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IFollow poor preparation/service

May 22, 2006
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Bermudian Green":7yxof15g said:
This is easily the worst it has been. isupport is less than helpful. I suggested I could visit their offices to explain the problems in person, so much more effective that email, but apparently they don't offer a personal service.

There has to be a formal complaints procedure here, consumer affairs or similar. Not going to happen without the support of the club, and I can't see them helping supporters, given their recent record.

At half time, Argyle tweeted:

Thanks, everyone, for your feedback on iFollow. It is appreciated. We've taken up things with the
@EFL
 
Dec 16, 2004
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Due to the audio lag, I watched the match on silent. It very much enhanced the experience. I found I could appreciate all aspects of the play much more without any sound input. At times we looked really good.

I may adopt this approach in future.
 
Aug 27, 2016
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Paid my subscription for last evenings game v Crawley, sat down waiting for kickoff, clicked on watch now button ,not a glimmer of the game.emailed EFL 3 times still haven’t received a satisfactory outcome for a refund.Telephoned Argyle,they couldn’t help but sympathised as they had had lots of complaints.Won’t be dealing with EFL again I think their service is appalling.
 
This is the email I sent iFollow on 15 August:

Good evening,

Please could you restore the Radio Devon commentary of Plymouth Argyle matches that was offered on iFollow last year? The last two commentaries have been unacceptably poor, and fell well below any standard of live radio football commentary I have ever heard in over 30 years of following sports broadcasting. For most of the time it wasn’t clear who had the ball or where on the pitch the ball was.

I thought I had paid iFollow for professional audio commentary of my home-town football team, a team I now live too far away to watch very often. If the standard of the commentary does not improve by the end of this month, then I will, regrettably, have to cancel my iFollow subscription. The current audio offering simply isn’t worth the money I’m paying for it.

Regards,

KG

Could I suggest others send something similar, copied to the Club, perhaps advising them to employ a professional commentator and an ex-pro footballer, like Gritton, who does a great job on Radio Devon and to offer a proper build up and review service?
 
Jul 3, 2013
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KirkbyGreen":3ctrm1do said:
This is the email I sent iFollow on 15 August:

Good evening,

Please could you restore the Radio Devon commentary of Plymouth Argyle matches that was offered on iFollow last year? The last two commentaries have been unacceptably poor, and fell well below any standard of live radio football commentary I have ever heard in over 30 years of following sports broadcasting. For most of the time it wasn’t clear who had the ball or where on the pitch the ball was.

I thought I had paid iFollow for professional audio commentary of my home-town football team, a team I now live too far away to watch very often. If the standard of the commentary does not improve by the end of this month, then I will, regrettably, have to cancel my iFollow subscription. The current audio offering simply isn’t worth the money I’m paying for it.

Regards,

KG

Could I suggest others send something similar, copied to the Club, perhaps advising them to employ a professional commentator and an ex-pro footballer, like Gritton, who does a great job on Radio Devon and to offer a proper build up and review service?

The commentary last night was excellent I thought. However, the sync is way off and causes the experience to be poor.
 

ChepstowGreen

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
🏆 Callum Wright 23/24
♣️ SWAG Member
Jade Berrow 23/24
May 1, 2006
1,381
685
I think its only home commentaries that for some reason Argyle have decided to change this year.. It urgently needs a decent co commentator and it should carry on at half time giving other scores etc.

The audio lag was atrocious in the first half last night. Not even a 6th form media studies attempt at streaming would think that was acceptable so God knows why whoever runs iFollow thinks its acceptable for paying customers. :furious:
 

Keith Hennessey

🇳🇿🇳🇿🇳🇿🇳🇿🇳🇿🇳🇿
Jul 17, 2006
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Blenheim New Zealand.
Why does a televised game need a co commentator . If the main person is competent and knowledgeable there is no need. It’s not like radio where we need to have constant information throughout the game .
 

ChepstowGreen

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿
🏆 Callum Wright 23/24
♣️ SWAG Member
Jade Berrow 23/24
May 1, 2006
1,381
685
Yes I was referring to the audio/radio feed which needs a co commentator.
 
Sep 17, 2019
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khennes_904":44nltcno said:
Why does a televised game need a co commentator . If the main person is competent and knowledgeable there is no need. It’s not like radio where we need to have constant information throughout the game .


Completely agree, I hated the radio commentary just as much. All it did was make the away fans sound loud!

For the Salford game the first 10/15 mins had no commentary but the effects sound was on and it was the most enjoyable experience of ifollow as you actually got to hear the crowd.

They should make a choice to have commentary on or not, with the ‘not’ meaning just stadium sound.
 
UK-based iFollow members pay an annual subscription for an audio-only service and should be supplied with a detailed description of what is happening on the pitch, because they can’t see it. TV commentary is a completely different skill, where the general principle is the less talk, the better.

By trying to satisfy both visual and audio only customers, they will inevitably fail. Give the audio-only subscribers Radio Devon and the visual followers a properly-synced TV commentary. The problem is then solved.
 
Jan 17, 2017
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Bovey Tracey
I used to take a radio with me to home games, however in the few years after Sparksy hung up the commentator's mic the quality dropped massively and I haven't listened to it since.

The main commentators tend to be very poor, tend not to know too much about Argyle (always saying Plymouth for some reason) and its normally the co-commentator who knows what they're talking about.

Without the co-commentator the audio would be drab and mistake ridden.
 
Oct 20, 2015
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The problem, as I see it, is that iFollow is a monopoly run by EFL. I can't choose an alternative service provider to give me commentary for an Argyle game.

Therefore I can't vote with my wallet, unless I choose to withdraw from the service completely (which is tempting).

I understand the following proposal may well not be legally above board, but in the circumstances it might be the only alternative we have:

Some kind soul in Plymouth/SW Devon tunes into BBC Radio Devon at 2.45pm. Plugs their FM radio into their computer microphone input to deliver an audio live stream (via Facebook Live or similar). Circulates the web link just before kick off on here, or Twitter or something.

Surely that's not beyond wit of man?
 
Jan 17, 2017
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Bovey Tracey
slingsby_pobble":3bpf1jwv said:
The problem, as I see it, is that iFollow is a monopoly run by EFL. I can't choose an alternative service provider to give me commentary for an Argyle game.

Therefore I can't vote with my wallet, unless I choose to withdraw from the service completely (which is tempting).

I understand the following proposal may well not be legally above board, but in the circumstances it might be the only alternative we have:

Some kind soul in Plymouth/SW Devon tunes into BBC Radio Devon at 2.45pm. Plugs their FM radio into their computer microphone input to deliver an audio live stream (via Facebook Live or similar). Circulates the web link just before kick off on here, or Twitter or something.

Surely that's not beyond wit of man?

I used to do just that when I was exiled up the road.

Plug the headphone output into the mic input on a PC/laptop then skype'd it up to me.

Pain in the bum to sort out sometimes and a bit annoying if the transmitting machine decided to restart for an update, but when it worked it was great.
 

Keith Hennessey

🇳🇿🇳🇿🇳🇿🇳🇿🇳🇿🇳🇿
Jul 17, 2006
2,484
452
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Blenheim New Zealand.
Will we see the introduction of our much talked about multi camera coverage tonight . If we do and it all goes according to plan it could be something special .
However , as a 68 year old male I feel there is more chance of me having triplets .