[ACE Wright]

This is my first post and I would like some advice on how to deal with Tivo.

I am a brand new Tivo customer and so Oct. 1 I order my very first Series 2 80 hour dual tuner unit for $249 minuse $150 instant rebate and I got 3 years of service.

I did this straight from Tivo over the phone.

It takes over one week to get here and it is dead on arrival. So I spend 2 hours pouring over the manual before calling Tivo and then waiting on the phone for another hour only for them to agree that it is DOA. SO.... they say they will send me another one out and CHARGE MY CARD $249. (remember it was only $99 after rebate). So I agree and it takes another week!!! Now the second one will not work with my wireless network but after a day of trying it mysef a friend comes buy and goes through a update and getting it working. I spent another 20 minute phone call on this.

BUTTT... now they want ME to pay for shipping on the broken unit. Does this sound wrong to anyone else? Why should I bear the burden of paying for shipping? If THEY had not sent me a bad unit I would not have to do this, so why don't they pay for shipping?

All together I have spent over 3 hours on hold. Any suggestions of who I could talk to in management at Tivo?

I need to ship this back to get my $249 credit but I really do not what to pay for shipping. It is just the principal of the thing. Companies should take care of their own junk, not the customer.

Thanks.

 

[jcaudle]

Thats why Costco is a good place to buy the unit. You can return it for 90 days and Costco gives you a 2 year warranty on the unit. Tivo's 90 day warranty kind of sucks, especially for the System 3 that they were charging $800 for.

 

[moxie1617]

Wrong about the warranty and return. For Tivo's it's Costco's standard lifetime warranty. No 90 day return restriction.

 

[slashalot]

please explain the "Costco's standard lifetime warranty" dont shop there.

 

[slashalot]

to ace i would suggest talking to them again as you have a 30 day money guarantee and you could send it ALL back

 

[moxie1617]

please explain the "Costco's standard lifetime warranty" dont shop there.

You can return your purchase at anytime for any reason with no time limit. I didn't say don't shop there!
Because of abuse by some Costco members, Costco changed the return policy for Computers, TV's and some electronics to a 90 day return. A lot of people think the 90 day return policy applies to the Tivo and it doesn't. With each item at Costco.com the return policy is listed. Tivo's, unlike TV's carry the standard return policy.

 

[slashalot]

sorry. my booboo for not seperating the sentences. but thanks for the info

 

[minckster]

TiVo's warranty specifically states that it doesn't cover shipping.

For 90 days from the purchase date, the DVR will be replaced with a repaired, renewed or comparable product (whichever is deemed necessary by TiVo) if it becomes defective or inoperative. This exchange is done without charge to you for parts and labor (including applicable taxes, if any). You will be responsible for the cost of shipping.

(Emphasis added.) I suspect that slashalot is correct and you can get TiVo to go against the written policy within the first 30 days. It is kind of a crappy policy.

 

[pjhartman]

I don't see it as a warranty issue at all; the consumer ordered a unit and received one that was DOA. That's a straight return in my book, and TiVo should eat the shipping for sending the consumer a dead unit.

 

[fredct]

I don't see it as a warranty issue at all; the consumer ordered a unit and received one that was DOA. That's a straight return in my book, and TiVo should eat the shipping for sending the consumer a dead unit.

That's exactly a warranty issue. Warranty is failure within the first X days. Whether that's day 0 or day X is technically irrelevant.

A 'return' would be if you didn't want it and were sending it back w/o a failure.

Now I agree that, since this is DOA (i.e. 'day 0'), TiVo *should* cover the shipping, and I'd try hard to get them to do so (and nicely, if you're ranting and raving and yelling and nasty, no one is going to want to help you). But there's nothing that says they have to.

It does make a good argument for buying things like this in person, since shipping is expensive if you need to do a return or exchange.

 

[minckster]

At $15.26 without insurance for 17 lbs. from prepaid drop-off at UPS in New York City to TiVo's Fulfillment Center in Fort Worth, TX, it's more than I expected. I just checked ups.com. (I need to get a life.)

 

[FatesWebb]

At $15.26 without insurance for 17 lbs. from prepaid drop-off at UPS in New York City to TiVo's Fulfillment Center in Fort Worth, TX, it's more than I expected. I just checked ups.com. (I need to get a life.)

personally, I would cancel, since you can in the first 30 days... then goto this site, hxxp://dynamic.tivo.com/0.11.LP_kz.asp?a=ywca and get the same? box for 100 dollars cheaper, and free shipping only took me 2 days for both boxes. I only had to pay 16 for the first one and 10 for the second..... but that is just me...

this would pay for your shipping, AND save you money, and accomplish the same goals.