[hershey4]

"To our valued customers,

Effective July 31, 2021, for TiVo Premiere and older DVR models, we are transitioning from live technical support to our around-the-clock virtual chat assistant and troubleshooting guide at TiVo Support...."

I think they mis-used the word "valued". They only value us as a stepping stone to become new Edge customers!! (per the remainder of that email just received)

 

[nuraman00]

I just got this email too.

Would their chat support include a real person, or would it be an automated bot?

Those automated bots in chat support are beyond useless, for any company I've tried.

 

[hershey4]

virtual = bot

I would be curious when the Premiere's were last available for sale. I bought mine 8 years ago -- seems like yesterday. To me that is pretty quick to drop support, especially for products with the concept of "lifetime service" attached to them.

Not fair!!!

 

[Larsenv]

Ugh. I hope this just means that the chat assistant won't let you get a live agent if you select Premiere through the assistant. The assistant is crap, and when it prompts you to get a live agent, it asks for your name, email, and phone yet it doesn't verify those fields at all. (it says to enter your phone number to "verify your account").

If so, then it's up to the live agent to help you. I doubt they would be like "sorry but we are no longer allowed to help you with that". We've been using the live agents to transfer a couple lifetime TiVos and check if the older units have lifetime. The Premiere is still great.

 

[drcharlie]

I got the email too. Was offered $200 code for an Edge for Cable. I don't watch cable. With $200 off, it'd still be $750 for the device and lifetime service. Way too much money. I guess they don't offer a Summer Breeze deal anymore where they'd deactivate our old box and sell us a new one for like $200 or $300 or whatever those past deals were. I took advantage several times. The first year they didn't deactivate and I used the same unit the next year. Each time I bought 2 units and then ended up selling both units.

 

[WVZR1]

Were the messages sent to only your Premiere Boxes or all of the boxes on your account? I wonder if at some point they just 'shut' the option of transferring 'LifeTime'?

 

[Larsenv]

It looks like we did not get the email, unless we missed it (the TiVo account I use is actually under my dad's email which I do not control). I kind of find the Edge coupon to be somewhat of an insult, considering people keep complaining about that model of the DVR.

I hope that the lifetime still stays on the Series 2-4 for years to come.

I'm pretty sure it will because there's no reason to shut it off since they use Rovi (which acquired TiVo so they already have the best and most sensical deal), Series 1 got shut off when they stopped using Gracenote.

 

[Larsenv]

Were the messages sent to only your Premiere Boxes or all of the boxes on your account? I wonder if at some point they just 'shut' the option of transferring 'LifeTime'?

It's apparently an email, not a message on the TiVo itself.

And yeah, a live agent is needed to transfer lifetime. I don't see any reason why a live agent wouldn't help with that past July 31st, TiVo's support page does not give any information about that.

Since the live chat agents are real humans, I'm sure they will be understanding and still help you transfer lifetime, since that's not a technical problem.

 

[blacknoi]

Such a weird split of how to support different hardware revs.

 

[WVZR1]

I haven't received any emails from Tivo and I confirmed with SPAM, Trash and Junk checks. My machines are all connected and have updated though 7/14. I have no messages on any machines either!

 

[H2ZX]

I'm sure they will still transfer lifetimes live, as far as I know is the only way they ever have. As for other support can easily get here.

 

[H2ZX]

For those that didn't receive email. -- To our valued customers,

Effective July 31, 2021, for TiVo Premiere and older DVR models, we are transitioning from live technical support to our around-the-clock virtual chat assistant and troubleshooting guide at TiVo Support. For all TiVo Roamio and newer DVR models, as well as the TiVo Stream 4K, we will continue to provide live technical support. For a complete list of models subject to this change, visit our TiVo Product Support FAQs.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause. In honor of your continued enjoyment of the TiVo experience, we are offering an exclusive $200 savings on TiVo EDGE™ for cable. Our most advanced DVR features up to 300 HD recording hours, records six shows at once, and includes 4K streaming with the vibrance of Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos. Just use code at checkout before August 5th to get your

 

[Larsenv]

Just did a live chat with a TiVo agent.

Based on what I can tell, it looks like you'll still be able to transfer lifetime service for Premiere and older models on the live chat after July 31st. And check if units have lifetime as well based on their TSN.

This is probably obvious, but, of course, you can still use lifetime on Premiere and older models after July 31st.

 

[bcrider]

I just got off the phone with an agent and they wouldn't transfer lifetime to the Edge if I were to buy it. The only way I'd buy an Edge (even with the $200 off offer) is if they will transfer one of my older TiVo's lifetime service to it. $750 + tax is quite expensive when I have two TiVos with lifetime that aren't being used... Anyone have better luck with lifetime transfers, any tricks? Thanks.

 

[tommage1]

The Premiere is still great

It's a useful machine. For me especially the 2 tuner model since it will do both cable and OTA at the same time. So I can have wish lists for some obscure shows, if they ever show up on cable or OTA I will get them. Also lifetime Premiere is great for backups. Put in a big drive, transfer shows from other Tivos to the Premiere (like from Bolts and/or Edge where if drive fails you lose it all, cannot keep backup drives.) Since Premiere is TE3 only can transfer to the Premiere directly. Transferring back to a TE3 device would be direct, to a TE4 device would have to use Tivo online. And even could stream shows stored on the Premiere to any other Tivo on TE3 or 4. Heck a lifetime Premiere probably $50 or so, spend $50 for a 3TB drive (or larger, Premiere can do up to 8TB I think), can have nice backup device for cheap.

 

[bareyb]

Tried to get the $99.00 lifetime deal on my older Roamio and the best I could get was 99 bucks a year. Better than nothing, but not as generous as they used to be on old boxes.

 

[tommage1]

Oh, as for loss of support, yeah that is rough. No way a bot can answer anything other than generic problem. I just hope they don't do the same for Roamios and Bolts on TE3, I'm guessing they removed live support for Premiere since it is incapable of running TE4, they want everyone on TE4 if possible.

 

[tommage1]

Tried to get the $99.00 lifetime deal on my older Roamio and the best I could get was 99 bucks a year. Better than nothing, but not as generous as they used to be on old boxes.

Far as I know they don't do many lifetime transfers or lifetime "deals" anymore. Anyone who held lifetime S2/S3/Premiere hoping for a great deal will probably not get one. Even at best, a $99 transfer, you'd still have to pay full retail for the Edge. So $400 plus the $99 plus tax plus whatever value your transfer from device has as it would be deactivated. I'd prefer a used lifetime Roamio or Bolt in the $200 range...........

 

[mayeri]

After noticing a problem (yet again) in the guide, I remembered that my annual renewal was this month ( I never got Lifetime Service). A quick check of my email showed my last message from tivo was at the end of 2020. No reminders for renewal. And my renewal date is/was 8/10. An attempt to log in failed as did an attempt for a password refresh. I'm waiting until Monday to call tivo, but I'm already fearing the worst.

 

[tommage1]

After noticing a problem (yet again) in the guide, I remembered that my annual renewal was this month ( I never got Lifetime Service). A quick check of my email showed my last message from tivo was at the end of 2020. No reminders for renewal. And my renewal date is/was 8/10. An attempt to log in failed as did an attempt for a password refresh. I'm waiting until Monday to call tivo, but I'm already fearing the worst.

Ouch. When contacting customer service click off Roamio/Bolt/Edge since they dropped live support for Premiere. Going to be rough since most CS will just give generic reply inactive Premieres cannot be activated. I'd GUESS would have to talk with someone in the management type CS (different non published phone number). Even then not hopeful, probably only hope is you got no reminder, that may have been on purpose. Am curious, why wait until Monday? Unless you feel weekend CS may not be as good? Though you may be right, I think the management CS is not active on weekend so whomever you get would not be able to put you on hold and contact them.

Only good news is you can get used lifetime Premieres for $50-100. Of course would lose all current recordings and settings. No transfers possible without active account. If recordings not critical to you may be a blessing in disguise, if you are paying $15 a month (or even $10) and can buy a lifetime machine for $50-100 it would pay for itself in months..................... Or buy a used lifetime Roamio for under $200. Bolt too but I think the Roamio is a much better machine, especially if you are used to a Premiere.