HMO/TTG blocked by warranty swap issue - any ideas?

[bvanduser]

After 5 calls to tech support I'm hoping you guys have a suggestion or two.

I had an HD box (call it box #1) start having what appeared to be possible hard drive issues. I spoke with tech support and we agreed on an advance ship warranty swap. I received the refurbished HD unit (box #2) and got it setup fine. I noticed that once it called home it appeared on my tivo account screen and the service number for box #1 was gone.

Now I'm trying to move my shows from Now Playing on box #1 over to the box #2 so I can ship box #1 back to Tivo and get it credited to my credit card. But Tivo has deactivated box #1 and removed the home media option, Tivo To Go, etc. I can still watch and record new shows to box #1 just fine and HMO/TTG was working great up until this box called home.

I called and asked for help, they tinkered with my account and moved it from an unactivated state to a status "#4 - Internal testing" which is apparently used by retail stores some times. That didn't help. Then they suggested using a cross-over Ethernet cable between the Tivos to move shows which was a new one for me. I happened to have a cross-over cable and tested it between two old PC's and it worked ok. But the Tivos wouldn't connect using this method.

Now after my latest call to tech support they are telling me that there is no way to temporarily activate my old box (#1) and allow me to get my content before I have to ship the box back.

I've got many hours of prime time shows, kids movies and stuff that my family really wants to watch or archive to DVD first. This is purely a political problem because Tivo Desktop was working right up until the moment the box called home and got deactivated. But they claim their system won't allow them to activate the old box even for just a couple of days. The box is capable of running HMO/TTG but they won't reactivate box #1 for even a moment it because the warranty swap has already taken place.

Does anyone have any suggestions? I have been a faithful Tivo customer for many years. I have 2 HD boxes, a Series 2 that we still use and another Series 2 collecting dust just because we have little need for it. Three of these have lifetime subscriptions and 1 HD box is on 3-year service. I can't believe Tivo is leaving me high and dry like this when they have the power to reactivate the box for a couple of days.

I'm willing to entertain *anything* at this point to get my shows from the old box. I'm willing to try open source, 3rd party options, removing the hard drive, etc. which I have avoided up until now.

If this is how Tivo is treating customers now then I can't honestly refer any new customers their way and I'm responsible for at least 6 of their current customers that I know of. What a shame.

Thanks,
Brad

[Rdian06]

In order for the HMO stuff to work, the other Tivo would need to be activated on your account so that the MAK was assigned to it when it called home.

Unfortunately, since the #1 unit is stuck in the warranty queue, I highly doubt any of the normal phone techs can do anything for you. A supervisor might, but I have a feeling they are being completely honest with you in that their management software doesn't give them the option to do what you're asking.

I suggest you call up and ask to be escalated until there isn't anyone higher to be escalated to.

If that fails, you might try the an Executive Email Carpet Bomb. But you better act fast as you only have a small window of time (14 days?) to return the defective unit.

[ggieseke]

Can you see the old box with your web browser? Get its IP address from Message & Settings - Phone & Network - View Network Status, then enter that IP address into your browser with "https://" before the IP address. The username is "tivo" and the password is your MAK.

If that works you could download the shows you want to your computer and use TTG to send them back to your new box later. I don't really know if this method would bypass the disabled HMO on the old box but it's worth a shot.

[bvanduser]

No, all TTG network features are disabled even though I can still call home over my internet connection. I ran a TCPIP port scan on the box and the box isn't listening to any ports. I can ping it just fine from my desktop PC. I found a post that mentions the web interface is part of the TTG feature set so that explains why I can't connect with my browser.

In fact, I found another post that mentioned needing to have "a,a,a" on your System Info screen for the TivoToGo field. On my screen, Tivo has this old box set to "i,i,i" which sort of matches the account status of "4 - Internal testing." I think no "a,a,a" here = No TTG features.

Combine those status fields with the fact that this older Tivo no longer shows up on my account screen, I believe that even if I had TTG features that it probably wouldn't let transfers go through since it would think this Tivo belonged to someone else's account.

On Friday tech support told me that a level 2 technician was supposed to call me back to discuss this problem. According to my caller id here at the house, this call was never made.

Thanks Tivo for leaving me high and dry on this warranty swap. I guess I will be shipping the unit back and miss my remaining shows that are still stored on it. I think my daughter is more pissed about that part than I am (she has already started telling her friends at school not to get a Tivo now - this coming from an 8 year old).

I have a theory and wonder if anyone has tried this. If you have a Tivo failure while under warranty but the box is still limping along like mine is, can you block Internet access in your router for that one Tivo so it can't complete it's call home while still allowing it to connect to other Tivos and Tivo Desktop PCs on your home network. This way you could transfer your remaining shows before the call home deactivates your box. In theory this might work but I have no way to test it now.

Brad