# A Bad Premiere Experience



## wisehammer (Jul 23, 2004)

Hmmm.Im not having a good experience with my Premiere. 
1) March 26, 2010: I ordered the 40 hour HD unit along with lifetime service. We dont have an HD TV or even HD cable, just basic Comcast, but our old 2003 Tivo finally bit the dust, and we wanted in on all the hip new tech stuff when we finally trade our TV in for a HD flat screen (might as well be prepared.) 2) April 7, 2010: We received the unit and set it up. BTW, you cant use an off the shelf wireless adapter for your G-home network with the Premiere  I had to order a proprietary one from Tivo for another $60 or so. Within two weeks I began having problems on 2 specific channels -whatever was recorded on those channels played back with an annoying, variable high pitched squeal. When watching live Tivo the noise was not apparent, only on playback. The noise didnt happen when the cable was plugged directly into the TV, it didnt happen on a used Tivo box Id bought off of Craigslist as a temporary DVR, and it didnt happen when I recorded anything on my DVD recorder and played it back  the problem ONLY occurred during Premiere Tivo playback. Called support, who were pleasant enough, tried isolating the problem, eventually doing a simple unplugging of the box. Voila! Problem solved! 10 days after, the problems back, worse than before. Called tech support - unplugging and restarting buy me another 2 days and then the problems back worse than before. Called tech support  also bought all new cables, a surge protector (shouldve had that anyway) called the cable company again, just to see if these 2 channels were giving them problems, all to no avail. Called tech support again, went through the whole problem AGAIN from start to finish. (BTW, each time I started up this box, the first screen to come up was a split screen with TWO Tivo logos side by side looking fuzzy, and well, just plain wrong. Although the techs I talked to said I wasnt supposed to see anything like that, neither one would admit it indicated a faulty box.) By this time (April 26) I was certain something was wrong with the box itself  maybe a tuner or grounding problem. The tech on the phone finally said they would send me a new box (remember that), I just had to pack up the old one with their packing slip, etc. 

2) OK. I receive the replacement box almost 3 weeks later  and its a ******, beat up REFURBISHED Premiere. I call tech support thinking its a mix up. Ohhhh noooo - apparently you can only get a NEW REPLACEMENT box in the FIRST 30 DAYSafter that, they will only send you a used box. And they were counting the first 30 days from my ORDER date, not from the date Id received it. I wont go into the hour I spent on the phone kicking it up from level to level - this was a friggin faulty box, they should have AT LEAST counted the 30 days from RECEIPT of the box, not the order date! And SERIOUSLY  if theyre going to be hardasses about the 30 days  how about some credit from the time the box was reported as faulty??, Tivo finally promises me a new box  they have to have corporate approval, and send me a UPS shipping label in the mail to get the refurbished one back. About a week later I get the shipping label and (through no fault of Tivos) I cant get to the UPS store for another 10 days (I sometimes travel for work.) 
3) I finally get a new replacement Premiere around July 10. Once more, Im unable to set it up until July 24th. Ahat last! Guided setup is a breeze, and the Tivo mascot smiles upon me!
4) July 25th: I open the cabinet doors of my entertainment center and turn the TV on. Uh oh. The Your almost there! Tivo setup screen is on. As I watch with a sinking feeling, all of the lights on the front of the Tivo blink, the screen turns blue, and the Your almost there! logo reappears. This cycles every 30 seconds or so. Obviously the Tivo is trying to boot up and is stuck. I turn off the power. This only slows the cycle down to 3 minutes in between attempts to boot up. Round 4 with tech support. We try everything again, isolating the unit from the box, bypassing the surge control, disconnecting the wireless adapternothin works. Finally I say the fateful words Id like a new unit, the tech goes to ask her boss and sure enough, she says No, we cant its past the 30 days all we can offer is a refurbished unit. I say I will be talking to my credit card company which has been quite helpful in refunding money well past the usual 60 day post-purchase date (which isnt true, Ive never called my CC company to get anything refunded, but Im not taking any ****. ) She leaves the phone, and 5 minutes later comes back with the news that yes indeed, theyll be sending me a new unit as soon as I pack up and ship the old one back. I asked her if there was another country they manufacture the units in besides Mexico since Id not had good luck with Premieres coming from there- nope. 
So thats where it stands  Im packing the unit up in between writing this. Im not mad  just a bit disillusioned. Now I just HOPE this new one Im getting some time in August actually works.


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## Micah42 (Jul 30, 2010)

I've had a similar experience. I keep my Premiere in a TV stand that is wide open because of heat from other devices. After 3.5 months, my Premiere hard drive failed and I went through the process of getting a replacement. Did you know that even if it dies within the 1yr warranty period, it will use up your extended warranty if you bought one anyway? About a week later I got my replacement and it showed up DOA, so now I have a second replacement on the way. It's great that $500 for a box, service, and warranty got me into the chain of refurbs.

The Premiere was my first TiVo because the cable company DVRs aren't too great, but if this 2nd replacement box dies, I'm going to go back to the DVR. At least when they die I get a replacement the next day.


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## windracer (Jan 3, 2003)

wisehammer said:


> BTW, you cant use an off the shelf wireless adapter for your G-home network with the Premiere  I had to order a proprietary one from Tivo for another $60 or so.


This is no surprise, and nothing new. The supported wireless adapters page on tivo.com clearly states this.



wisehammer said:


> I open the cabinet doors of my entertainment center ...


So what's the temperature reading on the System Information screen of your Premier? Maybe it's too hot in your entertainment center with the cabinet doors closed?


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## mriman (May 16, 2010)

I am mostly surprised that they have REFURBISHED Tivo Premieres already. Especially ones such as you describe as "beat up"


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## wisehammer (Jul 23, 2004)

@Windracer: You may have a point-when I receive the second one I will monitor the temperature. However, isn't it fair to assume that a $300 piece of electronic entertainment equipment can stand an 80 degree environment? For at least a DAY? Particularly when the previous series 2 DVR did for a solid 7 years with no problems? If it's that finicky, then the entire design is a POS in my opinion.


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## RichB (Apr 2, 2003)

I bought my second Premiere a few weeks ago.
It came DOA, it would not boot.

I sent it back.
I got back from vacation and unboxed the replacement last night.
It was dirty with white powered on it but no scratches. The cover had not been put on properly it was bent up in the middle. I could have slid a quarter into the unit.

I called again and they are shipping another one.

66% of my TiVo's arrived damaged. 

- Rich


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## smbaker (May 24, 2003)

mriman said:


> I am mostly surprised that they have REFURBISHED Tivo Premieres already. Especially ones such as you describe as "beat up"


They probably have a number of refurbished units from people who purchase and return during the 30-day trial period. Even if there's nothing wrong with it, if the customer sends it back, it probably needs to be checked out, cleaned up, wiped, etc. Can't be sold as new, probably goes into the refurbished pile. Given the S4's reported problems with HD menus, there is probably no shortage of returns.

A customer could do any number of things to one to make it appear beat up, especially if they were angry enough at the device to return it. Not everyone treats their electronics as well as we do.


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## RichB (Apr 2, 2003)

smbaker said:


> They probably have a number of refurbished units from people who purchase and return during the 30-day trial period. Even if there's nothing wrong with it, if the customer sends it back, it probably needs to be checked out, cleaned up, wiped, etc. Can't be sold as new, probably goes into the refurbished pile. Given the S4's reported problems with HD menus, there is probably no shortage of returns.
> 
> A customer could do any number of things to one to make it appear beat up, especially if they were angry enough at the device to return it. Not everyone treats their electronics as well as we do.


I think mine was refurbished which it not acceptable for a DOA unit.

- Rich


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## Micah42 (Jul 30, 2010)

I got my 3rd Premiere last night and got it all set up but when I tried to call Brighthouse to get the cable signal to work with the new it, they were so busy that I couldn't even get into the wait queue so I have to wait until later today to try again. Hopefully this box works or I'm just going back to the DVR.


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## wisehammer (Jul 23, 2004)

Got the new box. Hope it's not the same as the old box. (Feel a Who song coming on....)


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

wisehammer said:


> @Windracer: You may have a point-when I receive the second one I will monitor the temperature. However, isn't it fair to assume that a $300 piece of electronic entertainment equipment can stand an 80 degree environment? For at least a DAY? Particularly when the previous series 2 DVR did for a solid 7 years with no problems? If it's that finicky, then the entire design is a POS in my opinion.


Did you ever check the temps?

I'm hoping 80 degree temps are no issues. I had some water damage recently so for the last 3 days four of my TiVos have been in 90 degree temperatures with ten fans and two dehumidifiers they set up in that area. They finally removed them last night so temps in that room are back down to the normal 73 degrees.

But I wasn't able to check the internal temps of those TiVos since I had half my equipment disconnected. Although I was always able to access the Now Playing list of those TiVos. I am still wondering how hot the internal temps went. They are normally betweeen 33C and 35C depending on whether it has a 320GB hard drive, 1TB, or 2TB.


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## wisehammer (Jul 23, 2004)

Sorry I never posted the reply, but...it's now October 5th, the unit I received on July 25th just went on the blink. Customer service was closed but the Chat line was still open for 15 minutes..I established contact was asked what the problem was, and by the time I typed it in, it was 5 minutes before Chat closed...and I was told "The nature of your problem requires live support, we're sorry for the inconvenience." So we'll wait for tomorrow. What the hell happened to Tivo? I used to love these guys....


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## crxssi (Apr 5, 2010)

wisehammer said:


> Sorry I never posted the reply, but...it's now October 5th, the unit I received on July 25th just went on the blink.


So you have had *3* defective units in 6 months?? Are you sure you are not having heat or power issues/problems? I would suggest you stay indoors during thunderstorms...

(Mine, like all my AV & computer equipment, is on a filtering UPS and with plenty of airflow)


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## Dan203 (Apr 17, 2000)

RichB said:


> I think mine was refurbished which it not acceptable for a DOA unit.


This is why I would never buy a TiVo directly from TiVo. If you get a DOA unit from Amazon you simply return it and they ship you a new one within a few days. Plus, in most cases the deals offered by Amazon, are about the same as directly from TiVo. The only time you have to buy directly from TiVo is if you want the $20/mo no upfront cost deal. Other then that all other service plans can be applied after the fact.

Dan


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## ZeoTiVo (Jan 2, 2004)

Dan203 said:


> This is why I would never buy a TiVo directly from TiVo. If you get a DOA unit from Amazon you simply return it and they ship you a new one within a few days. Plus, in most cases the deals offered by Amazon, are about the same as directly from TiVo. The only time you have to buy directly from TiVo is if you want the $20/mo no upfront cost deal. Other then that all other service plans can be applied after the fact.
> 
> Dan


I take it even further and try and get deals at Brick and Mortar stores. I had one TiVo have problems after about 14 days. drove to the store, gave them the old TiVo and receipt and they let me go to aisle and pick which one of the same model I wanted even. Picked out a back of the shelf, nice new no marks on it box. That 240 model is now going on year 5


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## kendalla (Oct 12, 2010)

I just switched to cable from DirecTV and could not believe how awful the Motorola HD DVR's are, compared to the DirecTV boxes. So I ordered a Tivo Premiere, expecting it to be the best of breed. I ordered a refurb unit, since in my previous experience with companies like Dell and HP, the refurbs are normally given more care and attention than a brand new box, at a cheaper price.

Woe is me. The box showed up DOA. It did absolutely nothing but blink the front panel lights on/off continuously. No picture, no response from the the remote, no response from the format button on the front. Dead. Dead. Dead.

To Tivo's credit, they have another refurb on the way already, and were able to get approval to waive the normal credit card deposit for cross-shipping.

I bought the extended warranty, but now I'm thinking I should cancel the whole deal and just use that horrible Motorola DVR. I don't care how friendly the interface is, if it dies every few months.

Just how reliable are the new Premiere HD boxes? Should I worry?


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## Mamoth (Jun 21, 2004)

RichB said:


> The cover had not been put on properly it was bent up in the middle. I could have slid a quarter into the unit.


My brand new one had this problem. Wifey wasn't pleased. She called TiVo and made them send us a new one (this was within the first day we had received it and they were going to send us a refurb until my wife insisted on a new one).


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## TitusTroy (Oct 12, 2010)

thank goodness for the RCN branded TiVo Premiere boxes  ...if anything goes wrong at anytime I can get a new box...all the features of the retail TiVo Premiere's with the addition of VOD...best thing TiVo ever did was expand their operations


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## cschone (Jan 10, 2004)

TitusTroy said:


> thank goodness for the RCN branded TiVo Premiere boxes  ...if anything goes wrong at anytime I can get a new box...all the features of the retail TiVo Premiere's with the addition of VOD...best thing TiVo ever did was expand their operations


I don't know about that. It seems there are an awful lot of folks who are experiencing problems with the Premiere. I am one of them. Quality control seems to be a real issue, especially if folks get DOA boxes over and over!


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## NOLA Sam (Oct 22, 2010)

RichB said:


> I think mine was refurbished which it not acceptable for a DOA unit.
> 
> - Rich


Had a DOA unit, received a refurb in its place that was also DOA. Called Tivo, said they would send me a new box, nope, it was a refurb. Spoke to a manager who gave me the "we dont send new boxes after 30 days". Did not really matter that my box was faulty and it took longer than the 30 days to rectify the situation.

Felt robbed of $100!


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

cschone said:


> I don't know about that. It seems there are an awful lot of folks who are experiencing problems with the Premiere. I am one of them. Quality control seems to be a real issue, especially if folks get DOA boxes over and over!


But there are also alot of people with no issues. I've been running six Premieres since launch, all with no problems.
Even the four I had running for three days in 90 degree temperatures have had no issues. They just hummed along and recorded everything during that time.


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## steve614 (May 1, 2006)

I agree w/ aaronwt. You see far more negative on these boards than you do positive.
But it still doesn't make TiVo look good. I would be outraged if I bought a NEW product and was told I'd have to settle for a USED replacement if the first was defective through no fault of my own.

I'm glad I bought my Tivos from a B & M store.


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