Had Tivo for 2 years, canceled, now I want to buy but price is 3 times more....

no need to cross post.

Yep- with the bolt release they changed it all. The $199 was a special deal, unfortunately you did not realize how special it was. Sorry.

You may try csr roulette, but I'm not entirely optimistic you'll get the old offer reinstated.

 

Advertisements

Re-activate it again for a month, then cancel again, and see if they offer you lifetime? lol

 

You were offered a limited time sale, you didn't take the offer, the sale expired. You sound a little spoiled acting like they should change their whole business just for you.

 

If it was a Roamio ota you can get one on Amazon now for $299 with lifetime. If it wasn't, then still buy the OTA from Amazon and then take the Cablecard bracket out of your Roamio and put it in the ota and now you have a full Roamio basic with lifetime for $299. Now your old one can be used for spare parts.

 

Ironically, one of my older brothers used to rib me about being my mom's "favorite child" (I wasn't, but facts aren't a requirement for quality sibling taunts), and started mockingly referring to me as "The Chosen One."

 

Excellent advice from HarperVision.

But don't blame HarperVision, or TiVo, if a software update, at some point in the future, disables the CableCARD capability in a "sold as OTA-only" Roamio OTA. It may never happen. Or it may. The choice is up to you, very much like the earlier choice to pass on the Lifetime service discount.

edit: p.s. The Lifetime service price recently jumped $100, from $500, though owners of multiple TiVo devices saw the removal of the multi-service discount, bumping the price $200. So it's a 20% bump for new customers, and 50% for existing customers.

 

Question on a similar question...

I gave my mother one of my Romeos because I was upgrading. She has two tivos and one of them stopped working when her city changed to digital. The tivo was old and didn't have a cable card. So I was hoping to get her back up and running. She was on the $100+ or something a year plan. When she called tivo and tried to transfer the service to the Romeo they told her that she had to turn off her service first. When they finally got it all back on they told her she couldn't keep the previous plan and it was now changed to $14.95 per month for the new tivo and she still pays the same yearly plan for the other.

I felt like this was unfair since Tivo told her they had to turn off the service first. Whenever I upgrade, I've been able to keep my same plan. I wasn't there unfortunately when all this happened (live in a different city) and I would have hopefully handled it differently. But my question is this...do I have any options at all about getting her her plan back?

 

Look into used 4 tuner lifetime premieres on eBay. I bought 2. One is for general use. The other is either a mini server or a spare; right now it's a spare. New with Tivo and unsure about how many tuners I will need.

Sometimes there's several and sometimes few or none are listed. Just keep looking. I paid avg $359 each. Both had been upgraded with 2TB drives. I think it was a good deal. Lots of minis available used but NOT all are lifetime minis. Tivo changed all lifetime equipment over with no hassle. Minis can sometimes be odd birds to configure. Be lucky or be persistent with them.

 

Sometimes time limited promotions become the new regular price. Sometimes they are a time limited good deal. Other posters gave you options. Sounds like begging for the old deal isn't going to work.

Bolt for a year might be your best option.

 

This was in response to the OP, rather than the latest sidebar.

 

Sounds like your mom was using S2's. You could find another used S2 with lifetime service on ebay for around $100 or less. If she's getting guide data over the phone line, the Romeo doesn't do that and needs a constant internet connection.

 

It *does* seem unfair, mostly because it *is* unfair if the details are accurate.

Have you tried calling TiVo on her behalf? They should have records of when your mom called-in to cancel the service and when she called the second time to ~finalize the service transfer.~ With a VERY short delay between those 2 dates, the truth of her side of the story should be unassailable by anybody on the other side of the phone at TiVo.

And if you have to, I expect there may be people around here who can provide recommendations on escalating the issue further.

 

Complain, ask nicely, and tivo might help out the posters Mom.

Tivo no longer offers multi service discounts. Her existing discounted plan doesn't carry forward to a replacement unit. The reason she had to cancel the old DVR service was to ensure her gifted unit was correctly charged.

Buying a used unit, with lifetime service, is a good option.

https://support.tivo.com/SupportPor.../Features_Use/Multi-Service-Discount-Policies

edit to add the change was as of September 30. The posters previous experience transferring discounted service to a replacement unit is irrelevant.

 

I don't believe the Multi-Service Discount changes were related to the issue. The issue seems to be transfer of service, which the following page seems to cover:

How to Transfer TiVo Service to a New TiVo DVR​

... and which seems considerably harsher than I had expected, given the number of posts I've seen recently from people saying they've been able to get even cheaper plans transferred.

 

Read your link and the link I offered.

The person isn't eligible to transfer service and isn't eligible for a MSD. Tivo is charging her the correct charge.

edited to add I don't know if the rules to transfer service were changed at the same time the MSD was dropped. I don't know if tivo CSR are still able to offer deals. It couldn't hurt to ask. It's always good to know if you're demanding something you're entitled to, as posters in this mistakenly thought, or if you're asking for an exception.

I'm pretty sure the $100 annual fee the posters Mom was paying was a MSD fee.

 

MSD was never part of the discussion; she was merely trying to transfer service plans from TiVo A to TiVo B, and the details appear to be that TiVo tacitly approved of the transfer but instructed her that canceling service on TiVo A was a necessary prerequisite of moving forward.

TiVo's policies are TiVo's policies, and the customer would not appear to be eligible for a service transfer based on the document I linked above. However, what I find "unfair" is the part of the story where TiVo told the customer that it would be necessary to cancel service on TiVo A to transfer that service plan to TiVo B. At a minimum, the customer should be able to retreat to their original service plan on TiVo A.

 

Thanks so much for your help. I apologize that I was a bit fuzzy on the details. Mom is not really techy and I wasn't there. But I like the idea about buying a lifetime service Tivo. That would definitely fix the problem. I wish I could get it cheaper.... but oh well. Thanks again.