Saturday, February 19, 2022

Fubo TV's big lie

I've generally thought well of Fubo TV. I remember when it launched, that it was essentially a live streaming service for soccer fans. I assumed the name "Fubo" came from the Spanish word for the sport the USA calls "soccer" and others call "football" or "futbol." It expanded beyond its soccer roots and became a full-fledged serious streaming service that would rival YouTube TV, Sling TV, Hulu+Live TV, Vidgo, and others. If you wanted a live streaming service, particularly if you were a sports fan, Fubo TV was one to consider.

Recently, Fubo TV conducted a little experiment. They dropped their monthly plan for new subscribers, requiring them to subscribe for a quarterly term only. They have since brought the monthly plans back for new subscribers. And here's where the big lie came into play.

Ahead of the change from monthly to quarterly, Fubo was $65/month. There are bigger plans that cost more, but the basic plan was $65/month.

When they made the change, the quarterly plan was $195/quarter, which works out to $65/month. So, nothing changed, right? Well, not exactly.

If you look at this screen shot from the Fubo TV Website, you'll see that the $65/month for the quarterly plan was promoted as a 29% discount. See?


And that wasn't a single error on one page. It appeared on another page was well.


The match is wrong. A 29% savings from $81 is $57.49 not $64.99. But that's not the big lie. Well, not the only one. When the monthly plans returned, the price is again $65/month. And there's the other big lie.

Where was the discount? It clearly said a 29% savings. Even if it's a typo and it should have been a 19% savings -- $65 is 81% of $81, therefore it's a 19% savings -- even that is a lie. Monthly was $65. When it went to quarterly, it averaged $65. When the experiment stopped, it was $65. The price per month never changed. Yet in the middle of all that, with no actual price change, they promoted the regular price -- the price it was before and the price it was after -- as a discount.

There was no discount. They said there was. They promoted it as such (but got the math wrong). But it was regularly $65, then on sale for $65, then back to the regular $65 price.

If this was a mistake, it got by a lot of people. That shows poor quality control.

If this was not a mistake, it was deception.

So, are they incompetent or liars? I'm not comfortable doing business with either. I don't know if Fubo TV will return to my Streaming Life when I'm next looking for a live streaming service. And I suggest you look long and hard before giving them any of your money.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Your comments are welcome. Abusive or off-topic comments will be removed.