‘You’re better to go to a bar and watch the game’

A frustrated Spark Sport customer is considering illegally streaming Rugby World Cup games after being told to turn on and off his router and offered a 10 per cent discount off their World Cup Tournament Pass.

To watch a World Cup game without the footage “lagging and skipping every couple of seconds” the disgruntled customer contacted a Spark technician when he couldn’t watch Saturday evening’s games.

After a speed test showed his fibre connection running at a speedy 36 he the customer was told to restart his router, to no avail.

He was then told nothing more could be done to help and was offered a “pathetic” 10 per cent discount on the service.

The fan watched last night’s games on mute, as the stuttering sound of the lagging match was too distracting, he said.

“In my mind, I’ve paid for that copyright product, so I don’t have any qualms about going on an illegal streaming site and I’ll get better coverage and better commentary.”

He said if an overseas tourist asked how they should watch the game and whether to buy a Spark Sport pass, they would say “not in a million years. You’re better to go to a bar and watch the game,” he said.

Many other rugby fans have contacted the Herald with similar gripes. “It is absolutely useless,” one wrote yesterday. “Pausing every few seconds. Spark is not even worth contacting, they not got a clue why these problems are happening. Bring back rugby on SKY.”

Dave and Carol Jenkin said the screen pixelated a couple of times and froze for about 10 seconds during the All Blacks v South African match. But their coverage had been great since. “Since then everything has worked perfectly — great quality pictures with no issues at all.

“Really happy with the value for money — The whole tournament for less than it used to cost me for 1 month of Sky — and that was when I was forced into a year’s contract.”

The latest complaints follow Saturday’s report a group of irate rugby fans plans to sue Spark for $250 million for failings in its livestreaming service of the Rugby World Cup.

Continued criticism of the service prompted Spark Sport to confirm it is offering additional “customer care measures” last Wednesday.

A Spark spokeswoman says a vast majority of customers are having a good experience streaming the games but that doesn’t take away from the experience of those people who have been having difficulties.

In a majority of cases the issues are usually related to the broadband within the house or the device they are streaming from, she said.

Spark Sport is offering a Freeview streaming device to those customers where it believes an alternative device will offer a better streaming experience.

It is also making home visits to a small number of customers to run more advanced diagnostics and tests, on a case-by-case basis.

“If customers aren’t happy with the experience they’re getting with us, they’re entitled to a full refund,” the spokeswoman said.

The spokeswoman added that customers who had suffered a poor experience of a specific match, but wished to carry on with the service, were offered a partial refund of their Tournament Pass price.