CSTV - call to complain last year, sue 'em this year?

billhoward · October 28, 2006, 09:04:01 PM

Has anyone tried the painstaking process of calling to complain and getting nowhere about poor and missing video feeds? Maybe stronger action is required this season. Too bad Eliot Spitzer isn't a Big Red hockey fan.

No matter what the fine print says, I think it's implied that for $7 a month you got video when you clicked video, barring acts of god. Random screwups don't count.

jkahn · October 28, 2006, 09:10:34 PM

I've been on hold for 20 minutes since we lost video. However, I had no real problems Thursday or tonight until we lost it.

billhoward · October 28, 2006, 09:15:17 PM

[quote jkahn]I've been on hold for 20 minutes since we lost video. However, I had no real problems Thursday or tonight until we lost it.[/quote]
The Robert Morris feed came in Thursday for me, too. But then we're not getting the video for this second game of the season. That's not a five-nines service level. It's more like a single five SLA. Or service level disagreement.

I would've driven up for the day except I knew we were going to be crushed by Princeton over at Schoellkopf plus it was raining. Maybe it would've been a good idea after all.

nyc94 · October 28, 2006, 09:15:59 PM

[quote billhoward]Too bad Eliot Spitzer isn't a Big Red hockey fan.[/quote]

What? You want Spitzer to fine them one week of profits and let them go back to what they were doing?

jkahn · October 28, 2006, 09:32:05 PM

Spoke with Dave at wherever CSTV outsources their call center. He put me on hold for about 10-15 minutes, then reported that he spoke with CSTV and that it's an "encoding problem" and they are working on it. We'll so far I've seen 1 of the 2 periods.

billhoward · October 28, 2006, 09:33:49 PM

An encoding problem? They switched encoders between periods 1 and 2? That's a new one. CSTV customer support must have a new spinning wheel of explanations.

French Rage · October 28, 2006, 09:53:09 PM

Does anyone else get a black screen with the "loading interface" message that never does anything else? I have IE7 and all.

underskill · October 28, 2006, 10:17:52 PM

IE7 wont be compatible until late November early December according to the CSTV all-access FAQ (they're still 'testing)

ftyuv · October 28, 2006, 10:40:48 PM

I think our real efforts should be on getting Cornell to come up with its own, in-house solution to a webcast. I'm sure there's at least one engineer who would love this as a senior project. Anyone have any ideas on how we could effect such a plan?

jtwcornell91 · October 29, 2006, 01:22:25 AM

Just imagine the prospect of having to make an international call to get put on hold by their customer service monkeys.

billhoward · October 29, 2006, 08:02:45 AM

[quote ftyuv]I think our real efforts should be on getting Cornell to come up with its own, in-house solution to a webcast. I'm sure there's at least one engineer who would love this as a senior project. Anyone have any ideas on how we could effect such a plan?[/quote]

Cornell also outscources the Cornell Big Red sports site as well, also to CSTV, and as you'll notive if your browse the nation's college sport sites, there are only a finite # of designs times the # of college colors.

What it's going to take is a Cornell athletics steering or advisory committee of web savvy alumni and students, including preferably former athletes, who can come up with a better solution that would include audio, video, a gametracker service, and site design services. The Ivies may rule the world of academia in Nobel Prizes but if the Ancient Eight cut loose in sports (let alone Cornell on its own), CSTV would have its own version of the See Ya, Goon cheer. CSTV may even have contracts with, say, Boston University or Michigan State that says CSTV shall be the only and exclusive provider of game states leaving the BU or Spartans rink.

CowbellGuy · October 29, 2006, 12:48:27 PM

[quote ftyuv]I think our real efforts should be on getting Cornell to come up with its own, in-house solution to a webcast. I'm sure there's at least one engineer who would love this as a senior project. Anyone have any ideas on how we could effect such a plan?[/quote]

Yeah, I was pretty familiar with how this worked.

ftyuv · October 29, 2006, 02:12:16 PM

You bring up good points. I wonder what Cornell's contract with CSTV is. Clearly there's not 100% exclusivity of content leaving Lynah, since these other schools provide audio. Maybe Cornell could provide its own service -- or even just stand by as a student provides one -- without breaking its agreement with CSTV.

CowbellGuy · October 29, 2006, 03:17:52 PM

Are you new here?

ftyuv · October 29, 2006, 03:21:45 PM

Um, define new. I've been lurking for about a year or so I guess, maybe a tad more.