[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).

 

[samo]

And what they heck would they do if I had a "lifetime subscription"? I know that I didn't go that option to start with because it was "lifetime of the UNIT", but if I had? I'd have paid $300 for something that lasted 3 months?! So, what do I do? I am mad as heck. Can this be fixed? Or do I report this to the Better Business Bureau?

Not much you can do except for sending TiVo $49. Reporting to BBB wouldn't do you any good at all. You owe TiVo for 9 more months of service regardless if your TiVo works or not. You can try to protest charges, but I bet the terms of your rebate specifically state that you have to keep service for at least a year. So your choices are to either pay $49 and enjoy TiVo for the rest of the year or pay for service you don't receive. And to answer your question about lifetime. If you had lifetime sub your sub would have been transferred to the replacement unit.
Edit. Didn't read your original thread, so I didn't realize that lifetime question has been answered. Before you send your unit for repairs, make sure you do few things. First to "Clear and delete" everything in setup menu. That will take care of any corrupted data files. If that doesn't work try to repeat "Guided setup". Do it twice of 3 times, don't ask me why - I have no idea, but that is what fixed my TiVo 5 years ago and it still works fine.

 

[samo]

As long as it's less then a year old they would transfer the lifetime service to the "refurbished" unit for you at no further cost. If it was over a year old then you'd be out of luck. (although you'd probably still be able to sell it to someone on eBay for at, or near, the cost of the lifetime service since this is a fixable problem by someone who knows what they're doing.)

Dan

Dan are you sure? Did TiVo change the policy on lifetime? My understanding was that as long as your original box is repaired or replaced by authorized service there are no restrictions to lifetime transfer regardless if box is under warranty or not.

 

[samo]

Oh my goodness, this is like a bad acid dream that wont stop.

What part of TiVo Policy do you not understand with regards to the "AND" part below:

will void the warranty on your TiVo DVR AND constitute a breach of this Agreement)."

If YOU open your TiVo, you are Voiding both your warranty AND your Lifetime Subscription becasue you are in breach of agreement.

The problem is that you are reading the agreement, but don't know history behind the hard drive upgrade. When original upgrade path was discovered about 6 years ago, hackers approached Tivo and asked them if it would be OK with TiVo to post it and if TiVo will not disable hacked units. The answer was - "OK you can do it, but we reserve a right to stop it if any attempts are made to hack TiVo service". To this date TiVo hackers community and TiVo are honoring this gentlemen's agreement. There are no indications that this agreement will ever be broken, but there are no guaranties on anything in life. For example TiVo could lose E* law suit this March and go down a drain taking lifetime subscriptions with them.

 

[samo]

I guess I don't like games. TiVo could have from the very start, made it so that anybody can upgrade or add more drives - like having a drive bay on TiVo units on which you can insert "add" a larger disk drive.

And they did. Original Series 1 had an extra drive bay AND drive upgrade was available on Philips units from manufacturer. Because self-upgrade was so much cheaper majority of TiVo users elected to do it themselves.
Do you know that if you buy a PC from Best Buy and install an extra drive in case it goes bad they wouldn't do in-store exchange? I had it happen to me - they told me that since I opened a case myself the only thing I can do is to send it back to HP. That is an official Best Buy policy. Of course it was a combination of the stupid store manager and me honestly telling them that I did open a case. Most people don have much problems exchanging defective PC at BB. So to respond to your concern - yes it is feasible that TiVo will use their written policy and cancel your lifetime. If you don't want to gamble with 99.999% odds in your favor, then self-upgrade and/or lifetime sub is not for you. Neither is poker.