No expiration of gift certificates

funtoupgrade · 03-20-2007, 08:06 PM

I just noticed TiVo has announced they will honor all gift certificates regardless of any expiration date printed on them. If expired they are still good. Maybe they are slowly figuring out it does them no good to alienate customers! Now if they can just fix their technical support it will make more of us happy.

Here's the quote: "Note: TiVo Gift Subscriptions and TiVo Service Cards do not expire. It is TiVo's policy and practice to redeem all valid TiVo Gift Subscriptions and TiVo Service Cards regardless of whether such Gift Subscriptions and Service Cards may contain an expiration date or the fact that such an expiration date may have passed." from http://www.tivo.com/2.9.1.asp

wedenton · 03-20-2007, 08:49 PM

So does this mean the 2 year time limit on the Lifetime Service Gift Card I bought at BB is gone? I will be able to use it in 2009 on a Series 5? Hope so.

funtoupgrade · 03-20-2007, 11:10 PM

Sure thing! See quote in my edited OP.

MurrayJimW · 03-23-2007, 07:29 AM

This quote is also in there at the very top:

This agreement explains the terms and conditions that will apply to your use of any TiVo® Service Gift Card purchased only from TiVo Inc. ("TiVo"), TiVo.com, or any TiVo authorized retailer (together "TiVo® Service Gift Cards") on or after November 15, 2006,

Since lifetime stopped selling in March 2006 I would think you are still bound by the terms and conditions previously in effect.

Jim

aadam101 · 03-23-2007, 07:30 AM

The laws vary from state to state on this. It's probably easier for Tivo to just honor them.

MurrayJimW · 03-23-2007, 07:52 AM

Well, they've had gift cards for several years and just now saw fit to change the policy. This means the differing laws in different states was obviously not bothering them before.

I would not be holding a $700 (Ebay value) giftcard past its expiration on the hopes this may be true since it appears they are specifically dis-allowing those cards by using the later dates.

btwyx · 03-24-2007, 12:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by aadam101

The laws vary from state to state on this. It's probably easier for Tivo to just honor them.

California doesn't allow them to expire. With TiVo's headquarter's in California this might have something to do with it.

Morocco Mole · 02-09-2008, 09:44 AM

Quote:

This quote is also in there at the very top:

This agreement explains the terms and conditions that will apply to your use of any TiVo® Service Gift Card purchased only from TiVo Inc. ("TiVo"), TiVo.com, or any TiVo authorized retailer (together "TiVo® Service Gift Cards") on or after November 15, 2006,

Since lifetime stopped selling in March 2006 I would think you are still bound by the terms and conditions previously in effect.

Update: I found a page that says "This agreement explains the terms and conditions that will apply to your use of any gift subscriptions to the TiVo® service originally purchased before November 15, 2006..." and this page states "TiVo service gift subscriptions do not expire." Great news!

http://www.tivo.com/buytivo/giftcenter/terms111506.html

MurrayJimW · 02-09-2008, 12:52 PM

Great!!

Glad they saw fit to change/clarify this. I'm still sitting on a Lifetime Gift Card I thought was going to go dead next month.....

RobertJ · 02-10-2008, 01:49 AM

Sorry to burst anyone's bubble, but Tivo didn't do this out of the goodness of their hearts.

They were sued in a class-action lawsuit. The lawsuit noted that these "expiration" dates for gift certificates are illegal in many states, including California (where Tivo is based).

As part of the settlement, Tivo agreed to reinstate any "expired" gift certificates. I received a notice from the court and was allowed to reactivate one that had supposedly expired. (A lifetime subscription that I had purchased several years ago as a gift for a relative... who never bothered to activate it. Doh!)

I'm not a big fan of class action lawsuits generally, but this one worked.

More info...
http://davisfreeberg.com/2006/12/18/...-class-action/

MurrayJimW · 02-10-2008, 01:04 PM

I agree that their decision to implement an expiration date to begin with was cheesy and I would have thought they'd have had the good sense to change the policy when it first came up rather than be forced into a $120,000 settlement. That's 401 lifetime gift subscriptions blown on litigation expense and now they are forced to honor them anyway.

In any event, still excellent news for those holding them.