TiVo is now offering an extended warranty

lessd · 10-30-2009, 01:50 AM

I just noticed that TiVo is now offering a 2 year (for $30 ) and a three year ($10 more) for all new TiVos as an add on to any new service plan. Not a bad price at $10/year.

steve614 · 10-30-2009, 02:14 AM

Interesting. Does it apply to any new box, or do you have to buy it from Tivo?

lessd · 10-30-2009, 10:48 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by steve614

Interesting. Does it apply to any new box, or do you have to buy it from Tivo?

I would guess its any new box but I don't see how they would not sell the warranty to any new activation as its now an option with your new activation, I don't know if the web sight checks if the unit had ever been activated before on this warranty offer.

foamy909 · 10-30-2009, 11:09 AM

It looks like you can add it to any box, not just one purchased at Tivo.com. I purchased an HD XL from Amazon back in September, and when I log into my account, it states I can add the extended warranty up to 90 days after purchase. It appears that you have to call to do so, and I can't find the price structure listed.

I had considered a third-party extended warranty prior to purchase, but when I found out that they do not replace the box but instead refund the purchase price, I did not think it was worth it. If you bought the warranty from Tivo, I would have to assume that there would not be any Lifetime Transfer fee if it needed to be replaced. If they confirm that is the case, I think I will add it while I still can.

Mars Rocket · 10-31-2009, 12:46 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by foamy909

I had considered a third-party extended warranty prior to purchase, but when I found out that they do not replace the box but instead refund the purchase price, I did not think it was worth it.

I would think that would make it *more* worth it. Prices come down almost universally on consumer electronics. If it failed after a few years and they refunded your money you could replace it and possibly pocket some cash.

bmgoodman · 10-31-2009, 01:56 PM

I guess this explains the $150 service transfer fee. It should help encourage people to go for the reasonably-priced extended warranty.

I'm not a big fan of extended warranties in general, but I could see this being very attractive to people who don't want to open their Tivos to replace failed drives.

drey · 10-31-2009, 05:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by steve614

Interesting. Does it apply to any new box, or do you have to buy it from Tivo?

Offer for an extended warranty applies only to new or never activated units. It doesn't really matter where you get the unit from.

lew · 10-31-2009, 07:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by drey

Offer for an extended warranty applies only to new or never activated units. It doesn't really matter where you get the unit from.

Log into your account. It's also being offered to existing subscribers.

drey · 11-01-2009, 12:37 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lew

Log into your account. It's also being offered to existing subscribers.

Interesting. I have several newer TiVos (652-0101-xxx) and several older units (652-0001-xxx). I have an offer for an extended warranty only on newer units, but not on the older ones. So I guess who knows, maybe they go by the manufacture date.

lafos · 11-01-2009, 08:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lew

Log into your account. It's also being offered to existing subscribers.

I don't see it on mine. I replaced 3 S2's with HD's earlier this year, but used existing MSD accounts, so they date back a few years. I notice that the service date stays with its original start. Could that be why I don't see it, or does someone know the date cut-off?

CrispyCritter · 11-01-2009, 09:29 AM

I don't see it either. Between family, friends, and neighbors I have something like 10 TiVo's on my account, but all have service plans dated earlier than 2006.

It looks like a very nice plan, and much cheaper than these things normally are. I'm not sure I personally would get it with a TiVoHD since I'm fine with replacing my own disks, but it would have been handy to have with the original introduction of the TiVo S3 - that model had considerably more non-hard-disk failures for quite a while.

lew · 11-01-2009, 10:07 AM

I don't know the cutoff date. I was offered the warranty with a unit that I activated with the past 90 days but wasn't offered it with a unit I activated 2 1/2 years ago. Maybe it's being offered to units still under warranty?

steve614 · 11-01-2009, 12:23 PM

I think this extended warranty is only for new units. I would think this also applies to units that have never been activated.
As far as Tivo is concerned, I would think a unit that has never been activated should also be considered as "new", even if it was bought 6 months ago.

lessd · 11-01-2009, 12:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by steve614

I think this extended warranty is only for new units. I would think this also applies to units that have never been activated.
As far as Tivo is concerned, I would think a unit that has never been activated should also be considered as "new", even if it was bought 6 months ago.

I just tested out that theory and you are correct, even if the TiVo is 3 years old and never been activated the extended warranty is available on their web sight.

janry · 11-01-2009, 01:24 PM

That's a decent price for extended warranty but I'm sure it doesn't allow owner upgrades to disk space so it would not be attractive to me.

Phantom Gremlin · 11-01-2009, 07:26 PM

I'm stretching a little here, but there may be something good for everyone because of this new offering by TiVo.

Sometimes a software update breaks various aspects of TiVo functionality, e.g. causes flakiness, frequent reboots, etc. When this happens to TiVos that are out of warranty, the customers feel frustration but TiVo doesn't feel much pain. That's because there is an exchange fee associated with a "repair". And the "repair" usually doesn't solve the problem. It sometimes takes TiVo 6 months or more to produce a "fix" (i.e. undo what they broke).

But now when a software update breaks something, if thousands of extended warranty customers call in and demand a replacement box (at TiVo's expense), it might incentivize TiVo to prioritize determining the root cause of the issue and fix it. Yes, I know, that's wishful thinking; I said it was a "stretch".

lessd · 11-01-2009, 10:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by janry

That's a decent price for extended warranty but I'm sure it doesn't allow owner upgrades to disk space so it would not be attractive to me.

Just keep your original drive, if the problem is not the hard drive (not too often) than you put the original drive back in and you are good to go for the warranty exchange.
Although I have had TiVos from 2001 on and NEVER saw a problem that was not related to the hard drive, so i guess if you are going to replace the HD anyways, the TiVo warranty may not make much sense.

lew · 11-02-2009, 07:15 AM

Our logs, which get U/L to tivo, indicate upgraded hard drives. Replacing the original hard drive doesn't change that fact. Warranty is void once you open your tivo. The extended warranty only covers issues that would have been covered under the original warranty.

At least one poster was denied warranty service and at least one poster was even denied out of warranty service.

People who upgrade their tivo should assume they're on their own for service.

mellenfan · 11-02-2009, 07:35 AM

Tivo-Pro offers extended warranties on his upgraded Tivo's.

ZeoTiVo · 11-02-2009, 08:57 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lew

Our logs, which get U/L to tivo, indicate upgraded hard drives. Replacing the original hard drive doesn't change that fact. Warranty is void once you open your tivo. The extended warranty only covers issues that would have been covered under the original warranty.

At least one poster was denied warranty service and at least one poster was even denied out of warranty service.

People who upgrade their tivo should assume they're on their own for service.

TiVo will indeed know if the drive has ever been upgraded - if they go look in the logs - but one or two people out of this whole forum having coverage issue say extenuating circumstances to me versus some specific enforced policy by TiVo. The caveat is always upgrade at your own risk but TiVo likes to keep the ability to upgrade in the plus column for those deciding which way to go. I would not view the warning as a sure thing.

for 5 or 10 bucks I would get the warranty, but would still just replace hard drives myself anyway since very likely the original drive was sitting on a shelf and in good shape anyway.

dave13077 · 11-02-2009, 09:07 AM

Unless I am miss reading the terms of the extended warranty the 2 year and 3 year plan include the first year Tivo provides for free when you buy a unit. It looks like to me you are only buying 1 additional year (2 year plan) and 2 addtional years with the 3 year plan.

If I am incorrect I am sure someone will correct me.

CrispyCritter · 11-02-2009, 09:19 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dave13077

Unless I am miss reading the terms of the extended warranty the 2 year and 3 year plan include the first year Tivo provides for free when you buy a unit. It looks like to me you are only buying 1 additional year (2 year plan) and 2 addtional years with the 3 year plan.

If I am incorrect I am sure someone will correct me.

Only a bit incorrect. The full warranty on a new TiVo is only for 90 days, after that it's a partial warranty. So you get additional coverage for the other 9 months of the first year.

lessd · 11-02-2009, 10:41 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CrispyCritter

Only a bit incorrect. The full warranty on a new TiVo is only for 90 days, after that it's a partial warranty. So you get additional coverage for the other 9 months of the first year.

That is correct, you save the $49 that TiVo will charge you for a replacement in that last 9 months of the first year, than the savings go up to $149.
I know that people (on this form) have used the TiVo warranty with upgraded drives as most TiVo techs do not look at the logs, but they can. This would be for problems that are not drive related like a broken HDMI connector etc. If TiVo does do a replacement it is up to you to replace the drive with the original before you ship.

Amnesia · 11-02-2009, 10:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lessd

Not a bad price at $10/year.

Do you think TiVo plans to make or lose money on this offer?

If they plan to make money, doesn't that mean that they think that people will spend more buying the warranties than they otherwise would spend on repairs?

supersportsfan · 11-02-2009, 12:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amnesia

Do you think TiVo plans to make or lose money on this offer?

If they plan to make money, doesn't that mean that they think that people will spend more buying the warranties than they otherwise would spend on repairs?

Isn't the point of these warranties ALWAYS to make money?

Regardless, yes, I am sure it is to make money. With the two year plan, I am sure a majority of TiVo's last 2 years and die after that.

drey · 11-02-2009, 12:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by supersportsfan

Isn't the point of these warranties ALWAYS to make money?

Regardless, yes, I am sure it is to make money. With the two year plan, I am sure a majority of TiVo's last 2 years and die after that.

TiVo has statistical data on MTBF (mean time between failures) and I'm sure the failure rate is rather low within first two years, and even after. Look at the amount of Series 2 being sold everywhere, all units still work perfectly.

This forum probably should not be an indicator of TiVo's repair rate as those who never have a problem hardly ever visit this place. Only those who either look for an advice, upgrade or something else come here. I had many units go through me during the years, very seldom I see a defective unit.

lafos · 11-02-2009, 01:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lessd

I just tested out that theory and you are correct, even if the TiVo is 3 years old and never been activated the extended warranty is available on their web sight.

The down side seems to be that if a new TiVo replaces an older one, then no extended warranty is offered. The TiVo is 9 months old, but the plan dates from 2004 (the old $6.95 MSD)

CrispyCritter · 11-02-2009, 01:42 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by supersportsfan

Isn't the point of these warranties ALWAYS to make money?

Regardless, yes, I am sure it is to make money. With the two year plan, I am sure a majority of TiVo's last 2 years and die after that.

I disagree that the goal is to make money off the warranty. The prices are about 1/3 of what I would expect from a typical extended warranty that is targeted to make money. The 1/3 price sounds about break even to me. They're not going to sell enough of them to do much more than cover the fixed cost to set up the program and train their support reps.

I suspect the goal is to increase sales and thus number of subs. One of the strong arguments for a cable system DVR is that if it ever breaks, it's not your problem - it gets replaced for free. It's a valid argument, especially with the limited warranty that TiVo has. The extended warranty should make TiVo much more attractive to folks who consider that argument important.

The cheap price may also be a sub-text inducement - "our DVRs are so reliable that we can price support this cheaply". But that may be reading too much into TiVo marketing minds.

So I would guess that while it's to make more money, the money is expected to come from increased subs, not from the warranty itself.

samo · 11-02-2009, 03:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CrispyCritter

The prices are about 1/3 of what I would expect from a typical extended warranty that is targeted to make money.

And how much did you expect extended warranty to cost for $149 item (out of warranty exchange price)?
RepairMaster exchange warranty (for replacement with a new unit, not refurbished) is about $20 and they do not lose any money.
DirecTV and Dish for $5-6 a month cover all of your equipment (including DVRs) and service calls. I bet they don't lose money either.

CrispyCritter · 11-02-2009, 03:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by samo

And how much did you expect extended warranty to cost for $149 item (out of warranty exchange price)?
RepairMaster exchange warranty (for replacement with a new unit, not refurbished) is about $20 and they do not lose any money.
DirecTV and Dish for $5-6 a month cover all of your equipment (including DVRs) and service calls. I bet they don't lose money either.

Shall we count the ways you are comparing apples and oranges, Samo?
1. The Repairmaster $20 warranty (I used the j&r version) is for 15 months, not two years.
2. It absolutely doesn't apply to the TiVo, the TiVo is more than $200 retail.
3. You have no evidence that a $149 price should be used, and that TiVo makes money on the $149 price (given your past comments I would expect you to know better).
4. The DirecTV and Dish costs are for an expanded service and cost $180 for 3 years - how are they comparable at all?

I do admit the non-retail folks are a much better deal than the retail extended warranties (they claim a 40% improvement over retail). Their overall costs are just a bit higher than TiVo offers. But again, that's apples and oranges. And they basically amortize their service over a much larger customer base than TiVo can. How many of these things do you expect TiVo to sell in a year? 3,000-5,000 sounds a bit optimistic to me. So that's total income of $60,000 to $150,000 a year. It's not going to be a profit center!