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Wednesday, June 12, 2019

Bell apologizes after cutting off last 30 seconds of NBA Finals Game 5

As if Monday night's Raptors vs. Warriors game wasn't already stressful (and heartbreaking) enough for NBA fans in Canada, thousands of Bell Fibe customers missed the last 30 seconds of play due to technical issues.

Company spokesperson Marc Choma told the Globe and Mail on Tuesday that a "hardware malfunction" caused "several thousand customers" to lose their Bell Fibe television service for about 10 minutes on Monday evening.

The outage just happened to coincide with the critical last moments of an incredibly tight and potentially series-ending Game 5 at Toronto's Scotiabank Arena.

"Are you kidding me Bell? Game 5 of the NBA Finals, final minute with the Raptors chance to win, and my Fibe Connection completely drops throughout my whole house?" wrote one customer on Twitter shortly after the game. "WiFi and Cable!? Is this some kind of sick joke!?!?"

"Just as I got Bell's Fibe Internet and AltTV in the last month, it cuts out for the last 37 seconds of the biggest and most crucial NBA Game in Raptors history last night," complained another. "Really Bell? Really?!?"

Those last moments of Game 5 turned out to be disappointing for Raptors fans, as Golden State beat Toronto 106-105, saving themselves from elimination (despite a solid attempt at a last-second buzzer beater from Raptors star Kyle Lowry).

Bell customer support reached out to some individual customers on Twitter Tuesday afternoon to apologize for the inconvenience, and told the Globe that it will be offering "goodwill credits" to those affected.

Some Bell customers were dissatisfied with the response, stating openly that they'd be switching to Rogers — though that might not be the best move, either.

Subscribers to the Rogers-owned streaming service Sportsnet were met with infuriating (and inexplicable) authentication error messages when trying to login during the first half of Game 5 on Monday night.

The company eventually tweeted out a link to a free broadcast of the game, writing "we continue to experience SN NOW login issues for that we are working hard to resolve but you can tune in to Game 5 here, no login required."

Those who'd already missed some key moments in the game — including Kevin Durant's injury — were nonetheless infuriated.

"Imagine being someone who paid for the service, unable to use it because it crashed when it was opened up to everyone and their mother?" wrote one customer in response to Sportsnet on Twitter.

"[We] are taking the necessary steps to ensure this doesn't happen in the future," said Sportsnet spokesperson Andrew Garas to the Globe, noting that the company would be "working with [affected customers] directly on an individual basis" in terms of compensation.


by Lauren O'Neil via blogTO

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