DirecTV price-gouging on NFL Sunday Ticket HD

Before you subscribe to DirecTV’s NFL Sunday Ticket, you should be aware of some offensive hidden price-gouging policies. As background, I am paying for two services, currently:

1) The NFL Sunday Ticket, at about $250+ for the season. This allows me to watch nearly any NFL game on any given Sunday. While expensive, DirecTV is upfront and clear about the pricing, so I have no complaints. I understand the “deal” here and can chose to subscribe or not.

2) A monthly “HD Access” fee. A DirecTV Customer Service rep described the point of this fee to me via email: “In regards to the HD Access, this allows you to get the HD versions of any channel in your programming package that is simulcast in HD.” I pay this $9.99 fee every month, so I get HD versions of channels. This also applies if I buy a set of movie channels (e.g. HBO): If I do NOT pay the regular HD access fee, I only get low-def HBO channels. If I do pay the HD Access fee, then I also get the HD versions of these HBO Channels.

Here’s where DirecTV’s deceptive policies start: it turns out that the DirecTV HD Access fee DOES NOT GIVE YOU ACCESS TO THE HD SIMULCAST OF NFL GAMES. That is to say, the $250+ I pay for NFL Sunday Ticket PLUS the monthly $9.99 “HD Access” fee only gives me the low-def version of the NFL Games (and that the DirecTV reps explanation “[the $9.99 monthly HD Access fee] allows you to get the HD versions of any channel in your programming package that is simulcast in HD” is a lie). 

If I want the HD SIMULCAST version of the games, I have to pay an EXTRA $99 for that. This is particularly offensive because it seems like it should be an identical situation to movie channels. If I buy the movie channels as an add-on to my programming package (just like NFL Sunday Ticket), the regular $9.99 HD Access fee DOES include the movie channel HD simulcasts. But not for NFL Games from the NFL Sunday Ticket.

The policy is inconsistent and price-gouges NFL Sunday Ticket customers. BUYER BEWARE OF DIRECTV!

This is the problem with monopolies. They can get away with ridiculous policies like this that, frankly, should be illegal (if a lawyer with extra time thinks that there’s a class-action suit here, I’m happy to be named).

Did Delta kill their online support because of me?

This is a follow up to my recent post about Delta Airline’s Customer Hating Policies. I went back to Delta.com today–I leave for my trip in a day or two and decided I’d make a last-ditch effort to use my apparently worthless 140,000+ Delta Skymiles. Much to my surprise, it looks like the website no longer offers the “helpful” online chat feature with Customer Service that they once offered.

Of course, this now means that I’ll have to call. But the details of a call are more difficult to post on my blog (very conveeeeeenient…). Maybe I’ll figure something out. WordPress seems to have a feature that allows me to embed audio…

Delta Hates Its Customers… and it’s Customer Service Reps know it

The poor Delta reps have a terrible job. Their company has customer-hating policies and the reps have to deal with it. Here’s my most recent online “chat” with one. No attempt to defend the customer-hating policies at all.

Welcome!
Note: During your chat session, Delta agents may be able to view your delta.com transactions. Additionally, chat conversations are recorded and monitored by Delta Air Lines.
Please wait while we contact the next available agent…
You are now speaking with Malcolm!
Malcolm: Hi! My name is Malcolm. How may I help you?
joel : Hi Malcom
joel : i don’t understand the Skymiles program
joel : can you help? What’s the goal of Skymiles?
joel : are you still there?
Malcolm: Hi Joel! Please see the following page to check out all the cool benefits to being a SkyMiles member.
Malcolm has sent you a web page.
Please click on the following link to view it: SkyMiles

 joel : OK, yah, i’ve been there
joel : i was poking around while you were typing
joel : great, i have a lot of miles
joel : 140,000
joel : looks like i can do some cool stuff
joel : indeed, i just bought an expensive tickets… two, actually.
joel : man, it’s going to be nice… i want to use my miles to upgrade
joel : can you help me?
Malcolm: Please have a look on the following application to book Award Ticket Reservations, to check the miles requirement and availability of SkyMiles award seats on delta.com as per your convenience.

Malcolm has sent you a web page.
Please click on the following link to view it: Award Ticket
joel : one sec…
Malcolm: May I have your confirmation number?
joel : sure, that would be great
joel : because the website doesn’t seem to be working
joel : it’s <confirmation number redacted>

joel : $1900 per ticket (!)
joel : two tickets
joel : lots of miles to upgrade…
joel : but i’ve been a good customer
joel : so i’ve got ’em

Malcolm: I am sorry Joel; your ticket is not eligible for upgrades using miles, as you have booked your tickets in K and T class in coach. Generally, fares booked in Y, B or M class in coach; can be upgraded using our SkyMiles mileage upgrade awards.
joel : so $1900 is not enough to spend on a ticket
joel : just for the privilige to spend more, via miles?
joel : for a customer who has 140,000 miles?
joel : hmmm, i don’t really understand
joel : doesn’t feel like a “cool benefit”
joel : feels like i’ve been duped, if i understand you correctly
joel : does that sound about right?
joel : or am i misunderstanding something?
Malcolm: Joel, all classes are not upgradeable using miles. Only tickets booked in Y, B or M class can be upgraded using miles.

joel : i think i understand. even though i’ve been a histoically good customer (enough to accumulate 140,000 miles), i’m not actually entitled to use any of my “thank you” from Delta unless i spend much much more
joel : c’,mon, malcom. Doesn’t feel quite like i’m loved by Delta, does it?
Malcolm: Can I help you with anything else today?
joel : please
joel : do employees there understand that the stock value of Delta puts the company value at under $3B while Southwest airlines is valued by the stock market at nearly $12B (four times as much)? Do they think, maybe, it’s because of policies like these?
joel : that the PAYING CUSTOMERS dispise the company?
joel : i’m curious if they’re aware of that
joel : and if they may want to reconsider the policy

joel : we’ll call them “customer-hating policies”
joel : i think you have a tough job
joel : defending terrible policies
joel : it’s actually an impossible job
joel : a thankless one
Malcolm: I’m sorry Joel, but I need to end this chat. Please get back to us with any further questions.
joel : ok
joel : goodnight
Malcolm left the chat.
Your chat has ended.  

I hope you enjoyed reading that as much as I enjoyed participating in it. The difference between great companies and terrible ones is particularly pronounced in the airline industry, I think, and I take some joy in illustrating why people should NOT fly Delta and let the cruel arm of capitalism claim this poorly-run company.

Have a great weekend.

Is Microsoft Money dead?

Later, I’ll write a more philosophical blog about online financial services, like Mint.com. But this is actually a legitimate question–I think Microsoft might be killing MS Money.

I’m currently using Money 2006 and, based on my installation date, it’s now telling me that my online services are about to expire (starting Sept 1) and that I need to upgrade. But clicking on the Upgrade link does nothing.

So I figured I’d just go buy a copy of the new version. Here’s where it gets strange: the Company Store is Sold Out. (As a former Microsoft employee and paying Alumni member, I have limited access to the Microsoft Company Store–a nice little perk that lets me buy a limited amount of Microsoft software at a discount).

It’s very strange for the company store website to show a product as Out Of Stock. So I sent them an email asking about it. They tell me (quoted):

—–Original Message—–
From: Microsoft Company Store
Sent: Tuesday, August 12, 2008 5:25 PM
To: ‘joel grossman’
Subject: RE: Microsoft Money? ~259719

It is actually discontinued, and we are sold out so will not be receiving
any more.

Thank you,
Microsoft Company Store

 I ask for clarification. They say:

We have not been told if it’s being replaced with anything new.

Thank you,
Microsoft Company Store

Does anyone out there know? Could Microsoft really kill the product (has it been that much of a failure? I like it!)? What happens to those of us using the software that is apparently about to expire??

joel

Honeymoon Pics

We had a wonderful three weeks in Kenya, Tanzania, and Cape Town for our honeymoon and did our best to capture it, to share with you, in pictures and video. Enjoy!

Pictures 

• Direct Slideshow link: We recommend that you click on the “Options” link in the lower RIGHT-hand corner and select “Always Show Titles and Description” (and click Save). You can also control the speed of the slideshow with the controls in the lower LEFT-hand corner…  http://www.flickr.com/photos/kivieg/sets/72157603758006717/show/

• View the pictures without the slideshow: http://www.flickr.com/photos/kivieg/sets/72157603758006717/

Playlist of Videos 

• Click on the “Play All Videos” link on the right of this page: http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=EC7609AA2E8B3E63 

 (incidentally, I tried to embed the Flickr slideshow control in this post, but failed…)

Enjoy!

joel

SF Crime Maps

I love my neighborhood: full of restaurants, bars, parks, and even a couple of delicious ice cream shops. Apparently, though, I’m walking around with my eyes closed. Here is a crime map of the last 30 days in my neighborhood (green is larceny and purple is drugs). I hope my mom doesn’t see this.

Oh yah, and red is homicide.

You can check out your own SF neighborhood here: http://gispubweb.sfgov.org/website/san_francisco_community/wizard.asp

I think I might need to move. Thanks to Sean P for opening my eyes (and then making me feel better by moving to this ‘hood too).

My Day with the iPhone

Played with the iPhone today. It’s beautiful. The photos and iPod are particularly well done, of course, and the phone is pretty nice, too. I haven’t spent all that much time with it, but no surprises:

• EDGE is painfully slow, rendering the browser nearly useless
• The phone is smaller than I thought it was. Bigger than a perl, but maybe thinner
• The screen smudges, a lot
• It requires iTunes to activate
• It wasn’t immediately obvious to me how to add contacts beyond typing all the info, which is tough
• The keyboard was tricky, but not actually as tricky as I thought it would be. I believe reports that you get used to it after a few days
• It’s fun to use because Apple just nails design–they offer you exactly the option you need when you need it–it’s amazing to me that no phone manufacturer has ever offered the “merge calls” button that the iPhone has–which I’ve needed on many occasions (and I’ve never been able to figure out how to do a conf call on any mobile phone i’ve owned)
• The visual treatment throughout is fantastic.
• There were actually a number of situations in which I got a little lost–I wasn’t clear how to get out, move on, etc. However, these were always recoverable (hitting the power button returns you to the home screen) and i’m sure that, with a little learning, these will be non-issues.
• The iPhone itself got warm to the touch after just a bit of use; also, i did manage to hang it once, requiring a reboot… I was configuring a setting on Yahoo Mail and the entire thing froze

Overall, it lived up to expectations (impressive because they were high) and now I’m back to wondering if this thing could really be huge after all. I still say that the price, the slow network, and the requirement that you sign a two year contract with AT&T (and break any existing contract) will prevent them from hitting 15M units by the end of next year (unless they either go global, offer a lower price point, a new model, etc).

One other thing, just for kicks–the friends who bought this iPhone happened to decide to go to an AT&T store in a mall that also had an Apple store (we had heard that AT&T stores limited them to 1 phone per person, so figured the odds were better there). The shopping experience at the two stores could not have been more different:

Apple Store

• Employees applaud you on the way out
• T-shirts, festivities, streamlined process
• One employee told them (the day before) that they couldn’t believe that they got to be part of the launch

AT&T

• Delays, slow process, constant reminder that you had to call Apple for support
• Gave you your one phone in a heat-sealed AT&T bag. If you opened that bag and returned the phone, even if it was still sealed and unopened, you faced a 10% restocking fee
• One employee told them (the day before) that staffing at 6 pm on launch day would be a total nightmare and they’d try to get out of it (switch shifts), except that they were afraid they’d be fired for that

Kudos to Jobs and Apple. Both national treasures in my book.

Who waits in line at midnight for an operating system?

It has been some time since I’ve blogged. I won’t waste your time trying to think of an excuse.

This afternoon, I was watching a video on CNet about the San Francisco release of Windows Vista. They said that they were expecting 500 – 1,000 people to wait outside.

Who on earth would wait in line outside of a store (CompUSA) at midnight for an Operating System?

• It’s not going sell out like the XBox (since the OS is just software, it’s easy to make more)
• It’s not that much “fun” (I apologize to my ‘softie friends, but c’mon, it’s an OS–what are you going to do, watch your disk defrag?)
• It probably takes upwards of an hour to install, so if you get home at 1 AM… I honestly don’t get it.

Then I watched the video. The applesauce explanation does clarify most of it…

Yahoo Music Jukebox

It’s been nearly 6 months since I’ve written here because, well, I haven’t really had the time. Today, though, I do… AND I have something to write about.

I’m a recent subescriber to the Yahoo Music Jukebox with Yahoo! Unlimited To Go: a subscription service (roughly $10/mo) that allows me to download an unlimited number of songs for playing on my PCs (up to 3) and my Creative Rio MP3 player (the songs stick around as long as I keep paying Yahoo!). I’ll start by saying that, ultimately, I can’t deny that it works as advertised. I had to endure typical early-adopter challenges (I had to do a firmware upgrade on my MP3 player and deal with a larger-than-usual number of bugs in the YME), but when everything works, it’s neat and super valuable for the gym, office, road trips, etc.

The Good

• I can download other people’s playlists (mostly), move them to my MP3 player (generally), and download all the songs I want (often).
• It offers some decent recommendations based on my preferences. I’m going to watch this closely–I’m not a music expert nor have a ton a ton of rating music yet. So far, though, it seems to work pretty well.

The Bad

Now, having said that, there is plenty that works less well than it should:

• My PC has 500 MB of RAM, which (as far as I can tell) is nowhere near enough for Yahoo Music Jukebox–running it absolutely cripples my machine. I’ve just bought another gig of memory on eBay, so I’m hoping that solves my problem. I’ll post an update here.
  • This really impacts a number of other experiences–the worst being syncing with my MP3 player. The user interface here is not good and made significantly worse by the fact that the UI is sluggish (at best). I’m hoping that this is improved in the new 2.0 Jukebox. Even if it wasn’t sluggish, though, there’s no good way to say “of my 20 gigs of music, put these 5 on my MP3 player” or, better yet, “cycle fresh tracks through my MP3 player based on my updated ratings.”
• Downloads often fail with no real explanation. If I “retry”, it often works (but not always).
• For some reason, I can download playlists that have songs I can’t access. I really don’t understand this.

That’s all for now. I need to get back to work. In my next issue, I’ll talk about my new purchase: the Roku, and how it works with Yahoo! Music Subscription (hint: more of the same)…

joel

The Data behind why DRM sucks

Oliver posted to his blog recently that his friend Damian (from OKGO) had written a guest blog post on why DRM sucks. I thought that Damian’s points were well taken, and it certainly carries additional weight coming from an artist, but is it just another emotional rant?

Last semester I had Professor Oberholzer-Gee, a veritable Strategy ninja, as far as I’m concerned. I had the pleasure of talking with him one afternoon about the Grokster Supreme Court case (before they had issued a ruling). It turned out to be a very enlightening conversation: Professor Oberholzer-Gee (along with a colleague at UNC) had published the first academic paper on the effect of P2P File Sharing on the Music Industry that had used actual download data, a paper which was later filed as a Friend of the Court Brief for Grokster Supreme Court case.

I want to emphasize that they use actual data in their analysis: they “match 0.01% of the world’s downloads to U.S. sales data for a large number of albums. To establish causality, [they] instrumented for downloads using data on international school holidays and technical features related to file sharing.”

The result? “Downloads have an effect on sales which is statistically indistinguishable from zero. Moreover, [the] estimates are of moderate economic significance and are inconsistent with claims that file sharing can explain the decline in music sales during our study period.”

The actual study is interesting, but long and dense. Fortunately, the Friend of the Court Brief is short and readable.

So Damian’s gut instinct, that “before a million people can buy our record, a million people have to hear our music and like it enough to go looking for it. That ain’t gonna happen without a lot of people playing us for their friends, which, in turn, ain’t gonna happen without a fair amount of file sharing” is 100% correct and backed up by real quantifiable evidence.

Smart Rock Star.

joel