Looks like someone opened up another blockquote tag instead of closing the first one…

...and Gamecenter would get better marks if the NHL could somehow figure out the blackout problem…

Posted by PRC. on 11/11/08 at 10:39 PM ET

Thanks PRC, corrected.

Posted by Paul from Motown Area on 11/11/08 at 10:43 PM ET

Once again, GameCenter Live sucks. If they would just display the video without stretching it from 4:3 to 16:9 aspect ratio, it would be pretty good. But they display every single game with the incorrect aspect ratio. Also, their support totally sucks. It’s awful. Terrible.

(Note: The people themselves who work for their support do try to do their jobs well. But they’re unqualified to handle technical problems and there are no higher level support people, so if the hard-working yet unqualified person can’t answer your question, it will never get answered.)

Posted by Muéro from Ohio on 11/11/08 at 10:57 PM ET

Regional blackouts will soon go the way of the dodo bird. And by soon I mean almost never. But one can hope.

Although I haven’t used the NHL’s online offering in the last two years - well, I use GameCenter a bit, just don’t subscribe to watch the games - I have to concur with Muéro’s analysis of their support issues.

I did subscribe when they first offered the product and it was a bloody nightmare to try and get support. I had a long-winded post on my site about it.

I’m not sure which was the best part. Inability to contact support about login troubles because you have to be logged in to contact support or getting a stock answer two days after a game I was having trouble viewing had ended.

They get marks for building the product but they need to smarten up and make it more user-friendly which includes having a good support system.

Posted by Shane from Saskatoon on 11/12/08 at 12:31 AM ET

The support indeed sucks and I’ve had both audio and video issues running through a T3 line. Ridiculous. And even though they say replays are posted 48 hours after the game, it’s more like 72 to 96 hours. Awful.

The video quality is horrible for a professional sports league. They should be ashamed. It would be worth it if it were $99 or something reasonable, but $160 is a ripoff. I will never purchase this service again.

Posted by Jordie on 11/22/08 at 03:32 PM ET

If you email the tech support with your ip address and zip code they will fix the blackouts for you. This is what I read on a Ducks forum. But I am still trying to find out if you can download the Archive or if you have to stream the archive too.

Posted by casloman from San Jose on 01/03/09 at 04:13 PM ET

Be aware when signing up for NHL Gamecenter Live. 

I signed up for this service for one playoff game in April 2009 when I was away on vacation.  What I didn’t realize when signing up is that under their terms and conditions if you sign up while outside of Canada (I was in California) they will automatically subscribe you to the subsequent seasons. 

Much to my dismay, when I received my most recent Visa bill I had a charge on it for a full season’s worth ($160US) of games, even though I didn’t want that and I had never signed up for it.  Upon further review of my old Visa bills I had a charge back in April for $80US which I hadn’t noticed at the time that was for a package called “Race for Cup.” I assume this was a package for the rest of the playoff games.  Again, I did not want this nor did I sign up for it as I had returned home from my vacation already and was getting all of the games on cable television.

Upon noticing these charges to my Visa I of course contacted NHL.com to ask for my money back and to cancel my account/subscription.  Every time I have called I’ve been told that I must speak to a manager and that the employee will contact the manager and have him/her call or e-mail me.  After two weeks now I have heard nothing despite numerous calls back by myself.  To cap this all off they will not even let me cancel my account/subscription without talking to a manager.  This is clearly beyond ludicrous as no one should require permission or authorization to be able to cancel an ongoing subscription.

This is all obviously very upsetting to me as the NHL’s brand is behind this site and I would have expected a fair and honest service rather than something that I would consider to be a borderline fraud.  While I’ve been told that this automatic renewal/negative billing process is legal in New York (where the site is run) I consider it to be unethical and unacceptable for a number of reasons.

I’ve made this post simply as a warning to potential customers of the service that I would stay away from it.

Thanks for reading!

Posted by Steven from Vancouver on 11/06/09 at 04:30 PM ET