HD TiVo from Good Guys: Advice?

[gq91355]

I got my first HD TiVo in Jan '05. Had the HDMI failure 6 months later and Good Guys let me exchange it for a brand new unit. Now, I'm seeing the classic symptoms of hard drive failure, and I need to do something as it's completely unwatchable.

I did not get any protection plan from GG on my original purchase or subsequent exchange, and they are now closed here in Southern CA. Under these unique circumstances where the retailer no longer exists, can I expect to get any help from DirecTV - whether that be a new or refurb uint?

If there are any other GG customers in the Southern CA who have had this problem, I would appreciate your input on how you handled your situation. Thanks!

[btwyx]

You could get a hard drive upgrade. Then you get a working TiVo and more space.

[gq91355]

That is an obvious option if I don't get any relief from DirecTV.

Again, I'm looking for input from those who've had a similar experience to what I've described. Thanks.

[andbye]

I had a 5 year extended warrantee on a Dtivo HDRV model from GG and the refund was handled by GE. If you bought on a credit card that doubles your original warrantee; you can submit a claim with them. I got a refund on an HR10-250 purchased from BB after over 1 year by confirming to Visa that there was no repair facility. Otherwise they want you to get a repair estimate and pay you to get it fixed.

[jeepgod]

For what its worth, CompUSA bought out The Good Guys a few years ago. They still honor any GG's warranties. I believe they have several retail locations in the SoCal area.

-Matt

[bjam69]

I know DTV will give you a refurb unit for 15 bux shipping, but then it will be a leased unit and you will be under contract for two years. I weighed this option when my HD died last week. I decided to buy a HD and use Instant Cake....it was a breeze.

[zalusky]

I totally agree. I have two HR10 units and have had the hard drives fail on both of them more than once. I chose to go the instance cake route because its simply faster than waiting for some fedex package you might have to sign for and returning the old one and reconfigure etc or driving to a store and hoping they have them in stock.

My wife wants to make the vendor support their units but its just not worth the down time.


I now have a spare configured disk drive ready to go if something goes wrong. A 5 minute swap and I am back in action.

[dv8]

I've had a few of mine replaced through D* after my local store closed and each time I have paid nothing and no contract extension... Though I will say the struggle of talking to a D* CSR is about as bad as driving four hours to another store.

[diagoro]

I also purchased mine through GG. Had it reserved before they were released. When my original unit started to fail I tried to have it checked out/fixed via their warranty plan. In the end it would have been far too much time or trouble. If I recall, they stated that I would have to bring the unti in and would probably not get it back for at least two weeks....more than likely longer.

In the end I opted to add the protection plan via DirecTv. $15 a month and I've had the unti switched out a few times....at least something works.