The E-Files

BTN-Comcast bait-and-switch is unacceptable

Posted by: Eric Loy

Sunday, September 14, 2008 8:46 PM

Incredible.

When I turned to channel 66 at the radio station at gametime to see the opening of the NU-SIU game I thought it was a regular mistake that happens, you know, the wrong switch was flipped or something like that.

When the game NEVER came on, despite all the program guides saying it would, I called one of the higher-up Comcast people for an explanation around halftime of the game, right after the game was over, he called me back, and I posted this on Illiniboard:

"The explanation as I recieved it from Comcast:

The BTN chooses what game is the primary game for each state. That game goes on the main BTN channel for Comcast. BTN made their decision late enough in the week so that Comcast could not change their guides to reflect that the NW game was going to be on instead of the Illinois game.

In other words, if you had basic Comcast cable in Illinois, you were not going to get the Illinois game, and this could happen again later in the year if Illinois and NW have games scheduled at the same time.

I asked if there was any way the game could be switched locally, on a city-by-city basis, he said that could be an option in the future, but not this week.

I suggested that they should do it as this situation benefits NO ONE."

Again, incredible. People in some cases switched back to cable just because they were promised they could get every Illinois football and basketball game on television. It's bait-and-switch...you had to get the higher tier to get the game, though no one was told about it, evidenced by the nearly 75 calls we got at the station about it.

I don't care less about who's to blame for this...I want it fixed NOW. I also want to see someone versed in consumer law to get cracking to see if anything was violated in this process. We should get at least something back from the two former warring giants, Comcast and BTN after this fiasco.

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