Leased HR10250 sold to me as owned... NOW WHAT!

[starks951]

So I feel like a complete idiot... I bought an HR10-250 on Ebay for about $300 and it arrived I then left the country for three weeks (this is important later). It arrived and sat in my living room for a month before I got around to hooking it up. I called DTv and after 3 hours on the line they told me this item was leased and that the guy was in the rears to them for like $500. The told me I couldn't get it hooked up on my account and didn't want it back since it was leased and that they had already sent the collections people after him. Additionally I was outside the Ebay/Paypal time frame to claim fraud.

So its been sitting in my house for about 4 months in a box and I am finally getting up the courage to dawn my nomex undies and come on the board and ask for help.

What can I do now?

I was thinking about attaching it to my home NAS 1.6TB and serve movies from it, or parting it out on Ebay or on the forum here. Or possibly lighting it on fire and sending it COD back to the Ahole who sold it to me. I would REALLY like to use it, and have been looking at the DTv HD PVR instead, but not ready to give up my happy Tivo UI.

Does anyone have any ideas about hacking it or parting it or using it for some other purposes...

Thanks for the help...
-Starks!

[gkettell]

Well, you can always put the hard drive in a computer, reformat it and use it - pretty expensive for a used 250GB hard drive though. `

[dswallow]

I'd suggest taking up donations and then destroying it with a sledgehammer then melt it with a blowtorch. Videotape it. Put the video online, along with another link for donations.

:)

[starks951]

Doug... this is a fantastic IDEA... if I can't find an actual use for it I will definately tape the anniliation... I think I have some thermite in my garage that should properly melt the mother board and all other pieces... I was also thinking about posting the guys address on every message board I can think of as well as sign up his email for every porn site I can find..

[hiker]

If you used a credit card as PayPal funding then you have at least 60 days to file a dispute with credit card company.

[starks951]

debit card via pay pal... and by the time I got around to pay pal i was outside the window...

[hiker]

Well then it's an expensive lesson. :o
Always use a credit card even when funding PP, preferably AE card as their dispute process is very accommodating to the card holder.

[starks951]

yeah... the leasson has been processed and my AMEX is now the funding account for my Pay Pal... now I am looking to the TIVO community to see what I can do with this device...

[Cmmsh]

Ever thought about calling the police? I read another thread somewhere a month or so ago about someone in a similar situation pestering the guy until he got satisfaction. He finally did, but it did take a lot of effort.

[annenoe]

Yikes! Guess I'll quit looking at eBay auctions.

[Sir_winealot]

Ebay is still okay, you just need to get the serial number from the seller before buying, and call D* to make sure it's cool.

[Toeside]

I think the leased receiver business model is going to cause problems.

I'm about to list my HR10-250 on eBay. How can I list mine and assure the [-]seller[/-] buyer that it's owned? Is handing out the S/N a risk to me at all?


edit: oops.

[hiker]

I think the leased receiver business model is going to cause problems.

I'm about to list my HR10-250 on eBay. How can I list mine and assure the seller that it's owned? Is handing out the S/N a risk to me at all?I think you meant "assure the buyer"? ...

Giving out the RIN (called IRD Receiver ID on Sys Info screen) should be ok. The potential buyer can call DirecTV and verify that the account is currently paid and HR10 is owned.

[gravykev]

Hey I can save you some of that money if it has the older HDMI card and it is still working. I would buy that from you in a second!! Let me know...

gravykev1

at

Yahoo dot com

[thedeak08]

I would try to call DTV and activate it by lying. Make up some receiver ID, serial number...etc., and give it to them when activating. If I'm correct, they just send the activation signal to the card, and when the signal is send, it marries the card to whatever receiver it is in, doesn't check for the receiver ID and all that, if I'm not mistaken that is. One thing I would try before that is hook up the HR10-250 to the datastream, do a clear and delete everything, then when done, put in your current access card, call the automated DTV line, and when it gets to the part about "if you have a 3 digit extension on your screen enter it now" and you enter 721, it will troubleshoot. I've heard this resends the signal to your card. It has worked for me in the past, but then sometimes it hasn't. But at least it is worth a shot.

[starks951]

Thanks guys... I will try to social engineer my way into getting it working... and also try calling the Dtv automated line... if all else fails gravykev I will mail you on the HDMI card and at least recoup SOME of the costs..

Does anyone know about possibly encoding (what encoder software should I use) all my movies then FTP'ing them up to the box (after zippering it) and using it just to server movies? This may acutally be of use to me and would enable me to pack up my DVD's as well as host my entrie library in neat and ready available way.

Cheers-
Starks!

[thedeak08]

The "refresh" is now also on the website, instead of using the automated phoneline for the 721 issue. If you go under latest news, there is a option that says "Refresh your services" and when you click on that, it will have each access card listed individually, and you can select just one or as many as needed and have your services refreshed. Hopefully that worked for you.