Process for Selling TiVo and Transfering Lifetime

You call TiVo customer service and tell them you have sold a box on your account and want to authorize the transfer of ownership to the new owner. You tell them the TSN of the box and usually they'll ask you the new owner's name, and then they will give you a case number that you give to the new owner. Once the new owner receives the box, they call TiVo customer service and give TiVo the case number and their account info and the box gets transferred over. It's a relatively quick and painless process.

 

Correct, although I suspect the new owner can get by with just their name as long as you have advised TiVo of it. But the case number may speed up the process, so why not do that also?

 

Following the above process Re: obtaining and sending the transfer case number, there’s no reason the ownership transfer couldn’t be completed before you take the box offline at your place, and I’m not sure it couldn’t be completed while the box is in transit (i.e. before the box is brought online at its destination).

 

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Fun fact: some people who buy used lifetime TiVos are quite happy just leaving the box on your account; this happened to me once. The box continues to function just fine and I suspect they don't even know or care what functions they are missing on tivo.com. Every so often I set a season pass for some random show for them but they seem totally oblivious!

 

You could have some fun with that . . . record some really random shows to populate their what's on list.

 

As long as the new owner requests it, and after the previous owner has informed TiVo of it. I assume the new owner would have to know the TSN also.

 

This is why before I sell TiVos, I always call up TiVo support and transfer them off my main TiVo account to a second TiVo account in my name. I don't want a bunch of boxes I've sold off still hanging around on my main account because the new owners don't move them to their own account.

 

I did that to my brother-in-law to get him to finish the transfer. He seemed quite happy with my choices, unfortunately.

 

An especially good idea given the 12 device limit.

 

So he said. (Deletions are fast and easy.).

 

I sold one with Lifetime (I think it was purchased via TiVo and never placed in service but I could have used it... it's been a while) and alerted TiVo to the transfer however many months later I found out the new owner purchased an extended warranty and it was charged to my credit card. TiVo admitted to the "mistake" and stated for whatever reason when it was updated they didn't remove my credit card. After a bit they refunded the charge and all was well...

 

I bought a Premiere from someone here maybe two years ago with lifetime. Met him and did the deal. Some how Tivo screwed it pretty good and he had access to my tivo.com or maybe my credit card was on his account. I forget exactly what. He did have access to my card for sure. It got straightened out and I knew the guy I bought it from wasn't going to do anything shady.

 

I "recycled" an old 2-tuner Premier with lifetime through a prominent TiVo reseller and refurbisher a couple of years ago. Didn't have any friends that wanted it and didn't want to hassle with trying to sell it. They sent me a prepaid shipping label so cost me nothing to ship it off to the reseller/refurbisher/recycler. They said I didn't need to do anything at my end to transfer ownership to whomever might purchase it after they refurbed it (assuming they actually do refurb for resale). Several months later, I noticed that the old unit was still showing up on my TiVo account, so I changed the name of the unit from "Living Room" to "Recycled(+name of reseller)", thinking that perhaps it had not yet been refurbed and or resold.

A couple of months ago, since it was still showing on my account (after almost 2 years), I logged into it with the TiVo app and saw a bunch of One Passes and recordings with genres that I would never watch. I got in contact with TiVo support and they kindly removed the unit from my inventory. I assume that the new owner (whoever and wherever they are) is still able to use their unit. At least it's no longer languishing on my account's inventory.

 

One thing that I've thought about recently (and for which has not been discussed here). I wonder if TiVo has ever "screwed the pooch" (so to speak) in making these transfers? In other words, seller contacts TiVo with TSN and gets case number. Meanwhile, TiVo really messes up and removes the lifetime membership off the box entirely. That seems outrageous and perhaps not likely to happen. However, I have seen customer service go downhill through the years at TiVo.

For example, there was a time when customer service was handled out of a Call Center in Colorado. Since that time, the company has been sold and it appears now all phone calls go overseas. Based on who you get - there can be a very real language barrier. I remember speaking with someone from technical support within the past year; and the level of communication was downright pitiful.