2019 Rugby World Cup: Spark Sport axe website feedback after complaints

Spark Sport has removed a method of complaint through its website, and has directed customers to "chat and call" their issues with support staff instead.

The telco-turned-sports-streamer has removed its web enquiry form and complaints are now to be resolved through an 0800 number or chat function on the website.

"In order to streamline our customer care process in preparation for high volumes of customer queries during rugby world cup, our web enquiry form ...was removed from our website," a Spark spokeswoman told Stuff. "This was to ensure that customers with issues or queries could come through directly to an agent who would be able to deal with them in a quicker timeframe than waiting for a response from a web form."

On Monday the Commerce Commission said it had received 13 complaints since the All Blacks match against South Africa on Saturday 21 September.

Spark got rid of website complaint option to "help customers" faster.

The commission had received six further complaints since then.

The most recent issues came during Wales' victory over Australia on Sunday night, which was slammed by thousands of customers online after problems including multiple commentaries running simultaneously, delayed audio, and a spell where pictures were seemingly lost all impacted their broadcast.

The biggest issues had struck during the All Blacks' first game against the Springboks, where streaming problems saw the game put onto free-to-air channel Duke. However, the multiple complaints in the Welsh win on Sunday night caused just as many complaints from customers on social media.

After the game, Spark explained the blunders, pushing the blame for the early audio problems onto TVNZ, though not explaining the issues later in the game.

"As previously commented on by TVNZ, at the beginning of the Australia vs Wales game there were some production issues with the audio feed from TVNZ during the first few minutes of the match," the company said in a statement.

"However these issues were quickly resolved."

Asked if those unhappy with Australia-Wales or Uruguay-Georgia could get refunds, a Spark Sport spokeswoman told the Herald: "In line with our standard refund policy, customers who feel they have had a poor experience with Spark Sport can contact us. We will work through their issue with them and in some cases provide them with a partial refund."

Spark has been offering 15 per cent refunds on Tournament Pass for those who had a poor experience with an individual game.

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