Rugby fan threatens legal action
One frustrated Spark Sport viewer has threatened to file class action proceedings against the company for poor streaming of the Rugby World Cup.
The creator of the People versus Spark Sport Facebook page, who holds an executive position in Auckland’s sporting community, has threatened Spark Sport with legal action for not providing a simulcast option for all world cup matches following numerous complaints of glitches, freezing and mixed audio feeds.
The woman behind the page, who Stuff has agreed not to name, alleged that the company had breached the Consumer Guarantees Act and Fair Trading Act by offering a product that was not fit for purpose.
‘‘I followed all of [Spark Sport’s] steps on their app, we went out and bought a brand new, 2019 LG TV to make sure it would be compatible. We’re big rugby fans and didn’t want to miss this,’’ she said.
‘‘[Taking legal action] is not something anyone wants to do, but they have the ability to simulcast and said they would if there were issues and they’re not doing that.’’
She said the class action represented all Spark Sport customers, and those who did not support it, could opt out.
The night of the All Blacks versus Springboks game the rugby fan said she had to help troubleshoot the streaming service for her father.
‘‘I started ringing around, Spark Sport admitted straight away they were having issues
and directed us to watching the game on TVNZ Duke.’’
The woman’s threatened litigation had garnered numerous comments of support on Facebook.
One supporter of the class action on Facebook said Spark Sport had broken its promise.
‘‘They promised to make it possible for anyone who paid the appropriate fee to watch all the games. When that wasn’t possible for many they downplayed the numbers of affected, cast
aspersions on the IT equipment that those people had and instructed their ‘Help Team’ to obfuscate by offering ways for people to check their equipment.
‘‘In fact, it wasn’t the equipment at fault.’’
A Spark Sport spokeswoman said it was aware of the proposed lawsuit, but had not yet been provided with any information as to the basis of the claims to be alleged.
‘‘Spark is comfortable that we have satisfied our legal obligations,’’
she said.
The spokeswoman said Spark Sport could only use its contingency plan if it had noticed a significant breakdown of the platform, as had happened on September 21, during the pool match between the All Blacks and South Africa.
Following the All Blacks vs Springboks match, Spark Sport has repeatedly said it had not had any streaming problems and that games had been streamed successfully.
Yet numerous people have complained of issues on social media.
The Spark Sports spokeswoman said the number of its viewer complaints had declined by 80 per cent between September
21 and September 28 and further since then.
She said home visits found the root cause of most problems was poor wi-fi strength and older or underpowered devices that Spark Sport did not perform well on.
The People versus Spark Sport Facebook page was set up after its founder was blocked from commenting on Spark Sport’s Facebook page because she made more than 50 comments over the course of two days.
The Spark Sports spokeswoman said she was blocked because she was ‘‘inhibiting other customers from receiving help from the Spark Sport team’’.
On Thursday the Commerce Commission said it had received
31 complaints about Spark Sport’s coverage of the 2019 Rugby World Cup, up from 19 on Monday.
Spark Sport said it would keep the watchdog in the loop on the steps it was taking to provide a good service.
Consumer New Zealand head of research Jessica Wilson said Spark Sport had a legal obligation under the Consumer Guarantees Act to provide its services with reasonable care and skill, and to ensure those services are fit for purpose.
‘‘If you’re not getting the streaming service promised, and the problem isn’t with your setup, then Spark needs to put things right. We’d expect it to be offering compensation to affected customers where the problems are clearly the result of failures in its service delivery,’’ Wilson said.