# Just cancelled my Protection Plan...



## beanpoppa (Jan 7, 2004)

When he asked why, I said that I've modified my Tivo's, so they wouldn't be covered anyway. He responded that they would still be covered. I countered with the fact that they don't offer Tivo's anymore, and I wouldn't want an R15 as a replacement. His response- 'Ok'.

I originally got the plan because I thought the dish might need to be moved when the leaves came in. Then I kept it because I realized that the installer put an indoor only multiswitch outside. But now the MS has been replaced, I rewired everything myself. If one of my Tivos dies, I will need to buy one myself from eBay, because I don't want an R15. No point in paying $8/mo just to cover the dish and multiswitch.


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## Dkerr24 (Oct 29, 2004)

Smart move. I rarely take extended warranties on electronic items unless its a device my kids are going to use like a iPod or CD player. They tend to DROP them alot


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## ttodd1 (Nov 6, 2003)

Why would you tell them that you modified your Tivos???? I would have just said because I don't want it anymore. Now if that isn't waving a red flag......


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## Yog-Sothoth (Jun 14, 2005)

> Now if that isn't waving a red flag......


What's the big deal? I've spoken with supervisors who mentioned they had hacked TiVos. There's a big difference between having hacked TiVos and using a bootleg access card.


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## sdchrgrboy (Mar 9, 2004)

beanpoppa said:


> When he asked why, I said that I've modified my Tivo's, so they wouldn't be covered anyway. He responded that they would still be covered. I countered with the fact that they don't offer Tivo's anymore, and I wouldn't want an R15 as a replacement. His response- 'Ok'.
> 
> I originally got the plan because I thought the dish might need to be moved when the leaves came in. Then I kept it because I realized that the installer put an indoor only multiswitch outside. But now the MS has been replaced, I rewired everything myself. If one of my Tivos dies, I will need to buy one myself from eBay, because I don't want an R15. No point in paying $8/mo just to cover the dish and multiswitch.


I just saved money on my car insurance


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## codespy (Jan 7, 2006)

I don't have the protection plan, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.


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## mgmrick (Aug 28, 2002)

I am giving thought to cancelling protection plan also. Number 1 is they would replace tivo's with there own brand and I also have hacked tivos. Directv is years away from offering anything like my hacked tivos.

Rick


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## codespy (Jan 7, 2006)

mgmrick said:


> I am giving thought to cancelling protection plan also. Number 1 is they would replace tivo's with there own brand and I also have hacked tivos. Directv is years away from offering anything like my hacked tivos.
> 
> Rick


I thought about the protection plan from DTV, but here's mine. I'm running 5 Tivo's and one <still trying to get used to> R15. I have backups (1-HR10-250, 3 SD-DVR40's, 4 HDVR's, and another new R15). In addition, I have 3- 40gig Tivo imaged drives, 1-160gig modified and a 200gig modified drives. I'm also an electrician for 18 years (I can splice my own cables and troubleshoot). 
For the most part, you are correct that under the protection plan, they will most likely throw a R15 at you as a replacement. They told me they will not do hardware repairs on a Tivo unit.

That was all I needed NOT to get the protection plan.


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## lvsaint (Jun 9, 2005)

I tried to cancel 5 months ago but they gave me the service for free instead (they really want you to stay signed up don't they!). That free period has since expired, so I've just gotten rid of it for good (and managed to convince them not to charge me $10 for doing so!).

I've not needed them for over a year so it was wasted money, and if I need a new drive, I can buy one cheaply enough/don't want one of their refurbs.


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## Blurayfan (Oct 6, 2003)

The only reason I have the protection plan is if my receiver(s) is replaced the replacement is still owned not leased. Only other way of staying with owned equipment is paying a higher price.


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## or270 (Feb 4, 2006)

mgmrick said:


> I am giving thought to cancelling protection plan also. Number 1 is they would replace tivo's with there own brand and I also have hacked tivos. Directv is years away from offering anything like my hacked tivos.
> 
> Rick


I have had the protection plan replace 2 DVR's in the past two months,

One was replace a Hughes SD-DVR40 with a drive that was going out, they sent a refurb R10 and told me to keep the Hughes.

The other was a Samsung with a loud fan they sent a refurb DSR7000 and told me to keep the samsung.


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## bengalfreak (Oct 20, 2002)

or270 said:


> I have had the protection plan replace 2 DVR's in the past two months,
> 
> One was replace a Hughes SD-DVR40 with a drive that was going out, they sent a refurb R10 and told me to keep the Hughes.
> 
> The other was a Samsung with a loud fan they sent a refurb DSR7000 and told me to keep the samsung.


Unfortunately, in Feb., they had a big blow out to sell all of their refurbished DTivos. Most likely, you'll not get another.


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## beanpoppa (Jan 7, 2004)

Actually, the term I used with the CSR was 'upgraded the hard drives on my Tivo's'. But, I don't think it would matter anyway. As another poster has said, as long as you aren't hacking to steal service, they don't seem to care. HMO/MRV hacking doesn't cost them anything since they don't sell that as a service. However, when they do start offering MRV/DirecTV2Go, they may crack down on hacked DTivo's if they choose to make that a premium feature.

In any case, the more people drive home the points that the R15 is not an acceptable replacement for the Tivo, the better.



ttodd1 said:


> Why would you tell them that you modified your Tivos???? I would have just said because I don't want it anymore. Now if that isn't waving a red flag......


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## Jotas (Mar 19, 2005)

No protection plan here. Thought about it but opted not to get it. Like the original post, I was more concerned with dish realignment. I don't have a long enough ladder and even if I did, I wouldn't want to go two stories up. Now you can treat yourself to something else w/that savings!


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## Cabinwood (Mar 11, 2000)

I have the protection plan but have thought about dropping it. It did replace 3 receivers (two R10's and a HD receiver) when I got the 72.5 dish and my old receivers wouldn't work. Now I'm thinking of dropping it, but in the long run, I think it's saved me some.


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## ttodd1 (Nov 6, 2003)

beanpoppa said:


> ... they may crack down on hacked DTivo's if they choose..


They may do this just because. My point is why give them the ammunition to start with. I think they do know that "we" are doing what we are doing to our units and for the most point don't care - right now. Otherwise I don't think the Zipper thread would have gone on as long as it is. IMO this was their "out" to "give" us MRV and stuff without really doing it. I just don't think flaunting it in their faces is the right thing to do and in the long run may ruin it for everyone.... Do you want to take that chance??????? I sure don't.


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## Guindalf (Jun 13, 2001)

codespy said:


> I don't have the protection plan, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express last night.


I actually DID! (but I'm none the wiser for it!)


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## Mavrick22 (Feb 7, 2006)

I have the protection plan for the main fact that I had dish/multiswitch issues last year and they sent a installer out 4 times and if I had not had the protection plan that would have been $70.00 a pop. I came off alot cheaper by having it.


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## Fezmid (Dec 6, 2001)

I just signed up for the protection plan today. We had a bad snowfall that covered my dish and I don't get any signal now  He was going to charge me $70 to come out, but said he could deal. Ended up giving me the service call for free (tomorrow or Friday), 6 months of the plan for 99 cents, and then $5.99/month after that. I might cancel after 6 months, we'll see. It might be nice to have as well, I'm going to look into it a bit more.


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## k1114 (Nov 22, 2005)

FYI if your Tivo dies and you don't have the protection plan, you're pretty much garaunteed to be leasing your replacement... unless you want to pay $349 for an "owned" replacement...

I highly recommend the protection plan


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## bengalfreak (Oct 20, 2002)

k1114 said:


> FYI if your Tivo dies and you don't have the protection plan, you're pretty much garaunteed to be leasing your replacement... unless you want to pay $349 for an "owned" replacement...
> 
> I highly recommend the protection plan


The protection plan is a joke. $108 a year for protection? Gimme a break. I didn't pay that much for any of my equipment. And if your Tivo dies, there will be replacements available on ebay for quite a while. Not to mention that Weaknees is still selling them without a hard drive or remote control for $35. Just buy one or two, activate them and then deactivate them. That guarantees that you can reactivate at any time.


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## Fezmid (Dec 6, 2001)

bengalfreak said:


> The protection plan is a joke. $108 a year for protection? Gimme a break. I didn't pay that much for any of my equipment. And if your Tivo dies, there will be replacements available on ebay for quite a while. Not to mention that Weaknees is still selling them without a hard drive or remote control for $35. Just buy one or two, activate them and then deactivate them. That guarantees that you can reactivate at any time.


The plan is $5.99/month, so only $71.88/year. It includes free dish realignments/replacements as well.

Not sure if it's worth it or not, but you can call and negotiate a better deal if you want as well.


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## codespy (Jan 7, 2006)

The information I received from a CSR was it would be $5.99 for protection plan if you owned standard receivers, $5.99 if you had a leased DVR, and $7.99 with DVR service if you owned all of your receivers. Don't forget they probably add sales tax along with the fee.


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## dtremain (Jan 5, 2004)

k1114 said:


> FYI if your Tivo dies and you don't have the protection plan, you're pretty much garaunteed to be leasing your replacement... unless you want to pay $349 for an "owned" replacement...
> 
> I highly recommend the protection plan


Absolutely not. The key is to never buy an extended warranty for anything. The odds of them being "money for nothing" are extremely high. That is why vendors want to sell them so badly.

If you never buy one, as I never do, even if something happens once with one item, and you have to shell out to replace it, you are still *well* ahead of the game.


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## Fezmid (Dec 6, 2001)

codespy said:


> The information I received from a CSR was it would be $5.99 for protection plan if you owned standard receivers, $5.99 if you had a leased DVR, and $7.99 with DVR service if you owned all of your receivers. Don't forget they probably add sales tax along with the fee.


http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/packages/protection_plan.jsp


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## Dkerr24 (Oct 29, 2004)

k1114 said:


> FYI if your Tivo dies and you don't have the protection plan, you're pretty much garaunteed to be leasing your replacement... unless you want to pay $349 for an "owned" replacement...
> 
> I highly recommend the protection plan


The worst thing that will go wrong with a DTivo is the hard drive. I can buy a 200gb drive for around $60-$70 and replace it myself.

If my dish gets out of alignment, I know how to re-align it.

And as said by a previous poster, if my dish gets covered in snow, I think a broom can take care of that! 

For me, the protection plan is a complete waste of money.


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## mhaider (Mar 14, 2002)

If you get a replacement receiver through the protection plan does D* add any time on to your committment with them?


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## Scooter (Mar 15, 2000)

Well, I've had 3 new D-TiVos sent to me in the last year and all of them were Hughes (one that was refurbished and died recently). Last week I called DirecTv to get a replacement for the one they sent me a year ago and I got a Samsung D-TiVo. 

That TiVo was toast (bad HD), and I had to get them to send me another one, I got yet another Samsung D-TiVo from them 2 days ago, but I'm worried it's not right either because it seems to be having troubles preparing the data that it downloaded from what I think was a software update. 

So, they are still available, but I'm not so confident about the quality of them.  

Scooter


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## or270 (Feb 4, 2006)

mhaider said:


> If you get a replacement receiver through the protection plan does D* add any time on to your committment with them?


No.


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## IOTP (Aug 7, 2001)

I thought I had a failing HR10-250. DTV sent out a new one, and the problem didn't go away with a new receiver.

I called DTV back, I located a rat or cat ate through some SAT cables on the side of the house.

DirecTV offered the protection plan. $5.99 month. Then a $30 first service call.

I got the service plan for $5.99 / month. First month free, and an instant $30 CREDIT for the service call. Cancallation anytime. I'll most likely keep it. 110 degree heat is a killer on the multiswitches.

One other thing, I don't think they'll ever care or know if the hard drive fails. Or if the unit has been modified with add'l storage. I'll keep the 40GB pull from the DSR6000 just in case it does fail after being repaired with the ptvupgrade CD.


With (1) HR10-250, (1) GXCEBOT, (1) DSR6000, and (1) R10, the $5.99 buys me plenty.


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## bengalfreak (Oct 20, 2002)

Fezmid said:


> http://www.directv.com/DTVAPP/packages/protection_plan.jsp


 :up:

If this is true, this is a change. DTV definately jumped the price of the protection plan for DVR's over a year ago.


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## dlmcmurr (Mar 2, 2006)

IOTP said:


> I called DTV back, I located a rat or cat ate through some SAT cables on the side of the house.


cat, rat, SAT, see Dick & Jane run...

just couldn't resist


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## mgmrick (Aug 28, 2002)

I have the protection plan and a zippered non rid tivo ( to go with my 3 other zippered tivos) probally a failing hardrive. It is rebooting about 5 times a day.

Chances of getting another hackable tivo are slim next to none. Then I have read a couple of post stating D* does not want the bad tivos back. Why would they as they do not sell them anymore.

Why not get the replacement unit activate it then take the hardrive out and zipper it and install it in my failing tivo? This is a non rid unit so does this make it possible to just use the card from the new unit without any contact with D* ?

Is this being dishonest or just using the protection plan I am paying for?

Thanks


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