Area 51 - No Service Over Christmas PLUS price hikes | stay away

by abbaskip

Don't want this to come across as a bitter ex-subscriber - but I had this service as my back up for nearly a year, so think that's a decent sample space.

I used this service as they were generally cheaper than others (USD5 per month) and because they had NRL channels. The NRL channels constantly go down or end up in a loop (and when reported they often say "there is no match on anyway" but I wanted the channel for more than just matches), so I ended up finding another provider with NRL channel in any case.

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The Area 51 streams were so-so. I found I got less bufferring and definitely less channel down time with my other provider.

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Area 51 have now announced a price hike to USD7/month, along with shutting down from the 20th to the 30th of December to apparently 'setup' the pay increase or some such. Their only communication around these were on their Discord - which is fair enough, it's their main communication channel. The shut down was announced and pinned (and then disappeared to the top of Announcements under a load of more current ones), the price hike spammed as an @Everyone message basically daily. But my invoice sent from them still said the due date was the 22nd (if they can spam messages in their Discord, surely they can amend invoices - or at least put a notice in them). Users only receive their invoice 5 days before the due date, so anybody who had a renew date between 25-30th it was impossible to renew for the Christmas period.

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Further - they decided that when they said "shutting down from the 20th" they were referring to the 20th in New Zealand time? Meanwhile UK, US and basically every other country in the world it's still the 19th, yet they can't renew?

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Anyway - long story short, now that they're USD7, I definitely don't recommend this service. Much more reliable streams in that price range.

tollija

I dropped A51 recently. It was pretty good but with other subs just don't really need it and I saw the price hike was coming. And it had more downtime than the others so I wasn't using it. For $5 TNT seems more reliable but with less channels. And there are so many others to try why not swap out the back up provider from time to time.

Daddy_Needs_A_Handy

A51 changed their mind again on keeping their tickets support open over the Xmas break. I wonder if this thread got them to change their mind LOL.

acheney1990

I've had absolutely no issues with them. Barely get any buffering. Agree the price hike sucks but I've accepted it. What service would you suggest instead?

cityhunterspeee

Whats so much better in the same price range?

GreatScottTX

I signed up with them again because they have AFL & NRL. As off late the streams have been buffering a lot. Plus several were down. I haven’t seen anything about a price increase. I can handle an increase if they give a reason.

grahem

Yeah, which service did you find with NRL and ppv channels in particular?

WolfganP

They're not shuting down the service, just stop processing administrative tickets in their portal for 10 days. Many companies close their doors for holidays season, so this is not unusual.

goldenboymd

Anyone know how I can find their discord server? I search but nothing comes up. BTW I have had them for a year and as long as the service and channels continue to be great I don’t see a problem paying 2 bucks more. Just my opinion

Happy Holidays

Plumber1959

I read the notice of the shutdown over Christmas (Administration) and my term was ending during this period . I provided a service ticket to request pre-payment and they re-adjusted my account and extended the term. There service has been great for me and my viewing choices, and prompt to answer any concerns. Keep up the good work.

briabbmitch

This seems a bit overly sensitive to me. You say you've been with them a long time but I assume you've never tried many services. I've sampled over 30 and there are some pretty shady characters (and a few really great ones) in this industry. They provided notice to you in the way that they told you all communication would be handled. You expect something from them that they did not agree to do up front. These companies are not going to go above and beyond to make sure you or any other customer see the information that they clearly already put out there. Be like the others and be proactive with the provider. They can renew you early to avoid service interruption

rkershenbaum

I just received my invoice. The link to actually pay it doesn't work, but I assume they'll fix that soon.

My invoice says:

1 Month - Premium Services (01/01/2019 - 01/31/2019)
Extra Connections: 1 x Extra Connection $6.00 USD
Username: xxxxxxx

$9.00 USD

Sub Total $9.00 USD

Credit $0.00 USD

Total $9.00 USD

Does that mean $9.00 for one connection and another $6 for the extra connection? Or are they giving me the old rate of $9.00 for two connections?

I'm confused.

kratomboy

I have had this service for a half a year and its been spot on for me.vary seldom do i have buffering problems and the pitcher qwality is good not the best but good.For the money this service i one of the best out there and i have tried a ton of them including gears.I have had 2 or 3 tickets with them and they helped me within 30 min. every time.Thank you area 51 for your great service that you provide to me.

torulatv

Checkout /r/torula

darknmy

damn A51 is down :(

abbaskip

Funnily enough, my A51 subscription didn't go up in price (I kept renewing whilst it was USD5), but they found this review and banned me after my last payment (they made sure they took my money first).

I questioned why I was banned and they claimed I gave out login information in logs on a forum. I questioned where and they said Reddit. I suggested that perhaps it was my review here, rather than any logs that led to the ban - and said I understood but perhaps they should just say that...So they IP banned me from the client area 😂

I'm glad I got out when I did to be honest, these responses are exactly in line with how they reacted when they were questioned in the lead up to Christmas.

GrecoISU

My information got leaked out on the web from a rogue mobile streaming app I assume... They discontinued my service. I've liked Area 51 and don't remember too many issues while using it for the five months or so.

mazmanr

I tend to disagree with you. The price hike is never a good thing and the lack of service over the holidays also sucks (although, they had a notice up on their site about lack of service for a few weeks now).

The quality of their service is pretty great and it makes up for things. Quality and speed and channel selection is one of the best I've had. I've used everything from tnt to helix to smoothstreams.

totodee

I don't like the idea of a shutdown over Christmas but I do think it's worth $7.