[James G]

Hello, We are desperate here at this point so I will try this forum. My mom has had Tivo for 20 years, from the very beginning of Tivo. Her current Box is a series 4 she bought about 10 years ago. (she bought 2 of them at that time). It has been working fine for years. PAst few months we had an issue with the internet connection going in and out. I think we finally resolved that issue. But in the meantime, about 4 weeks ago, my mom woke up in the morning turned on the TV and most of the channels are missing. We called Tivo like 10 times, Called Optimum Cable like 30 times, including 2 in person service calls. Somehow the cable card got un-binded from the Tivo, do not know how or why. Finally Optimum a few days ago gave us a channel tuner box. But the instructions say the cable card needs to be binded before hook up. We are very confused. We have no idea what we are doing. Contacted the Geek Squad this morning at Best Buy, they said they are willing to diagnose the issue but refused to say they would attempt to fix it, or anything like that. We are not sure what to do. The instructions I found online are too complicated for us. And nothing about a series 4 could be found anywhere anyway. What should we do? My mom is 82 years old and the Tivo is in her bedroom, and she enjoys watching the TV at night in bed, her shows, and loves the Tivo so much she is totally resistant to getting FIOS.

PS
We pay 87 dollars a month for a Verizon Landline, formerly NJ Bell, we have had since 1965. Verizon is telling us for an extra 23 dollars, making it $110 a month total, we can add high speed internet and 125 plus television channels.
If it were up to me I'd do that in a heart beat.
But Tivo only works with Cable. Requires a cable card.
I do not know how long my mom is going to last on this .
It is very hard for an 82 year old person to go through this, to deal with this.
She talked to Optimum this morning a while, and the guy said he would have her back at 9:15 , it is now 1115, no call.
It is the same nonsense everyday, false and misleading information from Optimum, and no one knows anything.

 

[lhvetinari]

Hello, We are desperate here at this point so I will try this forum. My mom has had Tivo for 20 years, from the very beginning of Tivo. Her current Box is a series 4 she bought about 10 years ago. (she bought 2 of them at that time). It has been working fine for years. PAst few months we had an issue with the internet connection going in and out. I think we finally resolved that issue. But in the meantime, about 4 weeks ago, my mom woke up in the morning turned on the TV and most of the channels are missing. We called Tivo like 10 times, Called Optimum Cable like 30 times, including 2 in person service calls. Somehow the cable card got un-binded from the Tivo, do not know how or why. Finally Optimum a few days ago gave us a channel tuner box. But the instructions say the cable card needs to be binded before hook up. We are very confused. We have no idea what we are doing. Contacted the Geek Squad this morning at Best Buy, they said they are willing to diagnose the issue but refused to say they would attempt to fix it, or anything like that. We are not sure what to do. The instructions I found online are too complicated for us. And nothing about a series 4 could be found anywhere anyway. What should we do? My mom is 82 years old and the Tivo is in her bedroom, and she enjoys watching the TV at night in bed, her shows, and loves the Tivo so much she is totally resistant to getting FIOS.

PS
We pay 87 dollars a month for a Verizon Landline, formerly NJ Bell, we have had since 1965. Verizon is telling us for an extra 23 dollars, making it $110 a month total, we can add high speed internet and 125 plus television channels.
If it were up to me I'd do that in a heart beat.
But Tivo only works with Cable. Requires a cable card.
I do not know how long my mom is going to last on this .
It is very hard for an 82 year old person to go through this, to deal with this.
She talked to Optimum this morning a while, and the guy said he would have her back at 9:15 , it is now 1115, no call.
It is the same nonsense everyday, false and misleading information from Optimum, and no one knows anything.

If you are in New Jersey and Verizon is offering high-speed internet + TV, they're giving you FiOS - which is a fiber product. However, their method of TV delivery emulates QAM cable, so you can get a cablecard from FiOS to use with their TV services and continue using the TiVo.

 

[James G]

If you are in New Jersey and Verizon is offering high-speed internet + TV, they're giving you FiOS - which is a fiber product. However, their method of TV delivery emulates QAM cable, so you can get a cablecard from FiOS to use with their TV services and continue using the TiVo.

Really? Is this true? With the same series 4 tivo box?
I would do that in a heart beat.
but this is my mom's deal.
If this doesnt get fixed she eventually will have to conceed it will never be fixed.
People don't like FIOS over the years, but I am willing to give it a shot.
It's cheap price, $23 dollars a month for high speed internet and 125 plus channels, the way I look at it.

 

[ThAbtO]

The only things that don't work with Tivo are satellite (DirecTV, Dish) and IPTV.

 

[James G]

Ok, I did not know that. Several years ago I read a bunch on the internet about the difference between the 2 technologies. They are different technologies, different ways the information moves, especially inside the box on the pole, if I remember correctly.
Not my decision though. But what is going on is unbelievable, not even the Geek Squad at Best Buy, who sell Tivo, supposed technical experts, will touch this case.
In a perfect world Optimum should have realized what happened on day one and fixed it that day.
It is 4 weeks of run around, phone calls, and anxiety.
Lies , false information, and refusals.

 

[James G]

Ok here is the update.
I contacted an Executive t Altice- Optimum and explained everything in detail, very long, and had the Chairman of the NJ Board of Public Utilities copied.
She agreed to help us and is sending a person here tomorrow.
I will say a prayer tonight for it.
I saw someone on here had the same exact problems we have, and they got re-inserted back into the matrix, through a corporate executive and a seervice call.
I will let everyone know tomorrow what happened.

 

[James G]

It is over. It started July 14, 2020, it ended August 13, 2020. A guy came out from Optimum sent by his dispatcher, after the Customer Relations Corporate Executive from Altice requested it. She contacted me after I sent a heartfelt letter to a Commissioner from the NJ Board of Public Utilities.
After a month of frustration and information gathering I have learned some cold hard facts.
Optimum did a "digital video switch" in my area of NJ at least, and that knocked out our cable card from being "Binded" to the Tivo.
Although we are under the law allowed to re-bind it over the phone, Optimum kept refusing, lying, trying and stopping, trying to sell their DVR, hang ups, no call backs, telling us the issue is our fault, and that we qvbused the cable card.
We had 2 service calls with people who told us Optimum will not do this.
Charged 80 dollars per call.
The servioce man yesterday said Optimum sent out a memo telling the company they were doing the "switched digital video"
They knew it would knock out a lot of cable cards to Tivo.
The first phone call we made the very first day the man should have re-binded our card. Them it would have been no harm no foul.
But that did not happen.
The first in person service call the man should have re-binded our card, we pay the 80 dollars, little harm, but livable.
But that did not happen.
The service man who came here yesterday, the 3rd in person service call, told us about a month ago they got flooded with the exact same problem we had, amd has been doing this everyday in the area. That it was the "switched digital video", and they should have re-binded our card over the phone right away, that he should not even be at our house.
It is my opinion based on everything we went through, the third service man's information, and other stories on the Tivo community forum, OPTIMUM HAS ENGAGED IN A CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY TO DEFRAUD THEIR CUSTOMERS.
What they did with the "digital video switch" and it knocked out the Tivo cable cards to a loy of people, and blamed the customer, and charged the customer for service calls to be re-beinded, was criminal.
Each bill, either though the US Post Office or online, was either mail fraud or wire fraud respectively.
The State of NJ, or the Federal DOJ, if they investigated this, and wanted to enforce the law, would have enough evidence to hand Optimum huge fines, order refunds of the service calls to re-bind, and arrest people for possible 100,000 counts of fraud.

 

[unitron]

Are your mom's TiVos the original 2 tuner Premieres? 'Cause they do Over The Air as well as cable.

 

[James G]

don't know, se said series 4, . but she likes to watch msnbc, cnn, sny for the mets, home shopping channels, food network, hall mark channel, stuff like that, basic cable.
All i know is something went wrong, cause as Optimum sent out 2 service calls here a week apart from each other, and neither person was willing to bind the cable card, after many attempts we tried by phone,...something is terribly wrong.
They came out to the house , they should have done it, would have have ate the 80 dollars service call.
But to suffer for a month was insane.

 

[ThAbtO]

Series 4 applies to all Premieres 2 & 4 tuners. There is a small difference, Premiere 4, refers to the 4 tuner cable only model, The back label states TCD75xxxx, while the 2 tuner model is TCD74xxxx. It also shows in System Information under the menu. The Tivo service number that starts with it, the last 3 numbers in the software version.

 

[TheatreWiz]

It is over. It started July 14, 2020, it ended August 13, 2020. A guy came out from Optimum sent by his dispatcher, after the Customer Relations Corporate Executive from Altice requested it. She contacted me after I sent a heartfelt letter to a Commissioner from the NJ Board of Public Utilities.
After a month of frustration and information gathering I have learned some cold hard facts.
Optimum did a "digital video switch" in my area of NJ at least, and that knocked out our cable card from being "Binded" to the Tivo.
Although we are under the law allowed to re-bind it over the phone, Optimum kept refusing, lying, trying and stopping, trying to sell their DVR, hang ups, no call backs, telling us the issue is our fault, and that we qvbused the cable card.
We had 2 service calls with people who told us Optimum will not do this.
Charged 80 dollars per call.
The servioce man yesterday said Optimum sent out a memo telling the company they were doing the "switched digital video"
They knew it would knock out a lot of cable cards to Tivo.
The first phone call we made the very first day the man should have re-binded our card. Them it would have been no harm no foul.
But that did not happen.
The first in person service call the man should have re-binded our card, we pay the 80 dollars, little harm, but livable.
But that did not happen.
The service man who came here yesterday, the 3rd in person service call, told us about a month ago they got flooded with the exact same problem we had, amd has been doing this everyday in the area. That it was the "switched digital video", and they should have re-binded our card over the phone right away, that he should not even be at our house.
It is my opinion based on everything we went through, the third service man's information, and other stories on the Tivo community forum, OPTIMUM HAS ENGAGED IN A CRIMINAL CONSPIRACY TO DEFRAUD THEIR CUSTOMERS.
What they did with the "digital video switch" and it knocked out the Tivo cable cards to a loy of people, and blamed the customer, and charged the customer for service calls to be re-beinded, was criminal.
Each bill, either though the US Post Office or online, was either mail fraud or wire fraud respectively.
The State of NJ, or the Federal DOJ, if they investigated this, and wanted to enforce the law, would have enough evidence to hand Optimum huge fines, order refunds of the service calls to re-bind, and arrest people for possible 100,000 counts of fraud.

Is re-binding the card the same as re-activating the card? I have the same problem, in NJ, on the same date, and they are always trying (and failing) to activate the card. Is it because I should be telling them to "bind" the card instead? Or toe-may-toe toe-mah-toe?

 

[ThAbtO]

Is re-binding the card the same as re-activating the card?

It is actually called "Pairing."