[dmayland78]

I believe that Tivo customer service is dead. I apologize for this rant but wanted to share my frustration and recent interaction with the company. By way of background, my claim still shows "in-progress" although it will be three weeks tomorrow. (btw I have two active premiers with all-in, a bolt on annual service, a Tivo HD with lifetime service, and a Tivo mini that was linked to the bolt that is only a year old) I normally wouldn't post here but I am completely at a loss with the lack of customer service from this company:

2020/10/12
Please advise as to the status of the above. It has been nearly three weeks and I have not been advised of a satisfactory resolution..... It is unfortunate that TIVO is treating one of its original customers in this manner due to their faulty products. In sum, I purchased the TIVO BOLT with an all-in subscription, the extended three year warranty, and now after two faulty units, Tivo is refusing to stand by its products.

2020/09/21
This case should not be closed. Please see email from ____________ sent at 2:45 PM this afternoon to: [email protected] and [email protected]:

Dear Sir/Madam: Please accept this correspondence in furtherance of my telephone call and prior email to support; both through the website and through my email account associated with my account;.First it should be noted that I have been a loyal Tivo Customer since the company's inception. I have consistently owned multiple Tivo DVRs since my series two and Sony SVR2000. As such, I have been through Tivo throughout many ups and downs. My most recent call to customer service has me extremely frustrated as I purchased a TIVO BOLT 1000GB on March 22, 2019 with all-in service. Shortly thereafter, after the suggestion of the Tivo representative, I decided to purchase a three year extended warranty. A copy of the Certificate of Coverage is attached hereto evidencing the effective date of 3/25/2019 through 3/24/2022 on my purchase. The TIVO was replaced in April of 2019 as it was not working properly. Since receiving the replacement TIVO BOLT I had constantly had problems with the applications; YouTube, Amazon, Netflix, Hulu; and the box needing excessive restarts. Today the TIVO BOLT completely failed with four blinking lights in the front. (Photos attached);. After numerous resets and a call to customer service it was determined that it was likely a hard drive failure. The above notwithstanding, customer serve told me that there was nothing they could do as it was out of warranty. I advised that I had purchased a three year extended warranty, however, Tivo said they had no records of the warranty. After locating the American Express Charge for the warranty (see attached) and the May 11, 2019 date it was charged, customer service could still not located any record of the warranty. Next I was able to locate the original email and Certificate of Coverage. I was asked to email the confirmation to [email protected]. Lastly, I was advised that TIVO purportedly changed its policy subsequent to my purchase in September of 2019 and could not guaranty a replacement unit even if I was able to locate the documentation which they could not access. I checked my TIVO account and under the support page and I was shocked to see that this complaint has been closed. This is wholly unacceptable. I purchased the TIVO BOLT together with the three year warranty for piece of mind that I would not need to worry about repairs during the warranty period. I was assured that all that would need to be done was contact TIVO and they would send a replacement. First, TIvo denied that I had purchased the warranty and now they are not providing a timely replacement despite the previous assurances related to same. Now after significant time and effort, troubleshooting the problem, on the phone with customer support and sending back the previous defective unit only to be replaced with another defective unit that did not even last six months is completely unacceptable. I do not want to lose the benefit of the all-in service that I purchased and the warranty I was up sold on. I expected a better customer service response especially in light of my longstanding history with the company. Please contact me immediately to discuss the foregoing, as I reserve all rights related to same.

 

[krkaufman]

Which of the following is correct, a BOLT with All-in or Annual service:

• (btw I have two active premiers with all-in, a bolt on annual service, a Tivo HD with lifetime service, and a Tivo mini that was linked to the bolt that is only a year old)

• I purchased a TIVO BOLT 1000GB on March 22, 2019 with all-in service

Same for the date of the previous replacement. An April 2019 replacement doesn't mesh with "did not even last six months."

• 2020/09/21
  ...
  The TIVO was replaced in April of 2019 as it was not working properly. Since receiving the replacement TIVO BOLT I had constantly had problems with the applications; YouTube, Amazon, Netflix, Hulu; and the box needing excessive restarts. Today the TIVO BOLT completely failed with four blinking lights in the front.

• and sending back the previous defective unit only to be replaced with another defective unit that did not even last six months

 

[dmayland78]

krkaufman, thank you for the above. For clarification I have a bolt with all-in/lifetime service as well as another bolt that has an annual subscription. In total I have the following active boxes: Premiere XL w/lifetime, another Premier with lifetime, a HD with Lifetime (connected recently to keep the box active as they have phased out other older models), a Bolt with annual subscription, a Mini and lastly a Bolt that I purchased from Tivo as a refurb with the three (3) year warranty.

With regard to the April 2019 date., that was a typo. It was purchased in March 2019 and replaced in April 2020 (not 2019- sorry for the confusion) after a HDMI failure and constant reboots. The replacement box had issues with the apps from the start, however, to be honest I don't utilize the apps frequently because I could stream from other sources so it wasn't a major issue. The hard drive failure was September of this year (less than six months from the April 2020 replacement box).

As you can see I am venting my frustration with a company I have long been loyal to. They had always manufactured superior dvrs, both the hardware and software interface. The fact that I have a Tivo HD that is still running with only a fan replacement since the original purchase is a testament to the former brand. I cannot say the same for their current dvrs or the company that appears to focused on the software/ IP side of the business and have lost their way with the customer base that has supported them from the beginning.

 

[krkaufman]

It was purchased in March 2019 and replaced in April 2020

Zero argument Re: insights on the company, but Re: the box at issue, 13 months is outside the normal warranty period, so that replacement would have consumed the extended warranty's single use provision - if everything were going by the book. Right?

 

[krkaufman]

Another experience not entirely dissimilar to yours...

Tivo Extended Warranty Experience

 

[tommage1]

Zero argument Re: insights on the company, but Re: the box at issue, 13 months is outside the normal warranty period, so that replacement would have consumed the extended warranty's single use provision - if everything were going by the book. Right?

Extended warranty has a single use provision? I did not know that. So if you use it once you are stuck with the continual care (maybe not even that?) A fan dies after a month, you get a replacement "under warranty", then your 3 year warranty is defunct? That is a poor extended WARRANTY policy, you buy 3 years, you should get replacements for 3 years. Continual care a different story as that is not something you PURCHASE like a warranty, I know current continual care policy is one exchange only. Ah well.

 

[jcondon]

Extended warranty has a single use provision? I did not know that. So if you use it once you are stuck with the continual care (maybe not even that?) A fan dies after a month, you get a replacement "under warranty", then your 3 year warranty is defunct? That is a poor extended WARRANTY policy, you buy 3 years, you should get replacements for 3 years. Continual care a different story as that is not something you PURCHASE like a warranty, I know current continual care policy is one exchange only. Ah well.

They tried this crap years ago when I ordered my first refurb Tivo Premiere from them. I opted for the optional warranty. The box they shipped me was a POS. I called to swap it out and they said it would use up my warranty. I was like no it will not. Went back and forth with them on it for a bit before they agreed it would not go against the extended warranty since their refurbished was a POS and more or less DOA on arrival.

 

[dmayland78]

Zero argument Re: insights on the company, but Re: the box at issue, 13 months is outside the normal warranty period, so that replacement would have consumed the extended warranty's single use provision - if everything were going by the book. Right?

I respectfully disagree. When I was upsold to the extended three (3) year warranty it was not disclosed to me that the warranty would be "consumed" after a single use. Further, the original bolt had issues with excessive restarts and freezes prior to the HDMI failure which ultimately resulted in the box being replaced in April of 2020. As such, the bolt should have been replaced within the one (1) year factory warranty and not "consumed" the extended warranty despite the lack of disclosure regarding the procedure. Further, Tivo could have repaired the HDMI port and returned the unit without "consuming" the warranty. However, as you are likely aware the company does not repair the unit, instead, replaces the defective unit with another refurbished one. Thus, being able to void any possible warranty. This gives Tivo the opportunity to attempt to void the warranty, repair the faulty box, and then send the original DVR out for the next service call as a refurb/replacement box. At best, this once reputable company, is taking advantage of its loyal customer base. (This is bolstered by Tivo's apparent course of conduct as documented in the referenced post:

Another experience not entirely dissimilar to yours...

Tivo Extended Warranty Experience

Lastly, it should be noted that the replacement Bolt's apps never functioned properly and again was plagued by freezing and restarts. These issues were present during the 90-day warranty period for the replacement Bolt, however not actively pursued as I rarely use Tivo for the apps due to the issues and better alternative streaming choices. The fact that the replacement/refurb unit provided did not last six months is telling to the quality of the product. How Tivo can sell a product that has an original factory warranty of one (1) year, a customer buys an extended three year warranty, and within an 18 month period two boxes are defective the company's response is basically, thanks for your donation. This is especially egregious in light of the longtime customer history and my frustration is compounded with the fact that I purchased the Tivo Mini to pair with the defective bolt.

Again, I believe that the company now appears to focused on the software/ IP side of the business and have lost their way with the customer base that has supported them from the beginning. However, I contend that it now goes beyond simply bad customer service, but amounts to unconscionable business practices.

 

[dmayland78]

FYI- by way of update, still no response from Tivo since the 10/12/2020 correspondence.

 

[shwru980r]

FYI- by way of update, still no response from Tivo since the 10/12/2020 correspondence.

Since you have two Bolts, have you tried swapping the power supplies to see if that resolves your issue with the all-in Bolt?

If that doesn't work, you could try swapping the hard drives between your two Bolts, but you would lose all the recordings on your functional Bolt.

If you want to keep the recordings on your functional Bolt, you could look for a cheap Bolt without service online or on craigslist, verify it works and then try the same procedure of swapping parts one at a time with your all-in bolt.

If you have a laptop with at least a 500G drive, you could try that drive in the all-in bolt, or you could buy a new laptop drive. Search the forums for recommended Bolt drives.

 

[dmayland78]

BY way of a final update....I received a call today after a few follow up emails and calls and Tivo is replacing the unit for a $49.00 replacement fee. The replacement unit will have my all-in/lifetime service. I am supposed to receive same with two-day shipping.

Thank you for all the assistance and informative responses. I truly appreciate the resources at the forum.