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Caveat Emptor – Buyers with “Product Lifetime” paid at the time of purchase
I purchased a Tivo Roamio Pro in 2014. Since this was my first purchase of a TIVO product I did my research. A TIVO salesperson on the telephone explained that I could buy a Roamio for less money but it would not have the Product Lifetime feature. He said pay once and you will never have to pay for TIVO service or repairs again. I found the same product on eBay and an online store for much less but they were without “Product Lifetime”.
Over the next 7 years I was a happy TIVO customer with few problems. The few I had were expertly handled by the TIVO Technical Support personnel.
Last week the TIVO mini that was part of the original order failed. It cycled through the Welcome screen continuously. The TIVO Technical Support person had me provide a new power source with no change in symptoms. He had a new power block and cord sent to me at no charge.
I received the power block on 5/10/21 and immediately installed it. Exact same symptom. She asked me to plug it in directly to wall outlet versus an extension cord. The best I could do was to use a heavy duty orange power cable to a different outlet. No joy, same symptom. She said the TIVO Mini had experienced a hardware problem and needed to be replaced. I said sure, I purchased Product Lifetime service so send me a new one. That is when the debate about the definition of ‘Product Lifetime’ started. I spoke with Anna for about an hour with repeating the “once the product stops working that is the end of its life – no replacements, no repairs.” I escalated and talked with Supervisor J (spelling?) for about an hour. She just repeated, I repeated and we just couldn’t get to a common point of view. J the supervisor tried to explain to me that the product lifetime was until the first failure (after the Warranty period of 90 days had expired). The TIVO Mini was no longer in stock or refurbished. TIVO offered me $25 off a TIVO Mini LUX at $174.99. I asked why I would pay for anything when TIVO has a technical solution to my problem and it should be replaced under the Product Lifetime that their salesman talked me into. No joy.
We (the TIVO supervisor and I) discussed all the logic of defining Product Lifetime. It seems the Product Lifetime is available until the first time a product fails. Then there is not Product Lifetime on that product. When she explained what I would receive with Product Lifetime and she read off a list of items. I said every item on that list is available to any TIVO customer who calls for support. She didn’t acknowledge or disagree. We went on for over an hour with me stating the logical perspective as a TIVO customer who purchased Product Lifetime and she kept repeating TIVO’s definition of Product Lifetime.
I asked her to send me an email with the product description, terms and conditions that I agreed to upon installation. She said that they emailed in 2018 with a new description of “continual care protection” that TIVO emailed to all their customers. She could not email that description to me either. In other words – she was referring to documentation that I didn’t have and she wouldn’t email to me.
I asked for escalation. She said that she was the highest level of escalation. I asked if the customer satisfaction manager or the service operations manager could call me and tell me what I got for paying a higher price for Product Lifetime. She said that they do not talk to customers, she was the highest point of escalation. I was surprised to hear that Customer Satisfaction managers do NOT talk to customers.
I never learned what Continual Care Protection was except that it expires after 5 years of a purchase. I asked that my Product Lifetime original cost be refunded since it didn’t work and could not be described. No joy there either.
Since it was late in the day and I was worn out, I asked her if she would commit to me to review with her manager our conversation and she agreed. We disconnected our call at that point.
Bottom line: I have no idea what extra service I paid for by getting Product Lifetime for a large surcharge. I feel like I was ripped off the cost of Product Lifetime, which was $500 on my invoice.
I purchased a Tivo Roamio Pro in 2014. Since this was my first purchase of a TIVO product I did my research. A TIVO salesperson on the telephone explained that I could buy a Roamio for less money but it would not have the Product Lifetime feature. He said pay once and you will never have to pay for TIVO service or repairs again. I found the same product on eBay and an online store for much less but they were without “Product Lifetime”.
Over the next 7 years I was a happy TIVO customer with few problems. The few I had were expertly handled by the TIVO Technical Support personnel.
Last week the TIVO mini that was part of the original order failed. It cycled through the Welcome screen continuously. The TIVO Technical Support person had me provide a new power source with no change in symptoms. He had a new power block and cord sent to me at no charge.
I received the power block on 5/10/21 and immediately installed it. Exact same symptom. She asked me to plug it in directly to wall outlet versus an extension cord. The best I could do was to use a heavy duty orange power cable to a different outlet. No joy, same symptom. She said the TIVO Mini had experienced a hardware problem and needed to be replaced. I said sure, I purchased Product Lifetime service so send me a new one. That is when the debate about the definition of ‘Product Lifetime’ started. I spoke with Anna for about an hour with repeating the “once the product stops working that is the end of its life – no replacements, no repairs.” I escalated and talked with Supervisor J (spelling?) for about an hour. She just repeated, I repeated and we just couldn’t get to a common point of view. J the supervisor tried to explain to me that the product lifetime was until the first failure (after the Warranty period of 90 days had expired). The TIVO Mini was no longer in stock or refurbished. TIVO offered me $25 off a TIVO Mini LUX at $174.99. I asked why I would pay for anything when TIVO has a technical solution to my problem and it should be replaced under the Product Lifetime that their salesman talked me into. No joy.
We (the TIVO supervisor and I) discussed all the logic of defining Product Lifetime. It seems the Product Lifetime is available until the first time a product fails. Then there is not Product Lifetime on that product. When she explained what I would receive with Product Lifetime and she read off a list of items. I said every item on that list is available to any TIVO customer who calls for support. She didn’t acknowledge or disagree. We went on for over an hour with me stating the logical perspective as a TIVO customer who purchased Product Lifetime and she kept repeating TIVO’s definition of Product Lifetime.
I asked her to send me an email with the product description, terms and conditions that I agreed to upon installation. She said that they emailed in 2018 with a new description of “continual care protection” that TIVO emailed to all their customers. She could not email that description to me either. In other words – she was referring to documentation that I didn’t have and she wouldn’t email to me.
I asked for escalation. She said that she was the highest level of escalation. I asked if the customer satisfaction manager or the service operations manager could call me and tell me what I got for paying a higher price for Product Lifetime. She said that they do not talk to customers, she was the highest point of escalation. I was surprised to hear that Customer Satisfaction managers do NOT talk to customers.
I never learned what Continual Care Protection was except that it expires after 5 years of a purchase. I asked that my Product Lifetime original cost be refunded since it didn’t work and could not be described. No joy there either.
Since it was late in the day and I was worn out, I asked her if she would commit to me to review with her manager our conversation and she agreed. We disconnected our call at that point.
Bottom line: I have no idea what extra service I paid for by getting Product Lifetime for a large surcharge. I feel like I was ripped off the cost of Product Lifetime, which was $500 on my invoice.
