Snippet: DirecTV Now Problems ☇

Nat Levy for GeekWire:

DirecTV Now subscribers have been complaining on social media in recent days about problems with the service using #QP1502, a nod to an error message some viewers have run into.[…]

We reached out to AT&T, and the company issued the following statement: “With any new technology there are going to be fixes that need to be made. While we understand we still have work to do, overall feedback on DirecTV Now has been very positive. In this instance, only a limited amount of customers are affected and we are working quickly to address.”

I wrote about some early impressions after a day of use, and while there are a lot of positives, it’s also frustratingly bad that some things just don’t work or don’t work consistently. Besides the QP1502 error making an appearance every now and then, Fox regional sports networks are still hopelessly broken, starting a just-aired or in-progress program from the beginning sometimes just dies, as do some streams. The best example is that I favorited Fox Sports Networks, a channel that looked like it was mostly Fox Sports Ohio, but was later removed. Unfortunately, the favorited channel still shows up on my list and there is no way to remove it. When I asked DirecTV Now’s customer service via Twitter, it turns out, there is no way to remove the favorite designation.

At this point, some issues have been fixed, but the mess of regional sports networks is especially baffling, considering that both AT&T’s U-verse and DirecTV products could’ve been used as a baseline for many, if not all, areas. The lack of customer service is also disappointing, turning early adopters off. I’m prepaid through March (the “free” Apple TV was worth it), but I’ll be anxious to try Sling and PlayStation Vue when it comes time to renew. Basically, AT&T is showing how not to treat early adopters and kill enthusiasm for a new service.