eBay Lifetime Series3, how?

[DLiquid]

I'm noticing that a lot of Series3 with lifetime units are showing up on eBay (search: tivo Series 3 lifetime). I understand that if you have a Series1 with lifetime that is old enough to be grandfathered, you could transfer its lifetime service to a Series3, but from looking at these auctions, it seems like many of the sellers are using the VIP offer. Using the VIP offer, it actually takes 60 days to get lifetime on a Series3, so I don't understand how these sellers are able to already have a Series3 with lifetime. What do you think?

[pmrowley]

Lifetime subscription cards purchased before the end date.

[ingenue007]

or just selling their existing s1/2 with lifetime to the buyer and buyer transfers.

[DLiquid]

I had forgotten about the gift cards.

Some people do seem confused though. Take this (http://cgi.ebay.com/LIFETIME-Series-3-TIVO-Dual-Tuner-HD-Bonus-w-BIN_W0QQitemZ170029999139QQihZ007QQcategoryZ11725QQssPageNam eZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem) auction for example. The seller says: "Bonus: If you use the Buy It Now option, I will include a Tivo Series 2 60 hour box with 1 year of prepaid service." This makes it obvious that he's using the VIP offer, but for the VIP offer to work both his old Series2 and the Series3 he's selling will have to be on the same TiVo account for the next 60 days. Maybe he is going to wait 60 days to transfer ownership of the Series3 to the buyer, but the auction doesn't say that.

Looking at these auctions, I was just curious if there are a growing number of eBay sellers that just don't understand how the VIP offer works and are going to run into problems once they've made these sales.

[joey398]

I wonder who will really have more trouble, the person buying the item or the person selling it? :rolleyes:

[jfh3]

but for the VIP offer to work both his old Series2 and the Series3 he's selling will have to be on the same TiVo account for the next 60 days.

Are you sure this is actually true?

[DLiquid]

Are you sure this is actually true?Yes, when you activate the VIP transfer your Series3 gets one-year pre-paid service and your old unit stays on lifetime. After 60 days they swap, and the Series3 has lifetime and your old unit has 10 months pre-paid service. Both units must be on the same TiVo account for the 60 days for it to work.

This makes any eBay transactions kind of complicated, but some sellers seem to be unaware of or ignoring the complications.

[ingenue007]

i have 2 lifetime tivo units i bought from buddies and evidently never transferred to my accnt.

my tivo s3 came yesterday and i called to transfer. all they asked for was old tivo number and since i never transferred it (previous name on accnt and either email or phone number). i gave them new tivo number and they did the transfer.

you then wait 60 days and the s3 will say lifetime and the old one will revert to the 1 year service.

[jfh3]

So, assuming the seller has already gotten a transfer order in, why couldn't they
(a) transfer the original lifetime box to a new owner (buyer) and optionally ship it
(b) ship the S3 to the buyer

I don't think it's going to be as hard as you think. I doubt Tivo cares, as long as both boxes end up being subbed, which has a better likelyhood of happening this way.

I doubt we'll see too many boxes sold this way on eBay, since it looks like the sellers would generally have too much into it to make much money (with the exception of those that own broken LT S1s)

[DLiquid]

So, assuming the seller has already gotten a transfer order in, why couldn't they
(a) transfer the original lifetime box to a new owner (buyer) and optionally ship it
(b) ship the S3 to the buyerThe TiVo VIP CSR I spoke to said this could not be done because they couldn't transfer the 12-month pre-paid service from one account to another. He might have been mistaken. I called when the deal was first announced so they may have just been getting up to speed at that time.

In any case, if someone on eBay was going to do what you describe then the auction should state that. Some do, others don't, and some that don't are clearly using the VIP offer.

[TIVOSciolist]

Some people do seem confused though. Take this (http://cgi.ebay.com/LIFETIME-Series-3-TIVO-Dual-Tuner-HD-Bonus-w-BIN_W0QQitemZ170029999139QQihZ007QQcategoryZ11725QQssPageNam eZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem) auction for example. The seller says: "Bonus: If you use the Buy It Now option, I will include a Tivo Series 2 60 hour box with 1 year of prepaid service." This makes it obvious that he's using the VIP offer, but for the VIP offer to work both his old Series2 and the Series3 he's selling will have to be on the same TiVo account for the next 60 days. Maybe he is going to wait 60 days to transfer ownership of the Series3 to the buyer, but the auction doesn't say that.

Looking at these auctions, I was just curious if there are a growing number of eBay sellers that just don't understand how the VIP offer works and are going to run into problems once they've made these sales.

This was all too confusing for me so I just went ahead and bought someone's unused lifetime gift card off of eBay. (I hate paying monthly charges for things.)

Now I just have to hope that it shows up.