Season Restart

[Paul]

OK I REALLY COULD DO WITH HELP - PLEASE. I've been at this for over three hours now. It's not for me, I couldn't give a fig anymore, but my lad is desperate to watch the game.

I've finally managed to redeem the code sent to me by the club - I did this on the tablet we need to use. My son needs to watch the game on his tablet, a Samsung and obviously Android because he doesn't have a laptop/PC and Covid-19 prevents me from entering his house so I can't take my laptop inside - I do have his tablet though! I've downloaded the Rovers app from Playstore and can use the app successfully!!!

I have an email from Rovers which gave me the code and states:

"Test the system before matchday! Take a look at some match highlights from previous fixtures to make sure you have access and your device works properly. Premium content will only be available to premium subscribers."

If I go to Highlights I can watch SOME of these but not all. For example I can Derby v Rovers with the image showing the teams coming out. Next to this image is another for the same game but it shows a season ticket. If I try to watch this video I get the message "Alert. To watch this content please upgrade your account" It's the same game for goodness sake!!! The same applies to other matches.

Then I go to Latest Videos and click the image of the Tony Mowbray interview, again I get the message "Alert......" If I go to Latest News, Community etc. all I get is "Alert....."

I cannot find anywhere in the app to upgrade the account. I will happily pay money for my lad to watch Rovers but it is completely beyond me how to do this. I've tried via the ifollow@efl.com website - every time I enter my email address it says "please enter a valid email address"

My two questions are simple - Do I have to find a way to upgrade the account to allow my lad to watch the game? Does the fact I can watch some of the Highlight videos mean we can watch the match tomorrow? I'm not a fool but what I am experiencing is completely beyond me and I do actually know how to use IT!!!!!

My wife has shown me her Twitter feed - it's alive with other Rovers fans not understanding this whole process.

[Proudtobeblue&white]

On 17/06/2020 at 20:20, Stuart said:

No shizzle? Testing people reduces risk?

Maybe they should be testing school kids so they can get an education and their parents can go to work.

Oh wait, there’s no money in that!

Anyway, great news that football is back with a bang. Or a nil-nil with a error from the officials.

Just catching up! Serco were paid £108m for the world beating track and trace system that has proved to be shit. There's money all right......just wasted!

[Stuart]

Just now, Proudtobeblue&white said:

Just catching up! Serco were paid £108m for the world beating track and trace system that has proved to be shit. There's money all right......just wasted!

Yeah, not really the same thing.

One was an attempt to end lockdown, the other an attempt to avoid bloated football clubs losing money.

We aren’t going to agree on this so it’s probably best just to drop it.

[Proudtobeblue&white]

1 minute ago, Stuart said:

Yeah, not really the same thing.

One was an attempt to end lockdown, the other an attempt to avoid bloated football clubs losing money.

We aren’t going to agree on this so it’s probably best just to drop it.

Stuart, if you're asking me the question as to which is more important, all children going back to school/college, against football coming back behind closed doors, the former every time.

[Ossydave]

10 hours ago, Paul said:

OK I REALLY COULD DO WITH HELP - PLEASE. I've been at this for over three hours now. It's not for me, I couldn't give a fig anymore, but my lad is desperate to watch the game.

I've finally managed to redeem the code sent to me by the club - I did this on the tablet we need to use. My son needs to watch the game on his tablet, a Samsung and obviously Android because he doesn't have a laptop/PC and Covid-19 prevents me from entering his house so I can't take my laptop inside - I do have his tablet though! I've downloaded the Rovers app from Playstore and can use the app successfully!!!

I have an email from Rovers which gave me the code and states:

"Test the system before matchday! Take a look at some match highlights from previous fixtures to make sure you have access and your device works properly. Premium content will only be available to premium subscribers."

If I go to Highlights I can watch SOME of these but not all. For example I can Derby v Rovers with the image showing the teams coming out. Next to this image is another for the same game but it shows a season ticket. If I try to watch this video I get the message "Alert. To watch this content please upgrade your account" It's the same game for goodness sake!!! The same applies to other matches.

Then I go to Latest Videos and click the image of the Tony Mowbray interview, again I get the message "Alert......" If I go to Latest News, Community etc. all I get is "Alert....."

I cannot find anywhere in the app to upgrade the account. I will happily pay money for my lad to watch Rovers but it is completely beyond me how to do this. I've tried via the ifollow@efl.com website - every time I enter my email address it says "please enter a valid email address"

My two questions are simple - Do I have to find a way to upgrade the account to allow my lad to watch the game? Does the fact I can watch some of the Highlight videos mean we can watch the match tomorrow? I'm not a fool but what I am experiencing is completely beyond me and I do actually know how to use IT!!!!!

My wife has shown me her Twitter feed - it's alive with other Rovers fans not understanding this whole process.

I can't really help but from what I'm reading its affecting fans from every single club, it's an ifollow balls up. My dad still hasn't got his sorted, he was speaking to someone from the club yesterday and they couldn't resolve it so have now had to raise a ticket with the IT team at ifollow to contact him. Who knows when that will be, imagine they're snowed under!

[Mattyblue]

It’s from Henry Winter’s piece in The Times this morning.

Almost a throwaway comment that of course fans should be expecting either refunds, discounts on next season or formally be able to donate it - so a choice.

Shows just how different this club’s stance is...

Edited June 20, 2020 by Mattyblue

[Stuart]

The way Rovers have set out their ‘Restart’ stall, rather than a straightforward and automatically sympathetic process, people are likely to have to ‘beg’ for their money back.

The club should not be treating fans with as dismissively as they are anyway but they certainly should not be taking their dignity away as well.

They should be concerned that anyone who has to go through the shame of phoning the club and explaining that they’ve fallen on hard times will never want to come back.

[Mattyblue]

Also in today’s Times -

QPR gave ST holders a choice - ifollow, refund or discount for next season.

A third have asked for a ‘refund’, now I don’t know if that means a straight refund or a deferred one.

We get similar gates here, so if that was replicated here that would be less than 3,000 refunds at around £40 a pop, it’s very worrying if the club thinks that is threatening the very existence of Blackburn Rovers...

Edited June 20, 2020 by Mattyblue

[magicalmortensleftpeg]

24 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

Also in today’s Times -

QPR gave ST holders a choice - ifollow, refund or discount for next season.

A third have asked for a ‘refund’, now I don’t know if that means a straight refund or a deferred one.

We get similar gates here, so if that was replicated here that would be less than 3,000 refunds at around £40 a pop, it’s very worrying if the club thinks that is threatening the very existence of Blackburn Rovers...

They get similar gates... IN WEST LONDON. Be very surprised if we didn’t get a significantly higher proportion of our fan base asking for refunds. Given that the club make a loss on every game where we don’t get 15k fans, I understand their concern. I do think the right move is to offer refunds but I’m not sure we can compare our area of support to QPRs.

[Mattyblue]

Of course we can, their fan base isn’t Chelsea’s, or even Fulham’s socioeconomically, it comes largely from the Hounslow/Heathrow/Hillingdon areas, not leafy west London.

With all due respect Morten how on earth would you know that significantly more Rovers fans would ask for refunds? The remaining 8/9000 ST holders have been enormously loyal this past decade of shite. We aren’t all yokels with outdoor loos up here.

Most ST holders I know wouldn’t have requested one, so anecdotally a third seems a fair enough figure to me.

 

Edited June 20, 2020 by Mattyblue

[OldEwoodBlue]

France open stadiums for 5000 fans.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/53119479

[rigger]

34 minutes ago, OldEwoodBlue said:

France open stadiums for 5000 fans.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/53119479

I wonder if our stadiums re-opening will coincide with the play-off final being at Wembley?

[rigger]

Are the cutouts onview at Ewood today a reflection of renewals we will get next season?

[Mattyblue]

As expected, it’s fallen over...

[Stuart]

.

Edited June 20, 2020 by Stuart

[Paul]

Tried to get in at 2.45 but constantly getting "connection error, no internet access." I was able to use Google Chrome! Uninstalled and reinstalled the app twice, got in but couldn't watch. Tried to buy a £10 pass to see if that would work. Couldn't buy a pass because I've already got one!!!!

After failing to buy a pass I went back to the app which asked me to log in - for the first time in 24 hours. Eventually got the feed at 3.12.

Better than I expected and we won.

The technology is awful.

[Cherry Blue]

A good win but I'm disillusioned with this ifollow. I did think earlier this week how on god's earth is a system going to cope with millions tuning in around 3pm. They have made £000's out of this when it should have been put through sky/bt/bbc……. 

Timeline:

230pm - connection good, ready for the game

250pm - lost sound but picture ok

255pm - complete loss of picture & sound

300pm - tried to connect but got "sorry, but there is a problem..….please try later"

315pm - full connection

355pm to 415pm - still pictures with little sound

415pm to 500pm - black screen, no sound

I've e-mail Rovers asking for a refund although I do realise no one will read my e-mail, they just want my money.

[rigger]

3 minutes ago, Cherry Blue said:

A good win but I'm disillusioned with this ifollow. I did think earlier this week how on god's earth is a system going to cope with millions tuning in around 3pm. They have made £000's out of this when it should have been put through sky/bt/bbc……. 

Timeline:

230pm - connection good, ready for the game

250pm - lost sound but picture ok

255pm - complete loss of picture & sound

300pm - tried to connect but got "sorry, but there is a problem..….please try later"

315pm - full connection

355pm to 415pm - still pictures with little sound

415pm to 500pm - black screen, no sound

I've e-mail Rovers asking for a refund although I do realise no one will read my e-mail, they just want my money.

Mine worked fine. As a product I was satisfied. For me It will never replace Going to a game.

[Wood26]

I missed first 10 minutes. I will give them benefit of doubt now, as first game with mass viewings, and hopefully it’s fine going forwards. Saying that, I do feel for the older generation who probably find technology more stressful and likely gave up when couldn’t log in at kick off, hope Rovers take care of them.

[Cherry Blue]

Just now, Wood26 said:

I missed first 10 minutes. I will give them benefit of doubt now, as first game with mass viewings, and hopefully it’s fine going forwards. Saying that, I do feel for the older generation who probably find technology more stressful and likely gave up when couldn’t log in at kick off, hope Rovers take care of them.

Its not that they didn't know the "vast viewing" numbers. They saw a profitable market and took advantage - dirty side of business IMO. EFL have apologised, not clubs fault, but ifollow have got away with it.

[Mattyblue]

Some first rate buck passing by the EFL today. Usually they are at pains to promote ifollow as pretty much their in house streaming service.

Today it was all ‘we’ve been informed that the service providers have a problem’

’Our suppliers are working on the issue’.

’We’ve been informed that it is now resolved’

Edited June 20, 2020 by Mattyblue

[Stuart]

5 hours ago, Paul said:

Tried to get in at 2.45 but constantly getting "connection error, no internet access." I was able to use Google Chrome! Uninstalled and reinstalled the app twice, got in but couldn't watch. Tried to buy a £10 pass to see if that would work. Couldn't buy a pass because I've already got one!!!!

After failing to buy a pass I went back to the app which asked me to log in - for the first time in 24 hours. Eventually got the feed at 3.12.

Better than I expected and we won.

The technology is awful.

Sounds like you are just as tech savvy as the rest of us at this point. We all had the exact same issue.

The platform is very unintuitive and the system flaky. Hopefully teething problems that they now know how to combat.

[Paul]

10 hours ago, Stuart said:

Sounds like you are just as tech savvy as the rest of us at this point. We all had the exact same issue.

The platform is very unintuitive and the system flaky. Hopefully teething problems that they now know how to combat.

What strikes me as particularly strange is the log in process. I've done everything asked of me on MY laptop. I can see the STH pass and it shows as paid £0.00. Seems reasonable.

The app is installed on my lad's tablet and only this as I didn't want any "more than one device issues."

There is nowhere in the device to log in. Every other app I use wants a log in. Rail pass, Covid-19, Google maps, Scrabble - everything except Rovers.

After 24 hours the app requested a log in from which point it worked well.

Eventually worth all the effort as the lady was delighted and exited in equal measure at the match and result.

I didn't receive any details, codes etc. for my own ST.

Edited June 21, 2020 by Paul

[Mattyblue]

I wouldn’t worry about the ‘one device’ thing. My laptop was playing up, so I logged out of that and logged in to the app on my phone and it had no issues.

[Stuart]

18 minutes ago, Mattyblue said:

I wouldn’t worry about the ‘one device’ thing. My laptop was playing up, so I logged out of that and logged in to the app on my phone and it had no issues.

Seems a sensible approach to me. I wonder though if they turnEd that off to fix the problem.

At first I had my laptop attached to the TV (non-Internet) via HDMI. Before I changed the setting to use the TV as an extended screen I got a message that I couldn’t have more than one stream at the same time! I mean, come on.

I didn’t dare try to use my phone!