Tivo Chat & Service

WillH · 04-01-2011, 09:50 AM

I got an email from Tivo back in Feb advising me of my annual upgrade being due in April along with a promo code to upgrade to a lifetime subscription for $100 off. In the email was a link that ostensibly sent me somewhere that I could go ahead and sign up for this. So, I click the link and it takes me to my account where I log in and find nothing remotely like what the email described: Nothing in the way of future payment plans or anything. So, I used the CHAT button and the person said that option won't be available for 30 more days since my account wasn't due to expire until April and it was only Feb now. Huh? Then why is TIVO sending me this email now?
So, being the good customer, I waited 30 days believing this person knew what they were talking about and logged back today to take care of this. Again, no way to change my plan was shown in my account. So, I again used the chat button and explained the entire ordeal again only to be told that I have to CALL Tivo to fix this. So, getting pretty steamed by now, I call the 877 number and explain to the person what was going on and he seemed to totally not care - no apology, nothing. But he did take my money.

And I am still OK paying for the Tivo and remaining a customer but this is the 2nd incident where I had to deal with their customer service in the year that I have owned my Premiere and in both cases, the service was awful. Combine that with the problems with the Premiere box itself and one might wonder why I am still a customer/user.............It is still miles ahead of the Comcast folks and their hardware. But dealing with Tivo personnel is only marginally better than Comcast by the way. Very frustrating. Won't be using the Chat anymore - that is clear. Tivo really promotes the CHAT also with links and buttons all over the website. I wonder how many others have had such poor results with the Chat.

L David Matheny · 04-01-2011, 10:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WillH

I got an email from Tivo back in Feb advising me of my annual upgrade being due in April along with a promo code to upgrade to a lifetime subscription for $100 off. In the email was a link that ostensibly sent me somewhere that I could go ahead and sign up for this. So, I click the link and it takes me to my account where I log in and find nothing remotely like what the email described: Nothing in the way of future payment plans or anything. So, I used the CHAT button and the person said that option won't be available for 30 more days since my account wasn't due to expire until April and it was only Feb now. Huh? Then why is TIVO sending me this email now?

I consider that sort of thing a relatively minor brain fart on TiVo's part. It was handled clumsily, but nobody's perfect. However, see below.

Quote:

Originally Posted by WillH

So, being the good customer, I waited 30 days believing this person knew what they were talking about and logged back today to take care of this. Again, no way to change my plan was shown in my account. So, I again used the chat button and explained the entire ordeal again only to be told that I have to CALL Tivo to fix this. So, getting pretty steamed by now, I call the 877 number and explain to the person what was going on and he seemed to totally not care - no apology, nothing. But he did take my money.

And I am still OK paying for the Tivo and remaining a customer but this is the 2nd incident where I had to deal with their customer service in the year that I have owned my Premiere and in both cases, the service was awful. Combine that with the problems with the Premiere box itself and one might wonder why I am still a customer/user.............It is still miles ahead of the Comcast folks and their hardware. But dealing with Tivo personnel is only marginally better than Comcast by the way. Very frustrating. Won't be using the Chat anymore - that is clear. Tivo really promotes the CHAT also with links and buttons all over the website. I wonder how many others have had such poor results with the Chat.

As you say, this is where you really start to get steamed. TiVo's current rules about which service options are available on which units are so confusing that even they can't sort them out without resorting to a real live human being. And even the phone reps can't get it right sometimes. They should have sold the discounted Premieres only through their own web site, with a service plan bundled at the time of sale. Hardware bought separately should be able to use any service plan, since that's what any normal human being would expect.

arw03 · 04-01-2011, 11:39 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by WillH

I wonder how many others have had such poor results with the Chat.

My first chat experience the other day told me I can't get a Premiere with Lifetime subscription. =/

atmuscarella · 04-01-2011, 12:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by arw03

My first chat experience the other day told me I can't get a Premiere with Lifetime subscription. =/

If you are an existing customer that is just wrong. Not so sure for new customers they seem to be making very hard for someone who doesn't already have an TiVo to get a Premiere with lifetime.

If you don't own a TiVo now and don't have a friend that will let you buy one through their upgrade offers I would check out ebay. There are few vendors that are selling basically new Premieres that have had lifetime added to them for around $525.

Good Luck,

arw03 · 04-01-2011, 12:43 PM

Yeah, it's the new customer part that's got me. I think my option is to buy one with whatever monthly plan, and switch it to lifetime when I get it. And, if that does work, I think within the first 30 days I shouldn't be charged any sort of fee for switching or canceling the original subscription or whatever. But I'm not entirely certain on either of these points.

But, regarding the upgrade option, that's not available for someone with the DirecTiVo, is it?

atmuscarella · 04-01-2011, 01:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by arw03

Yeah, it's the new customer part that's got me. I think my option is to buy one with whatever monthly plan, and switch it to lifetime when I get it. And, if that does work, I think within the first 30 days I shouldn't be charged any sort of fee for switching or canceling the original subscription or whatever. But I'm not entirely certain on either of these points.

But, regarding the upgrade option, that's not available for someone with the DirecTiVo, is it?

You will not be able to change a unit that requires the $19.99/mo service from the $19.99/mo service. If you buy a unit from TiVo that you can get the $12.99/mo service you should be able to change that to lifetime within the first 30 days - lifetime will cost you $399 unless you can find a discount code - not sure if any are in effect now or not but there were some $100 off codes floating around awhile back.

Regarding the upgrade option - the person would have to have a stand alone TiVo not a DirectTiVo.

Good luck,

WillH · 04-01-2011, 04:05 PM

When I bought the Premiere (preordered back last March), I opted for the 1 year subscription because I didn't know if I would like it. I then upgraded to the XL after they finally got MOST of the bugs worked out but still figured I would wait before jumping in with the lifetime until I was sure Tivo was going to fix the Premiere. So, after almost 1 year, I am 90% happy with the hardware and went ahead and got the lifetime subscription. The experience with their personnel sure leaves me shaking my head though. It makes me wonder if this is representative of ALL the personnel there now and would explain why the Premiere is still not up to spec yet AND what the future holds.

I think Comcast only just recently offers a 500 gig drive now and they ding you $20 per month for it and their interface/menu system is really antiquated. I lived with 120 gig drive for years and now that I have the Tivo with the 1 TB drive, I always have plenty to watch and I can keep programs for a long time.

So, I am old enough to understand that one needs to take the good with the bad but my impression of Tivo is getting worse which is not the way it should be.

arw03 · 04-01-2011, 04:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by atmuscarella

You will not be able to change a unit that requires the $19.99/mo service from the $19.99/mo service. If you buy a unit from TiVo that you can get the $12.99/mo service you should be able to change that to lifetime within the first 30 days - lifetime will cost you $399 unless you can find a discount code - not sure if any are in effect now or not but there were some $100 off codes floating around awhile back.

Regarding the upgrade option - the person would have to have a stand alone TiVo not a DirectTiVo.

Good luck,

All things I felt pretty sure of. Especially the 19.99 one. Found enough info to say that one doesn't get lifetime. I think right now I'm just hesitating on the 12.99 one because I really don't want to get hit with some fee for changing that subscription or something.