stream like MLB does? it's a flat fee per game or a fee per year and you can watch whatever you want. If course if your connection is crap, you're pretty much screwed, but usually, you can get pretty decent quality video.

 

[M B]

Oh, gosh. I just got Direct TV Tuesday. I guess I'm lucky I don't like sports.

 

[Mike Wilson]

I'm sorry to go off on this, but I just tried to have my DirecTV service upgraded,

and by the time I got my new service installed, problems worked out, (and,

Oh, by the way, did I mention the FARGIN' language barrier between Tennessee, U.S.A.,

and Japuta, India,) it was almost three weeks!

Let's all give three cheers for a Free Global Market Economy!!! (NOT!!!).

Cable's lookin' Mighty good, again, maybe?

 

[Nelson Atwell]

I hear ya, tracnblack. One thing I like about cable is that if I have a real problem, I can always just drive down to the cable office and discuss it in person.



Television has come a long way since I was a kid. We had four channels (ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS). We picked it up with rabbit ears on our black and white set. For some reason they always had technical difficulties, so one of the most popular shows was either the color bars, or the still cartoon of the techician trying to sort out this tangle of wires. Of course after midnight, the only late night show to watch was "snow" since all the channels went off the air around 11:30.



I guess the good thing about it was that it was free to anyone who could afford a television set, which wasn't a whole lot of people at the time. We didn't get our first one until I was about 7 years old (just in time for me to spend hours watching the first moonwalks).

 

[A S]

i was going to get the NFL package to watch my Steelers.....but they want so much money....and I hear stories from co-workers about outages during storms...and since I am in florida, storms are like every day so I passed on it.....me and wifey just go to a local steeler sports bar....its more fun anyway

 

[Johnny O]

me and wifey just go to a local steeler sports bar....its more fun anyway

Article in the paper over the weekend about all the Steeler sports bars all over the country following the Steeler fan diaspora over the last 20 years (i.e. not many good jobs here, so a lot of people leave). 200 people in my high school class, of that we know where 130 are, of that, 30% live in other states and 10% live in Florida.

I've also seen that in a lot of NFL cities, the teams are requiring a minimum 2-game ticket purchase to get a ticket for when the Steelers come. Need a way to unload those unsold seats for other games I guess. The Steelers literally haven't not sold out a home game since 1972. People here leave their season tickets in their wills. The waiting list is about 25 years.

 

[Bill V]

JohnnyO--Not at all knocking the Steelers, they're a great team with great fans. But they're far from having the longest season ticket waiting list in the league. I'm not sure of the full details, but I know both Green Bay and Washington are up over 30 years...