NHL.TV / Center Ice / ESPN+ Discussion - Part IV [See the warning in OP]

[swissexpert]

It's a complete joke!

1. First of all, why create another App to begin with?
I want the scores, stats, videos in the same app, not the constant switching... If it's somehow not possible anymore, just implement the scores and goalscorers in the new app, can't be that hard...

2. It constantly forgets who I am. Logged out after every time I used it. Same with the Cookies. Every other app I use can save those things for next time...

3. The app is a total mess. Half the infos are 'null null' in the profile, the menu is like a child did some brainstorming, same registers left and below but not all of them etc.
There is a reason why the Android App has 80 reviews with 1 star. All of them, average 1,0. Not one person thought it could possibly deserve a 2 out of 5.....

4. What happened to the single goal videos? Why do I need to search through the 9min highlights for a single scene or a goal? I mean it was all there before!...

5. The support is easily the biggest issue and probably the main reason why this product is so bad. No one seems to care. Chatted with the bot for a few minutes before I gave up.
The charge 120 $ and quit all support and contact possibilities.

Since I love watching NHL hockey and this is the only possibility, I'll give it a few more weeks before starting a refund try, which will probably get ignored anyway.

 

[tunnelvision]

I am one inch away from just asking for a refund.

Yeah I'm not sure either how much patience I have left at this point. Beginning to play with the thought that I'm not going to watch full NHL games at all this year, maybe just skip the entire season as a protest and try to avoid supporting NHL in every possible way. I may be too pissed right now to post anything really rational. I just can't believe this is really happening.

By now I've sent them three different complaints and each time the NHL-support's reply has been the exact same boilerplate bs you just described. There doesn't even seem to be a chat-option to inform some actual, sentient employee of the NHL about the problems we're all been facing. I don't know what to do anymore, just wait and hope for a miracle to happen I guess...

I've had my share of challenges with various streaming services over the past 15 or so years, and I can confidently say that I have never come across anything so embarrassingly dysfunctional streaming product like this one, and by saying this I'm not even excluding illegal sites. It's just incredibly unfathomable how bad it is given the day and age we live in.

 

[BruinLVGA]

It's a complete joke!

1. First of all, why create another App to begin with?
I want the scores, stats, videos in the same app, not the constant switching... If it's somehow not possible anymore, just implement the scores and goalscorers in the new app, can't be that hard...

2. It constantly forgets who I am. Logged out after every time I used it. Same with the Cookies. Every other app I use can save those things for next time...

3. The app is a total mess. Half the infos are 'null null' in the profile, the menu is like a child did some brainstorming, same registers left and below but not all of them etc.
There is a reason why the Android App has 80 reviews with 1 star. All of them, average 1,0. Not one person thought it could possibly deserve a 2 out of 5.....

4. What happened to the single goal videos? Why do I need to search through the 9min highlights for a single scene or a goal? I mean it was all there before!...

5. The support is easily the biggest issue and probably the main reason why this product is so bad. No one seems to care. Chatted with the bot for a few minutes before I gave up.
The charge 120 $ and quit all support and contact possibilities.

Since I love watching NHL hockey and this is the only possibility, I'll give it a few more weeks before starting a refund try, which will probably get ignored anyway.

Yes, this is a disaster of galactic proportion for NHL streaming. It‘s not mediocre, it‘s not even bad: it‘s an unadulterated PILE OF STEAMING CRAP.

1. Completely agree.

2. This somehow doesn‘t happen to me.

3. Completely agree.

4. Completely agree.

5. I did chat with the useless bot too. Quite a laughable experience.
I then sent an email to customer support, indicating: my name + email address, where I am located, what I use (app, and I tried via browser too), what devices I use (including the exact model of the device) and operating system (including the software version of the operating system. I use the latest), what browser I tried to also use, and finally I included a screenshot of the app showing the error message („No supported handler formats for the given URL and MIME type. Error #600“), and an explanation of what exactly happens.
Their answer? In their obvious canned answer, they asked me to give them… EXACTLY ALL THE DETAILS I TOLD THEM IN MY ORIGINAL EMAIL. They didn‘t even bother to read any of that. And they had the gall to tell me that they were closing the matter because they provided a link to a „troubleshooting page“ that „would most likely solve the problem.“ It‘s a link to the webpage of - I believe - the software company that made the app, called CLEENG. There is NO „troubleshooting page“ ANYWHERE there. I looked at every single clickable link on that page and there is zero help to figure out this crap. NOTHING WHATSOEVER.
It‘s a joke.

Let me ask you a question: can you actually watch an entire game? What happens with me is that roughly at the end of the second period, I get that error message I wrote above here, and that‘s it, nothing works anymore.
The only thing that I haven‘t tried yet is to uninstall and reinstall the app. If that doesn‘t work, I am screwed as I can only watch 2/3rds of a game each time. And if we want to talk about being screwed, I checked what is the NHL‘s refund policy, and it says that they refund only within 5 days of your payment. I paid October 8th, so I am stuck with this crap no matter what.

 

[BruinLVGA]

Yeah I'm not sure either how much patience I have left at this point. Beginning to play with the thought that I'm not going to watch full NHL games at all this year, maybe just skip the entire season as a protest and try to avoid supporting NHL in every possible way. I may be too pissed right now to post anything really rational. I just can't believe this is really happening.

By now I've sent them three different complaints and each time the NHL-support's reply has been the exact same boilerplate bs you just described. There doesn't even seem to be a chat-option to inform some actual, sentient employee of the NHL about the problems we're all been facing. I don't know what to do anymore, just wait and hope for a miracle to happen I guess...

I've had my share of challenges with various streaming services over the past 15 or so years, and I can confidently say that I have never come across anything so embarrassingly dysfunctional streaming product like this one, and by saying this I'm not even excluding illegal sites. It's just incredibly unfathomable how bad it is given the day and age we live in.

Amen brother, same experience here indeed.

It is ludicrous that a multi billion dollar company like the NHL, which is also the pinnacle of one of the major sports in the world, would create something as disastrous as this. I think that if a beer league would have tried to have a streaming system, they‘d done a better job. It‘s a bunch of levels below the most amateurish of amateur levels.

 

[swissexpert]

Let me ask you a question: can you actually watch an entire game? What happens with me is that roughly at the end of the second period, I get that error message I wrote above here, and that‘s it, nothing works anymore.
The only thing that I haven‘t tried yet is to uninstall and reinstall the app. If that doesn‘t work, I am screwed as I can only watch 2/3rds of a game each time. And if we want to talk about being screwed, I checked what is the NHL‘s refund policy, and it says that they refund only within 5 days of your payment. I paid October 8th, so I am stuck with this crap no matter what.

I tried to watch the Prague games, but I couldn't download the App on TV so I had to mirror it from the phone. Watched only the last 3rd. And then last week I was in Italy, where the NHL seems to be particularly off the board

So I haven't actually tried watching a whole game so far.

Yeah what I don't get is, that this isn't a bigger issue?
I mean there must be a few thousands of users? They can't be able to ignore them all I hope...
It's not like we demand something crazy, we already paid for a product that isn't working.

Like you said, it's just utterly embarrassing from a market that wants to compete with the big American Leagues.
They let their costumers pay over 100 dollars in advance just to create a clusterfeck of an App 2 days before the season starts with zero information, zero support and an end product that I know a few people who design way better applications in their free time.

PS: a refund period of 5 days is probably illegal and even more if said product isn't working. So legally that should be refundable pretty sure, but we all know nobody's going to go that route.
We can just complain and hope

 

[Ceremony]

I think our best bet is trying to get the attention of a hockey writer on twitter and pointing out to them how terrible the service and support is. It seems borderline impossible to contact an actual human on the NHL's end, so it's probably not even registering with anyone that there's a problem.

 

[Isles72]

I havent investigated this too much but why are they not using the MSG feeds this past week for the isles , rangers , devils games on sn premium .

 

[CupHolders]

FYI - I received a refund for NHL.TV, despite being past their refund window. I'm not sure if I fell under any particular regional consumer laws or not.

I launched my return request via contacting the vendor through PayPal. That seems to move things along quicker, than contacting NHL.TV customer service.

Just figured I’d pass it along for those who may be considering.

 

[SJSharksfan39]

Did the NHL developers give up on their own app when the out of market package went to ESPN. They changed the way the audio is presented and it kinda sucks. Why do they do this. Why can’t they just copy everything the MLB app does and make a quality product. I would like to be a fly on the wall to see if these developers of the app are really that dumb.

 

[BruinLVGA]

I tried to watch the Prague games, but I couldn't download the App on TV so I had to mirror it from the phone. Watched only the last 3rd. And then last week I was in Italy, where the NHL seems to be particularly off the board

So I haven't actually tried watching a whole game so far.

Yeah what I don't get is, that this isn't a bigger issue?
I mean there must be a few thousands of users? They can't be able to ignore them all I hope...
It's not like we demand something crazy, we already paid for a product that isn't working.

Like you said, it's just utterly embarrassing from a market that wants to compete with the big American Leagues.
They let their costumers pay over 100 dollars in advance just to create a clusterfeck of an App 2 days before the season starts with zero information, zero support and an end product that I know a few people who design way better applications in their free time.

PS: a refund period of 5 days is probably illegal and even more if said product isn't working. So legally that should be refundable pretty sure, but we all know nobody's going to go that route.
We can just complain and hope

As for me, I can take all sort of quirks and crazy crap of this awful, rushed, subpar-to-the-max app, as long as I can see each game WHOLE. From second one to the end of it. But when I am only able to see the first and second period and then the app taps out, that‘s completely unacceptable. Either they fix this shit or they lost a customer here, forever.

And like you said, there‘s got to be a few thousand people who are absolutely pissed off, because all these issues are not just the bad luck of a few of us: it seems that everyone has a problem, just by judging from the sea of 1.0 stars reviews this thing has everywhere.

I also agree that the 5 days refund sounds illegal, but of course like you said nobody is going to start some legal procedure against the NHL for one hundred dollars. So these sons of you know who have again the upper hand.
I would have never imagined that a multibillion dollars league behaves like some scammer from a third world country. That‘s the biggest surprise to me.

 

[swissexpert]

Ok the support is definitely non-existent.
In my first chat with the bot i asked why I cannot save settings and the App keeps logging me out.
It ended with the result that they would contact me via e-mail.

Then, after 2 days without an answer I asked for a refund (more like jokingly because I wanted to test if it's possible. Actually, I'm willing to give them around a month to fix this mess.).

Today, I recieved 2 mails with the exact same text for the two completely different problems:

Mary Joyce Cruz (NHL TV Support) Oct 17, 2022, 21:59 GMT+2 Hello, Thank you for contacting us. My name is Mary Joyce Cruz from NHL.TV Support. I am sorry to learn that you are having streaming issues. We are here to help. To ensure that the service will work properly, please ensure you are using one of the devices that are listed here. We have also prepared troubleshooting steps that you can follow on this page. It includes the minimum speed and device specifics that you must meet in order to run the stream smoothly, as well as few recommendations on what you can try to resolve the issue more quickly. We're tentatively closing this request as the above article should help resolve any streaming issues, but if the issue persists, please also confirm: * Were you using an app or a web browser? If so, which browser? * Have you tried another device and if so, did it work? Please also get back to us with the following so we can further investigate: * Device make and model of the devices you have tried * Device software version * Screenshot of the error, if available Thank you. Kind regards, Mary Joyce Cruz NHL.TV Support Team

 

[Faterson]

That's Claire, not Mary Joyce. She also sent me those 2 identical boilerplate email replies without addressing any of the issues/questions raised in my 2 messages to tech support. It's a department of robots with female names, that's all.

 

[Koordharm]

App still is a joke. Successfully watched Avs-Wild game. Then I wanted to watch some recaps. Apps always informs me I'm no longer signed in, even though I am, and the app shows it. Couldn't watch a single recap, tried multiple ones.

 

[Yemeth]

Hello,

I was watching nhl.tv via the Kodi addon for years, now it just says I do not have a valid subscription. The horrendous website is so bad that I am unable to watch but the home stream (tried different browsers), probably missing something as clicking on the broadcast icon on the lower right only shows "home". For streams that are live/or not yet started I have the options "home, away etc.".

Anyone here that has some idea what to try? I will write the customer service about the Kodi addon, but just to see if anyone here has some pointers what else to try on the website.

Thanks alot in advance.

 

[Ceremony]

Only the home feed available for last night's Avalanche/Wild game on NHL TV.

 

[Soedy]

Hello,

I was watching nhl.tv via the Kodi addon for years, now it just says I do not have a valid subscription. The horrendous website is so bad that I am unable to watch but the home stream (tried different browsers), probably missing something as clicking on the broadcast icon on the lower right only shows "home". For streams that are live/or not yet started I have the options "home, away etc.".

Anyone here that has some idea what to try? I will write the customer service about the Kodi addon, but just to see if anyone here has some pointers what else to try on the website.

Thanks alot in advance.

NHL TV™

First post has a working beta version. They changed the whole api, so a lot of code rewrite was necessary.

 

[miked1991]

Minor problem compared to some of the other stuff reported here, but is anyone else finding that the audio balance is completely off. The commentary is so quiet that I can barely hear it over on ice sounds and during a stoppage in play the arena music is deafening!

It was fine first game (Chi@Avs on TNT) but next two Avs games with local broadcast were like this. Tried switching over to the other teams feed and it's the same, so problem doesn't seem to be related to which feed I watch.

 

[Ceremony]

Minor problem compared to some of the other stuff reported here, but is anyone else finding that the audio balance is completely off. The commentary is so quiet that I can barely hear it over on ice sounds and during a stoppage in play the arena music is deafening!

It was fine first game (Chi@Avs on TNT) but next two Avs games with local broadcast were like this. Tried switching over to the other teams feed and it's the same, so problem doesn't seem to be related to which feed I watch.

I was the same. I figured in the Calgary game it was because of the arena being old/weird but the Wild game was the same. I wouldn't mind the increased on-ice volume, but with the commentary there it's like you're just sat next to a really annoying pair of guys.

 

[swissexpert]

Minor problem compared to some of the other stuff reported here, but is anyone else finding that the audio balance is completely off. The commentary is so quiet that I can barely hear it over on ice sounds and during a stoppage in play the arena music is deafening!

It was fine first game (Chi@Avs on TNT) but next two Avs games with local broadcast were like this. Tried switching over to the other teams feed and it's the same, so problem doesn't seem to be related to which feed I watch.

No it was the same for me, when I finally figured out how to watch and tuned in for the last period.
Commentary is like way in the background, barely couldn't understand them if not on max. volume.

Another thing that should be sooo easy to fix if they actually cared.

 

[Yemeth]

Minor problem compared to some of the other stuff reported here, but is anyone else finding that the audio balance is completely off. The commentary is so quiet that I can barely hear it over on ice sounds and during a stoppage in play the arena music is deafening!

It was fine first game (Chi@Avs on TNT) but next two Avs games with local broadcast were like this. Tried switching over to the other teams feed and it's the same, so problem doesn't seem to be related to which feed I watch.

I had that for one Anaheim game and had to watch the summary, could not bear to listen more than a few minutes, it was exactly the same issue that you describe!

The funny thing is I would pay more if I could have a audio feed without any commentary, but not when you try to listen to something why is in the background.

NHL TV™

First post has a working beta version. They changed the whole api, so a lot of code rewrite was necessary.

Thank you a ton for this!

 

[Koordharm]

There is an update of the App on Android. But "no information" from the developer concerning the changes... Doesn't sound promising to me.

 

[JarkkoV]

On espn+ is any been able to view devils-ducks full game replay ? Doesn't work for me. Other replays work just fine...

 

[jaro]

But the app works a litle bit better now or not ?

 

[Waterbuf]

Sportsnet feeds are broken for me right now.
Theres a screen that says "Back" and "Retry" or something like that, but you cant actually click either of the buttons.
Glad I canceled my sub.

 

[bobbyorr04]

SN NOW app for my android tablet sucks as it keeps stalling with ERROR CODE (400208) saying "please try again later" and did it about 4 times in 40 minutes, so obviously I'll be done with SN when I can buy the second half of the season for $139 from my cable provider in January

I did however get SN to work better on my Dell laptop without stalling or buffering issues, although it was at least 10 seconds behind the SN app.

I had NHL Live on Roku the last two seasons and it was virtually trouble free and not 10 seconds behind

I'll put up with this shit until January 3rd and then buy the discounted NHL Center Ice for the remainder of the season...

BUT ....a great big middle finger to Sportsnet SN Now