I thought we were at the end of the TiVo saga for a while, but apparently not. And while I still really like the TiVo user interface, I'm not sure after tonight that I would be willing to recommend that someone go with TiVo over their local cable provider's DVR. So what caused this sudden shift you ask? Well as you may remember we had to decide on how to proceed now that it had been determined that the cable card reader in slot one of TiVo was broken. We decided on the option given to us by TiVo that would allow us not to be without the TiVo and that was to purchase a new one, have them send it to us, switch units once the new one arrived and then send the old one back. Sounded like a plan. So tonight I turn on the TiVo and I get a message that the TiVo no longer has service and I need to activate it. Since I know from first hand experience that a TiVo without the service only allows you to watch stuff you've already recorded and is little more than a doorstop with no other functionality I was bit irked. Calling up TiVo customer support (which I've determined is horribly misnamed) I was told that they had already switched service over to the new one. When I explained that was all well and good \, but the new one wasn't actually here yet and we had been told both boxes would have service I was told in no uncertain terms that was absolutely impossible to do.
Now there's not much that irritates me more than incompetence, but being flat out lied to ranks up there. When I asked for the name of the service rep we talked to on Thursday I was told it was Mark. I explained I was going to need more than that and I was told that's the only information in the case number description. So I asked for his last name and was told they don't have access to that information. So I asked for his employee ID or a way to contact him, again I was told they didn't track that information. Right. I'm suppose to believe they have a database with all this information in it and they can't figure out who the tech was behind entering the data? Give me a break, just tell me we don't release that information or it's not policy to provide that information. But don't tell me you don't track it since that just makes you look like an idiot or makes your company look incompetent.
So once I decided I was getting nowhere with that, we started talking about options. And apparently it's going to be "impossible" (her words) to have service on both boxes at the same time since once they switch the account information the other box isn't associated with any customer. Again, not sure I believe his since when the TiVo's call in they don't use the customer account information, each TiVo has a unique ID that they can look up information about it. So again, don't tell me crap like this. Eventually I settled on having her switch the service back to the box that here at the house and the plan was to switch it once the new one arrived. I explained that we still wanted service on both temporarily once the new one showed up and was again told that wasn't possible. So I left it at that, wrapped up the call and then asked to speak to their supervisor. After getting more of the same from the supervisor she finally said she would give temporary service for five days (you know, the thing I was told was impossible before). So I said that sounded fine, but when was it going start. She said now and so I asked when would new box be showing up and she told me the 13th. I explained that 5 days wasn't going to do me much good if four of the five days had the box in transit. Then just to solidify that they have no idea what they're doing they then gave me the tracking number for the new box. Mind you, she didn't tell me the courier, just the tracking number, so I guess I'm suppose to go to all the courier websites and try the number (I did have to ask several times for who the courier was and was eventually told USPS, which I guess explains why it's taking so long to get here). So basically I can no longer in good conscious recommend that someone purchase a TiVo. At least not if you're expecting to have to deal with customer service (add to that the fact that TiVo doesn't support SDV channels yet and it's even more of a no brainer). If we didn't already have the lifetime service I would have dropped it after this.
5 comments:
I have to say that besides this one event I have been very impressed with customer service at TiVo. The reps are nice and extremely knowledgeable about their product. That is if you talk to the next level higher than James did. The reps handling cable card issues are great. So take this one incident as a problem with just one rep, not the customer service group as a whole.
You'll be begging for the customer service people at Tivo (even the one rep) once you start dealing with the cable company!
I'm happy enough with my Verizon FIOS DVR. I considered trying to use TiVo when I moved to a place with FIOS (I had used TiVo previously with Cox, but wasn't using any HD then), but when I looked online it looked like too much of a pain.
Do you know how your TiVo box knows that it isn't covered by service anymore? I.e., is it 1) told ahead of time that the service will be gone after a certain date or 2) does it find out that it has no service at the first time that it connects after the end of service? If it is 2) then you can probably use the old TiVo box fine for a couple weeks after the end of service if you disconnect it ahead of time. I had some times where I had problems with my Cox Internet access but not my cable and the TiVo worked fine until it ran out of programming which takes a while (i.e., the box didn't connect for several days and it worked fine).
Exactly, pete. On day 4 out of 5, disconnect the old (current) TiVo from the phone line so it can't call out. It has 2 weeks of programming, so I figure this gives you 14 days for the swaperoo.
And I might do the whole disconnect it thing, but at some point I figured I would need both of them on the network and active at the same time so I can transfer shows from one to the other (although as of tonight I've pulled everything we want to save off, so I guess I only need the new one on the network from here on out).
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