Thanks TiVo Customer Support!
If you read this blog often then you probably already know that I gave my in-laws a TiVo that I received from the JCPenney’s Dockers deal. One of the best things about this offer was that it included a three-month gift subscription as well as the fact that the subscription doesn’t require a one year commitment!
Since my in-laws aren’t that tech savvy I took it upon myself to setup their TiVo. If I didn’t set it up for them then they never would have done it for themselves. As you probably already know, one of the first things you need to do to setup a new TiVo is activate the subscription. In order to do this, you need to either call up TiVo’s 1-877-289-8486 number or activate the box using TiVo’s website. Since I didn’t have an internet connection handy I decided to active the subscription using the “old” method of picking up a phone ;).
Right away I ran into a problem. For whatever reason, the gift subscription code that I had wasn’t valid. The individual that I spoke with told me that they would need to elevate this issue up and that somebody would call back within the next couple of days. To be perfectly honest, I was a little concerned with this “solution”. I mean how many times have you been told that you would receive a call back from a company only to be left waiting for a call two months later?
To my surprise I received a call back from TiVo two days later! Now that’s what I call good customer service. I was told that I would receive a call back and sure enough I did! The individual that called me back told me that the issue had been resolved and that the gift subscription code that I had would now work.
I know that I’ve ragged on TiVo’s customer support before however, this time I was extremely happy with their level or response. Keep up the good work TiVo!
December 26th, 2005 at 9:27 pm |
Not to sound like a jerk, but I’m sure you never mentioned the fact that you write a BLOG on Tivo right? You would never use the site as a way to get further on right?
I’ve had so many problems with Tivo support today that I honestly can’t believe that you had an easy time of it.
December 26th, 2005 at 10:03 pm |
I received this in an email:
Matt,
The person that I spoke with didn’t tell me what the “fix” was. All I was told was that the problem needed to be elevated up. If I were you, I would give TiVo a call directly and see what they can do for you.
Good luck! Let us know what happens….
December 26th, 2005 at 10:05 pm |
I’m not even sure that the person that I spoke would care about this site. I had a problem with TiVo tech support before however, this time they were great! I hope you figure out your problem(s). Let me know if there is anything I can do to help….
December 27th, 2005 at 1:17 pm |
I’m glad that you were satisfied with their customer service, but having two wait two days for a callback would not have been acceptable to me. I would have expected (demanded) immediate resolution, i.e. over the phone. You shell out money for this thing, it should work right away.
December 27th, 2005 at 2:04 pm |
Good point however, since the TiVo was still working I didn’t feel as though I had to have it fixed immediately. I was told that I would receive a call back and until then my TiVo would continue to receive updates and guide data. If the issue was more pressing then I would have demanded an even quicker response. For this type of issue I feel as though two days was an adequate response time.
December 27th, 2005 at 5:03 pm |
Well,
I woke up today and tried to activate it again… it worked! I never got ahold of tech support as I kept getting disconnected, but I guess they were having some internal problem that prevented it from working.
December 29th, 2005 at 12:59 pm |
Just wondering if you bought the tivo from the tivo store. I bought mine as Christmas gift for my wife on the 14th of December. We cracked it open on Christmas day and got the same ‘invalid’ response that you recieved. After contacting customer support I was told try again in a week!
Although my beef isn’t directly with customer service, I would very much like to strangle the idiot that is in charge of making sure the gift subscription data base and activation database are synced up!
TOTAL TIME ON HOLD WITH TIVO THIS WEEK
~3 hours
December 29th, 2005 at 2:50 pm |
Mike,
Are you asking Matt or me (Alex). If you are asking me, I received my TiVo via the JCPenney/Dockers deal.
December 30th, 2005 at 10:41 am |
>>Are you asking Matt or me (Alex).
Well, input from anyone that has has the ‘invalid subcription code issue.
Funny, roaming around in the licence agreements on tivos web page turned up somthing rather interesting.
In ALL CAPS - they mention the non-functional gift subscription issue. Its the only item in the agreement that is in ‘all caps’.
Obviously they know that this is a problem. I just wish the would find the root cause and fix it as opposed to having a lawyer ‘fix it with documentaion’
December 30th, 2005 at 1:38 pm |
Mike
Do you have a link to the page you are talking about? I’d be interested to read it…
December 30th, 2005 at 3:30 pm |
http://www.tivo.com/2.9.1.3.asp
I belive its item #21.
January 3rd, 2006 at 11:47 am |
What happens when the code for a lifetime subscribtion is invaled and they keep giving me the run-a-round for a fix. I’ve been on the phone every other dayfor a week with no results. I had thought of purchasing a couple more units but after the Mess that I’m having with them. I’ll build my own. In my book tivo and everything about it sucks.
January 3rd, 2006 at 2:59 pm |
It’s too bad your having such a problem. TiVo wasn’t willing to work with you on your invalid subscription?
January 3rd, 2006 at 9:02 pm |
well, I had no trouble setting it up and them taking my money, but I was unable to get it to wotk well with the Dish satelite (I have the Dish dvr that works like a dream.) I had heard good things about TIVO, so I thought I’d try it. But as I said, I could not get it to work well, so I tried to call customer service for them to help. After being on hold twice for longer than 40 minutes, I gave up and took the tivo back to the store. Well, my pain was not over! I waited on hold for more than 1 hour when I eventually got a person. He was great - but after an hour on hold, I definitely will NR+EVER touch or recommend tivo to anyone!
January 3rd, 2006 at 9:28 pm |
Nic, I’m sorry to hear that your experience wasn’t as good as mine has been. Good luck with your dishnetwork setup.
January 15th, 2006 at 1:03 am |
I will never again recommend TIVO to anyone. I have had a TIVO DVR for about 9 months. Frankly, our entire family was absolutely in love with it. So… let’s get another for another room.
That’s where the trouble started. I thought, why not buy from TIVO direct? In fact, having worked for a large company that remanufacturers technology equipment, I’ll buy a remanufactured TIVO from the TIVO form their TIVO website. What a huge mistake. When the remanufactured TIVO DVR arrived, the glue that holds the logo on the front of the machine had obviously not been the type of glue that actually dries, but rather that which lets things slip from there location. the logo was still attached to the front of the machine only barely kiling by a thread. Well, I thought how bad can it be? So It set up the TIVO like the previous Humax TIVO machine I owned, following the instructions. After hours upon end of the device trying to move beyond the first welcome screen in finally gets to a screent that says to leqave it plugged in for 3 hours and if it does not repair itself call customer service. After letting it sit for a few days, I called customer service, spoke with a friendly person, she gives me a RMA# and instructions to get from the website on returning the unit. This was, Saturday, when I got a RMA# about a week later after the holidays I shipped the TIVO per website instructions.
About two weeks later now, have not heard a thing, so I check to see if the FEDEX delivery made it to the repair location. Yep, received signed for no problem. Third week now, still nothing.
My recommendation, wait to buy a DVR from another company who knows how to run a business . One who understands how to build a brand and one who nutures and supports its faither loyal customers. TIVO is an incredible awesome concept and a brand that is not at all what I thought is was. I can’t wait to see the competitions product offering.
February 13th, 2006 at 10:26 pm |
[...] I wrote about my experience with TiVo customer service back in December. [...]
September 1st, 2007 at 1:28 am |
What customer service? I have 2 Tivos. My most recent purchase (less than 6 months ago) went bad. I spent 3 days on the phone, calling twice each day only to be put on hold for over an hour. Then whenever a real person would FINALLY come on the phone, I would get disconnected when they put me on hold or when they would send me to “the right department”.
All I wanted was to have my Tivo replaced. Some lovely person said they would waive the $49 replacement fee, BUT I would have to wait for almost 2 weeks to get my replacement OR I could let them charge me $250 and they would send out my replacement and not have to wait for my broken Tivo to arrive. I questioned why I would trust them to refund my money, when they didn’t trust me to send the broken Tivo back to them.
After 6 frustrating hour long calls, I said the bulls___ word and got hung up on. A “supervisor” called me back, only to beat me up because I used the bulls____ word to describe their customer service. Obviously, it “is what it is”.
Then I tried to cancel my service but would be hit with a $200 charge for canceling early.
I hate Tivo!
May 9th, 2008 at 12:20 pm |
Tivo customer service is the worst I have ever dealt with. 7 attempts to clear up a billing issue and if finally got resolved properly. Also it seems all of customer agents are very young and not equiped to do much in regards to real customer service. I regret buying a new Tivo, I should have gone with my cable companies option.