It's certainly wise to follow through with any provider's order and question anything that seems in error.

You did well I believe.

Do you have any FiOS STB(s) currently? What router do you use? A friend in NOVA has a TiVOw/CC and he had a FiOS STB with no DVR on his account also. They sent him a box with a new 3100 router and 2 FiOS boxes to upgrade that FiOS STB to their current technology. They charged 60$ for the package for just equipment and I guided him through the install. His services didn't increase in $$ and his CC remained at 4.99. He ended up with 3 total outlets for TV, 1 TiVO & 2 FiOS for watching only.

 

Never had any Fios STB. The router is new, as part of the upgrade, installed by Verizon. SKU-CR1000A

 

If they ever try to charge you $10/month for a cable card, call them and be persistent. There appears to be no reason for the increase in price other than they just want to charge more.

That is the current rate for CableCARDs, $10/mo., for new customers or customers who change plans. If you stay on a previous plan, you are Grandfathered in at $4.99/mo. You are extremely lucky for two reasons, that they even let you keep your card and that it is only $4.99/mo. The real test will be your next billing statement.

 

If they ever try to charge you $10/month for a cable card, call them and be persistent. There appears to be no reason for the increase in price other than they just want to charge more.

That is the current rate for CableCARDs, $10/mo., for new customers or customers who change plans. If you stay on a previous plan, you are Grandfathered in at $4.99/mo. You are extremely lucky for two reasons, that they even let you keep your card and that it is only $4.99/mo. The real test will be your next billing statement.

View attachment 104797

Going into the upgrade process, I was prepared for them to say no more Cable Card, but to them I made it a non-negotiable and kept persisting.

I felt I had the win when they said I could keep it so I was going to accept the $10/month. If they hadn’t mistakenly had 2 cable cards (and an unasked for $15 monthly wire maintenance fee) I wouldn’t have called to get it all resolved.

I’ve been a Verizon customer for so long, I think they went the extra mile for me as a thank you for my long loyalty. Just frustrating that I had to go through all of that.

 

I thought others could benefit from my experience getting my FiOS CableCard monthly rental cost to $4.99. The quick moral of the story - don't try to do upgrades via their chat - they don't know what they are talking about.

I have a Roamio Pro and a couple Tivo minis. I've been on a plan that FiOS considers to be "legacy" for a very long time. My FiOS router was dying (internet would drop out for 10-20 minutes several times per day at random times). Verizon said my equipment was old, so they offered to upgrade my equipment, but I couldn't use my plan anymore. The upgrade and new plan was going to give me a speed boost (from 75Mbps to 300Mbps), but a new set of channels.

When they put the whole order together, they said the new router wasn't compatible with cable cards - he tried to get me to take STBs. I said this was a showstopper, and after some time, he transferred the chat to a tech support person.

That tech person said they "figured out" how to add my cable card. When the order spit out, my CableCard costs went from $4.99/month to $10/month. When I asked about that change, they said "it's because I have a new TV package. I hope you understand". I said I guess so, but the whole estimated bill was lower than my current bill, so I said OK. The whole chatting experience was so incredibly frustrating for many reasons - this being only one of them.

After the installation process was complete, and they sent me a final confirmation of my new bill, there were a number of surprises. One surprise was they had two cable cards on my bill, one for $4.99 and one for $10. This time I called them, because I was pretty upset about this and other problems.

Finally I reached someone who was extremely helpful. I explained that I only had one CC. He was able to take off the $10 CC leaving me back to only having the 1 CC at $4.99/month.

If they ever try to charge you $10/month for a cable card, call them and be persistent. There appears to be no reason for the increase in price other than they just want to charge more.

I've been satisfied with the TV and Internet quality of FiOS, but their sales and support people are pretty frustrating. The tech guy that came to install the new equipment was great though.

I've been with Verizon Fios and using a Tivo Premiere with cable card since around 2013. I will soon have to move. I contacted Verizon to check Fios availability at one possible address and they told me there was no way to keep my cable card, even if I was only moving to a different apartment in my current building. Any suggestions who to contact and what approach to use ?

 

Suggestions or approach for what? Cards likely aren’t allowed for new users, which you’ll be in the new location. If that’s the case there’s no “approach” to use.

 

I'm at $174 per month for custom TV and gig internet. I do have the sports channels in my plan. I would not pay that much for TV if I couldn't watch the Pirates.

 

Well, after 18 years with FiOS and 25 with TiVo I ended up switching this week to YouTube TV and had a "new install" under wife's name to avoid ~$90 increase in MRC for same services.

I had been on a Triple Play bundle that was at $140/month for the past 10ish years and bumped up to $158 last June with no explanation, this included one M card at $5 and legacy custom TV that had sports/Caps.

Both my Netflix and Max subs were up so I thought I'd use the new $10 perk plan that, when ordered via mobile, showed just an additional $10/month as expected. HOWEVER, that ended up killing some legacy discounts and such and was billed at $242 MRC as new rate and CS wouldn't/couldn't adjust.

I ended cancelling service and wife installed as new customer. Plan jumped to $183 MRC for 1Gig, YouTubeTV + HBO/Netflix perk + new CR1000 router and free extender. Lost land line and TiVos are now decommissioned after 25 years with the technology. New service included 1 $100 GC, 1 $200 GC, free Fire tablet and free Samsung 45" TV.

Will take a lot of getting used to the change, but I'm done with workarounds and such to keep the dying platform working

 

Well, after 18 years with FiOS and 25 with TiVo I ended up switching this week to YouTube TV and had a "new install" under wife's name to avoid ~$90 increase in MRC for same services.

I had been on a Triple Play bundle that was at $140/month for the past 10ish years and bumped up to $158 last June with no explanation, this included one M card at $5 and legacy custom TV that had sports/Caps.

Both my Netflix and Max subs were up so I thought I'd use the new $10 perk plan that, when ordered via mobile, showed just an additional $10/month as expected. HOWEVER, that ended up killing some legacy discounts and such and was billed at $242 MRC as new rate and CS wouldn't/couldn't adjust.

I ended cancelling service and wife installed as new customer. Plan jumped to $183 MRC for 1Gig, YouTubeTV + HBO/Netflix perk + new CR1000 router and free extender. Lost land line and TiVos are now decommissioned after 25 years with the technology. New service included 1 $100 GC, 1 $200 GC, free Fire tablet and free Samsung 45" TV.

Will take a lot of getting used to the change, but I'm done with workarounds and such to keep the dying platform working

Edit: IMO this is the time to upgrade especially if you are having issues with service or can’t get the promo you want. Several cable providers have encouraged cc customers to “upgrade” equipment with special pricing/offers. IMO before you know it the major providers will pull support with little notice. Im not sure about fios but if I remember right Xfinity warned customers by adding a note on the bill that many missed because they have autopay. You just have a head start now that you are off EOL tech.

 

I don't recall the channel being changed, but you can choose a specific channel or any channel. If you choose any channel, you get it when it moves, but you also get reruns etc., on other channels, whether you wanted them or not.

Certainly after CW jumped stations in my area (the CW affiliate was bought by a company that wanted different programming; luckily another channel took it over), I started doing more of the "any channel". But then with SD only being a good way to save space but also a good way to miss it, I went back to specific channels. The under 500 for the most part, so SD when it can.

 

For the better part of over a decade TiVos can store up to or well over 150 hours of HD programming, depending on model.

Your concerns of needing to use SD to “save space“ is a concern that almost no one else has.

You also do not “get reruns” by selecting All Channels. Recordings are based on channel and the original air date, which determines if an episode is new or not. If a OnePass is recording reruns, it’s because of the OAD and nothing else.

 

Many of my shows aired elsewhere, and TiVo SOMETIMES classifies them as repeat, sometimes new. Some series are CW/Canada partnerships and their air on CW after the season finished in Canada, and they are unpredictable.

As for space, with some movie series on HMM, they are unpredictable whether or not they call them new, so I record all and delete the dups. I also try to keep the whole series so I can easily see if I've seen them (I know I can bookmark them instead, never tried that). I also have some series (new or "classic" that I watch when I ger around to it so I have a lot of unwatched episodes. When I started getting over 70% I started to go SD only, when it got around 90% I started noticing that some of my SD channels were recording HD.