Advance Replacement RMA-TiVo refusing to credit my $500

2254 Views 19 Replies 10 Participants Last post by dclane1, Nov 15, 2020

donsullivan

Discussion Starter · Jul 21, 2020 (Edited)

I'm in the midst of the most insane crazy hell of customer non-service with TiVo I believe I've ever experienced.

I had a drive failure on a Bolt back in June and called support; they acknowledge the replacement option with advance replacement. I took the advance replacement since I was without a TV service in the house until this was resolved. That's where the insanity began.

I returned the failed box and they received it into their warehouse 6/26/20, and I've gotten nothing but deflection, delay, and deferment ever since. Every time I call, I get the same response that the credit will take 7-10 business days. When pressed, I get the "I've escalated your case," but then when I call back a week later, absolutely nothing has been done at all.

Then I call back another week later, and finally lose my patience and demand, despite their repeated statements that they are not available to speak to a supervisor. That supervisor gives me the same spiel and notes that the supposed escalation done two weeks ago, has absolutely no response at all and therefore nothing has been done at all to progress the case forward.

They've been sitting on my $500 advance replacement fee for 4 weeks now since they received the box and haven't even come to an agreement that the box has been received (despite FedEx delivery confirmation), much less issued the credit. And then I fully expect them to pull the '7-10 days' language out of the script book when they finally do as well.

My next step is going to be contacting the credit card company and disputing the charges since they are unwilling/incapable of resolving the issue.

Does anyone have any other avenues within TiVo they can recommend to get this insanity resolved?

I'm completely aware that I'm ranting a little (okay a lot

) here, but this is sheer insanity. Has TiVo customer service gotten this bad? I guess I've been lucky and not had a need to deal with anything more than technical support for a long time, so I've not experienced this nightmare.

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chiguy50

· #2 · Jul 21, 2020

I would go ahead and dispute the charge with your CC company; if nothing else, you are putting down a marker that there is an issue with the provider.

Get the ball rolling and see whether that prompts TiVo to take action.

Reactions: 5

mattyro7878

· #3 · Jul 21, 2020

I had an issue on a purchase I made ( not tivo). I got instant credit but had to accept a new card. Almost as if.."ok. Its fraud. Here's your money".

randyb359

· #4 · Jul 22, 2020

I use to work for Sprint and had a customer come in because his phone was shut off for not returning his leased phone. I go into the account and look at the notes and it says phone received and the IMEI number. I check the IMEI number and it was the correct model/gig which is all that is required for the lease. It does not have to be the same phone. I think this will be easy to fix I will just call customer service and point them to the note and they will fix it. Boy was I wrong. They kept arguing that he never returned the phone even though it plainly said he had. I even had them read the note to me "phone received IMEI number" and they still insisted he had not returned the phone despite just saying those words. I spend over an hour on the phone calling every support number for Sprint I could find and finally got my manager who after about 2 more hours got someone to turn it back on "while they investigate it". Outsourced Support numbers are worthless. I know the companies want to save money but I wonder if it actually does when you consider the churn it causes and the time it wastes. Before Sprint outsourced their support that would have been a two minute phone call. The Customer would have been happier and me and my manager could have spent that time selling/assisting other customers.

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donsullivan

Discussion Starter · #5 · Jul 22, 2020 (Edited)

I escalated to their supposed Executive Relations team and have learned that too is a complete and total waste of time. They are giving me the same run-around that they have to wait for the warehouse to 'receive' the item that they acknowledge they received on 6/26. So the scripted response I'm getting from them is identical to what I received from a general rep back on 7/2- 7/13 - 7/14 - 7/21. They are locked in a broken process where the warehouse has not completed the reception of the return and until they do, 'the process' cannot release the credit. The supposed Exec Relations representative is parroting the same script and blaming the process and refusing to do anything to short-circuit a clearly broken process and thus refusing the make a commitment when this will be resolved. It's a perpetual loop of &^*&^%*&^

I finally ended the call today stating and asking the rep to record that if this is not resolved in 24 hours I will submit a fraudulent transaction claim with my Credit Card company since TiVo is refusing to issue the credit and blaming internal 'process.

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Xaa

· #6 · Jul 22, 2020

Just dispute it with your credit card. You don't have to dispute it as fraud, just dispute that you did not receive the promised delivery for the compensation. You were promised a replacement unit and a refund when they received the old one. They have only delivered half of that.

Your CC company will deal with TiVo on your behalf and they will get people more empowered than the TiVo phone monkeys. Either way you are certain to get your refund and not have to go through the hassle any longer.

TiVo service reps have always been nice, but almost from the very start, were empowered so little as to be useless for anything but the simplest requests. I foretasted TiVo's demise over and over again throughout the years but they have proven me wrong. They can survive this way and have.

Reactions: 1

seaninde

· #7 · Jul 23, 2020

This is normal Tivo refund practice. It will take about 1 - 2 months to get the credit. You will get it. After my experience I won't buy anything directly from Tivo. If you dispute it with your card, when they do the refund they will charge you again for the refunded dispute amount. Just be patient. They basically hold your money hostage for a month.

donsullivan

Discussion Starter · #8 · Jul 23, 2020

seaninde said:
This is normal Tivo refund practice. It will take about 1 - 2 months to get the credit. You will get it. After my experience I won't buy anything directly from Tivo. If you dispute it with your card, when they do the refund they will charge you again for the refunded dispute amount. Just be patient. They basically hold your money hostage for a month.

They have already held my money hostage for a month since receiving the RMA return so far and have not moved the process one step forward from where it was on 7/3. They state that the warehouse has not even received the item back into inventory and until they do that 'nothing can happen'. When even their so-called 'exec relations' team gives me the same script I've been getting for weeks it's clear they are incompetent. The exec relations teams response is "I sent an email to the WHSE and have to wait 24 hours for them to respond". Since I've heard this script 3 times already, why should I have confidence anything will be any different this time.
I'm unwilling to let them get away with just blowing me off and refusing to issue the refund and blaming their 'process' endlessly. I already got hit with an interest charge on the credit card because the excessive delay and when a month passes with not one inch of change, I'm unwilling to sit around and wait endlessly.

seaninde

· #9 · Jul 23, 2020

Yup, exactly what I went through. Never buy directly from them again.

donsullivan

Discussion Starter · #10 · Jul 23, 2020

seaninde said:
Yup, exactly what I went through. Never buy directly from them again.

I actually bought the box at BestBuy but when you do an RMA replacement for a failed HD you have no choice but to go through TiVo directly- there are no other options.

donsullivan

Discussion Starter · #11 · Jul 23, 2020

No surprise here but the 'Executive Relations' team does not meet their committments to provide a status phone call within 24 hours despite having made that committment yesterday. And when you call them, you just get dumped to a voice mail box.

I submitted the disputed transaction request with the Credit Card Company for the Advance Replacement portion of the charge ($499.99). Now we wait to see how this all plays out. TiVo seems to have tapped out and is refusing to do anything at this point.

PSU_Sudzi

· #12 · Jul 23, 2020

donsullivan said:
No surprise here but the 'Executive Relations' team does not meet their committments to provide a status phone call within 24 hours despite having made that committment yesterday. And when you call them, you just get dumped to a voice mail box.

I submitted the disputed transaction request with the Credit Card Company for the Advance Replacement portion of the charge ($499.99). Now we wait to see how this all plays out. TiVo seems to have tapped out and is refusing to do anything at this point.

You're better off replacing a hard drive yourself if that's the issue.

cwerdna

· #13 · Jul 23, 2020

BTW, since you mention Bolt and failed drive, hopefully you're doing something to cool the unit you have now (e.g. laptop coolers, AC Infinity fans, etc.). It probably helps w/drive lifespan as those units really run too hot.

I received Bolt+ in mid-April 2017 and activated by around end of April 2017. I'm still on the original drive and DO take steps to keep it cool. It runs 24/7 and all the power savings modes are disabled.

donsullivan

Discussion Starter · #14 · Jul 23, 2020

cwerdna said:
BTW, since you mention Bolt and failed drive, hopefully you're doing something to cool the unit you have now (e.g. laptop coolers, AC Infinity fans, etc.). It probably helps w/drive lifespan as those units really run too hot.

I received Bolt+ in mid-April 2017 and activated by around end of April 2017. I'm still on the original drive and DO take steps to keep it cool. It runs 24/7 and all the power savings modes are disabled.

I don't do anything specific to keep it cool but it is in an open area in the cabinet with wide open airflow around the box with nothing in front and nothing under, or on top of it. That should be sufficient for air cooling around the whole case.

cwerdna

· #15 · Jul 23, 2020

donsullivan said:
I don't do anything specific to keep it cool but it is in an open area in the cabinet with wide open airflow around the box with nothing in front and nothing under, or on top of it. That should be sufficient for air cooling around the whole case.

What's your ODT? (On die temperature, likely a sensor on the die (chip) of the Broadcom chip.)

There have been many threads on how lousy Bolt's cooling is. I wouldn't be surprised if your ODT is in the high 50's (C) or even in the 60ish C range.
59 C = 138.2 F
62 C = 143.6 F

Here are some example temps from me w/my fans:
Temperature of Bolt
Temperature of Bolt

donsullivan

Discussion Starter · #16 · Jul 23, 2020

cwerdna said:
What's your ODT? (On die temperature, likely a sensor on the die (chip) of the Broadcom chip.)

There have been many threads on how lousy Bolt's cooling is. I wouldn't be surprised if your ODT is in the high 50's (C) or even in the 60ish C range.
59 C = 138.2 F
62 C = 143.6 F

Here are some example temps from me w/my fans:
Temperature of Bolt
Temperature of Bolt

How pray tell would one discover that piece of data?

cwerdna

· #17 · Jul 23, 2020

donsullivan said:
How pray tell would one discover that piece of data?

For me, it's under Settings & Messages > Account & System Info > System Information, then scroll down.

Google makes for a good unit converter (e.g. 40 c in f).

I think about the best I can do during the summer w/my setup is ODT of 40 C (104 F). I have no central AC here nor is my rarely used "portable" AC even on the same floor. When it gets to winter, I think I can get it lower.

Besides my two fans, I removed the CableCARD door and have my MULTIFAN S4, Quiet USB Cooling Fan, 140mm sitting atop 4 small rubber feet, to elevate it a bit so that it can better pull in air. That guy blows upwards into the CableCARD area and I tried to position it to push in air thru some of the small vent holes at some edges of the Bolt case.

jay_man2

· #18 · Jul 23, 2020

My Bolt is sitting on an Infinity S7 fan set on medium fan. The room a/c is set to 76f and when I checked a few days ago the ODT was 44c.

donsullivan

Discussion Starter · #19 · Jul 26, 2020

This whole ODT temperature thing was something I was never aware of prior to this dialog. My Bolt is right at the front edge of the shelf, in an open cabinet, resting on the shelf and nothing on top of it. I checked this morning and it's showing an ODT of 69C. It's kind of fascinating that it's so high. The house is fully air-conditioned and kept to a normal temperature of 74 degrees.

Based on all of this and the recommendations above, I ordered a cheap laptop cooler to put under it that is scheduled to be delivered by Amazon tomorrow. Meanwhile, I lifted the Bolt onto some small boxes to give it a few inches of extra clearance for better airflow underneath.

dclane1

· #20 · Nov 15, 2020

I have the issue. I was 3 days away from my warranty being up and they have escalated my case. It’s now going on the 4th week and still no answer. The worst customer service I’ve ever had to deal with.

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