We’ve talked a bit about Stan before. Stan is the streaming service borne of a partnership between Fairfax and Nine Entertainment which launched its services in Australia on Australia Day this year. In the six months since launch, it’s easy to see why Stan has become fairly popular; it’s easy to use, its cheap (like most streaming services, it comes in under $10 a month), and it supports viewing content on your mobile, your tablet, or your telly.
To make it work, you need a compatible device, and optionally, a Chromecast, Android TV device, or Apple TV in order to throw it to the big screen. Supported devices are listed on Stan’s website, and include a wide range of current, popular mobiles, tablets and the like. You can view the full list online.
How to access Stan’s help articles
When it works, it’s great. But what if it doesn’t?
We’ve had a number of people approach us at Ausdroid, by email, phone and the like, telling us that getting in touch with Stan is difficult. There’s no phone number. There’s just “one of those online forms”.
Stan has made a deliberate choice not to offer telephone based technical support, and there’s a sound argument for this approach. First and foremost, Stan tells us that there’s a significant library of online support articles which can resolve many, if not most, of the common issues, such as:
- Resetting your password
- Changing your credit card
- How do you watch Stan
- I’m getting buffering issues
- How do I use it with my Chromecast, or Apple TV
There’s easily hundreds of articles which go through things like this, and it’s easy to see how Stan’s argument that phone support isn’t necessary for most things stacks up. If you have a problem with using the service, or a question about it, there’s a really good chance there’s an article here that will answer your needs.
How to get support
But what if you just really need to talk to someone, and receive more personalised support?
Contact Stan’s Support staff. Creating a support request takes a minute or two of your time, and you can do it easily using a computer, your mobile or a tablet; the form works equally on all platforms.
You might think that you’d be waiting a while for support when you’re submitting an online form. Some services are notoriously slow. While it doesn’t make stats public, Stan does endeavour to respond to the majority of enquiries within an hour.
For those issues that are just too tricky, or where someone really does need a human voice to help them out, one of the Stan guys or girls will jump on the phone, and give you a call to work through the issue.
At the end of the day, by offering fast, responsive support in this way, Stan is able to keep costs down, and thus keep your subscription costs low as well. So, next time you have an issue with the service, give the online support request a go, and you should have your problems resolved within an hour or two.
