OT: Has anyone here used ballstreams before?

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For anyone who's considering or currently using ballstreams, this is just a heads up to possibly getting screwed over. They lost my business this week for false advertising, not owning up to it, and not "taking care of the customer" as they say. Not that a rogue service like this is gonna care that much about customer service/retention, but I was totally stone-walled by the support guy (named Billy or Jason) regarding a legit complaint. Prior to this I thought their support system was fine. I watched almost every game last season with the 6-month sub. If you don't wanna read all the details then just jump to the summary a few paragraphs down. Otherwise, bare with me here:

I recently got a 1-week to watch the summer league game replays, but it ended a day early (or so I thought...more on that later) and I still had one more game to watch. I should mention that if you get a 1-week, you're told onscreen (and via email confirmation) that you get a full 7 days. In my case, I subbed on Aug 8 and so I'm told in my account that it's good Aug 8 - Aug 15. However, my sub expired on Aug 14.

So I create a ticket that same day (Friday) and ask for a free reactivation until Sunday (not Saturday, since I thought their system was at fault and to allow for a late response). Their service ticket system says to allow a few hours for a reply, but it wasn't until a day and a half later - Sunday morning at 1:40am - that I finally get a reply saying "I've gone ahead and done that for you." Now, I'm asleep during all this and wake up to find that this reactivation had expired at 6am, just over 4 hours after said reactivation.

So I create another ticket voicing my frustration and hint at switching to league pass going forward, due to all the waiting and the blatantly ridiculous attempt to try and appease me. The response to this one comes on Monday saying "The original time you were subscribed for was correct. It expired on time, in the spirit of trying to make you happy, I extended it for an extra day. There was nothing wrong with how the system handled your account."

So I try one more time and point out the advertised end date in my account and reply emails which, as mentioned before, was one day after the actual end date. The response? The same cursory BS as before: "That's not how it works. The account expired on time. On the morning of your 7th day, as it was supposed to." That's when I realized the issue. The 1-week sub should've shown as running from Aug 8 to Aug 14 (not 15).

SUMMARY: Whatever length your subscription is for, you actually get one day less than advertised when making the payment and on your email confirmation. Furthermore, unless you start your subscription precisely at 6:01am (east coast time), then you actually get less than the full number of days typically counted for the available time periods because any length of subscription expires at 6am (east coast) on the dot. For example, if you get a one-week on September 1 but don't initiate it until 6pm then it'll expire on September 7 right at 6am and so you've only gotten 6.5 days of service.

I guess if I'd have stopped and thought about the fact that from any given day 1 you only count 6 more to land on day 7, then maybe I'd have thought to at least inquire about whether the advertised time periods are accurate, but who really stops to think about that? So, either the ballstreams website designer can't do basic math or they falsely advertise on purpose. Guess that's just one more risk of using this type of service.

If you get a longer sub (3, 6, or 12 months) then a one-day difference obviously isn't a big deal. Can't say I feel the same for a one-week though. For me, the fact that the "support" guy wouldn't reasonably accommodate my complaint and his inability to admit to misleading information were the last straw.

Gonna give League Pass a try this season.
 
BlazerDuckSeahawkFan94 said:
Tried renewing today and registration is closed :( I'm so fucked...
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Did you just miss out (like they close it X number of days from the season start) or are they not taking registrations for any sports year period from here on out? Maybe they are getting sued in that case?
 
Yeah I tried to sign up to test it out but it said you need to be invited and it puts you on a waiting list. Crazy to have internet product that won't let you pay them money. I bought league pass again instead which works great on Roku over my 70" TV. I'm in Texas so don't have to worry about blackouts or VPN or anything.
 
so in lieu of this issue, has anyone used a VPN to sign up for league pass so that the games aren't blacked out?
 
Probably shouldn't have VPN details on the official Blazer board. If your asking my guess is its something that may not be easy for you.

The thing with league pass black outs is its only watching live you can go back the next day and watch. Sometimes better that way since west coast games are so damn late. I watch on Roku, which seems to be better quality than computer, and skip ads. The Time Warner cable league pass was horrible quality here.
 
Although sounds like might have to wait 3 days for local blackouts

Where Can I Watch Blacked Out Games After They Air Live?
All games that are blacked out or not available live for viewing on NBA LEAGUE PASS, regardless of your location, are available for viewing on demand as soon as they are moved to the NBA LEAGUE PASS archives. Nationally telecast games are archived three hours after they have aired. Locally telecast games are archived three days after they have aired.
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http://leaguepasssupport.nba.com/link/portal/7801/7801/ArticleFolder/325/Blackout-Information
 
selloutking said:
so in lieu of this issue, has anyone used a VPN to sign up for league pass so that the games aren't blacked out?
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The NBA has a list of VPNs and they block the hell out of any IP address coming from those VPNs.

That said, for some reason Comcast and the NBA thinks my IP address is in Minnesota, so...
 
BlazerDuckSeahawkFan94 said:
Sometimes I feel like the best way to watch the Blazers is to move to another state... How is Texas @Draco ? lol
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Was 80 degree yesterday, same as Christmas last year. Portland is amazing 4 months of the summer but the rest I can do without.

Texas has better speed limits, no income taxes, less bullshit laws, and no corrupt PERS bankrupting the state. I'm in Austin which way better then rest of Texas.

You got weed up there. Depends what matters to you.
 
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Draco said:
Was 80 degree yesterday, same as Christmas last year. Portland is amazing 4 months of the summer but the rest I can do without.

Texas has better speed limits, no income taxes, less bullshit laws, and no corrupt PERS bankrupting the state. I'm in Austin which way better then rest of Texas.

You got weed up there. Depends what matters to you.
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I don't care about weed so Texas seems fine.... BUT I do hate being hot... Ehhhh at least the values are better in Texas family wise.
 
selloutking said:
so in lieu of this issue, has anyone used a VPN to sign up for league pass so that the games aren't blacked out?
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I used a Google Chrome extension and the NBA League Pass free trial to watch the last game.
 
selloutking said:
the question is then, do they not use black out rules on the free trial period...
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I think they do, but I'm not 100% sure.

One thing I do know is that games broadcast on KGW in Oregon & SW Wash. are not blacked out on LP, just the games on CSNNW and TNT/ESPN. That said, the only game on KGW during the free trial is tomorrow.
 
well as of right now it says live audio only, we will see if that changes in the next few min. pretty sure the faker game said the same thing earlier but now you can watch stream
 
selloutking said:
well as of right now it says live audio only, we will see if that changes in the next few min. pretty sure the faker game said the same thing earlier but now you can watch stream
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The blazers opener did the same thing. I refreshed the screen and it changed to video.
 
selloutking said:
the question is then, do they not use black out rules on the free trial period...
Click to expand...

Yes. I had to refresh my google extension vpn a couple times to get it to work.
 
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So you have to give them your CC number to try their "free" preview?
 
Draco said:
Probably shouldn't have VPN details on the official Blazer board. If your asking my guess is its something that may not be easy for you.
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is this because of hackzors or because its kind of a loop hole in the system? I really cant see how its a bad thing to do it that way and let fans know if it worked or not. I mean this happens to be a thread about sending your money to another country to semi legally watch the game stream, as opposed to sending your money to the NBA and just saying your not located in a black out area.
 
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