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FiOS program guide can't be trusted

It's bad enough that Verizon doesn't have MASN 2 and carries only a fraction of Washington Nationals games in HD. In my case, I was eager to see Stephen Strasburg's debut--the biggest game in Nats history--so I set my FiOS DVR to record the MLB Channel (588), which was listed in the FiOS guide as carrying the Nats game. Imagine my frustration when I arrived home, settled in and turned on my recording only to find . . . the Padres at the Mets. If I had known the game was only being offered in SD on channel 1, I would have recorded it. As it stands, though, I foolishly relied on the FiOS guide and was left with nothing (i.e., Padres at Mets). Why was it I switched to FiOS? If I can't trust the program guide, what's the point?

Comments

prisaz

@lawhoo wrote:
It's bad enough that Verizon doesn't have MASN 2 and carries only a fraction of Washington Nationals games in HD. In my case, I was eager to see Stephen Strasburg's debut--the biggest game in Nats history--so I set my FiOS DVR to record the MLB Channel (588), which was listed in the FiOS guide as carrying the Nats game. Imagine my frustration when I arrived home, settled in and turned on my recording only to find . . . the Padres at the Mets. If I had known the game was only being offered in SD on channel 1, I would have recorded it. As it stands, though, I foolishly relied on the FiOS guide and was left with nothing (i.e., Padres at Mets). Why was it I switched to FiOS? If I can't trust the program guide, what's the point?

There have been many complaints regarding the guide data. I have a Tivo. It would have been interesting to see if that had it correct. It may have been a last minute programming change just so it could be shown.

XPEG

The exact same thing happened to me...set my DVR for the Nats game and ended up with the Mets. And all through the Mets game the channel program thing kept saying "Washington Nationals and Pitts Pirates" 14 strikeouts missed...not acceptable.

bobbo527

@lawhoo wrote:
It's bad enough that Verizon doesn't have MASN 2 and carries only a fraction of Washington Nationals games in HD. In my case, I was eager to see Stephen Strasburg's debut--the biggest game in Nats history--so I set my FiOS DVR to record the MLB Channel (588), which was listed in the FiOS guide as carrying the Nats game. Imagine my frustration when I arrived home, settled in and turned on my recording only to find . . . the Padres at the Mets. If I had known the game was only being offered in SD on channel 1, I would have recorded it. As it stands, though, I foolishly relied on the FiOS guide and was left with nothing (i.e., Padres at Mets). Why was it I switched to FiOS? If I can't trust the program guide, what's the point?

I have been a FiOS customer for over 2 years now and I can tell you during that entire time, NOTHING HAS CHANGED when it comes to the garbage program guide!!!. I am not talking layout, format, etc. (I like the layout/format) but rather the lack content in program/movie data and the overall myriad of schedule errors.

You CANNOT trust the program guide, there are so many errors it is not funny. And what is even sadder, as prisaz mentions, we have been complaining forever and NOTHING has changed, the guide is still as inaccurate as ever. Verizon even conducted a survey last year, go gather everyone's feedback on the guide, and NOTHING has changed!!!

FiOS has so many strong points but this is one of it's bigger weaknesses and it doesn't have to be!!!! But then again it would seem Verizon does NOT care (like I have been saying, they are turning into Comcast!!!).

philhu

It is very bad. I used to have 2 DVRs ($40/mo), but the guide was so messed up, it messes up your recordings.

I went to 2 TivoHD units with cable cards ($150 to buy both on EBAY, then $4/month to FiOS for the cards, $9.95/ea to Tivo for guide data).

The Tribune guide data used by Tivo is MUCH better.

So the ROI is a year or so.

No matter how good a DVR gets, it is all VERY dependant on the guide data.

Carl

I would imagine that MLB has the same blackout rules as most sports, where even the MLB Network can not broadcast the game into the Nationals and Pirates local television markets when the local channels are broadcasting the game. This is to preserve the ratings (and revenue) for the local channel.

I would assume that the guide data for the nationally distributed channels are not regionalized in case of blackout. So it may not be FYI's fault (this time), but FYI does suck.

prisaz

Like I said, "It may have been a last minute programming change just so it could be shown." In which case Verizon did good by making it available on local channel 1. Especially if it was a black out issue. It would have been nice to have the change like that updated in the guide, and Verizon could get credit for having it. But if FYI does not update their listing or control the listing for channel one, it is the same age old issue.

younganj

We have been Verizon FIOS Customers for a little more than two years, now. We reported that many of the listings in the program guide were wrong and many late night listings for some of the talk shows were directing us to the Weather Channel. Still to this day none of our concerns have been remedied. We were told that each program listing came from the individual networks sponsoring it. We find this hard to believe because in cross checking with our friends and family that remain with Comcast/Infinity, they are not having these issues. Maybe we all need to send our e-mails to Verizon's corporate office. Whom ever is in charge of Verizon's program guides sorely needs to be replaced ASAP.

cxg331

It's the content provider, not Verizon.

Keyboards

@cxg331 wrote:
It's the content provider, not Verizon.

True, but Verizon contracted with them and has had complaints about accuracy as long as I've been a customer (over 4 years). They need to do something about it to at least show they care.

bobbo527

@Keyboards wrote:
@cxg331 wrote:
It's the content provider, not Verizon.
True, but Verizon contracted with them and has had complaints about accuracy as long as I've been a customer (over 4 years). They need to do something about it to at least show they care.

It is unfortunate but Verizon has already PROVEN they do NOT CARE. Unbelievable but yesterday alone I found 4 different mistakes, i.e., the wonderful guide said one show was on a particular channel but when I tuned to it an entirely different show was on. The guide is an embarrassing DISGRACE. I have been a subscriber since June 2008 and the guide is as bad now as it was then. Since noting has changed in 2 ½ years it is pretty obvious Verizon could not care less about it.

bobbo527

@cxg331 wrote:
It's the content provider, not Verizon.

Then why does Verizon stay with the content provider?!?!? Like I said this is NOT new, it has been going on for YEARS. Why do you stay with something that is obviously broken? What did they do sign a fifty year contract with the provider?

mm112

This nonsense with the guide data being wrong is something that has kept people from signing up with verizon because word has spread it is a waste of money to get tv with verizon or a dvr with them because the info on the guide rarely matches so you will miss out on watching your favorite shows. There are many channels that are off by several hours that you have to time something if you want to set it up to tape where you are going to end up taping something that is wrongly listed on the guide but you know it is at that specific time where that program that you want to watch is at. You can go to page 105 of the fios tv programming section on here and work your way backwards to see that everyone has always had a problem with the guide data never matching. Several customers in the texas area who live near verizon's guide provider were so angry with the data that is on their guide being wrong that they went to the address of the guide provider to confront the employees of that company to give them a piece of their mind and let them know how much they hate them. The excuse of simply changing to another tv company does not exist for everyone so they have to put up with the awful inaccurate information that is on the guide or just cut the chord. How this should work is that you press guide on the remote and when the guide pops up the channels should have info on the guide that matches what is playing. Not with verizon. There are at least 30 channels that i know of where nothing matches on there even though people are paying for access to those channels where i have confirmed with verizon and customers throughout the country who are in different areas of the country that they too are having these issues but nothing is done about it. Msnbc's primetime 8pm show (channel 103 sd, 603 hd) is listed as the ed show but it really is now with alex wagner. The show repeats at 11pm then at 3am but it is not there on the guide. Now if you go to zap 2 it's website you would see that now with alex wagner is listed. The same problem occurs for a channel like abc news now channel 108 where verizon has a message of programming on the guide all day long where there are shows to tape but because there is no schedule you can not. If you go to tv guide's website you would see there is a channel schedule for that channel listed for the fios guide there but verizon's guide provider does not provide it. There are other channels that never match like channels 477, 1509, 1511, 1512, 1516, 1548, 1567, 1582, 1646, and 1781 still has no schedule. Telemundo and univision who have 6pm news shows every single day are listed wrongly at 5:30pm on saturdays. Even headline news channel 101 on fridays, saturdays, sundays has a show starting on friday at 9pm listed as forensic files when it really is mystery detectives.

mm112

It appears that verizon and fyi television (verizon's guide provider) do not have any interest in fixing problems that exist with the guide data because it continues to get worse and worse with each day that passes. I just spoke to the person at fyi who is responsible for having their techs correct any bad or outdated data that is on the fios guide where he said that fyi television has heard nothing from verizon about any incorrect data that is on the guide where he revealed to me that he has fios for his own personal home use in texas and that there is nothing wrong with any of the guide data on the fios guide so they will not do a single thing about it despite what customers are saying is wrong with the guide. Until verizon makes a complaint with them about how serious the guide problem is fyi says that they will do absolutely nothing about it plus they do not have enough employees at that company to make sure that the information is correct because they are a small company that has only a total of 100 employees where 70 of them are in charge of making sure that the guide data is correct. That is 70 people to monitor over 2,000 fios channels, 70 people to monitor the at&t guide that has over 2,000 channels and then they also have some smaller clients who have hundreds of channels that have to have the most up to date information but because only 70 people are there to monitor it a lot of the information is wrong. I see that some well known celebrities in mexico are trashing their tv provider in mexico on twitter but what they do not know is that the guide provider of the data for that company is also fyi television who is messing up the uverse, fios and other tv provider's guides. Verizon should do something about it now because the information on the guide is awful and outdated where the guide provider change must happen sooner rather than later because people can only take so much before they start to contemplate a switch to another tv company. If you were to google "fyi television jobs" you will see how they are practically begging people at $9/ hour to work for them because of how overwhelmed they are with their jobs to try to make sure that the guide data is up to date. What i mentioned on here is still a problem plus now cnn is having issues. From 10pm on to the early morning almost all of it does not match. At 10pm is a show called get to the point but what is listed is anderson cooper 360 when in fact that is at 11pm but erin burnett is listed at 11pm where the shows repeat later on at 1am, 2am, 4am but they are not there. Even something so simple as a logo for amc channel 231 is not there.

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