DirecTiVo lifetime now transferable to Series3?

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Some folks have mentioned a guy named "Bobby" at TiVo. I've never spoken to him, but others here have said that he seems to get things like this resolved.

What you describe seems workable. I mean, you bought the lifetime service for the DTV/TiVo that you are trying to transfer. It should not matter whether it's running or not. Even with the DTV/TiVo units, I always thought the service was tied to the box (at least initially), just like the standalones.

 

I was thinking because I also have an active DirecTV account at work with TiVo Lifetime Service, can I just transfer Lifetime from that account. I don't know that TiVo really cares if I keep DirecTV, they just want to be able to see a DirecTiVo Service number that is active.

I don't really understand what TiVo is trying to accomplish. I bought 2 DirecTV TiVo Lifetimes and one account was closed just before I bought the Series3 and the other is still open. I thought TiVo was extending an invitation to anyone who has bought a DirecTV TiVo Lifetime a chance to purchase a Series3 Lifetime.

I don't know how TiVo knows a bought a DirecTV TiVo Lifetime when I paid DirecTV for it. When TiVo does allow a DirecTV TiVo Lifetime transfer, does DirecTV start charging $5.99 a month? I can't see were DirecTV would be working with TiVo to accomplish DirecTV TiVo Lifetime transfers and start charging $5.99 a month, or are they?

 

Who knows how much information TiVo and DirecTV are passing back and forth these days? I would have guessed minimal because I would think that the only $$ that DTV is still paying TiVo is for each of those NON LIFETIME DTV/TiVo units that DTV gets $6 from the customer monthly. If DTV collected the lifetime service fee, did they pass that immediately to TiVo, or pass them a small bit over time, or just keep it themselves? I'm unclear of all of this. And as a customer, I should not have to care.

If there is one area where TiVo (the company) disappoints me the most, it's with these sales programs and offers that seem to have so many loopholes because of the wide variety of ways they gained their customer base. Sometimes they make doing your taxes seem easy. And because of this, you enter into any phone call with one of their CSR's already thinking you'll need to be transferred to a higher level or management.

When the DTV/TiVo VIP news was shared last week, I called. First CSR had no understanding of it. I called again, second CSR put me on hold, checked with a manager or some info database and confirmed it. Said it had been available since 12/13.

It's just a bit perplexing since most TiVo users are complete admirers of the product. And I think most TiVo users want the company to succeed (by buying their product and service).

To me, if they are now offering VIP to anyone who bought a lifetime service (now including DTV/TiVo), then they should honor that. Plain and simple. I think I paid $249 lifetime way back for my SAT-T60, and I paid $299 a bit later for my Mother's SAT-60. Both of these units are still active with DTV, showing lifetime DVR service on our bills. But that should not matter, it did not matter with the standalones for VIP. You mentioned that you transferred from a broken unit. And when you think about it, the S3 for most people will mean that they will deactivate their DTV service.

I guess they want to put a cap on lifetimes still out there. I know Wall Street has punished them for the diminished revenue of the lifetime service. I think there is somewhere close to 3 million DTV/TiVo users out there. If this is the case, they should be limiting the VIP to only series 1 DTV/TiVo units. Was lifetime available when series 2 DTV/TiVo units came out? I think the service numbers are a different format, so it would be easy to tell.

In the end, I've bought three series 3 TiVo's, you've bought 5+. I bought mine through retail channels, maybe you did too, so TiVo's got their set retail margin on those already. Now we just want to give them another $199 per unit on top of that. And in doing so, leave DTV (who hasn't been their best friend of late), and maybe give TiVo some churn leverage when working with DTV in the future.

You come to a point where you know you're their best advocate, yet because of these loopholes, and TiVo's hesitation to fairly cover these, you see that they just hurt themselves. Why?

In the end, I really hope they give you a VIP for the "deactivated" DTV/TiVo unit that had a lifetime service for which you paid. In the spirit of the offer, that's what is fair.

I've got to call here in the next few days to transfer one myself. I'm replacing my Mother's lifetime SAT-T60 (still in use) with an S3. Going to cancel DTV afterwards. I'm not looking forward to the call because I have that feeling that I'll need to be bounced around a bit before I get a CSR that is aware of the VIP for DTV/TiVo lifetimes.

Oh, and whether DTV will start charging $6/month after the "transfer", I don't know. Personally, I doubt it. There's no obligation that I can see that would force DTV to do this. But if they do, it's just sort of a "cancellation laxative".

 

I think D* will start charging the $5.99/mo for those who take this offer and that is their incentive to work with TiVo to get it done. TiVo's incentive is simple - sell more S3's.

 

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That assumes that those buying a S3 will stay with D*.

 

True. I stayed with D* because of SundayTicket but most would probably leave so D* has a lot to lose. Apparently their marketing team didn't have much to say about this decision. Maybe D* just wants to get rid of lifetime status and doesn't care if they lose a subscriber in the process.

 

I called a few days ago, and like others, was initially told that my DSR6000 was not eligible, but then after being put on hold, was then told that it was eligible for the lifetime transfer. However, the CSR I spoke with said that not only did the Series 3 have to be purchased by 12/31, but that the transfer also had to take place by 12/31, due to it being a "special limited offer" outside of the regular VIP offer. I called back yesterday and this time the CSR told me that as long as I purchased the S3 by 12/31 that it would be eligible for the transfer from the DSR6000. I asked her if she would make a note on my account stating this in case I didn't receive my S3 by 12/31 (it was purchased/shipped earlier this week).

Has anyone else heard of a different transfer deadline for Directv TiVo boxes?

 

An update with my DirecTV transfer. Happy ending I think. It appears my Lifetime's and I had 3 of them, were still attached to my old DSR6000's that I replaced with HDVR2's in hopes of getting MRV etc. So finally I was able to transfer 2 DirecTV Lifetimes to Series3's except that it takes 3-5 days and a special team to make it happen.

Still keeping my fingers crossed because after all the trouble I went through, I feel it could still fail. It's a mystery to me how TiVo is making a judgement to grant or deny a DirecTV Lifetime transfer. I'm just glad on my third try I talked with a CSR who was listening and located my Lifetimes for me. I say thank you very much to him.

I was with DirecTV for 12 years and went back to cable because the Series3 would give me a comparable set of TiVo features I had with DirecTV plus new TiVo features I'll never get sticking with DirecTV. I'm with cable now, but I could also go with FIOS when it arrives. Now bring on the Netflix type subscription movie downloads already!

 

Well, I was told 12/31/06 for purchase, 01/31/07 for activation. I think your CSR is wrong, but who am I to say one of their employees is wrong. But it would not make sense to have the activation deadline the same as the purchase deadline. There is no way you could have your box, TiVo service number, in time for activation.

 

I hope it works out for you. And to key on your Netflix comments, I'm with you on that too.

 

...and MRV and TivoToGo and cNet.

 

This makes no sense to me. I don't think D has to do anything (or work with) TIVO in order for TIVO to make this offer. From other posts here TIVO has all the info they need to determine if you orginally bought lifetime.

The vast majority of people taking advatage of this deal will be leaving D and going to cable (although not in my case). Thus D is not gaining an extra $6 per month but rather is losing a customer. It is clearly against D's best interest to assit TIVO in any way with this program.

 

I'm another Directivo owner with Lifeline and was thinking about giving up on tivo and then I saw these posts. I decided to take the plung and buy a series three on buy-dot-com. I noticed that buy-dot-com is not going to charge my credit card until the unit ships. How does Tivo verify when you placed the order? I have an email from buy-dot-com showing the order date of 12/30? Is that good enough or will they go by the day I get charged?

-RangerOne

 

I think that even if they ask, your order date would be good enough. I think the important date is the activation deadline. I thought it was end of Jan 2007, but some have said that it has been pushed back a few days into Feb. Maybe no doubt relating to that sucking sound as the S3 inventory at Dell flew out the door right before Christmas.

I just called today for the VIP transfer from a lifetime DTV/TiVo to an S3. I told the CSR that this was a DTV/TiVo lifetime and gave him the service number. He did not skip a beat, confirmed the transfer, took my cc number, and said that it would take around 72 hours for the unit to get activated. He said that there was some communication with DTV that was involved, and that's why it would take 72 hours.

Who knows what that communication is? But the message is pretty clear, "DTV, you probably just lost another customer."

 

Update -- The credit/charge hit my credit card today and my S3 is now showing LIFETIME status on tivo.com. However, it is showing Account Status = "4: Internal Testing" on the System Information screen. Interesting but it appears to be heading the right way.

 

I was never asked when or where I purchased my Series3's, I was only asked the service number. I don't think they will ever ask for a purchase date while transferring Lifetime. I think they will honor transfers up until 01/31/07 regardless of the purchase date. TiVo is only making sure customers knew they had a month to transfer a Lifetime to a Series3 according to the official rules. TiVo is only protecting itself from having to do any more transfers after 01/31/07.

 

Anyone remember when DirecTV stopped offering lifetime DVR service?

 

It was sometime around October 2002.

http://archive.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=79168

 

Sometime after 8/22/2002...

http://archive.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?threadid=72821

Amusing comment from rogo and BrettStah about DVR fees:
http://archive.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?postid=664768#post664768
http://archive.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?postid=666308#post666308


Here we go:

September 24, 2002: http://archive.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?postid=672539#post672539

 

Cool that TiVo opens up the Lifetime Subscription for DirecTiVo Lifetime Subscription holders.

Not cool that they don't really let anyone know about it!

Not cool that it took them so long to honor the DirecTiVo Lifetime Subscription for the transfer offer!

Not cool that they did not roll it into the standard transfer offer!

Not cool that the offer was only open for two weeks or so, different than the standard transfer offer!

Not cool that the transfer had to occur by 12/31/2006, different than the standard transfer offer!

Not cool that they extended the standard transfer offer but not the DirecTiVo transfer offer!

Yes, I got all 4 DirecTiVos' Lifetime Subscriptions transferred. But, since i did not find out about it until 4:30pm on 12/31, it ruined New Year's Eve plans and it cost $450 extra since I paid retail for three of them 5 minutes before Best Buy closed for the evening. I know, poor me. But I almost misssed this opportunity and I know a lot of others missed out!

Really, don't you think TiVo should re-open the DirecTiVo Lifetime Subscription transfer opportunity with a decent time window? and, maybe mention it on the VIP page? and, offer refunds outside the 30 day window for DirecTiVo TiVo fans who bought 3-Year subscriptions because the offer had not started?


Ok, now it is time to go find 4 750GB SATA drives and do some upgrading.