[Wubba1108]

Just a head's up to other Tivo users or potential users. We bought our Tivo approximately one year ago....and it DIED this morning. Called Customer Support and the best they could do was to recommend that we buy a new one. So, Tivo officially wins the award for having the lowest self-life of ANY electronic equipment in our home.

Congrats, Tivo. We'll be sure to pass along news of this distinction to our network of peers and family.

 

[dgh]

On the other hand, my friends and I bought 9 TiVos between us between 5.5 and 6 years ago. Zero failures so far. They also have some newer TiVos. No failures among these youngsters either.

It's strange that they only recommended a new one. TiVo will repair/replace for a fee, and the most failure prone part - the disk, is easily replaced by the owner.

 

[mec1991]

Congrats, Tivo. We'll be sure to pass along news of this distinction to our network of peers and family.

Oh no, TiVo is doomed!!!

 

[Xadrian]

I bought my series 1 TiVo ~6 years ago and it's still truckin' along fine. I'll finally replace it once the series 3 are out. My dad's TiVo (bought at the same time) had hardware troubles after a year and a half, but they never suggested buying a new one - they offered to repair it. And if you were still under the 1 year mark, I believe it's covered under warranty. Electronics fail. Much more often if they have HDDs in them. Sounds like you just got unlucky.

 

[Spiff]

Wubba, put it up on eBay. There are many people who can repair it who would be willing to bid on it.

Or, if you want to fix it, get a hard drive of equal or greater size and visit http://tivo.upgrade-instructions.com/index.php

 

[dylanemcgregor]

Wubba,

Sorry about the dead TiVo and the bad customer service. Most TiVo's can be fixed pretty cheaply if you are interested. The most common part to fail is the HD which is easy to replace yourself. Let us know what type of problem you're having and most likely we can get you back up and going quickly.

I know it sucks to have something break and it would piss me off too, but if you get over your anger and want to try and fix it, let us know. Many times the people on here are more knowledgeable and quicker than official TiVo support.

-Dylan

 

[cynthetiq]

my tivo upgrade lasted about 1 year, do I blame Tivo for it? nope.

do I blame weaknees? nope

do I blame maxtor? nope.

I have plenty of technology that is over 5 years old that is going strong.

My first Tivo 80 hours is still running after 3 years.

It's just one of the those things, electronics are sensitive things subject to lots of reasons for failure.

 

[ZeoTiVo]

Congrats, Tivo. We'll be sure to pass along news of this distinction to our network of peers and family.

Huh, I would have thought the TiVo rep would have been won over by your charm and positive attitude. At least here you got the correct advice that a TiVo usually goes bad by losing the Hard drive and is easy to fix

 

[gregmark]

It is not "easy to fix". At least, I object to that statement when it omits a qualifying clause such as "for the technically inclined (if not skilled)". Tivo the company should probably do something more for folks like Wubba. Most users of computers or electronics are lazy, demanding, and *extremely* likely to not know that a Tivo has a hard drive. Successful tech companies understand this and have something better to say then "Ooh.. yeah... just buy a new one". If nothing else, the rep could have told Wubba to check out the tivocommnity period com (five posts, here I come!).

 

[ZeoTiVo]

It is not "easy to fix". At least, I object to that statement when it omits a qualifying clause such as "for the technically inclined (if not skilled)". Tivo the company should probably do something more for folks like Wubba. Most users of computers or electronics are lazy, demanding, and *extremely* likely to not know that a Tivo has a hard drive. Successful tech companies understand this and have something better to say then "Ooh.. yeah... just buy a new one". If nothing else, the rep could have told Wubba to check out the tivocommnity period com (five posts, here I come!).

What we dont know, is if the OP had a monthly subscription and a 40 hour TiVo. if he did then just buying a new TiVo at 39 or 50 bucks and doing monthly on it would be cheaper and easier.

TiVo will repair but usually charges 90$ for it.

as for easy to fix yourself, you can order a large drive from weakknees and simply swap it out with the drive in the box. done in 10 minutes and my non tech using dad could do it with the simple instructions included

 

[justapixel]

my tivo upgrade lasted about 1 year, do I blame Tivo for it? nope.

do I blame weaknees? nope

do I blame maxtor? nope.

I have plenty of technology that is over 5 years old that is going strong.

My first Tivo 80 hours is still running after 3 years.

It's just one of the those things, electronics are sensitive things subject to lots of reasons for failure.

:up: :up: :up:

Like others in this thread, I bought a series 1 6 years ago, and it is going strong. After 2 years, I sold it to my BIL, who then sold it to a relative of his, and none of us lost value in it.

My two more recent dtivo units are still going strong, and one has the well-documented over-heating problem. A $10 fan has taken care of that.

I'm sorry you are having problems, and I hope that they get fixed. I imagine that they will, now that you have posted it here.

 

[samo]

As paradox as it sounds, CS rep was probably right. Unless OP has lifetime it is cheaper to buy a new one than to repair the old one. TiVos are more or less disposable now days much like small screen Tvs, VCRs and DVD players. Unfortunately, with lower prices comes cheaper manufacturing and QC. I also have 6 year old and 3 year old TiVos that are working fine, but few months ago it took me 3 trips to the store to get 2 working DirecTiVos (3 out 5 I tried were defective).

 

[gregmark]

as for easy to fix yourself, you can order a large drive from weakknees and simply swap it out with the drive in the box. done in 10 minutes and my non tech using dad could do it with the simple instructions included

But you have to know that such a thing is possible in the first place. My non-tech dad, who would also be able to install a weakness drive in 10 minutes with the enclosed instructions, would probably never think to slug "fix my tivo drive" into a Google search. More likely, he would just accept "just buy a new one" at face value and curse Tivo.

I do agree though that the OP is probably simplifying his customer support interaction somewhat, if not entirely. Number one rule of customer support? Trust me on this: customers always lie.

Having said that, I just think it's (inadvertently) flippant to tell Tivo layity that any solution that requires unscrewing a chassis is easy.

 

[dgh]

Having said that, I just think it's (inadvertently) flippant to tell Tivo layity that any solution that requires unscrewing a chassis is easy.

You could always get the neighbor's kid to do it. Back in the early days when the upgrade process was little documented and didn't have ready-made solutions like Weaknees, it was common for people here to upgrade other people's TiVos for a beer. If it's not easy for you, there's a kid nearby who will think it's a piece of cake.

If the OP knows the problem is the disk, and feels he can't unscrew the chassis, he should let us know where he lives. I'll do it for a beer if I'm near.

Samo may still be right though - depending on what rebate deals are out there, sometimes you can get a TiVo for less than the cost of the disk inside it.

 

[lajohn27]

he was smart enough to find this forum.. I'd like to suggest that he could be smart enough to read it -- to know that there is an HD in it and that Weaknees (a sponsor of this forum) could replace it..

Yes - the TIVO CS on this was maybe a little lacking.. but honestly.. if it's a monthly sub on a 40 hr box.. he got the right advice.

Smart enough to whine.. but not smart enough to read.

 

[lethcoeb]

My TiVo has died twice - the first time after about 1.5 years of service, and the second time after a year of service with a new hard drive.

Being a tech weenie, I gladly replaced the hard drives myself (and upgraded each time), but his/her point is clear and legit to me.

Hard drives fail, and often. The common user, who spends $150 - $300 for a nice little piece of electronic hardware, usually does not have to worry about it failing inside a year. Heck, how many of us have stereos, or microwaves, or clock radios fail at such a rate?

Granted, the hard drive is always on and spinning (or at least usually on and spinning), so that becomes the typical failure point.

But picking on a guy/girl with a legitimate complaint - Hey, my TiVo died, and tech support is telling me to treat it like a toaster! - is, in my mind, not a way to make converts to TiVo or the technology.

The thing I like about my Time Warner HD DVR is that if it acts squirrelly, I can always hand it back for a brand spanking new one (or at least someone's old one that works). As for my TiVo, next time the HD(s) die(s), I'm out another $200 or more bucks, plus the time it takes for Weaknees to ship a new HD (or two).

 

[dgh]

Heck, how many of us have stereos, or microwaves, or clock radios fail at such a rate?

On a more apples to apples comparison: Back in the good old days I've lost as many as 4 VCRs within a year. I once had the same one die 3 times in 18 months. That one cost $899 but that was back when $899 was still real money

Rentals and leases do take care of you in case of trouble, but it's usually all factored into the rent you pay. (Of course, you'll pay a lot if you put your TiVo on monthly too and I don't recommend that either.)

 

[MickeS]

I'm surprised at all the talk about replacing the hard drive - the OP didn't mention what type of failure it is. Hey, OP, let us know and we'll try and help out!

 

[dtreese]

Hard drive is the assumption because hard drive failures are the vast majority of TiVo failures. You've got the only moving parts in the hard drive. Mechanical devices break down -- especially mechanical devices on which maintenance cannot be performed. How long would a car last if you couldn't perform any type of maintenance on it?

 

[dgh]

It's been mentioned in other threads, but I'll mention it here too: You can get a TiVo for $20 after rebate at CompUSA.

Of course some people don't like fussing with rebates, but to send it back to TiVo you'd have to package and ship it and the shipping alone would probably cost $20.

If the CSR knew this (and hopefully mentioned it) then a new TiVo is really hard to beat for a monthly customer.