Apple TV and Peacock have already proven to be complimentary bundling partners in Comcast’s 17-month-old, $15-a-month StreamSaver package, which also includes Netflix with Ads.
With both Apple TV and Peacock raising their prices over the summer, and perhaps viewed by some as now too expensive individually, a new pairing of the subscription streaming services — available to all U.S. consumers, not just those in the Comcast pay TV ecosystem — generated anticipation.
Starting Oct. 20, consumers were able to purchase the ad-supported Peacock Premium together with Apple TV for $14.99, 38% off the monthly standalone price of $23.98 for both services. Ad-free Peacock Premium Plus and Apple TV are priced at $19.99, a 33% discount from the normal standalone bill of $29.98. Suddenly, two services in the middling portion of a recent consumer survey ranking of “must have” video streaming services become far more enticing on a value level.
However, combining separate services from two different companies into a single consumer-facing bundled offer doesn’t necessarily happen without a hitch. And when issues happen, as they will, it raises the consumer question of: Who do I call?
Here’s where my personal and anecdotal story about attempting to sign up for the Apple TV and Peacock bundle starts.
Already a subscriber to the erstwhile Apple TV and Peacock Premium Plus, this writer tried to switch to the bundle on Day 1, Oct. 20 … and quickly fell into a customer service rabbit hole.
Signing up within Apple TV’s web-based UX, it wasn’t clear to me how to access Peacock. I struggled to find a link. There just wasn’t one. And visiting Peacock directly, I found no evidence that my existing $16.99 subscription, re-upped only the day before, had been reconciled to my new bundle pricing. Had I double paid for Peacock Premium Plus, losing more money instead of saving it?
I wasn’t alone in my panic. Posting in an Apple discussion forum the same day, one Apple One Premium subscriber also had trouble navigating the Apple TV/Peacock bundle. “I signed up, but it is NOT possible to use this service,” the poster said. “I am paying for nothing. … So how do I access what I am paying for? Apple and Peacock support both have no options for me. They both basically told me, ‘Oh, well.’”
Later in the week, as I continued my struggle to establish my new service bundle, an Apple Care representative would tell me that she had received calls from “many” other confused customers regarding the same issue.
Just how many others actually shared my experiences is hard to say.
An Apple PR rep I spoke to said he wasn’t aware of any widespread consumer confusion over the bundle signup process. He did say, however, that he was aware of some “kinks” that need to be worked out … and that any such hiccups were probably inevitable with two companies trying to reconcile payments across two separate billing systems.
My initial call was actually to Peacock, to see if they could connect the dots to my new Apple bundle and adjust my bill. After struggling about 20 minutes to find the customer support widget on Peacock, a rep escalated my issue to a help desk … that responded 12 hours later, via email: “Have you tried reaching out to Apple support to fix the issue?” I was asked.
By that time, I had already contacted Apple. And after four interactions with four earnest, well-intentioned Apple Care reps over the course of five days, the best the company with a $3.9 trillion market capitalization could do for me was to cancel my bundle and refund my $19.99. I was advised to try signing up again around Nov. 20, when my next Peacock bill is due. Then it’s just a matter of canceling my existing Peacock account.
As it turned out, some of this is on me. I missed a crucial link in the signup process chain that would have avoided the entire calamity. A “confirmation email” had been sent to me by Apple, featuring a link that guides the user (too subtly, if you ask me) through the next step of the process.
For me, there were several issues with that: For one, the email was sent to an ancient Hotmail address I seldom use. I had forgotten that my Apple life was still connected to this old address. Secondly, I never saw a command in the signup process saying to check my email for next steps. Finally, none of the four Apple Care reps (nor the Peacock rep) I spoke to knew enough about the bundle signup process to refer me to that confirmation email.
In any event, the Apple PR rep assured me that any overpayments would be “reconciled.”
This is an opinion column and does not necessarily represent the views of StreamTV Insider.
Article updated to correct Apple's market capitalization to $3.9 trillion. A previous version incorrectly stated $3.9 billion.