NHL Gamecenter

[Chadd 916]

Just got this email from the NHL:

For your convenience, your subscription to NHL GameCenter LIVE™ will be auto-renewed for the 2009/10 NHL season giving you continued access to live games online.

Last year I signed up for the free preview and they billed me for Gamecenter. I let it go and tried watching games while I was on the road. Unfortunately you can't get enough bandwidth in most hotels so I had no intention of buying it this year. The best part? My user name and password from last year don't seem to work, so I can't log in to cancel the auto-renewal.

[camhockey16 5]

i'm surprised they dont have a "forgot your password?" link or something that will email you your login again. $160 a year - ouch!

oh here ya go:

Annual Auto Renewal - Your subscription will automatically renew annually in conjunction with the start of the NHL regular season approximately the first week of October. To cancel your participation in the automatic renewal program please call Customer Service at 866-210-6349.

[Chadd 916]

I'll be calling tomorrow, no doubt about it. My issue is the auto-renewal for a flaky product that has a lot of blackout problems for those of us in the East. One night last year I was blacked out of Flyer, Penguin, Capital and Devil games at the same time.

[camhockey16 5]

for as much as you pay i dont think they should be subject to blackouts - i mean to even use the service you have to already have some sort of broadband which isnt cheap either

[Chadd 916]

tracked down my old login info, being a pack rat pays off every once in a while. I log in and get this:

There was an error rendering this page, please try again.

[RiSeOnFiRe 0]

I was pretty pissed about that too. Good think i checked my email today. I had to call them and tell them i don't want it. Instead of music playing while on hold, they play radio broadcasting's of the playoffs, pretty sweet. It was alright last year, but now that i have a nice new TV, there's no way id order it for the computer again. They didn't broadcast a good amount of the Caps games last year. I was very pissed off. However, they updated a bunch of their hardware for this season and added a DVRish type feature.

[ts.krajewski 0]

Ya I got the same e-mail and just like you I dont want to resubscribe. I had it last year and thought it was awesome, but with work and the hockey that I play I never really had enough time to just sit and watch my games. So I called to try and end it but even if you do the monthly plan your still stuck paying all $160 of it. Get this even if you cancel not only do you have to finish paying the rest of it they dont even let you watch the rest of the season because you canceled your subscription...makes no sense.

To cancel your participation in the automatic renewal program please call Customer Service at 866-210-6349.

Also you just cant log on to your account to cancel it, you have to call them. So I tried to do that today and they were closed, this wasnt at some crazy time either it was at 3pm. If you call and they dont pick up they tell you their hours and its like only when games are going on. If I get charged for this I'm going to fly up to Toronto and rage at them.

Overall I enjoyed the service, but if you have NHL Network its not worth the money. Or if your cable offers Center Ice I would just get that instead.

[Chadd 916]

Overall I enjoyed the service, but if you have NHL Network its not worth the money. Or if your cable offers Center Ice I would just get that instead.

My cable company doesn't offer ANY games in HD with the center ice package.

[cptjeff 0]

Well, that just made up my mind on Gamecenter. I was thinking of splurging this year so I could get a reliable game feed, but it's a lot of money for a college student, and if they try to screw you over I'll just stick to pirated streams.

[Hooah4 12]

Overall I enjoyed the service, but if you have NHL Network its not worth the money. Or if your cable offers Center Ice I would just get that instead.

My cable company doesn't offer ANY games in HD with the center ice package.

That sucks pretty much all the way around. Since they don't offer center ice on HD here I just stay with NHL network,Vs, and Comcast (that are all standard now....and then our bill went up $10 more a month). I got center ice once...that was the year Dave Lewis coached the B's. We all know how that worked out. Not to mention the wife wasn't exactly thrilled that I was watching all 82 games that season.

[Law Goalie 147]

That's pathetic. What a cheap, grasping, move. Even opera companies don't pull that crap with subscribers, and they are the most terminally under-funded organisations on the planet.

[87vert 0]

DirecTV did that when I had the NFL package, I signed up for DirecTv and got the NFL package for free a few years back then the next season I got a bill for almost $400 dollars. They removed it after a phone call though.

[flyerman 0]

Hey Chadd, Thanks for posting this! I completely forgot about my subscription from last year (which pretty much sucked) and never realized that my account would have been automatically renewed unless I called to cancel. This is TOTAL BS I agree. It's just a sly way to make money by imo. When you call be prepared to wait to talk to someone.

[number21 3]

Hey Chadd, Thanks for posting this! I completely forgot about my subscription from last year (which pretty much sucked) and never realized that my account would have been automatically renewed unless I called to cancel. This is TOTAL BS I agree. It's just a sly way to make money by imo. When you call be prepared to wait to talk to someone.

Same here. It's on an email account I don't check much anymore. SO I'll have to call and cancel since I ended up watching more games on channelsurfing.net becuase of the stupid black out garbage.

[ts.krajewski 0]

Ya I feel bad for all those people who dont check their e-mail or used a junk account, because they wont be happy when they get billed for another season. If you are really desperate for hockey (like me) I always just use this site for my games. http://atdhe.net/. Normally has the good games on it sometime not though. Overall good quality but hey its free I cant complain.

[acollette49 0]

i do want to renew my subscription from last season.

the email i got said my subscription would be renewd at the $19.99/month rate.

to my surprise, this morning i found they decided to take the full $159.99 in one shot... and the customer service number doesnt work.

[LkptTiger 1]

lol...I just went through this bullshit with them. Took me FOREVER to get someone on the phone - can't tell you how many times I listened to that crap from last season's Finals. Spoke with Jeff at 5:49 (yes, I documented it)...situation should be handled in the next 3-5 business days.

[Chadd 916]

I haven't been able to get through yet

[RiSeOnFiRe 0]

Only took me maybe 7 minutes to get to someone. and 3 after that to cancel.

[Chadd 916]

Only took me maybe 7 minutes to get to someone. and 3 after that to cancel.

It rings twice for me and then it kicks to a busy signal, and it has done that every time I've called for the last week.

[UMWhockey 0]

I couldn't get through on the phone, but used their e-mail link and they sent me an e-mail back saying they would cancel it for me

Dear Michael,

Thank you for your inquiry. You have been removed from automatic renewal for the 2009/2010 Season for GameCenter Live per your request. We hope you enjoyed your service with NHL.com

If you have any further questions, please let us know.

Thank You,

NHL Customer Web Support

[gxc999 7]

This is dirty effing pool!!! Not cool NHL, not cool.

[jww83 0]

A bit unrelated but xbox live will do this to you aswell if you ever paid for a subscription by credit card. Doesn't matter if it's a one month, three month, or year subscription, you'll automatically get charged and renewed unless you actually call and cancel it.

Just a heads up

[Chadd 916]

The worst part was they required a credit card for the free trial period last year, then automatically charged the card for the rest of the season "for my convenience".

[LkptTiger 1]

Yeah - I was marginally unamused when I looked at my checking account and saw that I had a $160 charge to "NHL GAMECENTER" when I had neglected to re-new my subscription. From "marginally unamused" I went to "kinda pissed" when I checked my e-mail and saw that they had sent me a message which stated that my membership had been automatically carried from last season (which is a little shitty, but it's not a huge deal) and that I was being enrolled into the same payment arrangement that I was in last season ($20/month).

How I went from being charged $19.99 on a monthly basis to $159.99 in one shot is beyond me. Now, I'm in a position where it isn't a HUGE deal and I had more than enough money in my checking account to deal with the unexpected $140 hit without it being an issue at all...but I have to imagine that there are probably quite a few hockey fans out there who live on a tighter budget and probably got dicked-over pretty hard when Gary Bettman hit them up for the service at once.