Mediacom CSR = TiVo?

[FlyBoyOz]

After being hung up on about 5 times in a single day, I turn to you, TiVo Guru's.

I bought a refurbed TiVo HD, upgraded to 1TB myself (thank you for your awesome how-to's! :up:)

I called Mediacom and told them that I needed a MCard for my TiVo, they said they had to order it and that they would call when it was ready to pick up. I finally recieve the call and head down to the CSR-HQ to get it. After recieving it, I head back home and follow all the instructions for installing it until I get to the part about me calling Mediacom.

I call them and tell them that I need to activate my MCard. The first lady is completely lost, and doesn't know what I'm asking. Then she just says "okay, is that better?" She probably boosted the signal or something, then she puts me on hold and then hangs up on me.

This happens a couple more times before I finally get a lady who puts me on hold and talks to a "tech." They have some to the conclusion that I have a "two-way" MCard and that I shouldn't, and they're trying to figure out how that could have happened. She says she's going to call another tech and that she'll call me back when she gets something, probably about 15 minutes.

Well she never called me back, but in about 30 minutes, all my HD channels like ESPN and Discovery HD started working.

My question is: they never asked me for any of my TiVo information from the pairing screen. Did they truly 100% activate me and I'm solid, or am I just somewhat lucky it's working right now. I only ask because sometimes, my local HD channels (most important ones to me on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday) don't always seem to comes through in HD.

Any help greatly appreciated!

[ciper]

It is my understanding that there are a few "mom and pop" cable companies who don't use the best practices when setting up cable cards. They basically activate the card on its own meaning you could stick it in any device and it works. My cable co is like this. It took a while to get my cable card working, with many tech visits and what not but not once did they take the newly generated ID and input it into there system.

Check the channel lineup against your subscription to make sure ALL the channels are working. You may only be getting the clear QAM channels.

[mstockmyer]

I have Mediacom in Ridgecrest, CA. It was the case with my install, and others I've heard of with Mediacom, that they don't need the pairing information. They *might* note in the case notes, but they don't need it.

Crazy enough, they still require a visit to my house to 'install' new CableCards. They're supposed to install an M-Card in my new TiVo HD.

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Evidently, they've changed things. They *did* require the HostID to go into the system before they could send a 'proper' hit. The guy came out and handed me the card to put in the TiVo HD. He called it in and got tech after tech that just kept sending hits to the card with no success. The fourth tech finally asked for the HostID. Then she had to e-mail it to someone else, get a response and *then* send the proper hit. It took 18 hours before the TiVo HD worked.