New Extended Warranty is Transferrable

[SpiritualPoet]

The new extended warranty offered by TiVo to new activations is better than extended warranties from retail establishments. Many retail chains don't repair TiVo boxes but prorate a reimbursement or swap out a box which negates any "lifetime service plan" that might be in place, forcing the customer to buy another plan if a box is deemed unrepairable. With Extended Warranty plans from TiVo, this is not an issue.

A TiVo CSR told me moments ago that if a customer who sends in a TiVo machine for repair that has a company Extended Warranty in place, that customer's machine will be repaired or if it is deemed unrepairable, a replacement machine will bear the "lifetime service plan"; i.e., it will be ported to the replacement machine if such a plan is in place on the nonrepairable machine.* Of course, the machine must have an identical series model available for this transfer of service to occur. A series 2 for a series 2, a series 3 for a series 3, and an HD for an HD machine, for instance.

This CSR was adament that this is correct information.

*This is provided the customer has not opened the TiVo box for any reason such as to change out components such as a hard drive.

[scandia101]

Originally Posted by SpiritualPoet

T.

This CSR was adament that this is correct information.

Technically it's not accurate because TiVo never repairs and returns the same unit. They send out some other Tivo they've already fixed and then fix yours to send to the next guy. In a case where they don't happen to have an identical model, they replace it with the next better model.
And AFAIK, They've always honored 3rd party extended warranties on lifetime units by transferring the subscription to the replacement.

[lew]

It's possible, but very unlikely, the service company will have the customer ship their tivo to a repair facility that will fix the customers tivo and return the fixed unit back to the customer. Those (few) customers with a non-hard drive issue (power supply for example) will keep their recordings and settings.

It's not clear if the tivo CSR referenced by the OP made mention regarding hard drive replacements made by the customer or if the OP assumed as much.

The policy is clear but mention by the CSR suggests tivo will be enforcing said policy.

[scandia101]

They are all about replacing, not fixing and returning

http://www.tivo.com/abouttivo/polici...dwarranty.html

1. WHAT IS COVERED

We will replace the original purchased Product specified on Your TiVo order with a new or refurbished unit, provided such replacement is authorized and necessitated by Product operational or mechanical failure during normal usage.

and

8. LIMITATIONS OF COVERAGE This Contract Does Not Cover

B. Service or replacement required as a result of any alteration of the equipment, or repairs made by anyone other than a participating servicing dealer, an authorized service provider, its agents, distributors, contractors or licensees, or the use of supplies other than those recommended by the manufacturer.

They don't say that you're not covered if you've upgraded the hard drive or made any other alterations. They only say that if your handy work or other non-authorized tinkering caused the failure, you're not covered.

[lew]

Originally Posted by scandia101

They don't say that you're not covered if you've upgraded the hard drive or made any other alterations. They only say that if your handy work or other non-authorized tinkering caused the failure, you're not covered.

They sure do:

LIMITATIONS OF COVERAGE This Contract Does Not Cover
Any and all
cases in which the manufacturer of the equipment would not honor any warranty regarding the equipment

and tivo is very clear.

Please note that removing the cover of the DVR for any reason voids the warranty.

A person who's going to take the time to upgrade the hard drive should skip the extended warranty and handle their own repairs.

edited to add I always assumed they'd be shipping out a refurbished unit. My point was actually fixing the customers unit might be preferable in some cases. Replacing a bad power supply results in a customer retaining their recordings and SPs.

[scandia101]

[quote]

Originally Posted by lew

They sure do:

That statement doesn't say anything at all.

and tivo is very clear.

They've always had that written policy, but have almost always honored the warranty of upgraded TiVos. Although they may enforce the policy now.

A person who's going to take the time to upgrade the hard drive should skip the extended warranty and handle their own repairs.

edited to add I always assumed they'd be shipping out a refurbished unit. My point was actually fixing the customers unit might be preferable in some cases. Replacing a bad power supply results in a customer retaining their recordings and SPs.

"It's possible, but very unlikely" ≠ "might be preferable"

[ZeoTiVo]

cases in which the manufacturer of the equipment would not honor any warranty regarding the equipment

Does NOT equal

void the warranty

-----------------
TiVo can still decide on a case by case basis if they will HONOR the warranty or not. In this forum are only 2 cases of not honoring the warranty due to tinkering and we have no confirmed and full data on what the tinkering really was.

[lew]

At least one of the posters was denied because the CSR determined (presumably from the logs) the hard drive had been upgraded.

There have only been a few posters who were denied service by tivo but there have been very few posters with upgraded drives who obtained service from tivo.

Tivo doesn't have to examine the motherboard and determine a dropped screwdriver was the cause of the problem. The fact that the customer opened the unit is sufficient to void the warranty.

JMO but I can't see paying even $20 for an extended warranty knowing the service company is under no obligation to fix my unit.

edited to add I mean recent examples of posters with upgraded hard drives getting service from tivo. Years ago tivo employees on TCF all but encouraged us to upgrade our units. They suggested which hard drives to use. Tivo's policy has changed.

Originally Posted by ZeoTiVo

cases in which the manufacturer of the equipment would not honor any warranty regarding the equipment

Does NOT equal

void the warranty

-----------------
TiVo can still decide on a case by case basis if they will HONOR the warranty or not. In this forum are only 2 cases of not honoring the warranty due to tinkering and we have no confirmed and full data on what the tinkering really was.

[CrispyCritter]

Originally Posted by lew

There have only been a few posters who were denied service by tivo but there have been very few posters with upgraded drives who obtained service from tivo.

Do you have any evidence of that? You may just have phrased your statement badly, but it's incorrect as stated. Lots of folks exchanged their upgraded TiVos in the early years. You'd upgrade your Series 1 (14 hours of disk space to start with!), then get bit by the hardware modem weaknesses and have to send it in. No problems. I had no problems with a Series 2 exchange in the years ago.

[ZeoTiVo]

Originally Posted by lew

At least one of the posters was denied because the CSR determined (presumably from the logs) the hard drive had been upgraded.

that is what was posted but for all we know the logs showed as well that he hacked the unit further than just a simple drive upgrade.

So yes have a caveat on if you upgrade the TiVo you risk TiVo not honoring any type of warranty, but the few examples have dried up and I have not seen other examples of warranty denied.

My personal choice as well would be to fix the hard drive myself if that was the problem since it would be a larger drive and not the original one anyway but for 10 or 20 bucks to cover a problem with power supply or mainboard or tuners - I will take that insurance gamble myself. To each his own but once the caveat is given on upgrading, it is not like we have a flood of folks being turned away for upgrading the drive. The extended warranty may change that number since indeed more folks will be making warranty claims on units 2 or 3 years out - I will still bet it will be a case by case thing and not a specific policy enforcement push.

[lessd]

Originally Posted by ZeoTiVo

that is what was posted but for all we know the logs showed as well that he hacked the unit further than just a simple drive upgrade.

So yes have a caveat on if you upgrade the TiVo you risk TiVo not honoring any type of warranty, but the few examples have dried up and I have not seen other examples of warranty denied.

My personal choice as well would be to fix the hard drive myself if that was the problem since it would be a larger drive and not the original one anyway but for 10 or 20 bucks to cover a problem with power supply or mainboard or tuners - I will take that insurance gamble myself. To each his own but once the caveat is given on upgrading, it is not like we have a flood of folks being turned away for upgrading the drive. The extended warranty may change that number since indeed more folks will be making warranty claims on units 2 or 3 years out - I will still bet it will be a case by case thing and not a specific policy enforcement push.

99.5% of the TiVos problems are the hard drive (a guess on my part as to the %) so if you are going to upgrade the hard drive why get the warranty. I think this is for people that don't want to get into their TiVo so if the hard drive goes in say 2.5 years they will get a replacement for free. For people like that $10/year seems like a good deal to me.