MLB EI -- Anyone having problems?

[bagsy]

Is anybody having problems with MLB Extra Innings? Mine worked fine until today. At first I couldn't get any of the channels --- said I wasn't subscribed (have previous confirmation of renewal from last year). After a couple resets, I could get some of the channels fine but still received an error message on some channels.

I called customer service, which was such a treat. The first call was about 20 - 30 minutes waiting and talking to somebody I could barely understand. He once again confirmed that I did indeed have it on my account and was subscribed to it. He was going to transfer me to level 2 support. Of course I got disconnected during his phone transfer!! Then I had to wait for a while after I called back. Then I had to explain everything again to the next rep and told them I needed to be transferred to level 2. I still had to go through everything again with the rep. They finally did transfer me. I thought I was lucky this time when the call actually stayed connected. After a wonderful wait, the level 2 tech couldn't seem to help with anything. He had me reset the receiver AGAIN, even though I told him I had already done it several times. Then he decided he needed to check to see if the channels I couldn't get were blacked out. I tried to tell him I only had a few blackouts and none of these were included. He told me they could have changed and checked to see if West Virginia was in St. Louis or Houston's blackout area!?!?!?! I wanted to ask him if he knew the geography of the US, but I kept my mouth shut. Once he took about 5 minutes to do this search, he agreed with me that it wasn't blacked out. He said they were aware of MLB EI problems and they hoped it would eventually come back on and I would just have to wait. I only keep DTV during baseball season and then suspend it during the offseason (because I think the dvr -- standard def -- is the absolutely most horrible piece of equipment), so I'm basically paying a butt load for not being able to watch anything that I want to. I even tried to schedule some EI recordings for later (shows up in the guide), and I am not able to schedule the recordings. It gives me the "showings" and "done" options and doesn't give the "record" option.

I've looked on several different forums and have not found anywhere at all anybody who is complaining about these problems. It makes me believe his spiel about there being a known problem was just an answer to get me off the phone. Is there anybody else having these issues? I'd like to think he wasn't lying to me, but it's getting pretty tough to believe that. Since I talked to 3 separate customer reps and didn't get my problems solved, I sent an e-mail just to give my issues and basically complain because I was spending so much money just to watch baseball (basically one particular team), and I am not able to watch it. I got a response that said problems were too difficult to solve through e-mail and "people have a lot of luck" calling the 1-800 number and talking to customer support. I guess they couldn't comprehend that I wrote and said I talked to 3 people and didn't have any luck at all. So frustrating!!! Is there any other number I can call to try to get this taken care of? I hate the fact that I am paying $160 for MLB EI, $12 a month for the sports pack (DTV does not offer one of my RSN on the regular packages, so I have to get the sports pack to be able to see any of their games), plus I have the $60 a month (and all associated fees) for the package. I got that package because the good deal offered last year (took 4 months to get all of the billing / rebate issues straightened out last year). I haven't gotten a bill again yet since I reactivated my account, but from the little bit of info I can see online, billing is messed up again. Once I get it all straightened out, I plan to reduce the plan to the family plan. That will save a little bit. I'm still spending WAY too much to not be able to watch or record the games I want to see. (Sorry for the rant, but I'm so fed up with DTV at this point -- just glad I kept my other service because of the terrible DTV dvr).

 

[T_N_T]

Is anybody having problems with MLB Extra Innings? Mine worked fine until today. At first I couldn't get any of the channels --- said I wasn't subscribed (have previous confirmation of renewal from last year). After a couple resets, I could get some of the channels fine but still received an error message on some channels.

I called customer service, which was such a treat. The first call was about 20 - 30 minutes waiting and talking to somebody I could barely understand. He once again confirmed that I did indeed have it on my account and was subscribed to it. He was going to transfer me to level 2 support. Of course I got disconnected during his phone transfer!! Then I had to wait for a while after I called back. Then I had to explain everything again to the next rep and told them I needed to be transferred to level 2. I still had to go through everything again with the rep. They finally did transfer me. I thought I was lucky this time when the call actually stayed connected. After a wonderful wait, the level 2 tech couldn't seem to help with anything. He had me reset the receiver AGAIN, even though I told him I had already done it several times. Then he decided he needed to check to see if the channels I couldn't get were blacked out. I tried to tell him I only had a few blackouts and none of these were included. He told me they could have changed and checked to see if West Virginia was in St. Louis or Houston's blackout area!?!?!?! I wanted to ask him if he knew the geography of the US, but I kept my mouth shut. Once he took about 5 minutes to do this search, he agreed with me that it wasn't blacked out. He said they were aware of MLB EI problems and they hoped it would eventually come back on and I would just have to wait. I only keep DTV during baseball season and then suspend it during the offseason (because I think the dvr -- standard def -- is the absolutely most horrible piece of equipment), so I'm basically paying a butt load for not being able to watch anything that I want to. I even tried to schedule some EI recordings for later (shows up in the guide), and I am not able to schedule the recordings. It gives me the "showings" and "done" options and doesn't give the "record" option.

I've looked on several different forums and have not found anywhere at all anybody who is complaining about these problems. It makes me believe his spiel about there being a known problem was just an answer to get me off the phone. Is there anybody else having these issues? I'd like to think he wasn't lying to me, but it's getting pretty tough to believe that. Since I talked to 3 separate customer reps and didn't get my problems solved, I sent an e-mail just to give my issues and basically complain because I was spending so much money just to watch baseball (basically one particular team), and I am not able to watch it. I got a response that said problems were too difficult to solve through e-mail and "people have a lot of luck" calling the 1-800 number and talking to customer support. I guess they couldn't comprehend that I wrote and said I talked to 3 people and didn't have any luck at all. So frustrating!!! Is there any other number I can call to try to get this taken care of? I hate the fact that I am paying $160 for MLB EI, $12 a month for the sports pack (DTV does not offer one of my RSN on the regular packages, so I have to get the sports pack to be able to see any of their games), plus I have the $60 a month (and all associated fees) for the package. I got that package because the good deal offered last year (took 4 months to get all of the billing / rebate issues straightened out last year). I haven't gotten a bill again yet since I reactivated my account, but from the little bit of info I can see online, billing is messed up again. Once I get it all straightened out, I plan to reduce the plan to the family plan. That will save a little bit. I'm still spending WAY too much to not be able to watch or record the games I want to see. (Sorry for the rant, but I'm so fed up with DTV at this point -- just glad I kept my other service because of the terrible DTV dvr).

I have not had any issue's with either Game Mix/MLB EI SD or MLB EI HD all night, it sounds like an issue with your account of some sort, I would call back and ask for a supervisor or some person of higher authority, because it sounds like the tier 1 and tier 2 support is not doing the job for you, sorry for your bad experience, but sometimes these things happen as with any service like this.

 

[shodobe]

I had problems up until I had them re-authorize my account. I couldn't view any of the HD games and when I clicked on a game in the GameMix, it would go black with sound. I did eventually find the game channels in the HDTC section and now can switch to them thru the gameMix. Go figure!

 

[T_N_T]

I have noticed watching the Indians/Angels channels, they are periodically freezing, none of the other channels are doing this, so it could be a problem with D* getting the feeds.

 

[levibluewa]

RE freezing...

I've noticed this periodically. It showed up the other night when watching 651-1, Mariners game. About the 3rd or 4th freeze there was an audio/video mis-match that resulted and continued thru the rest of the game. It was during the free preview and the same audio mis-match was present on the mlb channel as well. The SD feed was NOT effected.

 

[Sori4mvp]

I personally haven't had any issues. Sometimes they can fix it by taking down your service completely across the board then reactivating it. Maybe that might help, did they try doing that?

 

[bagsy]

Pretty much the only thing they did was send a signal to my dvr and have me reset it. They did this a couple times. I guess each person I spoke with didn't think the other person did it correctly. When I call this evening I will have them try to re-authorize the account and/or removing the service completely and reactivating it. Hopefully one of those things will do the trick. Thanks for the responses!!

 

[bagsy]

Just got off the phone with 2 different people. No luck again. Of course they both wanted to resend the info and have me reset the dvr. I finally told the 2nd person that the red button was probably worn out by now, so they were extra-innovative and had me unplug the dvr and plug it back in instead. They took off the EI package and reinstated it (said it was the same as re-authorizing). Nothing has worked. The 2nd person (level 2) would not transfer me to anyone else. I asked for some type of supervisor and was refused several times. They said they were escalating the problem and for me to check back each day. I was told it could take several days or even more. There was no timeframe. I asked for a number to call back and check on it and was told to just call the same number. That has been oh so extremely helpful.

It is so obvious that it has something to do with the billing/authorization of the EI package. I seem to be able to get the pre game shows (didn't realize they were shown on the EI channels) and the post games. During any game now I get the "channel not purchased (721)" message. I do get a whopping $5 off a month for 3 months. That was after going on and on and asking for some type of compensation, since the EI is the only thing I watch on my service. Woohoo. Then when we were finally getting off the phone, she asked if she answered all my Directv questions today and actually sounded shocked when I told her NO. I'm so mad right now. I'm extremely furious!!!! It makes it worse knowing that I seem to be the only one dealing with this, so it's obviously not a system-wide issue. It just seems to take common sense to realize that it is a billing/account issue. This sucks!!

 

[shodobe]

Like I said before I had them re-authorize my account and found the EI HD channels on HDTV guide. I now can access the channels on the GameMix. Seems everything is working just fine now. I have to say the PQ is very good, even my wife noticed it!

 

[bagsy]

I used the term "re-authorize" to the last person I spoke with probably at least 5 times. I kept mentioning how your problem sounded very similar and that was how your issues were resolved. They argued with me that what they did was the same thing as re-authorizing. I have a feeling that it wasn't. If nothing has cleared up by the beginning of next week (won't be able to watch the games over this weekend anyhow -- would have liked to record the games, though), I think I will just call them back and tell them I want to cancel. Maybe somebody in retention will be a little more willing to help me solve the problem.

 

[bagsy]

Just got back into town and checked to see if EI was working yet. Nope. I did get a message and e-mail from them explaining blackouts and saying I wasn't specific about which teams I couldn't get. I guess when I said "all games / every team" wasn't specific enough for them. I guess I will call tomorrow and talk with retention. Maybe that will get the problem solved more quickly. Do I just call the normal customer service number and ask for retention?

 

[Sori4mvp]

Just got back into town and checked to see if EI was working yet. Nope. I did get a message and e-mail from them explaining blackouts and saying I wasn't specific about which teams I couldn't get. I guess when I said "all games / every team" wasn't specific enough for them. I guess I will call tomorrow and talk with retention. Maybe that will get the problem solved more quickly. Do I just call the normal customer service number and ask for retention?

Just call up and tell them you want to cancel and they will get you to the retention department. Usually you will get pretty good assistance from them.

 

[bagsy]

I haven't gotten a chance to call and speak to retention yet. I plan to do that this evening. Thanks for letting me know how to get them and also giving my some bit of encouragement that they might be able to help. At least that way I won't go into the conversation feeling like there's no hope.

My latest e-mail response from them, however, now blames the problem on my satellite not being aligned properly. They say that is causing the "Channel not purchased" message. I get EVERY other channel that I'm supposed to be getting. It's beginning to get really ridiculous. I'm really hoping somebody in retention can help me. Surely there has to be someone capable of fixing this problem. If it can't be resolved soon, I'm going to have to try to get them to let me out of my contract without paying a fee and also not make me pay the EI package fee this year. When I signed up last year, I asked specifically and was guaranteed that I could just suspend my account at the end of each baseball season with no problem. Therefore, it was known that I was only getting their service for baseball.

I really hope that they can fix this issue and I can remain a customer during baseball season. I might even consider (once all of my problems are a thing of the past) switching completely to Directv once the standard dvrs used are the hard-drive-modified high def dvrs. From everything I've read and heard, the reliability and user interface is so much better. The R15 is the only reason I didn't get Directv permanently and did keep my Dish service.

Hopefully I will have good news tonight or tomorrow and will actually be able to watch a game and also get some type of compensation for these problems. I was given $5 off for 3 months of my bill --- hardly seems like enough to cover the hassle I've been going through. Maybe somebody in retention will realize it's a bigger issue than that.

 

[bagsy]

I'm still at work, so I haven't called retention yet. (I want to be there to make sure they don't try to tell me the problem is fixed when it isn't) I am finally able to view my billing statement. I temporarily signed up for the paperless billing just so I could view it online to see if they've messed up my bill this year. Get this, the first bill for the EI is NOT on my statement. That means it wasn't placed on my account / bill properly after all. If only ONE of the many people I talked to would have known how to correctly check this, maybe I wouldn't be having the problem. Since I've found this issue, maybe when I talk to retention tonight, they will actually be able to clear up the problem quickly. Who knows, I might even be able to watch a game tonight!!!! (not counting on it, but it can't hurt to hope for it)

 

[rodin]

This is very intriguing -- 4/7 was about the time that my Channel 101 had gone away, as well. Apparently someone in engineering is breaking stuff, and they don't even know it. I'm on DirecTV Limited (have to have a minimum package to get Networks). To make sure I understand, you're on the Choice plan?

 

[bagsy]

Finally!!!

My problem is finally fixed!!! I was correct all along in thinking it was a billing / account issue. I wasn't billed properly for EI. When I pointed this out to customer service, they said that the EI that was showing on my account (and confirmed by 5 reps on the phone and minimum of 10 reps through e-mail that it was on my account correctly!!!) must have been something from 2007. It's pretty bad when none of the reps could tell that it wasn't placed on my account correctly, especially when I asked them repeatedly to check it, until I figured out everything and pointed it out to them.

 

[jcrandall]

Glad you got it fixed, and thanks for posting it.