Olympia Weekend Live Webcast - Customer Service Statement
The recent Olympia Weekend webcast was a successful milestone in bodybuilding and fitness media. It was the first time that this premier event was featured as an extended live, 2-day, 20 hour show. Live action, exclusive interviews, behind-the-scenes and much more were covered by 9 cameras as a broadcast quality production. In addition to this special, unedited presentation, viewers had exclusive, on-demand access for 7-days, another first for the sport!
The webcast provided for continuous, uninterrupted live video and audio. However, there was a brief, 30 minute drop in transmission quality from 500K to 100K stream on Friday night. The problem was due to line capacity with the Sprint DSL transmission line but service was quickly switched to a secure microwave system and back to 500K without any interruption to paying viewers. As well, we provided for live, on-line customer service during the 20 hour webcast for all customer service problems. During this period, we handled 293 multiple purchases due to more than one computer usage. Also, 193 technical support tickets were opened of which 179 were immediately resolved during the live webcasts. Only 11 requests for refund were received and issued and most of the complaints involved the following:
* Dial-up connectivity and inability to view with broadcast quality;
* Inoperative or corrupted media player;
* Multiple purchases upon accessing webcast throughout the weekend instead of using login and password each time; and
* 500K to 100K stream interruption for 30 minutes.
Customer refunds have been issued for all legitimate technical service complaints and will continued to be honored. If you have a complaint, please contact us at service@olympiawebcast.com. Provide the following information so we can research your compliant:
* Complete name (no forum user or alias names)
* Telephone number
* E-mail address and password used for purchase
* Internet service provider (cable, telephone, wireless, etc., company name)
On behalf of Hardbody Entertainment and Flex Wheeler, thank you for your business. We hope you enjoyed the Olympia Weekend live webcast and 7-day on-demand access.
Bob Jackson
Customer Service
service@olympiawebcast.com
Brief 30 minute delay huh???
Seems all the threads that night said the otherwise, but hey it's probably kind of hard to find them now so that's not your fault.
Personally, I will be asking for a refund in the next few days. I was waiting for Flex/ HBE to respond, to give the benefit of the doubt. I am not one who wants to see someone's company go down in flames, but after the response from Flex on the MD forums.......
Yes, I am being harsh, but you have to admit that was pretty damn bad for anyone to say on behalf of a company they are affiliated with. I appreciate you finally making a statement and acknowledgement of the problem, but please tell me why it took so long to get to this point???
As far as the emails to tech being resolved.....I will say that they were really great about it, and apologized on HBE's behalf. When I realized it wasn't their fault, I accepted that and let them be. There was no resolution of the problem at that time at all however. The night show worked great, with no probs other than lots of pixalation on the screen, but that happens on a monitor and is not your fault. For only $5 bucks cheaper than being on PPV it was a ripoff and a let down. Not trying to bash you guys, but that's how it is. If you decide to cover future shows, please do the following...
-drop Flex as a spokesperson until he either gets some business sense, or grows up
-work with InDemand to have it on PPV TV
-lose the attempt at dramatic shots, and just have cams that cover the show straight on so you can see the whole physique. This is bb, and it is about the whole package, not focusing in on specific bodyparts
-don't try to sneak in interviews between each competitor
-lose the bimbos....scratch that....keep them, but shut them up
-have interviewers that actually know who the competitors are
-have interviewers that understand that if you are in the 15 and below category, you have no chance "to take it home tonight"
On the plus side.....at least we had a way to see it. The coverage was pretty good. Most importantly, no commentators babbling the whole night. It was the closest I have felt to actually being in the audience of any PPV becaus of the last part.
