Why we published a checklist that catches us out. An audit of this site in 2026 found 99 invented customer testimonials, five contradictory subscriber counts, a star rating we had awarded ourselves, an uptime figure nobody had measured, and a money-back guarantee advertised on 85 pages that our own refund policy contradicted. We removed all of it. Checks 4 through 8 below exist because we know exactly what those failures look like from the inside.
1. Is there a trial that takes no card details?
A seller confident in its streams lets you load them. Card capture on a free trial is a billing mechanism, not a trial.
Pass: A trial you can start by message or signup with no payment method attached.
Fail: A 'free trial' that asks for card details up front, or a paid trial dressed as a free one.
2. Does the trial give the full lineup, or a demo?
A demo server tells you nothing about how the real service behaves under load.
Pass: The same channel list a paying customer gets, for a limited time.
Fail: A handful of demo channels, or a separate 'trial server' that isn't the production one.
3. Can you find the refund terms without asking?
Terms that are hard to find before payment are usually the terms you would not have accepted.
Pass: A refund policy page linked from the footer, stating a window and its conditions.
Fail: No policy page, or terms available only on request after purchase.
4. Do the marketing claims match the refund policy?
This specific contradiction is common, and the policy page is the one that binds. Read both, in that order.
Pass: The guarantee advertised on the sales page is the guarantee written in the policy.
Fail: '30-day money-back guarantee' on the homepage; 'no refunds after activation' in the policy.
5. Are the customer reviews verifiable?
Testimonials with no external home cost nothing to invent. Names, photos and dates are all typed by the same person who set the price.
Pass: Reviews on a platform you can click through to — Trustpilot, Google, an app store.
Fail: Star-rated cards with first names and cities that exist only on the seller's own page.
6. Does the star rating come from anyone but the seller?
A business cannot rate itself. Google will not show self-served ratings as stars either, so their only function is to persuade you.
Pass: No rating displayed, or a rating attributed to a named third-party platform.
Fail: A 4.8 or 4.9 average with a large review count and no source.
7. Is the subscriber count consistent across the site?
Contradictory counts prove at least one is invented. Open three pages and compare; it takes thirty seconds and is remarkably effective.
Pass: One figure, or none at all.
Fail: Different numbers on different pages — 8,500 here, 50,000 there, 250,000 on a third.
8. Is the uptime figure backed by anything?
An uptime percentage is a measurement. If nobody is publishing the measurements, nobody took them.
Pass: No uptime claim, or a status page with history you can scroll back through.
Fail: '99.9% uptime' with no status page and no measurement methodology.
9. Does the channel count survive a search?
Channel counts are the most inflated figure in this industry, and duplicates across regions pad them heavily. A list of 55,000 is worthless if your four channels are missing.
Pass: You can search the trial's channel list and find the specific channels you watch.
Fail: A large headline number and no way to check what is in it.
10. Did you test at peak time, not a quiet weekday?
Cheap providers fail on contention, not on capability. Peak load is the only test that distinguishes them.
Pass: A Saturday of simultaneous football, an NFL Sunday, a title fight.
Fail: A Tuesday morning, when everything works.
11. Does support answer before you have paid?
Pre-sale support is the best case you will ever see. If it is slow now, it will be slower when you are already a customer.
Pass: A real reply to a real question, in a reasonable time, from a person.
Fail: No response, or a scripted reply that does not address what you asked.
12. Are the payment methods traceable?
Untraceable payment removes your chargeback route, which is the only real leverage you have if the service disappears.
Pass: Card, PayPal, or a bank transfer with a named recipient.
Fail: Crypto only, gift cards, or a personal payment app with no purchase protection.
Use this anywhere
This checklist is free to reproduce in full or in part — on a forum, in a consumer guide, in a video, or in your own article — with a link back to this page. No permission needed and nothing to sign up for. If you think a check is wrong or one is missing, say so on the contact page and it will be changed.
Related: how to test IPTV before buying, why we publish no customer reviews, and our editorial standards.