In their defense, Verizon does depend on the feed from iNDemand for all these games, and with the limited space available, it sounds like soccer games don't come on until basketball is over. On the other hand, this is typical of them for no one to have a clue about programming. Verizon keeps their programming decisions so secret that even their representatives on Twitter and Facebook, who seem to be insiders with the decisions, are prohibited from releasing any information about future changes. With this, we know that the people we talk to on the phone are told absolutely NOTHING about this.
I know that Verizon competes everywhere they offer video service, but a little advance explanation would be nice in a situation like this. When anyone orders MLS Direct Kick, give them a little notice that the out of market package does not start until "x" date due to channel restrictions of the video provider that are beyond the control of Verizon. Wouldn't that be nice?
Caps09,
I agree with you to a certain point. I do not blame the Verizon customer service reps for this. They are only told what they are told. But it is clear they had little clue as to what was going on when I called them yesterday. I blame Verizon as a whole. If you read an earlier thread of mine, you will see the email they sent me telling me that the package began on the 26th and that I could order it starting on the 26th for $79. That is the only reason I ordered it on the 26th. There was no indication from anyone that the package would not start until a certain date. Had they told me that, I would have been okay with that, though I would have questioned why we are being charged the full $79 if we are missing part of the season.
Verizon should not be taking orders for a package they are not offering, plain and simple. If and when Direct Kick is offered, then they should take orders.
I have trouble seeing the problem with Verizon's bandwidth or whatever you want to call it. While I realize this was satellite, I was with Directv last year and the NBA channels were separate from the MLS channels. The MLS Direct Kick package was offered from the beginning of the season. With Verizon, there are approximately 10 NBA/MLS channels. Most MLS games are on Saturday night. It seems hard to believe there isn't enough room for both. Aren't hockey and baseball on the same channels as well? I can't imagine they would preempt baseball for a month for hockey. I realize that soccer is not overly popular in this country, but there are still enough of us that want to see the season from the beginning.
If anyone else tries to order the MLS package, please post here and let us know how it went.
I will post again after I call them on Monday to verify that I have received my credit of $79. I also want to speak with a supervisor or someone higher up that can try to explain why they are taking orders for a package that is not available and when they will be offering it.
Mime-
The MLS games are usually shown on the last 5 or so channels allotted in the NBA/MLS channel range.
Did you even look to see if the game last night showed up? I wouldn't depend on the guide data..
I did check to see If the game was on last Night. I checked around 10:45. The game was to start at 10:30. All I got was the order screen for NBA League Pass. I checked every channel.
I checked as well and the game wasn't on any channel, I will also be cancelling unless they get there act together
It might be as some others have said that the package will not be offered for a few weeks or so. If you look at old threads in this forum (do a search of MLS), you will see some threads from 2009 where Verizon did not offer the package until late April, about a month after the season started. I think they ended up offering it for $69 instead of $79 (but don't quote me on that). As I said, I wouldn't be as upset with that if they let us know that ahead of time instead of taking orders and then telling me not to worry, that the games will be there.
I am going to check on today's games as well. If the 4:00 game is not listed, I am going to the MLS website and watching it online. I don't know if they had that feature before, but they do for this year. I am going to see if there is a free preview weekend or something on the MLS website. I think the entire season online is around $40.
I too ordered it yesterday. When I got home and saw the games weren't listed, I called back to check and they said it would come on when the games started. So last night when the Chivas/Colorado game came on I tried to watch but nothing. Not on any of the channels. Says I'm not subscribed.
So called in this morning to check, she said my order had been cancelled, but she didn't know why. She gave me a new order and told me she had someone in the implementation (?) team who would have it up in an hour. Well 4 hours later nothing. So I called again, this time support said my order had been cancelled again and they couldn't fix it until I placed a new order, so they transferred me back to ordering. Ordering said that my order wasn't cancelled so they weren't sure why they would tell me that.
It's a joke. Meanwhile no games, they are still working on it, and if it doesn't work tonight I'm supposed to call back on Monday.
I switched from Time Warner to Fios in December mainly for HD. But still we have no FSC in HD, plus this over 2 hours of phone time wasted.
@Caps09 wrote:In their defense, Verizon does depend on the feed from iNDemand for all these games, and with the limited space available, it sounds like soccer games don't come on until basketball is over. On the other hand, this is typical of them for no one to have a clue about programming. Verizon keeps their programming decisions so secret that even their representatives on Twitter and Facebook, who seem to be insiders with the decisions, are prohibited from releasing any information about future changes. With this, we know that the people we talk to on the phone are told absolutely NOTHING about this.
I know that Verizon competes everywhere they offer video service, but a little advance explanation would be nice in a situation like this. When anyone orders MLS Direct Kick, give them a little notice that the out of market package does not start until "x" date due to channel restrictions of the video provider that are beyond the control of Verizon. Wouldn't that be nice?
I had it through TIme Warner and indemand last year and there wasn't a wait. No, Verizon is just clueless on this issue it appears.
It is sad to see that others are having problems as well. It is a shame that Verizon seems to be the only one that can't start the season on time. You don't think they would do this to baseball, do you?
I too am going to call Monday to make sure my order was cancelled. I better not be charged for this and then they tell me there is nothing they can do to cancel the order.
On a lighter note, for those interested, I ordered the MLS Match Day Live Package on the internet. You get a two week free trial period, but they still ask you for a credit card. I emailed them to inquire how you go about cancelling before the free trial period is over if you don't want the package. The package is $40 for the whole year.
I had to download the Silverlight program. Other than that, I was able to watch the Columbus-Toronto game. The first have played pretty well. There were a few moments where the screen skipped a bit, but it was not bad. You have several "bitrate" settings that you can choose, along with an "adaptive" setting that will change bitrate settings depending on what is going on.
The second half was a bit of a different story. Several times during the game, it would freeze. I tried alot of things, but it stayed frozen. Then after about missing a minute or two of the game, it would come back on. However, I could not go back and watch what I missed. It was like that part of the game was corrupted or something. Overall, I probably missed about four or five minutes of the game with it freezing. I have 25/15 internet, so maybe that is not fast enough, I really don't know.
All in all, the service wasn't bad to try for the free trial period. I would prefer to watch it on tv however (hint, hint, Verizon). The picture was pretty good, and you can pull up stats on the game and there is a chat room feature. You can also go back and watch games already played (the Thursday and Friday games), and I can watch other games tonight. You can't watch any games live on this site that are on national tv. If you miss the games on tv, you can watch them on the website later.
If anyone else has any problems with ordering the package from Verizon, please post here so we can all be kept in the loop. I would also like to inform Verizon of this when I call them next week.
All I wanted was to get the MLS Direct Kick package turned on. Spent two hours, talked with six Verizon reps. No go. Wow, this service is lousy.
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